One of the accusations frequently leveled at romance books is the amount of tropes we have. Things like secret babies and big misunderstandings. They crop up all over the place, but I’m not totally against them, because when they’re used properly they concentrate the reader on what matters most – the characters involved.

In fact, you could say that if they’re used well, they can add extra insight, because it’s how the characters react to situations that is more important than the situation itself. But all too often the trope is used as an easy way to progress a story, and the characters behave in a predictable and disappointing way.

So what tropes are there? Well, in the Harlequin/Mills and Boon Presents/Modern line (and some M and B Riva books, too), and the Harlequin Desire line, they can be particularly prevalent. It’s one of the reasons I read them, to be honest. You can gauge an author’s skill with how well she can bring the trope alive. Some I will tolerate, some I’m less fond of, but blessed be the author who can bring them all to life and make them seem fresh. I’ll look at one of my unfaves in a little more detail.

The Secret Baby – usually the heroine has a baby that the father of the child doesn’t know about. Usually the father is also the hero of the book, and the story is about them coming to terms with the situation. Not one of my favourites, I have to admit. I can’t get over a couple of things. First, the father has a right to know, unless he’s abusive or dead, and even in the first category, there might be a case for him to know. Second, when there’s a weak, defenceless being involved (no, not the heroine, but the baby), then that being must take priority. So whatever the heroine thinks about the hero, she should tell him. Particularly when she is poor and he is rich. That baby has a right to certain things, and one of them is a comfortable childhood, if at all possible.

I’ve seen this one work, but only rarely. I even wrote one myself, but it wasn’t really a secret baby. Texas Heat has a heroine unable to get hold of the hero. He has good evidence to believe she betrayed him and he has cut himself off from her. But she doesn’t stop trying, even though she thinks he’s a shit. Because of the baby. I’ve seen books where the heroine is living in abject poverty, in a damp and bug-infested slum, and the hero is your rich billionaire, and then she feels resentful when he takes over. Say what? She doesn’t deserve to be in charge of a child, IMO.

That’s why I decided not to review Olivia Gates’ latest, The Sarantos Secret Baby, although I’m a big Gates fan. But although I decided to give it a try, the heroine is a complete idiot and doesn’t deserve the baby. Willfully keeping a baby’s existence from the father, however controlling the father is, isn’t a good basis for the story, and I spent the part of it I did read in complete sympathy with Ari and wondering why he doesn’t just take his baby and leave.

Melanie Milburne’s The Unclaimed Baby is another one. In this one the hero and the heroine both  behave badly. She doesn’t tell him about the baby, and when he finds out, he threatens to take the baby away. Bear in mind that the heroine, Bronte, is living in her native country, Australia, and she’s providing well for the baby. He is rich, sure, but that’s all he has going for him. So he makes her believe he can take her baby away using the courts? At that point the book fell apart for me. No, just no. The likely outcome is that the courts would award her custody and a maintenance allowance. There is no believable reason why Bronte should believe Luc and go away with him, except for the contrivance of the story. It’s shorthand, a shortcut to get the H/h together and, for me, anyway, it just doesn’t work. If Bronte is as thick as a brick, then maybe. Or if she has a record of criminal violence, maybe again, but none of that applies. Actually, Bronte is a complete doormat. After their split, he cut off contact with her. Rich people can do that. Changed his contact details, told his people to keep her away kind of thing. When she discovers she’s preggers she tries, but can’t get in touch. And then she apologises to him when he rants at her?

I chose those two books as examples because they are authors I usually enjoy who came unstuck when they started down the secret baby route. In fact, I can’t think of a book offhand that has done it right for me, although I keep reading them. Or DNF’ing them. It seems this is a trope that is fraught with difficulty, but I’m sure there have to be some great ones out there. I think many writers do it for That Scene, where the hero stops short, stares at the baby and sees a miniature of himself (or where he refuses to acknowledge the child). Combined with the Big Misunderstanding, it can be one of the biggest fail tropes ever. So the author who can carry it off is skilled indeed.

Anyone got any great secret baby stories? One where the heroine and the hero behave like adults, the baby isn’t used as a blackmailing device, or a way to force the hero and heroine together, where they actually think about the baby rather than their own selfish needs?