For fun: Romance novel trope bingo

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In reading yet another regency romance novel and having recently watched Bridgerton, I thought it would be fun to make up a bingo card. Modern romances can get a bingo card too but obviously have different tropes.

Off the top of my head for recency romances:
Leading male has anger issues
Laughable sex ed given to the leading lady
Surprise virginity
Pregnancy scare
Unloving parents. Bonus points: raised by someone else
Fake relationship

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Oh, for sure the lead male has some dark thing in his past that has caused him to be determined to never open his heart or think he is unable to love or he must refuse to inflict on the female love interest, until she fixes him with her love of course.

3

Lead female has a secret- not sure if we want to narrow it down to secret talent/passion/scandal
Plot moppet- adorable child that just exists

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4

I want to say leading male is a rake and known for promiscuity but has a secret moral code and would never ruin an unwed lady, but that is so common it’s basically the free square in the middle.

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5

:joy: I never thought about that one but that’s definitely a thing.

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6

Yeah some of these I’m like “This is basically a free square. No this one would definitely basically be the free square. Or maybe this one instead?”

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7

I just watched bridgerton sooooo yes. I win.

Others
Encounter with a poor turns out to be meet cute with the richest rich
Wallflower is actually pretty but no one has ever looked
It turns out leading character actually likes curvy/slender/dark hair/fair hair/red hair/curls/straight hair/ dark eyes despite all received wisdom

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8

I’ve just come across a combination of the above with the male lead taking pity on a street urchin. Said urchin is now undergoing the indignity of a bath and is, wait for it, actually cute under all the dirt. I am fully expecting an adoption by the end of the book.

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9

Is also a byblow and/or royalty hiding as urchin

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10

Whatcha reading?

I just finished up Grace Burrowes’s latest “The Truth About Dukes”. Male Main Character first meets Female Main Character at a hospital/madhouse. Not sure if that counts as [quote=“Elle, post:7, topic:3005”]
Encounter with a poor turns out to be meet cute with the richest rich
[/quote]

Also had:
Double (both of them!)

and

and

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11

Currently reading Chasing Cassandra (contains fatphobia where the leading lady is directly harped on about her weight, and sexual assault) It’s the sixth one in the Ravenels books by Lisa Kleypas.

Without giving too much away, one thing I kind of appreciated about some of the books is that it was established in the first book that the Ravenel men have a temper and they’re not good at controlling it (aka they’re privileged enough that there’s a bunch of hand wavey “boys will be boys” attitudes in their pasts so no one ever called them on their bullshit) so that was a way to directly lean into the “the male lead is kind of a jackass with anger issues” trope. But then there’s several female Ravenel relations who are paired with men with Some Dark Thing in His Past so :woman_shrugging: Also as the books go on the Ravenel leading men from the previous books are like “Yeah that whole ‘I can’t control my temper’ thing is self-centered nonsense”.

Anyway, it amused me greatly that the word “adoption” was said in the book within pages after I made my post above. Male lead “No, I couldn’t possibly!” so obviously this is a thing that will happen now.

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I think I read that one last year. Cassandra’s dad’s story in the Wallflowers Quartet is one of those that is hard to read now.

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