The Summer of Broken Rules

The plot of the traditional romance novel focuses primarily on love and conforms to two major conventions. The first convention is that, while there can be other plots that develop around the central relationship, the primary conflict must focus on the developing romantic relationship between the protagonists of the story. The second convention decrees that a work of romance fiction must have an optimistic ending. While this often takes the form of the proverbial “happily ever after,” even an unconventional romance novel is expected to end on a positive note rather than a sour one.

Adherence to such time-honored conventions does not mean that romance fiction lacks tension, however. On the contrary, the genre employs a wide range of well-known tropes designed to create various plot developments, from tense, emotional incidents to humorous moments that border on absurd. For example, one of the most well-known tropes of contemporary romance fiction is the “only one bed” trope, in which the couple is forced into a situation, usually a hotel room, in which they expect two separate beds but are compelled by necessity to share a single bed, often giving rise to all kinds of shenanigans.