Happy Place

The romance genre has many tropes, such as enemies to lovers, fake relationships, love triangles, opposites attract, and forbidden love. Tropes are used because they offer a comforting, predictable experience for readers, who often gravitate to these stories because they have a formulaic plotline and a happy ending. A take on the fake relationship trope, Happy Place puts the broken up Harriet and Wyn in the position of pretending to still be in love so as not to dampen the joyful mood of Sabrina and Parth’s surprise wedding. This setup pushes Harriet and Wyn into working through their conflicts with vulnerability, allowing them to grow individually with their dreams and goals, and bringing them closer together than before.

The trope of pretend love more typically features characters with no romantic history faking feelings for each other until the feelings turn real. In this case, Harriet and Wyn were together for many years; their fake relationship recapitulates and builds on their real one. Here, the fact that Harriet and Wyn were already a couple allows the fake love trope to deepen characterization and create conflict.