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Before stalker romance became a thing, your next best bet if you wanted a morally grey hero with a serious redemption arc was the bully romance. And it's still a popular trope, especially in the reverse harem romance space.
But what exactly is a bully romance? Is bully a character trope, a relationship trope, or something in between? And how the heck do you write it?
I'll answer all these questions below, starting, as always, with a definition of the trope itself.
What is the bully romance trope?
The bully romance trope is chockfull of angst; think of it like enemies to lovers romance's thornier cousin. Your characters don't just hate each other. One of them has taunted or is actively taunting the other/s, making their life miserable.
And the bully romance trope is, confusingly, both a relationship trope and a character trope. It describes the way the main characters initially interact as well as how one of them appears at the book's outset. And it requires careful character development.
Why does the bully romance trope require careful character development?
Like the enemies to lovers trope, the bully romance trope requires you to write a story that presents your bully with challenges that push them to change and redeem themselves in the eyes of their lover/s. These challenges, aka the redemption arc, slowly transform from a character who, according to Merriam-Webster, is "habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable" into someone readers can root for and the other main character(s) can fall in love with.
Part of that redemption arc requires grovelling, which is when the bully character tries to prove they've changed to their love interest, usually through a combination of words, actions, and gifts. And, like the redemption arc as a whole, grovelling is an emotional business.
In fact, that's the real crux of the bully romance trope. It's intensely emotional; you're not going to find much low-angst bully romance, because readers flock to bully romances specifically for the emotional highs and lows. The betrayal, the cruelty, the heartbreak, the redemption, the struggle to trust, the final, emotional confession of love. They want to feel every ounce of those moments along with the characters.
This means that every romance beat should be met with an intense emotional reaction from one or all main characters. And with all that emotion should come plenty of steam.
Are all bully romances steamy?
Nearly all bully romances have some steam in them; the trope is inherently tension-filled, and it's not all emotional tension. Much of it is sexual, and in order for the characters to truly progress to the point where they can commit to each other, they need a way to release that tension, usually in the form of sex. And steamy bully romances is what readers have come to expect, so writing a clean/wholesome/closed door bully romance might not net you many readers.
Does the bully trope appear in all sub-genres of romance?
The bully trope is most common in contemporary romance, especially new adult academy and college contemporary romance that may or may not also be reverse harem. But, as all it requires is ample tension and the ability for one character to harass the other, it works with all sub-genres except those explicitly labelled cozy or low-angst, or sub-genres that are usually trigger-free. Because of the high emotions and the nature of the initial relationship between the characters in bully romances, dubious consent, non-consent, kidnapping, and violence are common, though as always, they should be pointed out to readers in content warnings available either in the blurb, the book, or the your website.
Are there any other tropes you can combine with the bully romance trope?
It goes well with enemies to lovers—the reason the characters are enemies could be that one used to bully the other—and other tension-filled relationship tropes like professional rivals, Hades and Persephone, kidnapped, opposites attract, and workplace romance. The bully character trope also goes well with traditionally dominant character tropes like alpha male; wounded warrior; antihero; grumpy; obsessive hero; and billionaire.
Now that you know what the bully trope is, the type of plotting and steam it requires, and what other tropes you can throw into your story, you're ready to start writing! And if you're looking for inspiration, you can't do much better than Penelope Douglas, who writes some of the best bully romance out there.
Until next post, happy reading and writing!