Romance must-Haves
I’m an avid reader of all sorts of tropes in the genre of romantic fiction. There are a lot of good qualities in romance that make me giggle and kick my feet in excitement, but I am going to list my five most important ones that must be included in order for a book to be rated 5-stars for me. Let me preface that these are not in any particular order and reflect my personal thoughts and preferences when it comes to the romance genre.
1. Characters have friends outside of their love interest
While the main focus in romance is usually the love interests, developed friendships can make a good book even better. One factor that impacts my judgment of character friendships is what they talk about. Similarly to how the Bechtel Test measures female representation in film by observing whether two named female characters have a conversation about something other than a man, I look out for character friendships that are not included solely to further the relationship between the two love interests. In real life, you talk to your friends about things other than who you are currently seeing (we’ve all had friends like that and that’s not what I’m looking for in my escape from reality). I want the side characters to be as developed and complex as all humans are.
2. You can actually see the development of the relationship between the two main characters
This is the reason why one of my favorite tropes is slow burn romance. Slow burn romance allows the author to drag out the time between the start of the book and the start of the relationship in order to flesh out their connection to each other. I like to be able to understand and pick apart the different points and signs where the love interests are warming up to each other. Having a fully developed relationship between the two main characters shows the nuances of real life relationships and makes their love story feel more authentic and deep. Of course authors can develop relationships in books without using the slow burn trope, however it can be harder because there is less time.
3. Characters have interests and ambitions that are not related to the love interest
I feel like this one is pretty self explanatory. The more intricacies to a character’s personality and life, the more realistic and likable they are to me. I make an exception for workplace romances so long as both individuals genuinely care about their careers outside of its relation to their love interest.
4. Good dialogue
This is a very subjective quality. My favorite kind of dialogue in romance is humorous. I have read some books that have such funny dialogue that I have actually laughed out loud. I enjoy watching characters have playful conversations with each other and also deep ones. The more a book can make you feel, the better it is in my opinion. If a book can make me laugh and cry, I consider it a good book.
5. Not too much description of characters’ physical appearance
This is an important quality that I think the romance genre could use some improvement in. A red flag for me when reading a book is if they continuously describe every female character as being slim, having an effortlessly athletic build, having a flat stomach and having a narrow waist. This may be a description that represents some people, but it shouldn’t be almost every female character in a book. That is just an unrealistic standard and could be dangerous in perpetuating the idea that you are only worthy of love if you fit that description.
Overall, there are a lot of qualities that make a good romance good. Everyone has their own internal checklist and it will most likely be different from mine and everyone else’s. For me personally, a romance book cannot be rated five stars if it does not check off every quality in this list.