I recently read a book that put me in remembrance of a heroine trope I cannot understand: the single and satisfied trope.
It’s the romance novel, historical or contemporary, where the heroine has no desire for marriage. She is happily single. It doesn’t matter that the hero is the most amazing thing to cross her path. Nope, she is never getting married.
This is also known as the author who has no story to tell as it pertains to the heroine trope. Listen, I know single woman…of all ages. I am a single woman. And while many single women may be content with their circumstances, how many of them would run away from a good match? This trope doesn’t logically make sense in historical times, and seems like complete nonsense in contemporary times. Honestly, when I meet heroines like this, I just want to delete the book from my kindle and move on because she is already completely unrelatable.
So, how can you make this work as an author? You can make it so that the heroine has something specifically against the hero. And not just men in general. Maybe the hero is too young, too poor, too short, too silly. That gives credence to a woman’s hesitance. But being single and satisfied?
How do you feel about this trope?
remaininhislove 