Age gap
The years between them shape the power in the room.
Tropes
Dark romance tropes, defined.
The language readers already use, written down without softening. Every trope here is a tag you can put on a book in your own folio.
A1 entry
B1 entry
Best friend's brother
Off-limits by loyalty, not by law.
C1 entry
Captive romance
One of them is held, and the story doesn't soften it.
D1 entry
Dark academia
Old institutions, candlelight, and rot under the syllabus.
E1 entry
Enemies to lovers
Real hostility first, and the wanting is worse for it.
On the shelf guide: Losers: Part I
F6 entries
Fake dating
A performance for other people that stops being a performance.
Fated mates
The bond is decided by something outside them both.
Feral FMC
She's not being rescued and she bites back.
Forced proximity
Trapped in one place with no exit and no distance.
On the shelf guide: Den of Vipers, Losers: Part I
Found family
The people she chooses matter as much as the love interest.
Friends to lovers
The line gets crossed after years of not crossing it.
G2 entries
Golden retriever MMC
Warm, devoted, unembarrassed about it.
Grumpy / sunshine
One of them is weather, the other is a locked door.
M4 entries
Mafia
Organised crime as setting, stakes, and cage.
On the shelf guide: Den of Vipers
Marriage of convenience
Vows first, feelings unwillingly after.
Monster romance
The love interest is not human and never becomes human.
Morally grey MMC
He does real harm and the book doesn't excuse it for you.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
O2 entries
Obsessed MMC
She is the fixation, and he doesn't pretend otherwise.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
Only one bed
The room has one bed. That's the whole plot device.
R1 entry
Revenge plot
Someone is owed, and the romance is built around collecting.
S4 entries
Second chance
They already had this once and ruined it.
Small town
Everyone knows, and that's the pressure.
Sports romance
Team, season, and a body that's already public property.
Stalker MMC
Watching, following, knowing too much — before she agrees to any of it.
On the shelf guide: Haunting Adeline
T2 entries
Touch her and die
Anyone who threatens her does not survive the chapter.
Touch starved
Contact undoes him because he's had none.
V1 entry
Villain love interest
He's the antagonist of someone's story and never reforms into safe.
Your vocabulary, your record.
Heat, spice type, tropes and content notes — kept as separate, honest layers.
Track how you actually tag it