My Favorite Romance Tropes, and Not-So-Favorite

I will always pick up books with plots based on these ideas:

*Nice, ordinary heroes (think Carla Kelly, or the so-called “beta hero”)

*PTSD, Napoleonic Wars-style; angstful spies from the same period

*Marriages of convenience

*Virginal males (not that you see this one often)

*Cross-class romances

*Secretly intellectual heroes/heroines (bonus points if society sees them as dilettantes)

*Equestrians, musicians, and the well-traveled

The author has to work extra hard to make me accept these plotlines:

*Virgin widows

*”It was all planned by our parents for us to fall in love! And we never knew!”

*Young heroines with no life experience

*Destined Love and/or reincarnation and/or Genetic Mating or scent-marking or whatever that makes the relationship instantly gel

*Misunderstandings that could be solved with one conversation

*Historicals in which all behavior is completely modern (though I can sometimes handle modern-sounding dialogue, depending on my mood and the book)

*Women who long to be Mastered by a Man, and not for occasional erotic thrills

*Men who Know What’s Best for their women and don’t learn better

*Long separations between hero and heroine, especially if reason is stupid

What about you?

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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4 Responses to My Favorite Romance Tropes, and Not-So-Favorite

  1. Kate Willoughby says:

    I’m a little tired of hero and heroine at cross purposes. Like he’s CEO of a car manufacturer and she lobbies for the green movement.

    I’m also over the angsty vampire hero.

  2. Victoria Janssen says:

    Where are the HAPPY vampires? The cheerful ones, who make childrens’ birthday cakes?

  3. Kate Willoughby says:

    LOL! Harry the Happy Vamp. Sounds like a kid’s series!

  4. Kate Willoughby says:

    Sort of like Miss Spider’s Tea Party. None of the insects liked her because they thought she sucked bodily fluids, but she was a vegetarian.

    This is a real kid’s book!

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