Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Author Dana Michelle Burnett's Blog

10 Tired Tropes of Paranormal Romance, My Personal Pet Peeve is #5

9/3/2014

I came across a recent post on Kindle Boards about Tired Tropes in books and it got me to thinking about paranormal romance and things that had just been "done to death". I don't know about you, but I'm sick of...

1. The plain Girl/Normal Guy/Paranormal Creature love triangle. We get it, you read Twilight.

2. Hero is borderlines stalker.

3. Heroine accepts the paranormal aspects of the Hero easily.

4. Covers with the exact same bare chested man.

5. Covers with the exact same man. (You know which one I'm talking about)

6. Violet eyes...Is the heroine Elizabeth Taylor reincarnated? No? Then ditch this idea.

7. Love at first sight/InstaLove

Now, just for the record, in my previous books I was guilty of #1 (Girl/Normal Guy/Ghost, Girl/Normal Guy/Tuatha De Danann) and #2 (A ghost haunting the reincarnation of the wife that murdered him...Yeah, that's a stalker). Also, some of my favorite books committ a few of the others so maybe I'm not as sick of them as I thought.

What is it in paranormal romance that just drives you crazy or makes you roll your eyes?

5 Comments

Eva Conley

9/7/2014 05:53:22 am

Weak females that are afraid of their own flipping shadows and do unrealistic things. Like when she is in a dark alley, woods or hallway, whatever the scary alone place is, she why does she do the dumbest things??? Ok, she hears a noise does she get quite and listen for where this noise is coming from? Does she take of those VERY noisy shoes and get out of the area if she can? or hide? NO she runs in those stupid shoes screaming like an idiot! I will stop reading those books! Grrrrr! Those women are too stupid to live! But yet I still find stupid women all over. That is just and example of unrealistic behavior. PLEASE! I beg you thing real when you write for you characters. Don't make them dumb. My next pet peeve is cliff hangers. I will go to the reviews and if one person say it has a cliff hanger, I do not care how good the books are I won't buy them. I hate that. It does NOT sell the next book it just frustrates people. What happens if you die?? now we are stuck with a cliff hanger and no end. Please don't do that. =) Just my two cents.
Have an awesome day! =)
Eva

Eva Conley

9/7/2014 06:00:17 am

Take those shoes OFF, is what I wanted to say. LOL!
I beg to THINK real when you write. Is also what I wanted to say.
Geeze! I think I had a stroke! LOL!

=)

Dana Michelle Burnett link

9/7/2014 06:12:19 am

Thank you for making me shoot tea out of my nose! Lol

Matthew Kadish link

9/7/2014 06:16:18 am

I actually think this tropes apply to ALL genres where romance is involved, not just supernatural/paranormal stuff. They're all very close to the the bad tropes I see in Young Adult novels constantly. I even wrote a series of articles on my site that goes into detail about many of these issues and gives counter-points as to the right way to do them:

http://matthewkadish.com/how-to-write-a-good-ya-romance-part-1-characters/

I haven't seen many examples of the covers that use the same man on them, but that sounds pretty hilarious. Hopefully you won't mind linking to it so the rest of us can snicker along with you, lol.

paranormal romance books with alpha males link

2/27/2023 06:45:10 pm

great article

10 Tired Tropes of Paranormal Romance, My Personal Pet Peeve is #5

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