To explain a little about what this post will be about, every Trope Tuesday post starts with the same introduction. In every romance book you read there are tropes or archetypes you find inside its pages. You can also see them in shows, movies, plays, etc. Every type of entertainment and media. Romantic tropes are everywhere, and they are fabulous. I adore them and I always tend to find my favorite ones in romance books so I can enjoy them even more. Trope Tuesday is a weekly column where I share books that I know people will enjoy with a specific central trope.
What is a trope? Urban Dictionary explains it best: “Despite the erroneous definitions already published here, trope on the interwebs really refers to an often overused plot device. It can also be described as another variation on the same theme. TV shows, movies, comics, games, anime’, & books are full of tropes & many rabid fan-sites now name & track said tropes with a self-explanatory title for each one.” We can name a few: accidental pregnancy, best friends to lovers, sibling’s best friend, marriage of convenience, and so many more. Your favorite couples? They probably got a trope too! It’s always so nice to realize or find out your favorite romance trope and keep searching for books with the same theme. So really? I’m just helping you find that new favorite book of yours. If ever you want a post on a trope I haven’t done yet, do drop me a tweet at @thebookvoyagers and let me know!
Mutual pining creates so much tension. And I’m a sucker for tension, Be it physical or emotional. Mutual pining is when two people who like or love each other but think the other one isn’t interested, making this trope also a sort of unrequited love. What these two people do is pine for each other, not telling a soul about it, definitely not telling the other one about it and just keep thinking about what would happen if they do. Obviously in romance books this ends when one of them confesses and we get ourselves a very happily ever after.
I do love when this is accompanied with friends with benefits and the mutual pining just multiplies to the max, because now you gotta add their new sexual relationship while they are both so in love with each other yet they tell the other one that this is only sex and definitely not a relationship. There can be a lot of misunderstandings between them so beware of that, but I do love it so very much.
Go Deep by Rilzy Adams
Rilzy is a new-to-me author. I read her books this year but as soon as I read one? I was so sure I would read her entire backlist. I haven’t read all of them yet but I’m definitely getting there. The ones I’ve read have become instant favorites so I just want to savor these delicious romances so I don’t finish them all in a week. Go Deep is her latest one and it is probably one of my top ten romance books for this year.
In this best friends to lovers romance, erotic writer Navaya is in need of inspiration. Her readers are saying her smut scenes are not good. She hasn’t slept with someone in so long, she thinks she needs a little bit of an inspiration to get back on the right path. Who better than her best friend of 30 YEARS Xander? Before this, they have never thought that way about each other, but as soon as they kiss (ok second kiss, because first kiss was so bad WHICH I LOVE because yes to bad first kisses!) fireworks are seen and felt and these two are forever changed.
Secret Crush Seduction by Jayci Lee
Upcoming romance (out Sept. 1st) and sequel to Temporary Wife Temptation, this romance is the image of mutual pining. These two are crushing on each other so hard, but they cannot act upon it because 1) Adelaide thinks Michael only sees her as his little sister (he’s her older brother’s best friend) and 2) Michael knows Adelaide cannot be happy with him.
When you read a Harlequin Desire romance, you get sweetness paired with steam. The perfect combination. Secret Crush Seduction will give you the family dynamics, brother’s best friend, heiress heroine, and the undeniable fire that these two have.
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
Believe the hype, my friends. You just have to read You Deserve Each Other. And maybe read it every year, because wow, you are going to become obsessed with the characters and their love story. I read this in five hours so you better prepare yourself to either not be bothered for a whole day or just do an all-nighter.
A lovers to enemies to best friends to lovers romance. The epic trope bomb. Naomi and Nicholas are currently engaged. But they aren’t the same as they were before. Naomi is tired of this relationship and thinks that the magic isn’t there anymore. She wants an out. But if she wants to back out of the wedding (which is already paid) she needs to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. And she can’t. So what she comes up with is to make Nicholas break it off by going into a battle of pranks and sabotage. What they don’t know is that they will find each other again and it will be the sweetest ride.
