Women In SFF Trope Fridays – Romantasy
For this year’s Women in SFF, we thought we’d create our usual recommendation posts in-line with our Photo Challenge over on Instagram, and so bring you Trope Fridays!
Every Friday throughout the month, we’ll be looking at a different popular trope in SFF. You can catch up on previous posts here:
This week, we’ll be looking at Romantasy tropes: that’s right – any trope from Romantasy – Enemies to Lovers, the Not So Bad Bad Guy, Slow Burn, Grumpy x Sunshine, Forced Marriage, Forced Proximity, Bodyguard x Queen/Princess, Mysterious Male Love Interest…
Apparently, there’s a lot, so let us know your favourite.
Beth: Usually one of my favourite tropes is rivals to lovers, I love the exploration of that obsessive love/hate mess.
But I’ve recently read Cari Thomas’ Threadneedle books: Threadneedle, the novella Hedgewitch, and Shadowstitch, and there’s a cursed love triangle plot that runs through them which was done SO well (to clarify, not in Hegewitch, that’s a companion prequel).
I normally struggle with this trope, feeling annoyed with one or all the characters, thinking you can’t actually love more than one person at a time. This is the first time I’ve read this trope and believed in it!
Beth’s Threadneedle review | Available now
Nils: I have to confess before I read this book I didn’t even know the grumpy/sunshine trope existed but it became my favourite aspect in The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen.
Mercy and Hart cannot stand each other in real life, but when they send anonymous letters to each other, a relationship begins to blossom. The dynamic between these two characters was just so much fun and when you add in a highly whimsical world with swearing animals who deliver mail, well you just know I had a blast reading this.
Kat: I’m not usually a romantasy person but the grumpy/sunshine dynamic is so endearing when it’s pulled off well!
I think Half A Soul is my favourite example of this though it could be argued this is more of a ‘grumpy/couldn’t care less that they’re grumpy’ dynamic. Dora Ettings had half her soul stolen by a faerie when she was younger, and now she is in Regency London trying to help her cousin find a husband. Naturally, she runs into the infamously uncouth Lord Sorcier and things develop from there. It’s got real Howl’s Moving Castle vibes and I loved every second of reading it.
Cat: This isn’t usually my Thing, but occasionally a special type of Romantasy will grab me – and most recently it’s The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim.
Fairytale fantasy from a culture I knew very little about (Korea), I found myself happily falling down so many magical rabbit holes as I looked up all the types of Labyrinth-esque goblins and monsters!
Plus a trope that I really am not a fan of – enemies to lovers – snuck in like a tricksy gumiho and got me this time. These protagonists are just brilliant, fully realised and absolutely capturing my jaded old reader’s heart. I loved every page.
What’s your favourite Romantasy trope? Let us know on socials using #WomenInSFF!
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