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!
Coworker trope is definitely different from a boss/employee trope. I think of the coworker trope as the characters being equal in terms of their positions. If there is a power dynamic, there shouldn’t be a big one or one at all; they might even be working in different areas in the same company. The boss/employee trope is one in which the boss has so much power over the other character that it can affect their job and everything surrounding it. I don’t really tend to read those because it’s always very messy.
But in this Trope Rec Tuesday you won’t see that. You will have two people who are working together in the same place. As I said, they might even be working in different areas and not see each other so much, but maybe they have had a crush for them for a while now? Or they can be working together on a project and have to spend so much time together, even after everyone is gone and they’re all alone at the office? You can really play with this trope a lot so there are definitely various scenarios in these novels where our lovely coworkers are going to fall in love. MADLY.
Better at Weddings Than You by Mina V. Esguerra
This romance is one of my favorite wedding planner romances. Both of our main characters, Daphne and Aaron, are wedding planners. Though Daphne is more experienced in the business and Aaron is a newcomer of the wedding planner world. The way they meet is epic because Daphne is hired by her friend Greg as a last minute replacement wedding planner. Greg is worried that his fiancée is falling for the first guy they hired for the job, Aaron. And now these two have to work together to create this wonderful wedding in a month.
If you love heroes who worship their love interests, this is it my friends. Aaron really admires Daphne and what she does, and wants to learn every last thing from her.
Office Hours by Katrina Jackson
Office Hours is one of my most recent reads. When I tell you this book is IT. It’s because it is It. I had so much fun reading the greatest romance between two college professors who have been pining on each other for a year. Finally, at the start of the semester they get their dreams come true! The development of their relationship happens in a year and it’s amazing to see it get more real. They have out-of-this-world epic chemistry and they know it. But of course their feelings become involved in the process and they know they want more from each other. I love that Alejandro, our hero, is ready to get down on one knee and ask her to be with him forever since the start (but obviously he doesn’t!). It’s just cute and romantic when you know that the hero is all in, you know?
I highly recommend this novel and hopefully you all read it. I love when the characters get shy around each other and can’t actually believe the other one is there and loving them and supporting them. It’s the small things that get to me always.
Fly With Me by Hudson Lin
Hudson Lin has for us a coworker romance where two flight attendants are traveling back and forth across the Atlantic and in between they might even fall in love. Vivian has been doing Asian routes for quite some time, but her dad pushes her to add in European routes. It’s there she meets Marco, another flight attendant who has been doing these European routes much longer. He is instantly smitten by Vivian. In between the traveling and work, Marco shows her his favorite places in some European cities and with that, he will try to win her heart.
