Taking a break from my usual listicles to talk about tropes. They are so prominent in the romance genre that one cannot escape them in one way or another. But I say this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tropes are like ice cream flavors, and I don’t know about you, but I’ll often buy books because I'm craving a certain trope. Sometimes that backfires miserably. And sometimes I’ll read a book that features a trope I usually loathe, but this time I enjoy it.
It all depends on how the trope is handled.
So here’s my first trope I want to discuss: the guardian and ward romance. It’s usually found in historical romance, though sometimes it’s in paranormal and fantasy books.
What is appealing about this trope?
The aspect of the forbidden: The hero is responsible for the heroine’s well-being and often it’s his job to ensure she has a successful marriage…to anyone but him. Delicious!
The characters often get more "screen time" alone together and have the opportunity for more intimacy…and hilarious hijinks.
Some readers like older men. (I think that’s part of why I like vampires.)
When this trope goes wrong:
• When the hero was the heroine’s guardian for a long time or knew her since she was a child. This brings some icky contexts to it.
• When the situation in which the hero becomes her guardian is ridiculously unbelievable. Any time the reader is pulled out of the story shaking her head is bad.
• Any instance when it’s treated like a parent/child situation. That dynamic should stick with roleplay erotica books, IMO.
Some good examples of the Guardian/Ward trope done well:
THE TAMING OF THE DUKE by Eloisa James. Book 3 in the awesome Essex Sisters quartet, I think it was my favorite and the most unique use of the trope.
In book one, when the hero discovers he’s to become guardian to his old friend’s four daughters, he turns a room into a nursery, fills it with toys and hires nursemaids…only to discover that all four are grown women. LOL! The one he ends up with is Imogen, though they hated each other on sight and the hostility continues for over two books straight. Like with most Eloisa James novels, one should read the books in order to better enjoy the fun.
Also, fun fact, I named the hero of my rockstar romance, KISSING VICIOUS, Quinn Mayne after the Earl of Mayne, the hero of the first book in the Essex Sisters series, MUCH ADO ABOUT YOU!
SEDUCED by Virginia Henley
This one is awesome because it also involved another of my favorite tropes: Girl disguised as boy. When twin siblings, Anthony and Antonia Lamb go out sailing, there’s an accident and the brother is lost at sea. Antonia then disguises herself as her brother to prevent an evil cousin from inheriting. Things get crazy when the twins’ guardian arrives and makes it his mission in life to make a man out of her. The best part? SHE ends up seducing him! (But in disguise as a random Italian partying woman) …and he nearly craps a brick when he finds out who she is.
Books I wrote with the Guardian/Ward trope:
ONE BITE PER NIGHT Scandals with Bite, book 2
Due to an ancient alliance between two families, Vincent Tremayne, the Lord Vampire of Cornwall is forced to become guardian to Lydia Price. He thinks it will be easy and fun to get her off his hands and get revenge on her horrible grandmother who foisted her off on him by making sure she makes a better match than the other granddaughter.
But then Vincent ends up wanting Lydia for himself. This one has all the fun forbidden romance goodness on two fronts, the first with him being her guardian, and secondly because he’s a vampire and because she loves to paint and shoot and fish, he mistakenly believes she’d hate being a vampire.
This one is also available in Audio!
WRENCHING FATE, Brides of Prophecy book 1
This one was a challenge because it was set in modern day. Silas McNaught, the Lord Vampire of Coeur d’Alene had visions of his fated mate for centuries. He finds Akasha Hope trapped in a group home for orphaned teens despite being almost twenty years old. (State authorities didn’t believe her stating her age and she didn’t have ID and refused to tell them where she came from) Silas becomes Akasha’s legal guardian, but makes it clear to her from day one that he has no intention of having a parental dynamic with her.
The only reason that he became her guardian was because otherwise, there’d be no reason for Akasha to stay with him. Her traumatic past has her too broken and too mistrustful to give Silas time and a chance to get her to accept that he’s a vampire, much less that she’s his fated mate.
I didn’t go with the sexy forbidden vibe with this one for obvious reasons, instead making it a fun character development for Silas to adjust to having the woman he’d built up in his head as a delicate damsel being the opposite of that. And, of course, falling in love with the real Akasha on the way.
What are some other Guardian/Ward tropes you’ve enjoyed? What ones make you cringe?
Formerly an auto-mechanic, Brooklyn Ann thrives on writing romance, urban fantasy, and horror novels featuring unconventional heroines and heroes who adore them. Author of historical paranormal romance in her critically acclaimed Scandals with Bite series, urban fantasy in the cult favorite, Brides of Prophecy novels, rockstar romance in the award-winning, Hearts of Metal series, and horror in the B Mine series, horror romances riffing on the 1970s and 1980s B horror movies that feature a Final Couple instead of a Final Girl. She lives in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with her gamer son, rockstar/IT Guy boyfriend, three cats, a few project cars, an extensive book collection, and miscellaneous horror memorabilia.
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