I acknowledge the fact that I am about as romantic as a potato.
But as I get older and more feeble (I’m twenty f i v e), I do have way more soft squishy feelings for romances in books than I used to. I have tropes I am so so softly fond of. I have ships I will lowkey die for. I often find myself in the midst of reading a slowburn romance and muttering, “Just kiss, you child onions.” I also like writing my little squishy romances…!
I know it’s popular to proclaim your book boy/girlfriends and such, but honestly??? If I “fall in love” with a character, I either want (a) to protec them, (b) to be them, or (c) for them to protec me????? Like yes, thanks, I love you, Lila Bard, would you pls take care of everyone who’s ever annoyed me. Thanks so much.
But HEY. It’s February, which is such a notorious month for talking about romance…so I’m going to show up to the party this year with…
and obviously list some of my favourite ships along the way (!!!!)
ugh look at me and all these FEELINGS what is this how ancient am I
Top Ten Tuesday | Favourite Couples In Books
This is just downright cute because it starts with two people absolutely proclaiming there is “Nothing” “Going On” “Between Them” “At All”. Whatever you sayyyyyyy. And they usually are working so so hard to keep up the “fakeness” that they actually end up being a 100% better boy/girlfriend than anyone else.
Like is anyone a more dedicated boyfriend than Peter K “faking” it for Lara Jean???
And o h h e l p — in The Caged Queen it was an arranged marriage and Roa stood there telling herself there was NO WAY she’d fall for Dax, the tyrant’s son. Ever. She is using him. This is fine. She is only cuddling up to him a night because her feet are cold. This is…fine.
This one is also the DEATH OF ME. When both characters are very very clearly in love but…neither side admits it, so they both sit there thinking…”No they do not ((insert sad sniffle)) love me at all….do they even see me????”
YES YOU LITTLE FROZEN REFRIED BEANS. THEY’RE PINING AWAY IN THEIR CHAPTERS TOO.
It also can come with this heartbreaking bittersweetness when one side doesn’t think they deserve to be loved. So they keep to themselves. They want the best for the other (as well as being frightfully jealous) and they almost don’t say anything ever…
…UNTIL THEY DO.
Alright you see me hopelessly self-promo-ing A Thousand Perfect Notes, but it took me sEVEN Y E A R S in Azkaban to get published ok, and so let me force you all to behold my cover all the time. But that aside: I wrote an entire romance based on the fact that August just kept feeding Beck until he associated her = with good food = good times. I think she Pavolov’s Dogged him.
And Words On Bathroom Walls is criminally underrated but Adam literally turns up to bake lasagna for his wished-for-girlfriend.
Lastly, hi, to my disaster kids, Sam and Penny. Who I love so much and who met over coffee and donuts and then later, Sam had a panic attack and fainted from heat stroke because he wouldn’t change out of his aesthetic black jeans and Penny had to scrape him off the road. These two. Aw.
Maggie Stiefvater is my QUEEN of slowburn romance. And it’s arguably one of the best tropes out there, because instalove feels so insipid, but slowburn is just this agonising s t r e c h of learning someone and waiting for them and building up tension.
So here for it being 300pages before they even hold hands. Bless.
I do want to acknowledge that this trope can be written as super problematic and harmful…which is not !!! what I’m here for !!! No thanks.
The kind I love is when: they’re pitched against each other due to being on opposite sides of a war. Or they’re naturally in each other’s way. Or standing between each other and a goal. It’s just the whole “WILL THEY KISS?? WILL THEY STAB EACH OTHER??? WE DON’T KNOW” which I am fantastically fond of. Also it’s stressful because I secretly (shh) want my ships to be Okay In The End™ but with this lot you can never tell.
And what is a book if it doesn’t stress you out, hmm??
This one usually falls solidly in the category of WHOLESOME. And, hey, sometimes it’s nice to see two friends grow up and tumble into love (although staying friends is just as valid). Unless, of course, you are Julian and Emma and your childhood-friendship-turned-romance will literally ignite a monstrous curse. But anyway.
I also feel like these ships are more likely to last. They KNOW each other. It’s not a fleeting crush built on expectations. They’ve usually seen each other at their grimey worsts and what’s more romantic than seeing your crush covered in toast crumbs and with twigs in their hair and knowing they do gross things, like eat marmalade.
This is wholly brought to you by YGRITTE AND JON SNOW from Game of Thrones (shh no this isn’t YA but let me have it just for a second) because they are one of my life’s OTPs. Like Ygritte just flirts to make him so soooo uncomfortable. He is like so naive and innocent (lol not for long, this is GoT) and she’s THRIVING mocking him.
I swear every time this sort of pairing comes up, I get far too invested.
And I love Tanner from Autoboyography flirting with the pastor’s kid (hOLY HECK DO I LOVE SEBASTIAN AND TANNER) and Gabriel spending the whole time flirting with Nathan who is oblivious until he basically gets smacked in the head. By Gabriel. But you know. Romance is difficult, ok.
Did I just silently whisper yes to everything mention?? Most definitely.
And now I have many more books I want to read immediately. Fake dating is great— I just love it!! And slow burn is the best— the tension, the suspense, the everything. I mean sometimes I want to scream just kiss already but I love it when books make you want to scream. Shy squirt vs the flirt is great because I love when opposites attract– they bring new sides to each other and YESSS I am there for it. And the shy vs the flirt is great— you can’t help but smile at them.
I love all the love!! Fabulous post and now all I can think of is the amazing slow burn in the raven cycle!! I love the ship in this book.
Excellent *happy flail* We have good taste in tropes! And omg the slowburn just makes it way way more shippable. And the squish vs flirt are just so ADORKABLE. They blush and squirm and it’s so cute fjakdslafd.
I love the fake relationship. Now you made me want to read The Caged Queen😍😍😍😍 Thank you Cait for the recs
The finale in the Last Namsara series comes out this year so it’s a good time to start!!!
Great list! You have me even more excited for The Brilliant Death now that I know to expect a slow burn romance, which is one of my favourites. I’m not a big fan of friends to lovers, although it can definitely be done really well, but I love watching two characters meet, then become friends and then fall in love. That kind of slow burn gives me all kinds of feelings.
A lot of my favourite tropes come from fantasy. I love the prince(ss) and the bodyguard (hnng that trope). I’d find it completely gross in contemporary, because just no, but growing up on the kind of fantasy I did I love a well written the teacher/student relationship. Or I guess it’s more of a guide/apprentice relationship. If the age difference is huge and the younger person is particularly young I don’t like it, but in fantasy I like it a lot. The Dragon and Agnieszka from Uprooted are a great example!
I also love those couples who are so badass they could only possibly end up with each other, like Kaz and Inej who make my heart hurt whenever I think of them, and I ADORE not quite enemies to lovers, but those couples who get on each other’s nerves and they think they don’t like each other when actually what they’re feeling is sexual tension. I tend to come across that a lot in urban fantasy and I eat it up like candy.
Just give me power couples who are a team and always have each other’s backs and I’m satisfied.
Ohh then you’ll love The Brilliant Death even more because it has the tutor/student vibe too, but I agree THAT works in fantasy. But I hate it in contemporary.😂 If anyone even whispers teacher/student relationship in YA contemporary, lmao, I shut that book and walk away.
And yesss to the badass ones!! Or the one who is frighteningly mysterious and badass but there’s this ONE person who makes them do things and be chill 😍😍
I’ve always been obsessed with friends to lovers and enemies to lovers stories, but it wasn’t until you pointed it out in this post that I realised I’ve always really loved shy squish vs the flirt stories too! Most of my favourite pairings come under that description, so thank you for giving me the words to describe it.
The squish/flirt ones are just too adorkable…all the blushing and the stammering and the super cute levels of LOVEEEEEE.
Fake Dating and Enemies-To-Lovers are my favs.
We have good trope loves here *hi fiveS*
Like… literally standing between each other and a goal? Is that an Andrew / Neil reference? Because, ahhh, I just finished that trilogy yesterday. (I read the entire trilogy in 72 hours because who needs to do other things with their life???) (Also, who are Gabriel and Nathan? I now feel like I need to read them immediately…)
ISN’T IT THE BEST TRILOGY THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO SCREAM AND DIE AND LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
Half Bad for Nathan/Gabriel! I have the cover there. 😂
*adds more books to her TBR*
Great post! My favourite romance tropes are friends to lovers and slowburn romance. I’m demisexual and demiromantic, I need to feel a close emotional bond with someone, I need to get to know them, before I start to feel any sort of attraction. I don’t like instalove or hate to love tropes. I prefer that a romance takes a bit of time or that the characters become friends first. I really don’t understand a book character falling in love with another character while they don’t know them. I like the fake dating trope from time to time.
Yess!! I think it’s great when the friends-to-lovers shows up for that exact reason. I find it hard to get onboard with instalove because like…how can you LOVE someone you don’t even know?! That’s why the fake dating also works so well.😂
I’m an absolute sucker for shy squish vs the flirt too! I especially love it when said shy/flirt dynamic leads to insecurities and misunderstandings. There’s so many possibilities for delicious character suffering.
It’s so ADORKABLE. They get so flustered and blush and I love it!!
Well great. Now I want to read something cute. All of these tropes are fabulous. Friends to lovers is usually adorable, and fake dating always makes me laugh. They’re only ever fooling themselves. :’)
Cuteness is sometimes needed!! In amongst all the stabby books I read ahhh. 😂
My favorite trope is… ALL OF THE ABOVE. Though I truly think enemies to lovers is in the top for me, and I haven’t read any book where someone feeds the love interest to win her/his heart, so I’m going to read those!! And I don’t know why I was expecting u to include Cress and captain Thorne in the shy squish vs the flirt category…xD Lunar Chronicles romances are my EVERYTHING
Also Cress/Thorne are definitely a good example of shy vs flirt!!! I should have included them. 😂😂
I really liked your response this week. Very creative.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Thanks for reading. 🙂
This is SUCH A GOOD LIST and tbh enemies to lovers is up there for me, second only to RIVALS to lovers (which has that subtly different competition flavor that I thrive on lol). Bonus points also for slow burns, of course, and double bonus points for “we’re on a last name/formal title only basis except OOPS WE’RE IN DANGER AND I JUST CALLED YOUR FIRST NAME IN DESPERATION AND FEAR”
…I think I might like my romance with a side of angst more than anything. Whoops.
RIVALS TO LOVERS OMG. I agree! It’s different but still has that same captivating quality where they gotta admit they’re not fighting anymore and need to kiss. 😍
I don’t like romance very much, but if I’m going to tolerate it, it has to be slow burn, and it can’t take over the whole plot. I like friends to lovers, too. I think it’s realistic because a lot of people become friends before they decide to get married and spend forever together :).
Friends to lovers definitely feels the most likely to last?? Which I am in much like of.
I love pretty much all of these! I have a particular soft spot for friends to lovers, because I love it when people know each other so well and they keep insisting, “We’re just friends, nothing to see here” when everyone else knows that they totally love each other. Enemies to lovers can be amazing, but I agree, it has to be done right, and there’s a very thin line to toe between that and abuse. I could totally be won over by food, though I can’t think of many books where that has been the case. Fake relationships can be fun, though I do find them all very samey. Unrequited when they both secretly love it each other but won’t tell the other is my kryptonite, as is a good slow burn, give me 5, 10, 20 books before they even hold hands and I will be HERE FOR IT. And yes, I love it when one character makes their love interest just so uncomfortable, it’s wildly entertaining to read.
Yes totally agreed about the enemies-to-lovers! I don’t want abusive storylines in there, yikes, but like the ones where they battle mistakenly for a while is just sooo cut ajfdklsad. And I’m glad we both like the unrequited-but-it’s-really-not because CUTENESS LEVELS.😍
Ha! I am also about as romantic as a potato. You did a wonderful job with your list.
This is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
Thanks for reading!
These tropes are fantastic. My favorite is 100% enemies to lovers because dang it makes for some great banter. Anything with banter has already won my heart.
Angry sass banter is KEEPING THIS WORLD ALIVE.
The enemies-to-lovers trope is my favorite of all. It’s even better if the romance is slow burn while they try to kill each other or something.
THE UNREQUITED OR IS IT TROPE KILLS ME EVERYTIME. I want to bang Séverin and Lila’s heads on the wall for them to see some sense ok.
I love Blue and Gansey so much (the slow burn made me scream silently A LOT), Kaz and Inej make the most powerful ship too. I also love the dynamics of Cardan and Jude thank you very much.
Like sLOWBURN MURDER LOVE < -- I am a wizard at descriptors obviously. And omg Severn and Lila were the best at being the worst at unrequited-requited. They needed to be stuffed in a very small room and told to figure it out.
Really unpopular opinion, I REALLY enjoy love triangles immensely! The only problem is that it’s such an overused trope in YA, that the more I see it the less I enjoy it. I feel like if it fits the story than it should be used, but if it’s just used to propel the plot forward, I don’t think it should be used. Great post Cait!
I think it can be done well!! Like Cassandra Clare does some of my favourite triangles 😍
I love enemies to lovers and forbidden lovers. Those always get to me.
They’re sO STINKIN’ CUTE.
Ughhh so many great tropes, everytime February comes all I want is just stop everything and read all the romance books! I love friends to romance, enemies to lovers, and of course, fake dating! Especially the latter, I love how more and more books are using this trope lately <3
Aww I’m so glad we have some of the same romance trope favourites. 😂
I’m as romantic as a potato too, but even I have a soft spot for some romance (it’s like a cancerous growth). Some of my favorite tropes are
-slow burn
-frenemies to lovers (why have enemies or friends when they can be both???)
-enemies to still enemies but they love each other and not the problematic kind™
-when it’s a dystopian like world and person A bonds with person B over what there lives would be like if the situation was better, I don’t even like many dystopias yet this trope gets me EVERY time
Also I have a few favorite ships, but nothing has ever come close to Percy Jackson and Annabeth for me, if being a fan of something could create electricity I’d be able to power an entire continent with my love of Percabeth
Also CHILDHOOD enemies to lovers. I am here for this one. And I do like that trope where they imagine a better life for themselves *flails* And then one dies and we just cry!! For the next forever! So nice.
Oooh so many good ones! Unrequited/assuming that it is unrequited when it really isn’t because they are both crazy for each other is BY FAR my favourite trope to read! So much GAAHH and JUST KISS HIM ALREADYs.
It’s so frustratingly adorable. I LOVE IT.
High-five on the failing-to-really-get-crushes-on-fictional-characters thing! It just generally speaking ins’t a way I’ve really engaged with books I read? I guess it’s that *I* don’t have to have a crush on the love interest- I just have to like that the main character has a crush on the love interest, if that makes sense, and have to like their dynamic with each other…. (unless that’s what people mean by having a crush on a character? It’s possible I need a glossary of terms or something)
Agreed! I actually think it’s weird when people are like “I’m in LOVE with so-and-so” because like?? don’t we ship them with the love interest here?😂
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, fictional romance . . . lowkey the oNLY KIND OF ROMANCE I LIKE but shhhhhh 😉
Friends to lovers and slow burn!!!!! Girl, yes!!!!! I will ship those all. day. long. And Stiefvater our queen does them so beautifully 😀
I am particularly a fan of the “smol angry girl and tol soft boy” pairings, where one of them has ALL THE CHILL and the other one has ZERO CHILL and you’re just like . . . “how did you two get together. how.” 😛
My favorite book romance of all is Liesel and Rudy in The Book Thief. *sniffles*
Ahhh ahahha don’t worry I am the same. 😂 Stiefvater is like the queen of all types of romances, but she does the slowburn so delightfully excellently. And the angry/soft pairings are also absolutely fantastic.
okay but WHESPER IS JUST JESPER BEING OUTRAGEOUSLY FLIRTY AND WYLAND BLUSHING AND BEING A BUTTERFLY. i love. them.so.much.
i’ve only read one book with the faking dating trope which is TATBILB and i freaking ADORED it?!?! so much tension and lies and fake kisses! also, the caged queen has piqued my interest because of this.
IM GOING TO READ THE FOXHOLE COURT IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS AND THE HATE TO LOVE ROMANCE BETTER LIVE UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS
oh oh YES them too!! Like the amount of flirt to shy awkward cinnamon scroll is phenomenal in Six of Crows (Matthias and Nina sort of fit it too??) It’s perfect. I love them so much.
you are so not ready for the tragedy and snark and damage of the Foxhole Court yessss
FAKE DATING!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! I love the whole, “I don’t love you. I don’t even like you. I can barely stand being around you but I must to complete this quest and save the world…. don’t look at me like that. I SAID DON’T LOOK!” *blushes furiously as the love settles in*
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Courting romantic partners by offering a cupcake is guaranteed to be successful! *frantic nodding*
Cupcakes lure all out of their caves. Just. Just give all the loves soME FOOD!!!!
YES YES THAT’S SO CUTE THOUGH. I mean, we’re just here laughing at their adamant “I will never love you” comments. Omg just kiss you silly little characters. 😂
(Cupcakes are truly a gift to humankind.)
Fake dating is the BEST, especially when everyone around the couple in question ships them and basically makes bets about how long it’ll be before they finally get together. Love it. I’m also such a sucker for unrequited romances and slow burns, because I love to torture myself!!!
I’m dying over here imagining August using classical conditioning to get Beck to fall for her. x’D But I, too, show my love with food. Usually in the form of homemade cookies.
Enemies-to-lovers is the disaster trash fire that all but implodes while friends-to-lovers is pure and quiet and wholesome as heck. But both are amazing, obviously.
omggg yes exactly! And like they seem to work extra hard to be convincing, therefore being such a power ship and they don’t even mean to be?! It’s too adorable. I cannot.
(But like it’s totally true with August and Beck omg, she totally got him to associate her with food 😂)
The Raven Boys and Aristotle and Dante are on my list, too. You have quite a fun and complete list here. Good job. My favorite literary couples
I’m glad we have epic taste in ships here!
MY FAVOURITE TROPE IS FRIENDS TO LOVERS AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL. other than that my current otp is Glain x Khalila from the Great Library even though it ain’t happening…. que le sigh
IT IS SO CUTE THOUGH. It’s like one of the absolute cutest. 😍 And omg I could get onboard that ship though with Glain Khalila…I love them and let’s be real, Dario is stupid. 😂😂
I like strangers to lovers where it isn’t quite instalove but over the course of the book both people end up learning about each other and developing as characters. I just like that getting-to-know-you thing, and if the characters have chemistry the conversation can flow.
Yes! I do like it when they have chemistry and a chance to get to know each other before all-out insta love!
Enemies to lovers is probably my favorite! Especially if they can continue to annoy the heck out of each other and STILL be in love, once they’re together.
omg exactly! It’s when they’re so so annoying to each other and then they realise they actually enjoy it. 😂
Ummm, I love all the romance tropes of ever because romance is my jam… but I do tend to go for friends to lovers and enemies to lovers the mostest. Fake love to real love is also pretty darn awesome. Yeah, I just want all characters to fall in love, the end.
Just let’s have aaaall the couples. They are !! so cute!!! 😂
Great post. There are so many on here that I loved. Cruel Prince is at the top for me though. Happy reading. Top 10 @Libby Blog
TCP is just a masterful story ahhh agony waiting for the 3rd!
OMG I love game of thrones!! The banter between those two gives me life! Also shout out to squish vs flirt bc that stuff is bloody FABULOUS! The Cruel Prince literally the best thing ever over here dying waiting for The Queen of Nothing and To all the boys I’ve loved before is a cute little cupcake I loved devouring!!! (also shout out to ADSOM! currently reading Vicious and LOVING IT!) Fabulous list Cait :))
It is so so funny, right?! And endearing omg. I just love in the show when Jon tries to flirt back and fails. 😂 I can’t remember exactly if that was true to the books because I’ve mixed them up in my head lmao.
THE QUEEN OF NOTHING *cries because needs*
Me shouting, “JUST KISS ALREADY,” is the mark of a romance book I am living for. I love fake boyfriends, especially The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely. I gotta say of your seven, my fave is a friends to lovers thing. I seriously can’t get enough. Also, Seb+Tanner, yusssssss.
Seb and Tanner just nEEDED TO KISS. Omg they were so adorkable.
YES POTATOES UNITE
Friends-to-lovers is my favorite. Give me shared history, fond memories of successful heists, in-jokes that nobody else gets, understanding each others’ moods/mannerisms, that kind of thing.
Enemies-to-lovers is hit and miss for me, because it often feeds into my least favorite romantic trope: the (supposedly) competent character who turns into a useless sack of Jello at the first hint of attraction. Like, the legendary assassin infiltrates the palace and starts to ingratiate herself with her target. But ohhh, the target’s muscles when he stretches. His eyes. His smile. What is she to doooo? STOP BEING AN EMBARRASSMENT, THAT’S WHAT YOU DO. YOU HAVE ONE JOB.
Also, I’ve come to realize I don’t particularly like romantic conflict? I mean, I love conflict, but I prefer it external to the romance. I want to see lovers in the vanguard of the revolution. I don’t want to see them bogged down in miscommunication and petty arguments and will-they-won’t-they get together. (That’s also why I’m not a love triangle fan.) Just fast-forward through all that stuff imo and get to the part where they’re plotting world conquest.
Ok I totally agree that I hate when assassins turn out to be really bad lmao. And I’m a *little* tired of the “he was sent to kill her and he couldn’t!!” trope lolol. I guess some people fall in love when they see pretty eyes or whatever. It takes me like 5-6 years to decide if I want to make eye contact bUT ANYAWY.
And I agree about the romance conflict! I actually hate it. It’s either petty or frustrating. Like I hate when they get together in the first book, and then they break up over dumb jealousy stuff in the second. Arghghhgh.
I’m a huge of slow burn and unrequited love (especially in the form of mutual pining) and love it when both of them happen in the same book and with the same couple? Like that’s my jam.
My love for fake dating literally comes from reading waaayyyy too much fanfiction (is there such a thing, though?). So I just love when they have to act like a couple and then they’re worrying that they’re not being ‘couply enough’ so they amp up their affectionate touching and then my heart just basically explodes inside my chest – you know, as hearts do.
Also the enemies-to-lovers trope just basically owns my heart. Like The Foxhole Court forever.
I just so love when it’s mutual pining and they’re all apart like, “oh the other person will NEVER love me.” Yeah lemme just smack your heads together, you little refried lambs. And omg I love all the fake-dating things the characters do. 😂 Like when they get so EXTRA just to prove it’s real lmao.
Aahh Cait this post made me so soft!! I love all of these tropes so much, especially slowburn and enemies to lovers and friends to lovers (and of course a combination of those!) — The Foxhole Court and Ari and Dante are two of my favorite books and I love that they both feature those tropes AND are gay 😎 And aahh fake dating, like slow burn, always makes me so frustrated because I just want them to get together (for real)!! But it’s always worth it in the end haha. Great post!!
eeep, I’m so glad you liked this post!! 🤗💛 you are super lovely!! And yes for the diverse ships tbh, they deserve their time to shine and get all the love.
Aahh Tanner is!! just!! INCREDIBLE!!! I love him bc… actually I don’t need a reason. ITS TANNER. And August is so evil and lovely and I LOVE HER. Also omggg I just read the Raven Boys… my heart. It be shooketh. RONAN IS MY KING AND HE IS M I N E. I WILL FIGHT YOU IF I MUST.
ALSO BEST TROPE EVER IS THE ENEMIES->FRIENDS->LOVERS TROPE I LOVE IT,
omggg I’m so glad you read The Raven Boys! 💕😍 My day is MADE. This is all we need in life ajdfslakd is more Raven boys stans.
Fake dating, enemies to lovers and slow burn romances are some of my favourite tropes 😃 It is so interesting and tensed to read about these (tensed in a good way). I would add Lira and Elian from To Kill a Kingdom to slow-burn romance trope. Ahh, their romance journey was so stressing me out. I was like ‘why aren’t they kissing already’ 😂
We have excellent taste for sure here *hi fives* And Lira and Elian were AMAZING for hate/love AND slowburn. 😍
AHH I love this post, these tropes aaaaaaaah they’re fantastic! I really like the fake-dating trope, it’s always so fun to follow these characters as they admit their feelings for each other. And slow-burning romance and friends to lovers are two of my favorites ever, I’m just rooting for them from the beginning and aaaah,I love these. FANTASTIC post! 😀
Yesss! And fake dating usually doubles as a slowburn too so basically ALL the wins.
I immediately added Ruined and The Caged Queen to my tbr because omg, I LIVE for the fake dating trope, gimme.
The Foxhole Court it literally one of the best done slow burn hate to love romances and to this day, I could be found slowly crying myself to sleep as I think about every interaction they ever had.
ok but “the squish vs the flirt” is a category I didn’t know I needed but I REALLY do 😂 Nina & Mathhias from SOC totally fall into that one.
Yesss it’s so so amazing, and so angsty when they get to the part where they’re “pretending” to love each other but they realise they truly do. 😍 AM TRASH FOR THIS.
and afjkdslad I’m dead with the Foxhole Court. Like I’m mid-way through rereading book 2 and ANDREW OMG.
Also Nina/Matthias for sure fit into the squish-flirt category. Omg. I love them.
Ahhh the SLOW BURN. I love the slow burn esp in Maggie’s books! Sean Kendrick and Puck are everything. I also have been meaning to your book! I am excited 🙂 Monty and Percy are also a favorite, they’re adorable.
They are 😍 they are absolutely my favourite slow/burn ever!!
I’ve realized I quite like fake dating as well. There is something so interesting in seeing something develop when they are already forced to act like a couple. And I totally need to read on with Ruined… But most of all I love slow burn couples.
Yes! I think it’s almost like they try EXTRA hard so it’s even cuter how they take care of each other?!
Fake Dating+Slow Burn is the ultimate combo! What’s better than when they realise that “Oh jellyfish, I love that one?!” 😱 Maybe cupcakes, but it’s tight. I love waiting for pages and pages before they even dare hold hands. That makes my marshmallow heart extremely happy. 💛
Aww yes so much this 😍 the build up anticipation is honestly the best part sometimes!!
I love friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, forbidden romances, girls loving girls, boys loving boys, boys and girls loving anyone regardless of gender. Quite frankly I just love romance in books. but not where it completely overwhelms the storyline. This year has been a cracker for romances so far, lots of softness and sass and the swapping of what was once traditional gender characters in young adult, now we have bold girls asserting themselves and talking about consent and I’m so here for it!
Yesss, agreed! I love diversity in romance and just when it’s about really deep affection 😍 omg here I go. Am a squish. The heartless me is melting.
I love Jon and Ygritte so much! There were lots of couples in the early books/series, feels like we’re lacking in that at the moment. I quite like ‘they get married/together and then love grows’ trope too – which is a bit like fake dating I guess?
Oh like the arranged-marriage-but-it-works-out?! Yeah that one can be good too! I don’t read it so much because I stick more to YA 😂
Ahhhhh yes, LOVE. Unfortunately, I’ve never run into the fake dating trope except in a Hallmark movie, AND I LOVED IT. Omg someone get me 97284719730 more thanks. Slow burn is good, because you get plenty of time for development and the rest of the plot, as well as friends to lovers, because like you said, they’re going to last for a while.
Now, in my book its going to be a slow enimies to lovers, with, of course, plenty of denial like all ‘oh why am I letting you live uhhhh its totally not that I have a crush on you or anything, the boss wants you alive for….information. Yeah, yeah that’s right’ and ‘what? I am SO not helping you escape, haha. Why would I ever accidentally kick the keys toward you. Haha you must be tired.’
Ehehehehehehehehehe its gonna be great😂
Most crazily, ~Olive
omg your romance sounds like it’ll be amazing there 😂Hate-to-love just has such fun dynamics to write. The inner-wars-about-feelings are so much fun 😂
This must be my absolute favourite topic ever!
I agree and LOVE unrequited love, slow burn love, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers!
And I detest insta-love…puke!
Slow burn and unrequited I really do have a soft spot for! 🙂
WE LOVE ROMANCE TROPES! I love fake dating, but unrequited, or is it??? is a trope I didn’t realise I LOVED until recently!