Featured

An Introduction

Welcome to my website! I’m so happy to have you here and look forward to all of your wonderful comments, insights, and general thoughts.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Oscar Wilde

Spoiler alert, Lauren Edwards is a pseudonym. I debated long and hard over the wisdom of not only choosing to write under a pen name, but also sharing it with my readers. At the end of the day, though, my conclusion was that you deserve to know a few key truths…just not my real name 😉

Why do this?

  • Because history has shown that readers can end up feeling betrayed when they learn that an author they have come to know is not who they believed (sometimes drastically so).
  • Because I just want you to know.

My decision to utilize a nom de plume is purely professional. One, I have a day job that may or may not take kindly to my subject matter. I choose not to speculate, and in that, also choose not to take a risk. Two, I was advised that it might behoove me to separate my contemporary romances from my other works. Side note, I also kind of love my pseudonym.

Now for the truths:

  • I identify as genderqueer (she/they)
  • Every story I write has a little bit of myself and my life in it
  • I am pretty in love with all of my characters (and my cover artist)
  • If you want to get to know me better, just ask
  • Fun fact: I live in Texas, but was not born here

This website is really to serve as a landing page for book information, including releases, as well as a place to share wonderful insights found elsewhere on the interwebs. I believe in love in all its various forms. Readers can rest assured that all of my works have a guaranteed HEA (Happily Ever After) for the main characters–side characters will get theirs, don’t you fret. Almost all of them also include some pretty heavy subject matter including psychological struggles and physical abuse as well as explicit content. If that doesn’t sound like your speed, that’s fine, but I promise the sappy is so worth it.

In addition, I love getting feedback. If you have an idea you’d love to read a story about, or have a favorite author you think I should check out, by all means send it on. Also, if you have commentary about the books themselves or would love to see certain content appear here, again, feel free to share. There’s a button for that around here somewhere.

Until we meet again,

Romance Tropes

We all have those stories we naturally gravitate toward, but don’t always have the name for why. What inherent plot structure is calling to us? Occasionally, people toss out names, but what do they really mean and did you actually sign up for all it entails?

You might be asking yourself “What exactly is a trope?” or even better, “I thought tropes were bad?”

  1. A trope, specifically a romance trope, is a plot device or theme used within a romance novel giving a recognizable starting point to the story that a reader can recognize. Though many romance books can use one common romance trope, it is their storylines and characters that differentiate each book using this common plot device. [definition courtesy of https://www.shereadsromancebooks.com]
  2. Tropes are not inherently bad. But, like all writing, due diligence and respect should always be front and center.

It also bears noting that there are several romance sub-genres: Historical, Rom/Com, Erotic, New Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Young Adult… I think you get the idea.

Now the tropes! I won’t call this a comprehensive list, because there are more tropes than hours in a day, maybe minutes–heck, maybe seconds! They are constantly shifting, evolving…multiplying. The good news is that most are self-explanatory.

I’ll be building this list over time so that it can be thorough, accurate, & most importantly, FUN. So be sure to check back! I’ll also be including links to some of my favorite examples as well as what stories of mine have them.


Abbreviation Guide

MC = Main Character

LI = Love Interest

Find My Trope

Enemies to Lovers/Rivals to Lovers:

Best friends to Lovers/Childhood friends to Lovers: The MC & LI have an established relationship as friends, whether that’s been since childhood or not quite that long. Something happens to tip the balance from platonic to romantic. Once lines are crossed, there’s no going back.

Secret Baby

Fake Dating

Age Gap

Forced Proximity

One Bed

(You might be noticing at this point, there’s quite a bit of overlap.)

Roommates

Second Chance

Fated Mates/Soulmates

Insta-love

Military

Alien

BDSM

Billionaire/Secret Billionaire (though, idk how you keep that a secret)

Bodyguard

Forbidden

Mafia

Marriage of Convenience

Nanny

Neighbors to Lovers

Office

Sports

Rockstar

Jilted at the Altar

Royal

Single Parent

May-December

Shapeshifter

Dark

Slowburn

Small Town

Surprise Pregnancy

Teacher/Student

The Dare/The Bet

Time Travel

The Virgin

Forbidden

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