If you’ve spent any time in the romance or fantasy book community, on BookTok, Bookstagram, or just diving into reader recommendations, you’ve probably heard the word “trope” thrown around constantly. But what exactly is a book trope?
What Is A Book Trope?
In the simplest terms, a trope is a recurring storytelling device, situation, or character dynamic that appears across many books in a genre.
Think of tropes as the building blocks of a story, the familiar frameworks that readers actively seek out and fall in love with again and again. Unlike clichés, tropes aren’t a bad thing. In romance and fantasy especially, readers often pick up a book specifically because it features their favourite trope. Knowing that a book has enemies to lovers, forced proximity, or a morally grey male main character tells you a huge amount about the emotional experience you’re about to have.
Tropes are a shortcut to finding your next favourite read, and once you know which ones you love, you’ll never run out of books to add to your TBR. At Darling Reader, you can browse our entire book database by trope, both for romance and for fantasy. Below is a complete list of all the tropes currently featured across our romance and fantasy collections.
Popular Romance Book Tropes (A-Z)
- Age Gap
- Arranged Marriage
- Bad Boy x Good Girl
- BDSM
- Beauty and the Beast Retelling
- Best Friend’s Brother
- Billionaire Romance
- Bisexual MMC
- Black Cat FMC
- Black Cat x Golden Retriever
- Boarding School Setting
- Bodyguard x Celebrity
- Bodyguard x Princess
- Boss x Assistant
- Boss x Employee
- Boy Next Door
- Brat Kink
- Brother’s Best Friend
- Bully Romance
- Captive/Captor Romance
- Celebrity Romance
- Childhood Friends to Lovers
- Childhood Rivals to Lovers
- Christmas Romance
- Cinderella Retelling
- College Romance
- College Setting
- Coming of Age
- Cowboy Romance
- Curvy FMC
- Dark Academia
- Dark Romance
- Enemies to Lovers
- F1 Romance
- Fake Dating
- Fake Engagement
- Fake Marriage
- Fated Mates
- Forbidden Love
- Forced Proximity
- Found Family
- Frenemies to Lovers
- Friends to Lovers
- Friends with Benefits
- Golden Retriever MMC
- Good Girl x Bad Boy
- Gothic Romance
- Grumpy x Sunshine
- He Falls First
- Hidden Identity
- High School Setting
- Historical Romance
- Historical Setting
- Hockey Player x Figure Skater
- Hockey Romance
- Insta Love
- Jealousy
- Love Triangle
- Mafia Romance
- Marriage of Convenience
- Mental Health Rep
- Military Romance
- Miscommunication
- MM Romance
- Morally Grey
- Neighbours
- Obsessive MMC
- One Bed
- One Night Stand
- Opposites Attract
- Pen Pals
- Polyamorous
- Possessive MMC
- Reformed Playboy
- Regency Setting
- Revenge
- Reverse Harem
- Rich Boy Poor Girl
- Rivals to Lovers
- Roommates
- Royal Setting
- Rugby Romance
- Second Chance
- Secret Relationship
- Secret Society
- Serial Killer Romance
- Single Dad
- Slow Burn
- Small Town Romance
- Sports Romance
- Stalker Romance
- STEM Romance
- Step Siblings
- Strangers to Lovers
- Student x Teacher
- Summer Romance
- Surprise Pregnancy
- Touch Her and Die
- Trauma
- Ugly Duckling
- Vacation Romance
- Villain x Good Girl
- Workplace Romance
- YA Romance
Example of Enemies To Lovers:
“Twisted Hate” by Ana Huang
Example of Grumpy x Sunshine:
“The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Example of Friends To Lovers:
“Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune
Example of Fake Dating:
“The Deal” by Elle Kennedy
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
The most popular romance book tropes right now are enemies to lovers, forced proximity, slow burn, fake dating, grumpy x sunshine, friends to lovers, second chance romance, and one bed. These are the tropes that consistently go viral on BookTok and appear most frequently on reader recommendation lists.
Enemies to lovers is a romance trope where two characters who dislike or openly oppose each other gradually fall in love. The tension and conflict between them is what makes the eventual romance so satisfying. It is one of the most popular tropes in both contemporary romance and romantasy.
MMC stands for male main character and FMC stands for female main character. These abbreviations are widely used in the romance book community, especially on BookTok, to describe the leads of a romance novel and their personality types or character dynamics.
Forced proximity is a trope where two characters are thrown together in a situation they can’t easily escape, sharing a house, being snowed in, working together, or travelling together. The close quarters force them to interact and develop feelings they might otherwise have avoided.
A morally grey character is one who doesn’t fit neatly into “good” or “evil”, they make questionable choices, often for understandable reasons, and exist in an ethical grey area. Morally grey MMCs are extremely popular in dark romance and romantasy, and are a defining feature of many BookTok favourites.
Fake dating is a trope where two characters agree to pretend to be in a relationship for external reasons, to make someone jealous, to please a family member, or to fulfil a social obligation, but end up developing real feelings in the process. It is one of the most beloved tropes in contemporary romance.
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