Romance Tropes:
A Romance Trope is a plot device or theme used within a romance novel giving a recognizable starting point to the story that a reader can recognize. Some novels can have more than one trope.
Amnesia
One of the characters suffers temporary or permanent memory loss and is forced to start over and reclaim their identity.
Best friend’s Brother/Sister
The character is in love with their best friend’s sibling and must keep it from them.
Enemies to Lovers
Instead of “love at first sight”, it’s “hate at first sight”. This trope has the characters starting out despising each other, but despite their efforts, fall in love with one another.
Fake Relationship
A “secret relationship” trope where characters are in a situation and pretend to be together (for example, someone needs a date to a wedding so their family will get off their back about being single), then it typically becomes less of an act as the story progresses. Usually, when the arrangement ends, they will part ways, thinking that is it for the couple. Until one or both of them declare their true feelings.
Fish Out of Water
When a romantic lead finds themselves in an unfamiliar, daunting situation that they don’t feel prepared for.
Forbidden Love
When two characters can’t be together because of their families, culture, or geographical differences even though they love each other.
Forced Proximity
When the couple is force to be around each other. Usually the couple aren’t fond of each other or they barely know each other. Through the forced proximity, they are forced to get through the experience together. They eventually fall in love with each other.
Friends to Lovers
This trope is when to friends realize their feelings for each other and start a romantic relationship. Sometimes they’ve known each other since childhood, or college.
Love Triangle
There is a couple ways this trope can happen. For example, Peter and Ben love Jess, and Jess must choose between the two people she cares about. In the end, some one will have a broken heart.
Meet-Cute
Is when the characters first encounter each other, usually in adorable, hilarious and/or serendipitous ways.
Pregnancy
The heroine must deal with a unexpected pregnancy and decide whether to tell the hero.
Second Chance
When a couple are thrown into each other’s paths sometime after their failed attempt at a relationship. This can be after spending years apart. Or the character has been seriously hurt in love in the past, and finally decides to give love a chance.
Secret Billionaire/Royalty
One character falls in love with another character before realizing they’re a billionaire/royalty.
Small Town Romance
Where one character usually comes to town from a big city and, quite reluctantly, grows to love the town and a particular citizen of it. Or both characters grew up in the same small town and fall in love.
Surprise Parenthood
A sibling or best friends dies or becomes ill and the character is now the sole guardian of the child/children.
Weddings
Invited to a family or friend’s wedding, the heroine/hero will either a) run into an ex-lover or enemy from the past, b) meet a new love interest or c) be thrown together with another character from the wedding party.
Workplace Romance
The hero and heroines are co-workers or colleagues and find that they can’t suppress their chemistry.
Diary of a bookworm 