Different Book Tropes

On Book Tok you’ll hear a lot of people discussing book tropes that they enjoy. Book tropes are common themes, character types, situations, or plot devices that appear frequently across different stories and genres. They’re like familiar storytelling patterns that readers often recognize and enjoy (or sometimes get tired of!).

Below are some common book tropes that are discussed and highly sought after.

1. Grumpy/ Sunshine Trope:

The grumpy/sunshine trope is a beloved dynamic in romance and character-driven fiction. It pairs two characters with contrasting personalities: Normally the FMC is happy and always looks on the bright side of things while the MMC has a bit of a mean streak or sees things in a negative light more often.

A popular example of this is Beach Read by Emily Henry or The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.

2. Enemies to Lovers Trope

The enemies to lovers trope features two characters who start off at odds—often clashing due to rivalry, misunderstandings, or opposing goals—but gradually develop romantic feelings for each other. As the story progresses, their initial tension turns into attraction, creating a dynamic filled with banter, passion, and emotional growth.

– This is easily one of my favourite tropes because it is versatile and you can have other tropes included in the book besides this one.

3. Friends to Lovers Trope

This trope is pretty self explanatory. The two characters usually start off the novel as friends and maybe one or both of them have feelings for the other and as the book progresses their romantic feelings come to light.

– This is not one of my favourite tropes. I find it boring, but a lot of other folks enjoy it.

4. Fake Dating

This is one trope I adore. It normally follows a couple, who pretend to date for mutual gain and by the end of it they are usually together for real as their feelings grow. It is even better when they start out the book as enemies to lovers.

5. Marriage of Convience

Like fake dating this trope usually has the characters getting together for mutual gain. Sometimes they start out hating each other and jealousy gets in the way and soon their feelings grow. By the end of it maybe their marriage isn’t so fake.

6. Second Chance

Again, not one I read a lot, but this trope follows a pair of characters who have a past, usually not a good one and their attempt to potentially rekindle their relationship

7. Slow Burn

This romance takes the whole book or even multiple books to hit its peak. I see a lot of slow burns in fantasy or romantasy books where the characters are on some sort of quest. (Or an enemies to lovers where the tension is HIGH.)

8. Love Triangle.

One character stuck between two love interests. Who do they choose. Again not one I normally read, but definitely still popular.

These are the tropes that you see all over Tik Tok. What are tropes that I may have missed or your favourite tropes??

-Fallon