Welcome to another new blog series! With the dawn of BookTok and the 15-30 second video format, people were forced to find short-hand ways to describe the general plot or content of a book. Tropes have existed for forever, but the use of them to advertise, categorize, or sell a book to the public is fairly new. Every genre has a series of tropes that are often utilized in plot. The more sophisticated sources will tell you that "tropes are reoccurring themes, motifs or cliches found in storytelling" (BubbleCow), I will tell you that tropes are beloved narrative devices that writer keep using because they are FUN. The industry has been using trope language internally for a long time. It helps to make sure that even as you publish the sixth romance novel of the year, your own publications aren't going to be directly competing with each other on a storyline level.
Tropes originally started to trickle out into the general reader lexicon with the boom of fanfiction. Tags (an organization system that doubles as a list of things to expect in the narrative) popularized the use of tropes as a way to describe a story. As more people entered fandom and fanfiction spaces, these terms started to come to light within traditional media more and more. Now, you will see books, movies, and even TV shows advertise themselves based on the tropes included. In this blog series I am going to breakdown tropes to their core and give you a list of books you should read if you wanna try the trope out!
Second Chance Romance
As with most tropes, it does what it says on the tin. The basis of this romance genre trope is that the titular couple was together once, for whatever reason the relationship ended, and under new circumstances are giving love another chance to happen. The variation within the trope comes with how long and how serious the original relationship was. Some second chance romances originated from a relationship that was one night, some from relationships that lasted years, some from relationships that were never official to begin with.
This trope is the pinnacle of a balancing act. The author needs to have a good reason why the couple broke up in the first place, BUT make it not so strong a reason that given the new distance and circumstances they can't work it out. It is dicey. The problem needs to create enough tension that the story remains engaging, but not too much tension that the reader would never believe these two people can work out their issues. I find having a different reason for the tension the next time around is important for most second chance romances. With time and distance, one would hope that the characters have grown. Like with everything in books, there are exceptions to this rule. If the second chance occurs within a short timespan or the circumstances surrounding the reconnection are extremely similar to the first time, it's more understandable for the tension creating conflict to be the same. In these exceptions the thing that needs to be different is the characters' maturity/approach to the situation. Showing the characters' growth between the first shot at this relationship and the second becomes a central piece to this version of the story.
A common narrative structure used with second chance romances is to have to story be written in both the past and the present. I love this because it allows the reader to stew in both the tension of the couple falling apart and coming back together. We also get the absolute pleasure of the characters knowing each other well. It gives the same "I love you and your flaws" goodness of friends-to-lovers (another trope I will eventually blog about) but with a juicer emotional background. A true best of both worlds.
My opinion
I took a really long time to warm up to the second chance romance trope. It is still one that I am wary of when picking up a new book. Lately, I have had good luck with a string of second chance romances that really hit. The reason I tend to approach this trope with caution is because of that balancing act. Some of the reasons for breaking up in the first place are so trite to me that I can't believe they ever fought about such an easily solved issue. On the other hand, some of the reasons for breaking up are so unforgivable in my eyes that the reconciliation is unbelievable. I have found that authors also tend to heavily rely on miscommunication for the initial reason for break-up and if there is one trope that I almost universally hate in all its iterations, it is miscommunication. Basically, I am very picky about my second chance romances and it's a trope I am unafraid to DNF.
Book Recommendations!
If you're looking for a trope with a lot of variety to choose from, this is a great place to start! For those of you who have dabbled in this trope, what is the last second chance romance you read? Do you have an all-time favorite? Is there anything you love or hate especially about this trope? Let me know in the comments!
That's all for now!
Keep wondering and stay wandering,
I have never analyzed the romance that closely, but now that you have pointed it out, I will be on the lookout. What’s the trope when two people are thrown together and then fall in love?