By Lucky Felder
As a reader who’s mainly interested in anything YA (young adult), I’ve made it through a long list of extremely cliche storylines. While some might see this aspect of the popular genre as boring to read, instead preferring a modern novel that keeps them guessing, I find it comforting that I can pretty much predict what will happen. With YA, there comes a price: tropes are 100% inevitable, especially in romance books. That being said, there are quite a few tropes that irritate me to my core, and others that never fail to keep me giggling. Here are, in my opinion, the top four best and worst romance tropes.
Best:
- Forbidden romance — If you tell me a book has forbidden romance, it’s likely I’ll immediately put it on my list. Obviously, when the characters are kept apart from each other, the tension increases quickly, and it never fails to be a page turner. I feel like this trope always has the best plot twists too, because the characters have to get creative in the ways they meet up. I love these types of books so much that I don’t even care if they end tragically.
- Enemies to lovers — This is probably the most popular romance trope, and many think it’s overused. But in my opinion, there’s a reason why it’s popular. Similar to forbidden romance, these books are always really exciting, especially in the first half when the characters hate each other. Despite the fact that they despise each other—maybe they come from rival families or had a terrible first impression—the two characters are drawn to one another, and it’s really satisfying to read.
- Childhood friends to lovers — These types of books are always the cutest, and have me smiling at the pages. There’s something so sweet about the main characters knowing each other for so long, and finally confessing, or meeting again by circumstance after spending their adult years apart. All the author needs to do for me to be completely invested is sprinkle in some flashback chapters of when they were kids. I usually like to stick to happy and wholesome endings for this trope when possible.
- Love triangle — I can absolutely appreciate a love triangle, but only when it’s done right. I especially love when the characters are pretty equal, making it hard for me to choose who I like better. Love triangles always bring out the best drama—intense fight scenes, jealousy, and a lot of heartbreak—leaving me desperate to know who the protagonist will choose. However, I do get extremely upset when the person I like (aka the right choice) isn’t “endgame,” as any normal person would.
Worst:
- Age gap — I do my best to stay far away from books with this trope, and so far I’ve been pretty successful. It’s not that I find this weird when it happens in real life, but the way authors use it always seems to end up giving me the creeps. I want to meet an author who typed the nickname “kitten” and thought “wow, I’ve really done it.” Absolutely not. Bonus points if the book is in the fantasy realm and the main character is twenty years old, but the love interest is a four hundred year old immortal being (this happens a lot more than you’d think). To me, it’s just not realistic at all.
- Miscommunication — There is truly nothing more infuriating than the miscommunication trope. When the book is dual perspective and the chapters switch between POVs, I get so mad at both characters for not just talking to each other. It’s more understandable if they’re shy or nervous, but a lot of the time they withhold information simply to spite each other, or make a wild assumption based solely off of something small, like a text notification. One day the main characters are literally perfect for each other, and the next they’re letting their relationship end over a simple wrong assumption. Throughout the novel, they end up breaking up and getting back together three times. I would not prefer to put myself through a book of this just to get a chapter of their happy relationship at the end. It’s rarely worth it.
- Fake relationship — I mean I know it is fiction and all, but this trope is so unrealistic that it makes me have trouble getting into the story. Also, even though I like tropes for being predictable, I’ve read too many books with fake dating that have the exact same plot, and I find that most of the time, they end up being cringeworthy. There’s always a long awkward phase while they try to convince their friends they’re in a relationship, which is the part I hate getting through. However, usually if I give the book some time, I do end up enjoying it, especially if I just want something easy to read.
4. Second chance —This trope can either end up being super toxic, or super wholesome. I admit, I don’t read a lot of second chance romance books, so I’m not very qualified to talk about them. However, I just don’t understand why two people would go back to a toxic relationship, unless it ended because of a misunderstanding.