There’s something irresistible about a good romance trope. Yes, we might know exactly what kind of emotional payoff we’re going to get (spoiler alert: I’m never going to write a book without an HEA) but that doesn’t make the journey any less satisfying. If anything, the right trope gives us a promise: tension, chemistry, heartbreak, and—hopefully—a satisfying end.
Everyone has favourite tropes that will immediately make them add a book to their TBR, and I’m no different. Give me a sharp-tongued heroine, plenty of chemistry, and a plot where someone who deserves it finally gets what’s coming to them, and I’m sold.
Enemies to Lovers: Give Me the Tension!
Enemies to lovers is popular for a reason. There’s something irresistible about two people who absolutely cannot stand each other slowly realising that their feelings might be a little more complicated than they thought.
The best parts? The tension. The conflicts. The fighting. Yes, sometimes I include actual blood—who can forget Emmy breaking Black’s nose suring their first meeting?
When two characters are constantly arguing, challenging each other, or trying to get the upper hand, every interaction feels charged. A simple conversation can feel exciting because there’s so much happening beneath the surface.
Is that irritation really irritation? Or is there something else going on?
I love watching characters move from “I can’t stand you” to “Why am I thinking about you all the time?” There’s so much room for character development, vulnerability, and those delicious little moments when the walls finally start to come down.
And when the characters have genuine reasons to dislike each other, the payoff can be even better. They have to overcome their assumptions, discover what each other’s secrets, and decide that the person they thought they hated might actually be someone they can trust.
And let’s be honest—there’s nothing quite like an argument with way too much chemistry behind it.
Emmy and Black have had their ups and downs, Georgia couldn’t stand Xav to start with, Hallie and Ford were natural enemies, Steffie wanted to lop off Oliver’s magic balls, Aaron hurt Romi in the past, Brax hit Indi with his car, Aria wasn’t impressed by Art’s stalkerish tendencies… There’s a reason I write this trope into plenty of my books.
The Strong Woman Who Can Take Care of Herself
Another trope I absolutely love is the heroine who doesn’t need rescuing.
I like a woman who is capable, independent, confident, and perfectly comfortable handling things on her own. She can fight her own battles, make her own decisions, and build her own life. She isn’t sitting around waiting for someone to arrive and save her.
But being strong doesn’t mean being emotionally invulnerable. In fact, I think the most compelling strong heroines are the ones who can take care of themselves but still allow themselves to be loved. There’s a huge difference between needing someone and choosing someone. That’s what makes this trope so satisfying in romance. The heroine doesn’t need a partner because she can’t survive without one. She chooses a partner because life is better with them in it.
I especially love when the love interest respects her strength rather than trying to diminish it. He doesn’t constantly tell her to be careful or insist that he knows what’s best for her. Instead, he stands beside her. He supports her. He knows she can handle herself and admires her for it.
That kind of relationship feels like a partnership rather than a rescue mission.
Sometimes I write a “damsel in distress” type heroine—everyone needs variety—but my favourites are the women with good aim, a sharp tongue, and a willingness to grab life (and the men in it) by the balls.
And these women aren’t infallible. Pitch Black started with Emmy in the midst of a mental health crisis, and it took her a while to find her mojo again. I love her all the more because she fought her own invisible demons as well as the ones everbody could see.
Revenge: Sometimes Justice Needs a Little Imagination
And then there’s revenge.
This one appeals to the part of me that has looked at real life and thought, Well, that’s certainly not fair.
We all know there are plenty of real-world examples where the legal system doesn’t deliver the outcome people expect—or where justice feels painfully incomplete. Sometimes the wrong person gets away with something. Sometimes the consequences don’t match the harm. Sometimes there simply isn’t a satisfying sense of closure.
Fiction gives us somewhere to play with that idea.
One of the things I love about revenge stories is the opportunity to get creative with justice. Instead of accepting that the villain gets away with everything because of a technicality, a loophole, or plain old bad luck, we can imagine a world where the protagonist gets to take matters into their own hands.
And it doesn’t always have to mean straightforward punishment. Sometimes the most satisfying revenge is watching someone lose the thing they valued most. Their reputation. Their power. Their carefully constructed image. Their control.
There’s something wonderfully cathartic about watching a character who has been underestimated quietly put an elaborate plan into motion, especially when everyone around them assumes they’re powerless.
I think that’s part of why revenge works so well alongside my love of strong female characters. There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a woman who has been dismissed, betrayed, or underestimated decide that she isn’t going to stay down. That she doesn’t need to wait for someone else to fix things. She has a plan, and she executes it. Sometimes literally. Looking at you, Aria. Okay, and Emmy, Dasha, Ana, Sofia, Alexa, Jez, Dusk, Kimberly, Rania, Nicole, Carmen, Sky, Jocelyn, Kylie, Vee… Fuck, I really have written a lot of bloodthirsty women.
Why These Tropes Work So Well Together
Put all three of these ingredients together, and you have pretty much my perfect romance recipe.
An independent heroine who can take care of herself? Absolutely.
An enemies-to-lovers relationship filled with tension and chemistry? Even better.
A revenge plot where someone who has done terrible things finally faces consequences? Now we’re talking.
What makes these stories especially satisfying is that the heroine isn’t simply waiting for her happy ending to happen to her. She is an active part of creating it. She can fight her own battles. She can make her own choices. She can fall in love without losing herself.
And if someone wrongs her? Well, they’d better start looking over their shoulder.
Ultimately, I think these tropes work because they give us characters who have agency. They aren’t passive passengers in their own stories. They make decisions, take risks, push back, and sometimes make spectacularly bad choices before figuring things out.
Give me tension. Give me chemistry. Give me a heroine who can save herself.
And, every once in a while, give me a brilliantly creative revenge plot where justice gets a little more interesting than simply waiting for the system to get it right.
I’ll be turning the pages (and often writing them too).
A Little Bit About My New Series…
Keeping Score follows three women who have each lost someone they love to a man who, in their eyes, got away with it. When the legal system hands down what feels like nothing more than a slap on the wrist, they are left with grief, anger, and a terrible question: what do you do when the justice system fails you?
These women decide to find their own answer.
They set out on a dark path that ultimately leads to them becoming serial killers, taking the idea of revenge to its most extreme and disturbing conclusion.
It’s a slightly darker exploration of the revenge trope than I usually write, plus I’ve given them men who match them at every turn (okay, so Sterling is a bit more conflicted, but he comes around eventually). And it also asks some uncomfortable questions. How far is too far? What happens when revenge becomes an obsession? And how do you live with the person you become when you spend your life deciding who deserves to die?
The series starts with Aria’s story, and if her newly acquired stalker seems familiar, it’s because you might have seen his name mentioned by Ana and Dasha in the past (hint, hint…). And the finale will be a crossover between Aria’s posse of serial killers, Blackwood, and the Choir, because everyone’s keeping a secret and it’s time some of them got spilled. Along with some blood, of course…
Oh, this is going to be a darker road, but so good! The crossovers will be awesome, everyone has secrets!!!