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Poll

Favorite tropes in romance - poll

  • Friends-to-lovers 140
  • Ice queen - duh 92
  • Second chance romance 50
  • Celebrity 9
  • Faux-mance 7
  • Secret/mistaken identity (sleep with your boss by accident or anonymous penpals, etc) 7
  • Age-gap 13
  • Opposites Attract (Grumpy/sunshine, rich/poor, etc) 46
  • Forced proximity (stranded together or only one bed) 19
  • 2023-08-05
  • 383 votes
{'title': 'Favorite tropes in romance - poll', 'choices': [{'text': 'Friends-to-lovers', 'votes': 140}, {'text': 'Ice queen - duh ', 'votes': 92}, {'text': 'Second chance romance', 'votes': 50}, {'text': 'Celebrity ', 'votes': 9}, {'text': 'Faux-mance', 'votes': 7}, {'text': 'Secret/mistaken identity (sleep with your boss by accident or anonymous penpals, etc)', 'votes': 7}, {'text': 'Age-gap', 'votes': 13}, {'text': 'Opposites Attract (Grumpy/sunshine, rich/poor, etc)', 'votes': 46}, {'text': 'Forced proximity (stranded together or only one bed)', 'votes': 19}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2023, 8, 5, 18, 41, 6, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 383}

Content

Tropes are such tricky things!

As someone who grew up an avid fanfic reader - then writer - and avid romance reader - then writer - I am neck-deep in tropes. And I'm a huge fucking fan of so many of them.

And it's kind of funny, because as a writer, I usually tend toward writing friends-to-lovers, even though it's not always my top favorite trope to read. I think I love making my characters get to know one another on a deep level and then accidentally and unintentionally fall hard once they know them.

Honestly, that is why I love the idea of friends-to-lovers (a not as well-loved trope as I think it should be, if I'm honest). It's the idea of - knowing someone so well that you know who they are at their core. Their flaws and their strengths and their dreams and, just, everything. And you love them and want all of them, anyway. That's fucking romance, you know?

Ahem.

The funny thing, as I was saying, though, is that I often-times loooove an enemies to lovers, as a reader. There's so much delicious tension and the wonder of how are these two going to make this work?! I love an ice queen because I love that there is a love interest who can break through their exterior and be someone so special, that this frosty person warms for them.

Then there's second chance romance, with the angst and the idea that there is just this person who you fell for so hard that as much as you'd want to, they always hold a piece of you. Like that is how it was always supposed to be.

If there are a few that seem to end up really high we might have a showdown poll later this month...

Comments

Gabby

It's only allowing one vote, but friends to lovers has always been my top, then only one bed is another favorite because of the tension!

Court

It’s only allowing one vote and that is just too big of a commitment right now. 🤣. I love so many of these!

Eabha

same!!

Jess Bullock

I love a good rivals to lovers and grumpy/sunshine! Especially in the same story! But forced proximity, especially one bed, is such a ridiculous cliche and I eat it up every time! I love me some good tension and then a good....release of that tension!

Camille C.

I am fortunately a sucker for friends to lovers so I gobble everything you've written for that very reason, c'est merveilleux! 😌👌, and I may be of the unpopular opinion but I dont care much for enemies to lovers, fake dating and second chance romance, but purely because those tropes lean heavily into genre fiction and I like the idea of a story that feels like it might actually be happening out in the world

Haley Cass

I was a big fool and didn't properly enable multiple selection before posting and now it's stuck like that forEVER... so I guess we have to see what comes rolling in now lol

Haley Cass

It IS such a ridiculous cliche, but it's *so good* when it's done well! I'm with you

Jess Bullock

Like I think I'd rather sleep on the floor 😅 or just go into it fully excepting that I'm having sex. I wouldn't lie there all night being MISERABLE 😂😂

Haley Cass

While I do enjoy reading enemies to lovers, fake dating, and second chance whenever the mood strikes, ultimately, I love to write friends to lovers for the exact reason you named - I love writing people that are... women just living their lives and then happen to fall in love.

Haley Cass

I was a big fool and didn't properly enable multiple selection before posting and now it's stuck like that forEVER... so I guess we have to see what comes rolling in now lol

Camille C.

Oh but I did forget to mention that I absolutely adore the opposites attract trope too (a creative type and an analytical type? that balance?? A family that's guaranteed to have good interiors and no problem at tax time and a very good credit score??? Delicious 👩‍🍳💋👌) which is also why i devour your books like the cookie monster *insert lady gaga praise meme here*

J.P.

I had to choose between ice queen, age-gap, grumpy/sunshine—and I need everyone to know how absolutely tragic that was for me 😂😂😭

kassandra gravel

I love the friends to lover or the enemy to lover arc

Juliana

Sameeee! I love the close proximity situation, it gives me such anxiety (the good kind). Buuuut, the friends to lovers has its own charm as well. Tough tough tough choices, Haley!

Greta

I didn't particularly love friends to lovers until I found those who wait and you other books. You changed my mind with your stories and your characters because I understood that while enemies to lovers is very funny and the idea that someone can break through the walls of an ice queen is very interesting, friends to lovers is really the perfect love story, that's how it's supposed to be. So I guess I'm a friends to lovers sucker now. But my favorite trope is and will always be second chance romance. So Midnight rain is basically my type of story now, friends to lovers in a second chance romance situation

Dalene Engelbrecht

Friends to lovers all the way... mostly cause I like to shout "Yall are dumb idiots, just tell her you love her already" at a book more than is appropriate. But I'm down for a well written, believable faux-mance any day. Sadly a well written faux-mance is so hard to come by 😔

Sonia

Opposites attract is so fun except when it’s a class disparity issue. I always feel like they never truly address the conflict and just grand gesture it all away at the end. Second chance though. The angst is excellent

fr0st

Friends to lovers is excellent but, I must add a caveat, we should see the friends part demonstrated. Too often, it's a thing that is told, not shown and I don't get how these people can be friends or can't feel the history between them. Chef kiss is when they are basically strangers and we see them become friends and then lovers. Gimme the whole journey, so much more satisfying when we get to the HEA that way!

fr0st

Anyway, just a thought. It's an interesting way to show off strength when these kids are most likely to be the pros of tomorrow but currently the most vulnerable they have ever been (they definitely could not take on a high level pro villain without their teachers at present) so it also feels a lot like dangling some tempting kids to take out early in front of an audience of people who would definitely mean them harm later

Liz

It’s hard to choose one! I love the idea of second chance romance especially if the first go around had to end because of external forces - distance, life, etc. And then finding each other again years later

Ange Elson

Second Chance alllll the way. Especially with a small town first love vibe. Which sometimes nudges into friends to lovers.