Slow Burn Romance: Our New Addition to the TropeTrove

Plus, don't miss TropeTote™ #2, designed by Liz Caz

Just dropped! TropeTote #2: Slow-burn romance

Last month, we introduced our exclusive TropeTote™ collection and now we're excited to add the limited-edition mini Slow-Burn Romance TropeTote™ to the collection. Add the tote to your cart and use code "Longing" to get it FREE with an order of $35 or more of used books. Or you can buy the TropeTote for $25.

The Slow-Burn tote was designed by Liz Caz, an avid audiobook fan. Of working with ThriftBooks, Liz says, "My mission is to inspire a passion for reading in everyone by sharing my bookish art and chatting books with online friends!" Read more at the TropeTrove. Now, let's talk about slow-burn romances!

Bring on the smolder!

From emotionally unavailable MCs to rocky first impressions, slow-burn romances feature some standard (yet sexy!) tropes. And for some of us, these irresistible scenarios are exactly what brings us back for more. Here are some of our favorite tropes from the genre.

Romance is on the back burner

We've all gone through phases of life when romance is the last thing on our minds. We've put it on the back burner so to speak. This is the perfect analogy, really, because what do things do on the back burner? They simmer! In This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan, Soledad has the rug pulled out from under her when her husband's underhanded dealings send him to prison, leaving her scrambling to care and provide for her three daughters. As she's finding her footing, Judah enters the picture. After all she's lost, can Sol be brave enough to make room for what could be?

Parenting responsibilities are also at play in Wild Love by Elsie Silver. When Ford Grant opens his door to a young girl who claims to be his daughter, it further complicates his already busy life. Now, he spends his days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old, all while trying desperately to keep his hands off Rosie, his best friend's sister, who has suddenly whirled back into his life.

In Ready or Not by Cara Bastone, Eve finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand. Adding to the stress of her unplanned pregnancy, Eve's relationship with best friend Willa is feeling tense. Thank goodness for Willa's steadfast (and hot?) older brother who steps up to help just when Eve needs it the most.

We had a rough start

First impressions are everything, right? Maybe not. Some of the best slow-burn romances have a rocky start, like in Yours, Truly by Abby Jimenez. When Dr. Brianna Ortiz first meets Dr. Jacob Maddox, new to the hospital and her competition for the promotion she wants, it does not go well. But just when all systems are set to hate, Jacob completely flips the game. A similar dynamic figures into Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, in which Jack, an annoyingly attractive and arrogant experimental physicist, stands in the way of theoretical physicist Elsie and her dream job.

Author Mariana Zapata is known as the queen of the slow-burn romance—and for good reason. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me features an especially protracted rough start. After two years, Vanessa quits her thankless job of personal assistant to Aiden, the top defensive end in the National Football Organization, a man who couldn't be bothered to give her a kind word. So she's beyond shocked when he shows up at her door begging her to come back.

It's complicated

Sometimes when love appears at our door, it just isn't what we were expecting. In these romances, would-be lovers yearn and burn as they work to adjust their vision of what love can look like. In Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles, Hallie finds herself falling for an older man who's also her boss. Their shared trauma is something that draws them together, but it's also dangerous.

An age gap is also at play in Over and Over Again by Cole McCade. Luca remembers loving Imre when he was a boy. Now that he's a decade older, that love is still there, but it's changed into something else. When Luca is sent to stay at Imre's North Yorkshire goat farm in disgrace, the attraction between them is undeniable. But Imre is more than twice Luca's age and his father's best friend.

Sometimes the challenge our lovers face is geographical. When city girl Calla learns that her estranged father is dying, she makes the long trip back to the remote Alaskan town where she was born to see him. This is the premise of Simple Wild by K. A. Tucker. Once there, she connects, not only with her father, but with Jonah, the quiet brooding pilot who's keeping her father's charter plane company afloat. But Calla's not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave.

You've been friend-zoned

What's the best way to ruin a good friendship? Add romance, of course. These are stories where a perfect couple endeavors to deny their feelings so that they can keep on hanging out with each other. In Mixed Signals by B. K. Borison, small-town baker Layla Dupree has given up on love. After saving her from another date gone bad, Caleb, a handsome local teacher, offers a simple proposition: one month of no-strings dating. He'll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his romantic game.

In Best I Never Had by Jeannie Choe, Natalia is navigating life in New York City and mending a broken heart when she makes an unexpected connection with high school classmate Hayden. As their friendship deepens, they grapple with the truths they've left behind. Will revisiting the past risk what they've found?

In Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation, Poppy and Alex are two unlikely best friends with nothing in common. For most of the year they live far apart—she's in New York City, and he's in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they take one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Can they get around the one big truth that has always stood in the middle of their seemingly perfect friendship?

Not ready for love

What if the person you fall for just isn't ready to be loved? This is the case in On Dublin Street by Samantha Young. Jocelyn has a past, one that has made her skittish about getting into a relationship, so Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached. But the stubborn Scotsman soon realizes he wants more than just mind-blowing passion.

This is a similar theme in Where We Belong by Ashley Muñoz. Killian is the new president of the notorious Stone Riders biker club. The last thing he needs in his life is a complication like Laura. But now they're stuck sharing an apartment and the (sexual) tension is palpable.

Shared proximity is also used in Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. Hester and Galen are both members of Michigan's Underground Railroad. When Galen gets injured, Hester takes him in. But with danger lurking all around them, can they find the freedom that only true love can bring?

As always, we love to hear from you, so let us know if you have any tropes or titles to add to this list.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon