I love the 'hate to love' trope for whatever reason. Mind you, not 'the guy is an ass and falls in love with a girl and now he's not' trope. But something about the bickering shows they have chemistry and I love it when they finally get together - Ron and Hermione is my favorite example.
Oh yeah, that's a good one! For me, it's a hit or miss trope. If done well, I love watching them change their minds & all the chemistry from the ongoing conflict. If done badly, I sit there like, "He's a jerk! Why are you dating him now???" :)
Yes, they should totally mention the main tropes on the back on the book, under the blurb. Especially since some blurbs are purposely vague to know what you're in for.
I'm totally with you on the romance types! I definitely prefer romances to be funny with external conflict. Huge fan of slow-burn romance! I don't read a ton of romance partly because I really dislike certain kinds of romance. I'd be interested to see a recommendation video!
I love friends to lovers trope. My favourite trope is forbidden fruit, especially in historical romance. The tension of I love you, but I can't be with you is my catnip. Have you read Robyn Carr's Virgin River series? It's set in a small town and the sense of community is amazing. I'm a city girl through and through and would hate living in a small town. I would want to live in Virgin River because of the characters and how they look out for each other.
I dipped my toes into Virgin River, but that was when I was in the throes of binging on Fool's Gold, so it just didn't hit the spot for me. I think I may try it again the next time I'm in the mood for a small town series :)
What a great video! I seem to like all the same things as you in romance, but I could never really pinpoint all these things, so thank you so much for verbalising them for me :D I also love external conflict, silly tone and slow-burn. (I tend to not read romance very often because while I have read a few that I have loved, so many romance books contained tropes I disliked, which is a shame)
I agree that the books where there are no family around and aren't even mentioned are not enjoyable for me. I can understand if they're dead or live far away, but if the protagonist seems to have spawned from the sea, it makes me check out of the story.
I tend to only read regency romances, but you've sure sold the paranormal type romances. I think what I like about the historical romance genre is the sense of security: you know your place in society, and once you've landed a duke you don't really have to worry about money.
It's interesting how focused historicals are on the regency era... I know that comes out of Jane Austen (and then later Georgette Heyer), but I agree. The pervasiveness of that setting does a lot of the world building work for authors writing in that time period
This is so interesting to hear other people's opinions! I very rarely read romance as the main plot (will they/ won't they) but I do love a good heartbreak story, the darker the better, and literary
This was so interesting! I loved the information about the history of the genre and then your thoughts on the intrinsic feminism of the genre - I'd never stopped to consider either of those things. I tend to only read romance out of meta-level curiosity, and I've definitely been guilty of making fun of the covers that are so common in some of the sub-genres, so you've really given me some food for thought.
Oh, until they change the covers, they deserve to be shamelessly mocked. Those cringe-y covers actually come down to us from the ad-men of the 70s who thought that's what women would want. #thankspatriarchy But yay for an open mind to romance! It's not for everyone, but I've enjoyed adding it into my reading diet over the last few years. It's a good mixer to balance out heavier reading
My absolute favorite tropes are marriage of convenience, paranormal romance and forced proximity.... I also enjoy a good small town romance, even if I'm a city girl! As I commented in a previous video of yours, I used to read a lot of Harlequin novels when I was a teen, and even if I don't as much nowadays, I still enjoy this type of novels. Thanks for a great video! Loved this!
bookslikewhoa yes, that might just be it... XD I'm thinking of small town life as this oasis of peace and simplicity... -_-U but I guess that small town people will say just the opposite... XD that's human nature for you!
If you enjoy goofy love stories with lots of tropes, making fun of the tropes, and 4th wall breaking - I high recommend Ouran Highschool Host Club (anime or manga)
Omg, are you me? I'm pretty sure you're me lol I feel like, based on the books that I find, it's unpopular opinion to love actual nice person/beta/non-manwhore heroes. I love the friends-to-lovers, especially when paired with him being a sweet guy, but it's almost always a guy who's hooked up with literally hundreds of women, which is a real turnoff. Also, I'm known for saying, "Confidence means they *think* they can do something. Actual competence is sexy."
Romance is more of a subplot (or set of subplots) in my project. The conflicts are mostly external, some little bit internal. The overall tone tends to be equally dark and dramatic / light-hearted. There is also a tendency to step away from current western love romance norms. There is a tendency to be mildly weird/ exploratory with different races, species and cultures. This does include arranged marriages and magic systems. It's not quite the "patriarchy" but a little off in left field to be F the patriarchy. Also shifters and yes - Dragon shifters and more. Very few of the love interests (but some) are traditionally "attractive". Most (but not all) aren't very experienced. Again, romance is a subplot so there is a lot of supporting cast but also generally the "hot stuff" happens off the page.
this video was pretty helpful for me. I don't read romance in general (I think mostly it's just not my genre) but I did pick up a book this month that I was expecting to like that ended up falling flat. hearing you talk about the internal vs. external conflicts totally clicked with why I didn't like it: I can't get into internal being the major conflicts without getting a little bored. next time I go looking for romance, I'm definitely finding one with an external major conflict.
Oh yay, I'm glad this was helpful!! I had to read a shit ton of these for my thesis, so I pretty quickly had to figure out which ones I liked & which ones I didn't. I think figuring out what does or doesn't work for you in a book is hugely empowering. I have some recommendation videos going up in the next couple of weeks, and since I also really prefer external conflict, there might be some in there that could be good places to start :).
Yes! I completely agree with so many of these! Forced proximity and marriage of convenience are two of my favs as well :) Have you read Roomies by Christina Lauren? It has a really good modern day marriage of convenience plot. Awesome video!
I'm on the list for Roomies! Hopefully I'll be getting it here in the next few days. Glad you enjoyed it- I definitely want to read it because of that trope :)
I don't read a lot of published romance, usually when I'm in the mood for romance I just stick with fan fiction. Mostly because with fan fic I already know the characters and I'm invested in their relationship. We have very similar tastes in romance tropes! some others that you didn't mention that I like is Mutual Pinning but there are not aware that they are both pinning for each other. Mutual Pinning trope goes really well with slow burn and UST. I also really like Friends to Lovers trope and sometimes Enemies to Friends to Lovers trope if done well and I think the only way to do that trope well is with a lot character development and it has to be slow burn for it to work for me. Honestly most romance stories for me have to be either be slow burn or very short and fluffy for them to work for me.
Paranormal /UF, definitely prefer external to internal conflict, I'm with you on Beauty and the Beast retellings, but I also love Persephone and Hades retellings. They are both my catnip. Like a marriage of convenience, love a slow burn ,like fated mates too. I tend to like an alpha hero, but I think that tends to go hand in hand with UF/paranormal. Love competence in my hero/heroine also. Love friends and family in my books to be engaging and interesting. I need my Scooby Gang!
Hero as a virgin is 100% a trope I frickin' live for, I'm used to reading men who have tower long dicks and know how to get a woman off in a 3 seconds, so this trope is refreshing and I fucking love it. Two books that did it well for me is "Beauty and the Billionaire" by Jessica Clare (also obsessed with a retelling of Beauty and the Beast) and "Once Upon a Tower" by Elosia James (a couple of her books have virgin males) .....oh and "Archer's Voice" by Mia Sheridan. If you any have recommendations, would love to hear them.
My favorite trope is probably the hate to love/enemies to lovers one. They always feel very intense to me and the sexual tension is usually pretty high and I love that. I’m also a sucker for a big brother’s best friend romance, I definitely crushed on my big brother’s best friends growing up so it’s one of the tropes that I can relate to the most. By the way, if you want a merpeople romance, K. Webster has one. It is a short read because it was originally in an anthology and I’m not sure how or if she expanded it much. It’s just a light, sweet, fun read that I absolutely loved. It is instalovey and the hero is a biker and for sure an alpha which I know you’re not a huge fan of, but the hero is really a marshmallow for the heroine, plus it is in KU if you have it and ever feel like you need a little pick me up after a shitty day.
I think you would really like MaryJanice Davidson's Betsy the vampire series. Very funny, one of my all time favorite series. "Doing it right" is another of her books, the woman is a superhero type and the male is a more nerdy Doctor type. All most all of her stories has a "other" or supernatural element, and off beat humor, and the female in charge going on.
I love Danielle Steel books like Palomino, which has some beautiful settings.Im a sucker for the settings, wildlife etc and of course, the bodice ripper scenes.Although, I must say, the love scenes are contemporary, and are very subtle.Everything in her novels just seem to flow together into a neat ending,but I can see why you might prefer Nora Roberts, where women are more accomplished and you might consider D. Steel a bit boring and old fashioned.
Great video. Interesting that you love the friends to lovers trope. I find it overdone in literature overall, and I just hate it because I think that there whenever friendships between men and women in particular are represented there is always the undertone or speculation of a romance. Why can't they just be friends!? It irks me. Have you read anything by Bertrice Small? I read like 5 of her books as a teen and I loved them. She was my gateway into the genre
That's so interesting- I 100% agree that I am NOT here for people sexualizing all relationships. Like really? I can't have a male friend because we subconsciously want to bone? I think not. But yeah, I do like the friends to lovers trope because I think I like watching them starting to see each other differently. Plus that's usually how a lot of my love life has gone, so I probably low key relate :) I haven't done any Bertrice Small... tbh, the old skool authors have just not worked for me. I'm down for a good Harlequin, but there's something about the bodice rippers that I can't get into :/
I wouldn't call myself a big romance reader in the traditional sense, but I know some tropes I love are "bad boy with a heart of gold" and teacher/student relationships or similar scandalous age differences.
Yeah, the beauty of romance tropes is that they often transcend the romance genre, & you can find them mixed in with a lot of other genres. I do also like teacher/student or boss/employee type tropes so long as the power sufficiently is addressed sufficiently.
I have a confession to make. I assumed that all romance was the bodice ripper romance. After watching some of your romance videos I think I am going to try to read some.
This was very interesting! I wonder if there are romance books with male main characters? I hate female main characters in general (even though I am a woman, but I like to read about men more than I do about women), 'cause, if there are, that would be something I would be interested in reading. :o In any case, very interesting video, as usual! :)
@@bookslikewhoa Thanks for the suggestion, though I don't think that male/male romance would be my thing, at all. I've endured some of that in the manga-anime world because I love voice actors and I used to actively try to watch all the series where my beloved ones had a role, and there was some male/male series (called yaoi in Japanese, in case you've never heard of it), and it wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, at all, let's leave it at that, hahaha. xD Too bad that seems to be the only option to find romances with male main characters! :( I'm still quite curious about some of the series you've mentioned here and in the paranormal/fantasy video, though, even if they have all women protagonists. I haven't finished watching all of your videos yet, so maybe you already replied this in some future-for-me video, but I'm wondering if you also know some series that are more dark or serious or less humorous. I know you've said you like the lighter tone in your romances, but I'm the opposite, I like dramatic and dark or angsty stories, and humorous stories usually end up just annoying me, so I thought I may like those darker ones, even in spite of the female leads, if there are some good ones that aren't so sexually explicit. :) In any case, thanks for taking the time to reply and suggest things to me, even though I'm still a year behind in your videos, hahaha. :) Thank you and take care!
