All the various tropes of the
Romance Novel.
Tropes:
- Arab Oil Sheikh - so popular as the male lead that you can buy 'sheikh' omnibuses.
- All Men Are Rapists - in older romances, not so common now.
- Anti-Hero - The types vary, but romance novel leads can tend towards Tall, Dark and Bishoujo instead of a clean cut, straitlaced fellow.
- Arranged Marriage — a common technique in historicals to force the hero and heroine to deal with each other
- Beautiful All Along
- Broken Bird - Women love to see the healing power of love. Most have a side of that one as well, but usually after the hero is a bit less screwed up.
- But Not Too Foreign - Despite the sheik novels mentioned above, less "genre" romances often have heroes who are just one exotic (from US perspective) quarter Native American, Japanese, Arab or other but very rarely are full members of Non-European ethnicities in ancestry and upbringing.
- Heroines are even less likely to be exotic.
- Does Not Like Women - The special romance-novel version of He-Man Woman Hater, in which the male hero only hates women because of the actions of a bad woman, and will be cured in the end by the good heroine.
- Extruded Book Product
- First Love
- Flirty Stepsiblings: A common way to make the hero and heroine resent each other but be unable to avoid each other.
- Good People Have Good Sex - And any past sexual relationships(usually with a conveniently deceased spouse) the heroine has had will be unsatisfying.
- The Grovel
- Happily Ever After: Explicitly described by many readers and writers as an essential mark of the genre, distinguishing it from other love stories. Abbreviated HEA.
- The Four Loves - Arguably the reason for the existence of the genre.
- The Ingénue
- Loveable Rogue
- All of the Love Tropes.
- Magical Nanny: Often in the Magical Stepmother form, though the marriage is not for real then.
- Magical Native American (often if historical)
- A Man Is Not a Virgin
- Mills and Boon Prose — though less frequently
- Nature Adores a Virgin
- One-Hour Work Week
- One True Love
- Reformed Rakes
- Romantic False Lead
- Rule of Romantic
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- They Do: Essential for the Happily Ever After
- Unresolved Sexual Tension
- Will They or Won't They?: They Will.
- Your Cheating Heart — usually if the woman is currently married, her husband may do this if he is the Romantic False Lead.
