Setup & circumstance tropes
The situations that throw them together: one bed, fake dating, forced proximity, and other delicious traps.
Trapped together with no escape, under one roof or on the same mission, forced into closeness and rising tension.
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Icebreaker
Hannah Grace
The Unhoneymooners
Christina Lauren
Twisted Love
Ana Huang
Serpent & Dove
Shelby Mahurin
The Spanish Love Deception
Elena Armas
It Happened One Summer
Tessa Bailey
Twisted Games
Ana Huang
King of Wrath
Ana Huang
Twisted Hate
Ana Huang
The Hurricane Wars
Thea Guanzon
Stuck with one room and one bed to share, leaving no choice but charged, awkward closeness.
They agree to fake a relationship for show, until the pretend feelings become very real.
The Unhoneymooners
Christina Lauren
The Spanish Love Deception
Elena Armas
Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Talia Hibbert
Geekerella
Ashley Poston
The Long Game
Elena Armas
The Fiance Dilemma
Elena Armas
A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon
Sarah Hawley
Claiming His Bollywood Cinderella
Tara Pammi
Happy Place
Emily Henry
Just for the Summer
Abby Jimenez
Lost and Lassoed
Lyla Sage
Love Theoretically
Ali Hazelwood
A marriage arranged by family, duty, or alliance that the couple must slowly learn to love.
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
Spinning Silver
Naomi Novik
Serpent & Dove
Shelby Mahurin
King of Wrath
Ana Huang
The Sweetest Oblivion
Danielle Lori
Radiance
Grace Draven
A Taste of Gold and Iron
Alexandra Rowland
God of War (Deluxe Edition)
Rina Kent
Contract Bound
Elle Mae
The Book of Blood and Roses
Annie Summerlee
The Heiress and the Orc
Finley Fenn
Four Dukes and a Devil
Cathy Maxwell, Tracy Anne Warren, Jeaniene Frost, Sophia Nash, Elaine Fox
One is sworn to protect the other, and duty slowly blurs into deep, dangerous attraction.
A romance that sparks at work, often across the hierarchy, risky and impossible to ignore.
Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer
The Spanish Love Deception
Elena Armas
Apprentice to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Act Your Age, Eve Brown
Talia Hibbert
Ana Huang 12 Books Complete Collection Set: Kings of Sin Series, Twisted Series, and If Love Series
Ana Huang
Bared to You
Sylvia Day
Beautiful Bastard
Christina Lauren
Behind the Net
Stephanie Archer
Big Bad Boss
Renee Rose, Lee Savino
Book Lovers
Emily Henry
By a Thread
Lucy Score
Deep End
Ali Hazelwood
Captivity frames the relationship as captor and captive circle into dangerous attraction.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
A Court of Mist and Fury
Sarah J. Maas
The Cruel Prince
Holly Black
Uprooted
Naomi Novik
From Blood and Ash
Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Wicked King
Holly Black
Quicksilver
Callie Hart
When the Moon Hatched
Sarah A. Parker
The Jasmine Throne
Tasha Suri
A Touch of Darkness
Scarlett St. Clair
Caraval
Stephanie Garber