The Glossaries

ARC

A copy distributed before publication, commonly for review.

Arranged Marriage

A match arranged with others' involvement becomes the setting for a love story.

Attraction & Romantic Pacing

Automatic Writing

Writing attributed to an unconscious, spiritual, or paranormal source.

Banshee

An Irish otherworld woman whose lament foretells a death.

Barghest

An ominous northern English apparition often described as an enormous black dog.

Basilisk

A legendary serpent whose venom, breath, or gaze can make merely approaching it fatal.

Beast of Bray Road

A modern Wisconsin legend centered on reports of a wolf-like biped.

Bigfoot

A reputed large, hair-covered biped associated with North American forests.

Black Shuck

A spectral black dog said to haunt the roads, coast, and countryside of East Anglia.

Boggart

A troublesome supernatural presence attached to a household or a particular place.

Book Tropes

Familiar patterns in characters, relationships, and plots that recur across books.

Book Tropes Explained: A List for Romance Readers

One bed tells you the setup. It doesn't tell you why these two people matter. Explore twenty tropes and how a story makes them its own.

Brownie

A household spirit that performs chores at night but can abandon a home when offended.

Care, Protection & Repair

Chupacabra

A modern livestock-predator legend whose reported appearance changed as it spread beyond Puerto Rico.

Church Grim

A supernatural guardian of a church or churchyard, often appearing as a black dog.

Clairvoyance

The claimed perception of distant or hidden information without ordinary senses.

Closed-Door Romance

Romance that keeps sexual activity off the page.

Cockatrice

A rooster-and-serpent creature associated with unnatural hatching and a lethal gaze.

Contemporary Romance Tropes

Familiar romantic patterns played out amid modern work, homes, friendships, and obligations.

Cursed Object

An object believed to bring misfortune, danger, or supernatural influence.

Dark Romance

Romance that brings danger, transgression, or disturbing power dynamics into the central relationship.

Death Omen

An occurrence interpreted as a warning that someone will die.

DNF

A reader stopped before reaching the end.

Domovoi

A household spirit connected to a family, its home, and domestic life.

Doppelgänger

An uncanny double whose appearance challenges identity and presence.

Dover Demon

A large-headed humanoid reported by teenagers during two nights in 1977.

Draugr

A restless dead being of Norse tradition, often possessing a dangerous physical presence.

Dual POV

A story told through two viewpoint characters.

Dullahan

A headless otherworld rider associated with death omens in Irish tradition.

Each-uisge

A predatory water horse whose inviting appearance can become a trap.

Enchanted Rock Legends

A Hill Country landmark surrounded by stories of restless spirits, strange sounds, and hidden riches.

Enemies to Lovers

Characters begin in opposition and develop a romantic relationship.

Fachan

A monstrous figure from Highland tradition with one eye, one leg, and a single hand projecting from its chest.

Fake Dating

A relationship staged for other people becomes much harder to pretend about.

Fated Mates

Romantic partners connected by destiny or a supernatural bond.

Flatwoods Monster

A towering figure reported after a bright object crossed the West Virginia sky in 1952.

FMC

Shorthand for a female lead in a story.

Forbidden Romance

Falling in love means crossing a line their world expects them to respect.

Forced Proximity

Circumstances keep potential romantic partners close together.

Found Family

People become family through loyalty, care, and the decision to keep showing up.

Fresno Nightcrawler

A legs-only figure born from surveillance footage and internet retelling.

Friends to Lovers

An existing friendship develops into a romantic relationship.

Ghost

A perceived presence or manifestation associated with a person who has died.

Golem

A humanlike figure brought to life from inert material through sacred knowledge.

Grindylow

A lurking water creature used to warn children away from dangerous pools and ponds.

Grovel

After the damage comes the difficult work of earning another chance.

Grumpy/Sunshine

One character brings the scowl. The other keeps finding reasons to smile.

Harker

A fictional Texas predator from LUV & WOO, Book 1, said to emerge from abandoned wellhouses when the ground runs dry.

HEA

An ending that presents the central romance as happily resolved.

HFN

A positive romantic ending focused on the characters’ present happiness.

Hopkinsville Goblins

Small luminous figures reported outside a farmhouse during a 1955 encounter.

Huldra

A beautiful forest being whose human appearance conceals an unmistakably inhuman detail.

Hurt/Comfort

One character suffers, and another responds with care, reassurance, or practical help.

Instalove

A character experiences or declares love almost immediately, with little relationship buildup.

Jersey Devil

A Pine Barrens legend shaped by family history, religious conflict, and newspaper sensation.

Jiangshi

A reanimated corpse in Chinese tradition, widely recognized through its stiff, hopping cinematic form.

Kappa

A Japanese water-being often depicted with webbed limbs, a shell, and a water-filled hollow on its head.

Kelpie

A dangerous water being that commonly takes the form of a horse.

Kitsune

Japanese fox beings whose stories range from trickery to devotion and sacred service.

La Llorona

A wandering woman whose cries for her children haunt the waterways.

Lady in Blue

A mysterious religious visitor associated with a Spanish nun’s reported presence on two continents.

Leshy

A forest spirit whose territory does not necessarily follow human rules.

Loch Ness Monster

The famous modern lake-monster legend of Loch Ness.

Mafia Romance

A romantic storyline shaped by organized crime, dangerous loyalties, or criminal families.

Mafia Romance Books: Choosing by Premise

Rival families, captivity, and marriages made for an alliance. Learn the recurring mafia romance premises before choosing your next series.

Mal de Ojo

A belief that another person’s gaze or intense admiration can bring harm.

Mare

A nighttime being believed to press upon sleepers, bringing oppressive dreams and a sensation of suffocation.

Marfa Lights

Distant West Texas lights surrounded by eyewitness accounts, speculation, and ghost stories.

Marriage of Convenience

A marriage begins for practical reasons, and romantic feelings complicate the agreement.

Meet-Cute

A memorable first encounter with comic or charming potential.

Merrow

An Irish merfolk figure associated with encounters between human lives and the sea.

MMC

Shorthand for a male lead in a story.

Morally Gray

A character whose ethics resist a simple good-or-evil label.

Mothman

A winged red-eyed figure reported around Point Pleasant in 1966–67.

Musca — Supernatural

A flylike humanoid from Supernatural, belonging to a community that usually avoids human attention.

Mutual Pining

Both people long for each other while the relationship they want remains out of reach.

Nøkk

A shapeshifting water spirit associated with dangerous encounters at lakes and rivers.

Nuckelavee

A skinless sea monster from Orcadian folklore, blamed for disease, ruined crops, and deadly encounters on land.

Only One Bed

Sleeping arrangements become a problem neither character can politely ignore.

Open-Door Romance

Romance that depicts sexual intimacy on the page.

Opposites Attract

People with striking differences develop a romantic connection.

Personality & Character Dynamics

Poltergeist

A pattern of unexplained noises and moving objects attributed to an unseen agency.

Precognition

The claimed perception of an event before it occurs.

Protective Love Interest

A romantic character whose concern for another person's safety becomes a recurring part of the relationship.

Psychokinesis

The claimed ability to affect matter without physical contact.

Púca

An Irish shapeshifting spirit known for strange appearances, frightening encounters, and wild nighttime rides.

Redcap

A murderous goblin of border ruins, said to stain its cap with its victims’ blood.

Relationship Beginnings

Relationship Tropes

Recurring patterns in how fictional people connect, clash, care, and change together.

Revenant

A dead person believed to return bodily and trouble the living.

Reverse Harem

A romance centered on one woman and multiple male partners.

Rivals to Lovers

The person standing between a character and a goal becomes a love interest.

Rom-Com Tropes

Romantic setups that give awkward encounters, bad plans, and inconvenient feelings somewhere to go.

Romance Tropes

The recurring setups, tensions, and relationship patterns that help describe a love story.

Romantic Comedy

A love story in which humor helps shape the relationship and the reading experience.

Romantic Obstacles

Second-Chance Romance

People with a romantic past get another opportunity to build a relationship together.

Selkie

Seal people who remove their skins to take human form.

Shadow Person

A dark humanlike form reported at the edge of vision or during sleep disruption.

Shapeshifter

A broad motif for beings or people who change bodily form.

Situations & Proximity

Sleep Paralysis

A sleep-state event that can include immobility, pressure, and vivid sensed presences.

Slow Burn

A romance that takes its time turning attraction into a relationship.

Soul Eater — Supernatural

A predator that traps souls inside a distorted version of the house it occupies.

STFUATTDLAGG

An explicit abbreviation encountered in spicy-book and internet conversations.

TBR

The books a reader plans—or hopes—to read.

Telepathy

The claimed direct transfer of information between minds.

Tommyknocker

A mine spirit whose knocking may signal danger beneath the ground.

Touch Her and Die

A threat against someone’s love interest meets a fiercely protective response.

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator whose account gives readers reason to question its accuracy or judgment.

Vampire

A returning dead figure associated with bodily harm, blood, or life-force loss.

Waco Cat-Witch Legend

A man kills an attacking cat—and discovers the same fatal injury on his wife.

Wendigo

A cannibalistic being associated with winter, insatiable hunger, and destructive greed in several Indigenous traditions.

Werewolf

A person believed or imagined to become a wolf or wolf-like being.

What Is Dark Romance? A Reader’s Guide

How dark, how spicy, how funny? Explore what dark romance can offer, how it overlaps with paranormal suspense, and what to look for in your next read.

Who Did This to You?

Someone notices the damage—and suddenly their feelings are much harder to hide.

Why Choose

A romance where the central character does not have to select just one partner.

Will-o’-the-Wisp

An elusive night light said to lead travelers away from safe ground.

Zanna — Supernatural

Benevolent beings in Supernatural who become children’s imaginary friends.