We all love a good trope... or do we?

Tropes are not exclusive to the romance genre - where a convention/device is used to establish a predictable or stereotype of a character, setting or scenario.

I mean how would the action/adventure genre survive without long lost treasures or manuscripts to chase? Or the murder mystery exist without the detective who has tragically lost his wife and child but grimly soldiers on?

Romance - across all our beloved spectrums: chick-lit, contemporary, sci-fi, urban, fantasy... etc has a whole host of tropes that mean we often find ourselves treading a somewhat familiar landscape.
But seriously, when done right, no matter how many times you've come across a particular trope an author can still blow you away with awesome.
Though for just as many awesome, there are some dismal, bordering on the woeful adaptations of a trope.

A lot of readers actively hunt down one trope. It might be the 'only one bed' scenario (Love it personally) or they might prefer the special snowflake shipped off to a mysterious academy and slowly discovers she has powers and enemies abound (Don't love it so much) trope.

Personally, I think there are several romance tropes that need to be put out to pasture.

- The ditsy, klutzy heroine. Whose life is a mess, apartment is a pigsty, can't cook or dress herself... yet, she lands a job in an awesome field such as fashion, journalism, catering, or as a wedding planner.
Somehow, we, the reader, and the Hero, are supposed to find her endearing? Relatable? No, just no.
Okay, yes, we all have our clumsy moments, spilling coffee on a white blouse, or tripping up the stairs. But they are single moments in time. No one spends every moment doing wacky skids into the arms of the hunky billionaire/brother's friend/bridegroom to be etc
Hapless, helpless Heroines I'm calling you out. Hit the road ditz.

- The epic re-telling of a fairytale. Sigh. Seriously? Red riding hood and the big bad wolf? Again?
I'm not saying there aren't a plethora of tales to be told about a woman who looks fabulous in red and an alpha shifter wolf with a mysterious agenda. Just stop trying to sell me on the fairytale angle.
Stop trying to pigeon hole great story ideas into tightly defined square holes. Most romance readers have left fairytales long behind, we want grown up stories that springboard off those classic tales and kicked up several notches on the character development and creativity.
This trope market is so over-saturated it's not funny. I just don't know how any reader finds the gems amongst the chaff.

- The reverse harem trope. When this first appeared I was like "go girl power" awesome. But then the niche genre quickly got flooded with same old same old. One chick who is somehow different/special and four or five interchangeable guys.
And that last bit, the interchangeable part is where most authors fail when it comes to this trope. Creating one sizzling relationship in a story is tough enough, but five unique relationships? That's tough. Especially when you need to believe she has different but incredibly strong feelings for each of the individual guys. And if asked, would be unable to choose between them.
Not only do the sex scenes need to individualised but so do the way each of the men interact/converse with the Heroine. And too often there just isn't anything there to tell them apart other than their names.

- The next one is going to be controversial. Enemies to Friends trope. Hold on, before you blast off a comment, just hear me out. My personal problem with this trope is that too often, I find the reason they were enemies is either never fully explored, doesn't seem relatable or is just flat out stupid.
And more importantly when it comes to this trope, things have been said or done in the past that often go over the borderline of forgivable, yet the author kind of glosses over this and suddenly they are hot to trot and smooching away.
I'm sorry, if someone broke my heart, insulted me, acted against my best interests, hurt me or any of my family in any way - there had better be a reason ( a bloody good one) There will need to be a conversation about it. More than a dismissive sentence or two. And there might even need to be some Olympic worthy grovelling.
I just find this trope too much of a tightrope - so I tend to avoid it.

- And lastly the trope that I think many authors should be a lot more cautious when using. The special snowflake trope.
Some authors excel at this trope - Ilona Andrews can do no wrong in my book. But too many authors suddenly thrust their Heroines into magical worlds, or level them up magically and have them stumble about, making obvious mistakes and requiring the Hero to correct them constantly. That gets old real fast.
Again, this trope is such a narrow tightrope to get right. Because when the author doesn't get it right I find myself hating the Heroine, and then there is no saving the story for me.

Of course there will all be exceptions to the rule. Authors creativity can often blow my mind, no matter how old and tired the trope is.
So come on, either blow my mind or move on.

What about you, any trope you are over?