Expiration Dates

Expiration Dates fits within a long tradition of romance fiction. Romance as a genre does not simply mean that the plot includes a love story. Rather, romance has specific genre tropes and requirements. Romance fiction typically must include a happy ending, which is usually labeled in one of two ways: either a “happily ever after,” which implies that the two main characters will end the story together and remain together far past the end of the novel, or a “happy for now,” in which the two main characters end the story in a committed romantic relationship for the moment, implying no marriage but a long-term monogamous relationship in which the two characters may eventually split.

Though some contemporary writers attempt to subvert the happy ending requirement, most romance readers do not consider a “romantic story” with a tragic ending to be a romance novel. Expiration Dates skirts the edges of the trope while ending on a hopeful note that implies a “happily ever after.” The romance genre often includes other recognizable tropes, such as “enemies to lovers,” “friends to lovers,” “second chance,” “love at first sight,” “love triangle,” and many others. Expiration Dates includes two common tropes: the “friends to lovers” trope, in which best friends slowly realize that they have feelings of romantic love, and “second chance,” in which two characters who dated previously come back together after time apart.