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Updated 07 May 2024
There are so many romance tropes that are great for creating conflict—age gap and enemies to lovers are two that I've covered in other blog posts.
But few do it better than forbidden love.
It's inspired countless great plays and films—Romeo and Juliet, The Princess Bride—and more awesome romance novels than most readers can devour in a lifetime.
And while it's a trope in its own right, it's also a category of tropes, too. Brother's best friend? That's a forbidden love trope. Ex's brother? Also a forbidden love trope. Stepbrother? Definitely forbidden love.
But for this post, I'm focusing on the OG trope of forbidden love. The blanket term, usually used to describe big, sweeping romances that break your heart before sewing it back together with a hard-won happily ever after that revives your belief in a good world full of good people.
What is the forbidden love trope?
The forbidden love trope is when a book's main characters aren't supposed to fall in love—i.e., doing so is "forbidden." This might be because of warring families, a centuries-old grudge, or because the characters are a vampire and a werewolf in a world the two aren't supposed to share breathing space, let alone beds.
In the introduction to this blog post, I mentioned internal conflict, and how great this trope is at creating it. Because the characters aren't supposed to fall in love, they feel conflicted about their feelings for each other and what they mean. That's internal conflict.
What is internal conflict, and why is it important in a romance novel?
Internal conflict stems from a character's emotional wound, which results from an experience, almost always a bad one, that affects how they view love and everything related to it (like trust, vulnerability, and honesty).
In the case of forbidden love, internal conflict usually relates to both an emotional wound and stakes, or what the characters have to give up to be together. And what they have to give up is important to them, and under normal circumstances, when they aren't gone for their love interest/s, they'd never contemplate doing without.
But in forbidden love romance novels, each romance beat—or pivotal scene—shows the main characters why taking a chance on reopening that emotional wound and dealing with the stakes—giving up their families, their dreams, or their homes—is worth it, until they can't help but quiet their internal voices and follow their feelings.
And just when they think they've made the right decision, external conflict usually appears, reminding the characters that while they might have waged and won an emotional battle, there are still other hurdles left to jump.
What is external conflict, and why is it important in a romance novel?
External conflict is when forces outside the characters and their internal conflicts threaten their relationship.
If you think back to high school English class, you might remember the three types of conflict: character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. society. Those are all external conflicts.
Your characters' families trying to rip them apart? That's human vs. human.
Your characters running away from their families and then getting trapped in a storm that threatens to kill them both? That's human vs. nature.
Your characters' wedding getting interrupted by the queen who decreed that no fae or witches should hang out, let alone fall in love? That's human vs. society.
While there's no one way to handle external conflict in forbidden love romance novels, generally speaking, romance novels with the forbidden love trope tend to really go for it in the external conflict department, mercilessly throwing stumbling blocks in the characters' path and shocking them out of their comfort zones just as they start to relax.
Are there particular sub-genres of romance where the forbidden love trope is more popular?
Forbidden love is prevalent in every romance sub-genre; it's why it's one of the OG tropes. It was here when romance started, and it'll be here forever after.
That said, there are some sub-genres where it's more popular, with romantasy being a big one. Forbidden love lends itself well to emotional stories that really put characters through the wringer before giving them the HEA they deserve, which is exactly what readers get when they open a romantasy novel. They want well-developed worlds, lots of edge-of-your-seat action and a happy ending they weren't sure was possible given the plot and its twists and turns.
Forbidden love is also popular in paranormal romance, where you'll see characters straying from the wolf packs and bear dens they grew up in to follow their heart with a shifter or fae from a different faction.
And you'll see lots of forbidden love in contemporary romance, though if it's a story with a stepfather/stepdaughter, stepbrother/stepsister, teacher/student, or boss/secretary relationship, you'll sometimes see the books called "taboo love" rather than forbidden love.
But is there a "best" way of writing the forbidden love trope? The kind guaranteed to get you readers?
Keep conflict, drama, and high emotions in mind as you write. That's what readers are looking for from forbidden love romance novels. Hit those, and you're on the right track.
Until the next post, happy reading and writing!