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It's probably cliché for a romance author to say I'm in love with love, but it's so true, y'all! I've been addicted to the idea of romance since I was a five-year-old being given my first ever paper-cup bracelet from the cute kid on the bus. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I not only write romance, but I read a ton of it. Which is why today I wanted to share my #top10romancetropes with y'all. These are the tropes I live for, the ones I will drop anything (okay, probably not chocolate, tea or my child) to pick up and read.

Ready???

10. Second Chance Romance

You knew it was coming! I write it, I read it, I hunt down real-life stories of people who fell back in love... Add on a First-Love element, and hoo-ey!

I. Am. There. For. It!

9. Enemies to Lovers

They hated one another, but then.... *sexy growls* they found out how thin that line between hate and love really is.

There is a caveat to my love for this trope, though. I don't do bully romance (ignoring my addiction to Dramione... and Snamione... fanfiction. I just can't explain that.) Bully's aren't hot. I don't care how good that six-pack is, or how bad his home life is. If he or she is a bully, they're a bust in my book.

8. Sci-Fi

I'll be honest with y'all, I can't decide if Sci-Fi Romance is a trope or a sub-genre... either way I love it. And not just because of those big, blue ice-planet aliens everyone's talking about (although I am here for that!). Sci-Fi romance makes this list because it is incredibly nuanced. Even if you're just looking for some "blue daba dee daba die", there's always going to be an element of adventure and surprise because... well, those big blue guys live in the big blue universe* and that's our #lastfrontier.

7. Secret Baby/Accidental Pregnancy

Let me clarify that I only love these tropes when they aren't intertwined with the "Magic-Super-Sperm/Suddenly-Cured-Infertility" stuff. My husband and I have a zero percent chance of getting pregnant, and nothing sucks more than reading a great romance novel only to stumble into the ever-popular "my flu wound up being a fetus!" plot. No. No it didn't. I saw it a mile away, when you told Mr. Man you couldn't get pregnant so he could ride the hanky-panky train without a latex ticket.

No. I hate that trope and it needs a trigger warning. #Iwillfightyou Which is one of the reasons Tofu Cowboy is still my favorite romance where infertility plays a role.

But...

I do love a good one-night-stand turned accidental pregnancy or a surprise baby romance. It's babies, ya'll! I love babies. Yeah, not the puking, shitting, infant stuff so much, but babies are soft and cuddly and bring out all the warm, gooey feelings I usually make gagging noises over. So if you chuck a baby into a romance novel, and that baby isn't born because the infertile land wound up bearing low-hanging fruit, I will eat it up.

6. Romantic Suspense

Another trope/sub-genre quandry, Romantic Suspense makes the list because when it is done well, it is oh-so-damn-good! Who doesn't love a side of murder, mystery, and danger with their romance? And I know damsels are so eighteen-hundreds and whatever, but I still love it when they're rescued. #allthefeels

5. Marriage of Convenience

They married so he could inherit the money, or so she could keep the family farm, but over time their marriage became less about convenience and more about love! This is a sub-set of my #1 trope, so you know it had to make the list. I swoon every time!

4. Fated Mates

Don't judge me. I like the simplicity of two people being meant for one another. Tell me you haven't dreamt of meeting your soul mate? *looks over my glasses at you*

3. Opposites Attract

If you are looking for Enemies to lovers, but accidentally stroll down the wrong aisle in your local bookstore, you'll stumble across #3 on my list! I am a sucker for opposites attract romances, y'all. Is there anything more real than two polar opposites having to find a middle ground? It's like that Diamond Rio song, "Meet in the Middle", only better because it's in a book!

City human meets mountain person? Yes!

Rough-around-the-edges meets Bun-and-Stockings-Uptight? Muah!

Corporate powerhouse gets dismantled by local-shopkeeper? Give me more, give me more!

If I were a labradoodle, I'd be lapping this trope up like water after a long run!

2. Low/No-Angst

Y'all, I love me a good, short, Evie Mitchell romance. There's hot sex, minimal angst and I can read that thing in one cup of tea! Some days I just need to read a romance with little to no angst leading up to that happily-ever-after.

I know literary snobs get their bookshelves all mussed up because they think true romance has to follow a certain story arch or have a certain amount of drama/conflict, but I disagree. One of the best reasons to read is to escape reality, and I don't know if you've looked around recently, but reality is going through an emo phase right now. So I'll take my short, sweet, sexy, low-conflict romances over that shit any day!

1. Stuck Together/Forced Proximity

If you didn't see this one coming, you may not understand the entire premise behind the Inn at Halfpoint series. I adore this trope so much, I'm literally writing multiple books about it. And that's just in one series... y'all have no idea what else I'm working on. *wink*

I can't explain why two people forced into close proximity and winding up falling in love because of it makes me so damn happy, but it does. And it always has. I think some of the first romance novels I ever read utilized this trope, and it intrigued me even when I was fourteen and thought sex involved two people getting naked and lying next to one another. (Not my parents' fault, I literally forged my way out of every health class until I was sixteen and had to go to one in order to graduate.)

What are some of your favorite romance tropes? Are they on this list? If so, drop a comment with your top romance novel rec for that trope! I'm always looking for great, new reads!

*I'm pretty sure the universe isn't technically blue and some science-folk are probably freaking out about that misinformation. So, sorry if I got that wrong. But the sentence needed a blue universe, not some long, difficult-to-describe diatribe on how light-waves from distant stars impact the color of the universe, making it ever-changing, etc. etc... Technically the universe is more beige nowadays... and that's just a little boring.