The Single Dad of Romance
I gave you some single mom recs of romance, but there are the single dads as well. I think the single dad is actually one of my top favorite tropes. The best thing about tropes of romance is there is never just one. Romance books sit under the romance genre, but then it umbrellas down to the sub-genre. The suspense, the paranormal, or the rom-com to name a couple. But once you narrow it down, you get the tropes. It could be a single dad romance that is also friends with benefits, close proximity. Or you could have the single dad romance with the nanny. Or even the single dad that transforms into a fake relationship romance. But the constant is the signal dad.
What does the single dad have that the single mom doesn’t?
There is something about this trope that stands out, I am not quite sure whey I am so drawn to it. Maybe it is because I love to see a close relationship with kids and their fathers. I enjoy to see the struggles of a single dad raising daughters. There is such a different dynamic when talking single dads vs single moms. And that isn’t to say they aren’t capable and successful, but there is something magnetic about a dad doing it on his own.
What doesn’t work with the single dad?
The single dad trope only truly works for me when the dad has either full custody or a good deal of shared custody. while I enjoy seeing a single dad struggle I don’t enjoy when they are clueless (secret baby on the doorsteps don’t count here). There needs to be a modicum of capability. They don’t have to get everything right, because honestly, there is not a parent in the world that does. But they need to have an understanding and a grasp of reality. They need to be in contact with their kids… not out of touch. There is nothing more that I dislike about a single dad (or parent really) romance is when the kids are around but the parent is checked out.
Here are some single dad books that I think get it right. And here are some single dads that we chatted about in our trope talk about the single parent.
Listen to more single dad recs here:
