Academically put, tropes are “common or overused theme[s] or device[s]," which makes them sound like cliches, which makes them seem like a bad thing.
But they’re totally not! Romance novel fans all have their favorite—not to mention least favorite—tropes, from friends to lovers, chick in pants, secret baby, marriage of convenience, opposites attract, May-December, boss-assistant...the list goes on.
Each month, we’ll be picking a romance novel trope and ask you to offer recommendations falling under the trope rubric (again with the academic talk!).
This month, we're thinking about blurring class distinctions—namely, books where either the hero or heroine is of a lower class than the hero (Pretty in Pink, Jane Eyre, or Pride and Prejudice, for example!).
Come across the tracks:
- Mary Balogh's A Christmas Promise
- Anne Calhoun's Liberating Lacey
- Heidi Cullinan's A Private Gentleman
- Molly O'Keefe's Can't Hurry Love
- Elizabeth Hoyt's Thief of Shadows
- Ava March's Thief
