Our Favorite Tropes

One of the greatest things about the romance genre (other than the swoony feels, the witty banter, the steamy sexytimes, and the happily-ever-afters) is the vast number of tropes we get to enjoy. With everything from enemies-to-lovers, to secret babies, to May-December romances, and more, there is something for everyone!

I recently polled the people who receive my newsletter to find out their favorites, and they could pick as many as they wanted. Here are the results!

*Note: results are slightly skewed because about 8 people took the survey before someone clued me in that I’d accidentally made it a “choose one” form instead of a “check off as many as you like” form. Oops!

• 55.3% – protector/bodyguard
• 50.6% – enemies to lovers
• 47.1% – friends to lovers
• 44.7% – second chance
• 44.7% – close proximity (trapped, snowed in)
• 37.6% – secret baby
• 37.6% – forbidden love
• 32.9% – fake relationship
• 28.2% – marriage of convenience
• 23.5% – May December (with one person specifying they especially like when the heroine is the December and the hero is the May)

WRITE-INS – These are the ones I didn’t include in the survey, which people helpfully added for me:

• best friend’s sibling/sibling’s best friend
• reverse harem (3 people specifically mentioned this one)
• military men
• slavery turns to romance
• fated mates
• mainly shifter stories (2 people specifically mentioned shifters)
• doctor/patient, teacher/student (anything with a professional role and a person they’re supposed to serve/interact with professionally)
• time travel

In case you’re curious, my favorites are second-chance and friends-to-lovers. I love it when there’s an existing connection between the hero and heroine because I like mining those backstories.

And obviously I love shifters, and reverse harem as well!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll! <3