Ski Romance Tropes (spoiler warning: it includes fake dating)

Pick Me Up by Cecelia Joyce (me!) has many of the classic romance novel tropes. 

Enemies to lovers - On meeting Nick, Bonnie is not a fan. Mostly because she was upright on her skis before he turned up and suddenly she’s face-planted in the snow. Nick has no such qualms and he certainly doesn’t want to be Bonnie’s enemy, he just wants to ensure that he gets to needle her with comments on her ski skills. As a snowboarder, he might not be completely qualified to voice his assumptions on her ability to navigate a ski resort but he’s going to do it anyway, just to keep her eyes on him. 

Forced proximity - In my opinion, no romance novel is complete without a bit of forced proximity. In this case, the mmc and fmc are briefly stuck together in a small space. In a short amount of time, they learn a lot about each other and the alpine setting is temporarily forgotten about. 

Fake Dating - Fake dating is a micro trope in Pick Me Up but this is one of those scenes that the characters virtually wrote themselves ad which I had very little say in. They insisted on getting closer at this specific point in the novel. Apres ski is a rite of passage for any novice skier or snowboarder, especially if they’re meeting new people and being plonked into a romance book by a debut author. This scene has big 90s rom-com energy. 

Touch Her and Die - As the meet-cute in this novel is a point of contention between the two main characters, Nick might have ‘touch her and die’ energy but he’s the one who hurts her first. This briefly turns him into a tortured, brooding hero but the golden retriever in him comes out in the end. He makes damn sure that no one else can get their hands on her though. Not on his watch. 

He Falls First - You can’t have got this far without knowing that he falls first. Nick doesn’t even have to see Bonnie clearly to know what’s up. His life changes forever from the moment he catches a glimpse of her but they both remain unaware of how hard he’s fallen for her and how quickly.