This Trope Makes Me Want to Delete My Brain

if it's reading this or jumping off a building, I'll see you at the bottom 🫡

Aug 26, 2025

There are many book tropes I will defend with my whole chest. Enemies-to-lovers? say less. Morally grey men falling for sunshine girls? Inject it straight into my veins.

But accidental pregnancy? Accidental PREGNANCY?!! oh hell no.
This one makes me want to close my Kindle, set it on fire, and yeet the ashes into the sun.

I don’t even fully know where my hate originated from (lies, I know exactly where: reading mpreg fanfiction at the ripe age of 12 and never being able to unsee it).
And yet here I am, a fully grown adult, still rolling my eyes into another dimension every time an author tries to sneak this trope into romance novels.

🕮 This Week’s Bookish Mood

Me, reading the epilogue because “surely it won’t have a pregnancy this time”:

Why it drives me up the wall

Here’s the thing: this trope shows up everywhere, especially in romcoms. You’re giggling, you’re invested, you’re swooning, and then BAM! she’s pregnant. Curtain closed. Happy ending achieved. Don’t ask questions.

From a critical perspective, it often feels like the evil twin of the third-act breakup: a cheap way to force in “conflict” when the author doesn’t actually know how to deepen the relationship dynamics.

Hey, sooo pregnancy is not a plot twist? it’s a medical update??
Authors, please stop handing me ultrasound photos like they’re mic-drop moments.

My (rare) exceptions

I’m not unreasonable (okay, maybe a little). Sometimes it does work for me:

When it’s baked into the story from the start, like Too Wrong (Hayes Brothers) or Reckless by Elsie Silver.
When the character is pregnant on page one and the whole book is about that journey.

In those cases, it can add depth. The dynamics shift, it elicits character growth or a healthier relationship. I’m down.

But when it’s just sprinkled in as a shock factor to stall the romance? No. Absolutely not. Jail!

Actual reviews I never posted

(AKA me spiraling)

The following are a compilation of lines from Goodreads reviews I never published because they were too mean, but i’ll drop them here for your entertainment:

Romance authors not using wombs as plot devices, challenge level: impossible
Pregnancy is not narrative tension, it’s a nine-month waiting period!!
me, reading yet another epilogue: 👁️👄👁️ oh look… she’s pregnant.

YOUR TURN

Which trope makes you want to throw your kindle into the nearest body of water?

Vote then confess your hater energy in the comments. We’re all safe here.

Oh, if you want more takes like this, I dropped a YouTube video ranking the best and worst romance tropes in my opinion:

Watch video here

May your pet peeve tropes never find you, and your soulmate materialize straight outta your favorite book,

𓂃🖊 Rachel