Oh look, another post series I keep forgetting about. I seriously need to remind myself of my trope series as I have so many to talk about. I tried to talk about tropes with my boyfriend last week and he had no idea what I was going on about. Is this just a reader thing? To be fair, someone asked me about my favourite tropes as a teen and I didn’t know what they meant. So maybe it is.
First love
This isn’t a trope I set out to read but it’s always a nice surprise. Seeing characters fall in love for the first time is so lovely, but it can also be a LOT. You know? There’s a lot of angst, frustration and often heartbreak associated with this trope but when it’s done right, these emotions take you on a real journey that often ends with happiness. This happiness not always meaning the characters stay together forever, but there is something nice about them looking back at their first love with fondness. Am I just a huge sap when it comes to romance? Potentially.
Everyone remembers their first love and how intense it can be. I think my love of this trope comes from the nostalgia of going through it myself. I am still with the first boy I fell in love with though so my opinion on this probably isn’t valid.
I also really love coming of age stories, which goes hand in hand with this trope. Again, this is because of the nostalgia it instils in me. I’m a very nostalgic person so reading a book or watching a film about people falling in love for the first time is something I really enjoy. Not that I’d ever want to be a teenager again.
Marriage of convenience
This is another trope that I never set out to read but it’s always a very welcome surprise. When I talk about this trope I’m pairing it with enemies to lovers as the tension of two people who don’t like each other being forced to marry is just *chef’s kiss*.
I’ve just watched My Lady Jane (which I LOVED) and my god the angst, tension and passion between Jane and Dudley was almost too much. It was my entire life for two days and I’m so sad they aren’t making a second season.
I’ll always bang on about James and Cordelia from The Last Hours series when it comes to marriage of convenience. They were childhood friends who got caught in a scandal (it’s set in Edwardian England so unmarried people spending time alone is a big no) so they had to get married. They are both secretly yearning for each other and this passion builds to a pretty explosive argument which ends with them in a bath together (if you know, you know *wink*). I can’t tell you how happy I was when all of this happened. They’re one of my favourite book couples of all time.
Anyway, back to the trope. It definitely works best in a fantasy setting. The stakes are never high enough in the real world that people have to marry for whatever reason. I need people to be in actual danger or I suppose in a real world setting it works well to avoid a scandal. There are obviously exceptions to this. I’d never say all contemporary marriage of convenience books are bad but they just don’t pop up very often for me. Maybe I’ll have to try a few. It could be a new post series? Send me some recommendations if you know of any good contemporary marriage of convenience books!
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