A typical bully romance

I've written about bully romance in the past. I talked about it when it was new and I was trying to figure out what it was. I don't think I got it quite right because the trope was still new. And then I tried to figure out why people loved reading about it because y'all, I didn't get it.  Recently, in a book group, someone shared a tirade about what's a typical plot for a bully romance and it is too good to not share.

Now, I haven't read much bully romance so I'm going to assume that Cee Cee Deflorimonte who so kindly let me quote her in this post has more experience with the trope than I do. After all, she's gone into so much detail that I can only guess that's she's read more than one book with that trope. So without further ado, let me spoil every bully romance out there ever...or most of them anyway.

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Here's the thing, I like reading about anti-heroes as much as the next person but for some reason I find the bully romance trope so....😬

Most bully romances I've come across are set in high school. Typically there’s some rich kid prick who rules the school and the girl he hates for no particular reason (mainly she’s just an easy target). So he bullies her, torments her, belittles her, humiliates her, embarrasses her. Basically, Rich Prick makes this girl’s life a living hell and it’s always for some weird bizarre reason that isn’t even valid. Sometimes he just can’t stand this girl for being too nice or too smart or too quiet and shy or because he’s attracted to her. Whatever reason the Rich Prick picks, this girl almost always ends up on the receiving end of the torment. Sometimes she spends the whole story taking the shit thrown her way without ever sticking up for herself because somehow “underneath all the ugly, I know there’s some good in there. He just needs the right person. How could the devil have the face an angel? 🥺” And sometimes she sticks up for herself and says “fuck this shit! 🤬” And then she proceeds to use the backbone god gave her and fights back. 😡👊🏾

And I’ll be rooting for her like ‘yes girl! Tell his ass off for good! ☺️👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

But *sighs* as these stories typically go, at the end of the day this girl is forever captivated by the Rich Prick’s dark, broody good looks and can’t help but be drawn to all the darkly darkness that is said prick with the chiseled jawline and angry scowl. Sooo sexy. 🥱
And the kicker? The rich prick always has some tragic back story that isn’t unveiled until the last 20% percent of the book. Basically, this is the big "It was never you, my life is shitty and I took it out on you because you were the light to my darkness and I hated you because of it but you should forgive me because I love you and I’ll never hurt you again."
and then the heroine—regardless of her god given backbone or lack thereof—forgives him like nothing happened because she realizes that deep down she loves him too and no one understands him better than she does. Now his gorgeous sparkly eyes burn with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. He makes her feel things she’s never imagined and it feels so right. And they live happily ever after...

...and then we get the spin off with their spawns who start the same damn cycle all over again.

Stories like these irk my whole soul. I read them and I be like...how am I supposed to root for this couple when it’s so obvious they both have some underlying issues better to be discussed in therapy 😂😂

I’m not knocking anyone who gets pure entertainment out of books like these. Just felt like sharing my opinion. Plus, I’m always looking for recommendations that prove me wrong and maybe someone actually has one with a redeemable rich prick who does some serious groveling. Maybe that’s the problem. 🧐🤔 The groveling doesn’t happen til the last two chapters and even then all it takes is a quick “I’m sorry” for the girl to grant him forgiveness because “he never apologizes. I’ve never heard him apologize to anyone. So obviously, he must mean it. ☹️😞”

If you have any recs I am all ears! 😂😂😂

Courtesy of Cee Cee Deflorimonte

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Here's the thing. I've said it right from the start. Bully romances are not for me. The entire premise of the trope which is the heroine gets bullied (to varying degrees) by the hero or heroes throughout the book and then still falls in love with him/them and forgives them easily is not for me. It's hard for me to read about the bullying and also hard for me to fathom falling in love with someone who has treated you so badly for so long. That's a kind of masochism that I'm not willing to subject myself to even if it's just reading fiction.

I try to provide examples or recommendations of books for my posts and from this one I don't have any examples of what's typical because I don't read those books. Someone did ask Cee Cee how many of these types of books she's read to feel so strongly about this topic and she mentioned that the Fallen Crest High series by Tijan is fairly typical.

  

Cee Cee asked for recommendations of books that are different from the typical plot so here's two that people have suggested. There weren't many because most people who commented actually said they don't read them for all the reasons she stated above. I have not read any of them

 

This is not going to make me want to check out the books that are different and find out for myself since yeah, not my thing. I have only ever read two bully romances and they really wasn't that much of a bully romance since the bullying was pretty light. In one, the plot very quickly morphed into something else. I'm not going to recommend that book because...reasons. And the other is probably my favorite of the trope but it's again very light bullying and the bullying is over quickly. This book I loved and would recommend to anyone who wanted to dip their toe into the trope and still wanted something that was hot and sexy.

Honestly, there's not much point to this post other than the fact that I thought Cee Cee's tirade was beautifully exposited and I wanted to share it.

What about you? Do you read bully romance? Have you read any good ones?


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