Whether the heroine finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after a one night stand or fling with the hero вЂ“ or another man вЂ“ or the couple are suddenly thrust into parenthood as guardians to a child or children, there are lots of ways to use this trope.

However, they can cause such a massive change in a coupleвЂ™s life that theyвЂ™re a fantastic trope to write! IвЂ™ve thrown a lot of baby/kid centric tropes into one category here, to save us all some time.ДЄs a general rule, children and babies shouldnвЂ™t take up too much page space in a category romance вЂ“ mostly because there just arenвЂ™t enough pages in such a small book (same goes for secondary characters). I wonder what sheвЂ™s running away fromвЂ¦вЂ™ Now, she turns to the blurb on the back of the book and reads:ДЄccidental Pregnancy/Secret Baby/Suddenly Parents/Nanny SheвЂ™s clocked the title and thought, вЂOoh, I love a good fake relationship story, and IвЂ™ve always wanted to go to Italy. So, my hypothetical reader has picked up the book, or seen the cover on line. The cover, as you can see, showcases the hero and heroine mostly, although the Australian cover also includes the gorgeous setting, which I love. It also tells you that thereвЂ™s going to be an Italian setting, and that the heroine is escaping from something. The title often has the most obvious clues for instance, my latest release from Harlequin Mills & Boon, Italian Escape with her Fake FiancГ©, tells you instantly that this is a book that follows the вЂFake RelationshipвЂ™ trope. And thatвЂ™s a good thing, because it means that our readers are easily able to find the sort of books that they enjoy and want to read.

When a reader picks up a category romance novel, they already know from the title, the cover and the blurb what sort of a romance to expect. Why do tropes matter to romance readers вЂ“ and writers?

Top ten best harlequin romance novels