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Personally, I’m not a fan of the marketing tactic of listing tropes. I’d rather read on and be surprised, especially if the author makes a fun twist on a tired trope.
https://www.themarysue.com/romance-and-romantasy-is-there-such-a-thing-as-too-many-tropes/
@Emmacox this is the second article I’ve read in the last week or so decrying the overuse of tropes, so perhaps the trend is finally turning.
I generally ignore them as a reader, except two common things annoy me, kind of in different directions
1) a book is labelled by a trope eg enemies to lovers, and that can mean anything from they savagely hate each other at the start of the book to they bicker mildly upon meeting — so it’s not actually helpful anyway
2) micro-tropes. My god, are you just listing every fucking scene?
As a writer, I am aware of the tropes my books contain, but I’m uncomfortable using them in marketing, partly because I think I’d end up disappointing readers when I don’t do it “right” (because I’m not writing tropes-first, so they just turn up in whatever form they want to turn up). I see reviews all the time complaining that a book wasn’t enemies enough, or the fake dating was real too soon, or the slow burn wasn’t etc
India Holton’s great for subverting tropes: there’s a problem with the number of beds in this room - only one? No, none! No, forty!
@wendypalmer Hopefully the trend is turning. Imagine if film posters had all the tropes listed around the sides.
I wouldn’t label bickering upon meeting as enemies to lovers. My pair are standoff-ish upon meeting, but I wouldn’t call them enemies to lovers.
I don’t think of the tropes and write the story around them either. (It’s sounds an underwhelming way to write if I’m honest). Readers have their own expectations of relationships and authors only have so many pages to fit it into.