For my first Friday five of 2024, I give you…the 5 MUST-HAVES in a romance book. And I struggle sometimes to get them all in my books, lol!
- the meet-cute. Whether they bump into one another, literally (!), suffer from mistaken identity, get introduced as new co-workers after having a one-night anonymous stand, the meet-cute is vital in setting up the conflict for the romance to thrive and reach its conclusion with everyone happy ( reader and characters)
2. Strong characters. No one is going to root for boring, flat, or negative characters who defy growth and change. That, after all, is the premise of the romance novel. Take two people who would never have gotten together if left to their own devices, throw them together, and then allow them to grow and change into a couple we all, as readers, adore. I’ve read too many books ( and DNF’d most of them) where the main characters were just…wrong.
3. Believable tropes. Just like we need to root for the hero and heroine, romance readers need to know the basic premise, or the tropes used, to get them to their HEA. Forced proximity, best friend’s brother, secret baby, mistaken identity and scores more, all help define the road these two people will take in order to have them find love in the end. And all romance readers have their favorite tropes to read, and writers to write. My personal fav to read and write is friends-to-lovers because I am always on the edge of my seat to see who lets the other person know their feelings first.
4. Believable conflict. Again, you want to lose yourself in the story and not be reading and then think, this is just too dumb and no one would ever do/say this. I heard a great definition of a true conflict in a romance story at a conference once. Here’s the set-up: a fire marshall is called to investigate a scene of obvious arson with a death associated with it. The supposed arsonist? His girlfriend, a girl whose family died in a fire and the person responsible was the one found in the above fire.
Conflict to a T!
5. HEA. Or happily ever after for those not in the anacronym-know. In recent years, the HFN (Happily for now ) ending has also been used to define the end of the story. Whichever you choose to read or write, the end goal is for the hero and heroine to be together, have a defined love relationship, and be committed to one another.
Peggy Jaeger, Author 