Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s theme is “favorite tropes”, so I thought I’d talk about some of my favorite romance tropes and examples of them I love!

1. “only one bed” — ACOMAF

Let’s just get the biggest one out of the way: I am such a sucker for the “oh no, there’s only one bed?” trope. While the characters in A Court of Mist and Fury don’t actually make a big fuss about the lack of separate sleeping arrangements, the scene in the inn is one of my favorite moments in the entire book. Not only is it fun and steamy, but it’s also super emotional to me in retrospect (more on this below~).

2. “grumpy teddy bear” heroes — The Bone Season

Okay, no, romance is definitely not the biggest aspect of The Bone Season… but man, did I love watching those two come together. Arcturus is one of my favorite “grouchy teddy bear” characters, and by that I mean those characters who are so grumpy and uppity and borderline mean (without ever being an actual bully), and then once they fall in love, they become these soft teddy bears who just want to protecc. <3 I really gotta continue this series…

3. love triangles — The Infernal Devices

Love triangles are one of those tropes that are so hard to pull off well, but when it’s good, you know… it’s good. The Infernal Devices trilogy pulls it off absolutely flawlessly. I couldn’t decide who to root for, and honestly reached a point where I just sat back and enjoyed the ride because I loved all potential outcomes equally. Though I still think it should’ve just ended with a canon polyamorous trio…

4. “I’ll just hide my feelings until you’re injured” — Crooked Kingdom

I mean… do I even have to say it? I’m such a sucker for those moments when one character hides their love for another until the other character is grievously injured, and honestly, Leigh Bardugo didn’t have to serve it up that hard in Crooked Kingdom but she did, and I’m forever grateful for it. I don’t think I’ll ever reach a point in my life where I can think about that wound-patching scene without sighing wistfully and swooning.

5. forgetting a fight to defend your love — Kings Rising

This is one of those Oddly Specific Tropes, but it’s a favorite of mine: when the two characters are in one of those Big Pre-Relationship Conflicts™ and it gets thrown right out the window so one character can defend the other (whether it’s in battle, against an enemy, conversationally… whatever). It’s always this shining little beacon of a moment where everyone suddenly realizes, Oh shit, we’re doing this, and one of my favorite examples is Kings Rising, when Damen has to step up and defend Laurent from… well, if you’ve read it, you know.

6. getting it on during the Last Night Together™ — Phoenix Unbound

You know how it is: every good fantasy-romance novel that’s been building up to a good fight has that significant Last Night Together™, where our potential lovers realize it’s now or never, and caution is thrown to the wind. One of my favorite examples is Phoenix Unbound, because it’s such a slow burn, and when they finally get together, it’s so tender and sweet and… *sigh* Please, can more of y’all read this damn book so I can gush about it more often because this fandom is way too small right now??

7. mates (but not in a gross way) — Cry Wolf

To be fair, I could’ve said the Alpha & Omega prequel novella, but it’s explored more in the first main novel, Cry Wolf. Anyways… I, like most lovers of paranormal romance/fantasy novels, am a sucker for the “mate” trope, but only when it’s done well. There has to be a legitimate option for consent — not just people mindlessly following their weird little genetic predispositions. Cry Wolf did this one really well, because even though Anna and Charles are mates by nature, Charles gives Anna every opportunity in the world to forsake their mating bond and move on with her life. In this instance, their bond is something that deepens the feelings that are already forming instead of creating something where there was nothing.

8. confessions through sarcastic banter — Sorcery of Thorns

Few things make me happier than watching a character casually confess their feelings through hilarious, ridiculously sarcastic banter and flirting,< and Margaret is SO GOOD at it! In Sorcery of Thorns, our poor love interest Nathaniel Thorn is hopeless from the start, but he does a great job of self-deprecating his own helplessness by cracking jokes about everything: Elisabeth, himself, their circumstances, and the world at large. “You absolute menace” has never been a pet name until this moment, but you can add it to my list of favorites now.

9. best friends to lovers — That Kind of Guy

I bet some of y’all actually thought I could make it through a romance-related post without mentioning Talia Hibbert. LOL. ? Seriously though, I looooove besties-to-lovers, and That Kind of Guy was such a good portrayal of it. There’s the slow build-up, the fleeting glances, the hopeful-yet-subtle hints, and the endless internal angst over the mere idea of risking everything to find out if it’s mutual… Sigh. What sweet little babies. (And this book also has the fake dating trope and the “only one bed” trope, soooo go hit that up)

10. age gap (again, not in a gross way) — Over & Over Again

Naturally, there’s another author I couldn’t miss mentioning in this post: Cole McCade. Cole’s romances are so swoon-worthy and great, and he tackles age gaps in the best way possible in Over & Over Again. Everyone is of a legal age, everyone is consenting, there’s no weird power dynamic, and we get a healthy dose of self-doubt and angst from the older lover, which is all a definite necessity of a successful age gap romance (well, maybe the angst isn’t a requirement, but… I like it).

That’s it — those are my favorite romance tropes! I almost added fake dating, but I couldn’t pick just one favorite example, so I left it out. What’s your favorite romance trope?

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