Looking for some creative sparks for your next romance novel or short love story? Then this master list of romance prompts is all you need.

These prompts cover all the heavy hitting and popular romance tropes including the niche ones. Also, there are settings-based romance prompts such as LGBTQIA+, sports romance, holiday romance etc that cater to specific audiences.

Read along and pick the one that ignites the spark to write your next romance story.

Romance Prompts by Trope

Fake Dating Prompts

1. For the cameras, their rivalry has blossomed into a perfect love story. But when the cooking show director yells "cut," the charming smiles curdle, because the only thing they truly share is a burning desire to win.
2. She comes up with a brilliant idea. For one week, she plays the doting fiancée to her icy CEO to land the big account. The problem is, his surprisingly gentle touch during their charade feels anything but contractual.
3. He decides to feign her loving boyfriend for one reunion weekend to fend off her insufferable ex. It’s a favor she asked for and he agreed. But slow dancing in a crowded room has them wondering if their years of friendship were just a prequel.
4. They decide to come across as a perfect couple for securing a career-making grant which was meant only for couples. The plan is to fool the committee. However, they can’t hide their chemistry during the interview.
5. Her inheritance depends on proving she's "settled down," so she makes a deal with the town grump. The whole town buys their performance, but living this small-town lie is beginning to feel more like home than she ever expected.

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Enemies to Lovers

6. Rival architects must co-design a city landmark. Their styles clash until an all-night session reveals a shared passion that could build something more than just a skyscraper.
7. He inherited half a vineyard. She, the other half. Their families have been enemies for a century. To save it they must work together. And maybe uncork a forbidden vintage.
8. He’s the corporate fixer who kills her stories. A city lockdown traps them in the same hotel. Soon their explosive arguments start to feel a lot like foreplay.
9. A critic's brutal review almost destroyed his restaurant. Now they must judge a food festival together. He plans revenge. But her sharp palate is an undeniable aphrodisiac.
10. They are spies on opposite sides of a war. Their mission is to infiltrate a royal ball together. Betraying their country is treason. Betraying each other feels worse.
11. She’s the maid of honor. He's the best man. They share a disastrous history. Now they must plan a wedding. Or possibly start a war over floral arrangements.

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Second Chance Romance

12. He stole her restaurant dream to build his empire. Now her struggling bistro needs an investor, and he is the only one. He offers cash. She remembers the cost.
13. A bitter rivalry shattered their trust and partnership. Now a new map forces the two archaeologists on one last expedition, where the greatest danger is trusting him again.
14. The boy who never came home is back, a wounded veteran on her examination table. She is the town doctor. Mending his body is her duty. Trusting his heart again is not.
15. Their daughter’s destination wedding forces the divorced couple to play nice for a week. The old laughter comes back easily, but so do the old arguments that first tore them apart.
16. Their engagement ended with one disastrous final art project. Now a gallery demands one more collaboration for a retrospective. The canvas is blank, but their shared history is not.
17. Young, in love, and on a losing campaign, they chose opposite political paths. Now powerful rivals, a new bill forces them to work together, haunted by the idealists they once were.

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Slow Burn Romance Prompts

18. For three years, he's been the quiet archivist for her obsessive research. Their only contact is call slips and library whispers. But he knows her mind better than anyone.
19. The reclusive author next door never speaks. But every Tuesday, she leaves a plate of something warm on his porch. Every Wednesday, the plate is returned, empty.
20. His job is to be a shadow, to protect the brilliant scientist from a threat she can't see. Love is not in the contract. It is a risk he is not paid to take.
21. She inherits her late husband's half of the workshop. His best friend runs the other. They work side by side, surrounded by ghosts of the past, grief, and the low hum of machinery.
22. A single dad and her son’s teacher, the weekly meetings between him and her are supposed to be about math grades. They're slowly becoming about everything else. A line they both pretend not to see.

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Forbidden Love Prompts

23. Whispering peace with the enemy's daughter felt like treason. Every secret meeting was a betrayal of his clan. But her hand in his was its own small, defiant kingdom.
24. His duty was to the crown, not to the princess's heart. But the king was a monster, and the thought of her in his arms felt like a worse treason than love.
25. Love was a human virus, and she was his beautiful, joyful plague. He was a diplomat from a world without feeling. Learning to feel for her could save him or start a war.
26. In this town, everyone knew her family had ruined his. Loving her was impossible, a ghost story. Until their secret meetings started rewriting a history everyone thought was settled.
27. The first rule was never get involved with a client. But her star witness was a dead man walking, and her carefully constructed legal briefs couldn't protect her own heart.
28. Her magic tasted like ash whenever she healed him, the reformed villain. The purer her heart had to be, the darker his past was. Was his redemption worth her own light?

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Fateful Encounters or Meet Cute Prompts

29. An ill-tempered barista serves a perpetually late architect her daily, exact coffee order.
30. Rival pet adoption volunteers clash over a mischievous kitten, sharing an unexpected laugh.
31. A skeptical food critic accidentally reviews a charming chef's secret family recipe stand.
32. Lost in a historic library, an introverted researcher is found by a charismatic tour guide.
33. Opposing witnesses to a bizarre fender-bender are forced to share a long car ride.
34. An overworked CEO mistakes her new, rebellious assistant for an applicant.

Single Parent Romance

35. A single father restores forgotten maps. His son and a curious historian are searching for a fairytale kingdom on an old piece of parchment. He knows it isn't real. But she makes him want to believe.
36. She's a single mom who speaks to her daughter in constellations from their small town observatory. He's the new park ranger, a man who believes only in what he can touch. When his daughter claims a star fell in the woods, he comes to the astronomer for answers, finding a whole new universe in her eyes.
37. A luthier and single father builds instruments that hold quiet stories. His son’s new music teacher, a woman with mismatched socks and a wild laugh, can hear every one of them. She starts to teach the boy to play. And the father to listen again.
38. As a museum curator and single mom, her life is a careful collection of facts. Then a folklore professor starts visiting her exhibit with his quiet nephew, insisting an old spinning wheel is a cursed thing from a forgotten story. Her carefully labeled world is threatened by a man who believes in fairy tales.
39. He runs the city’s lost and found, a lonely land of forgotten things. She is looking for a sketchbook filled with impossible monsters. Her son believes they’re real. After meeting her, so does he.
40. He’s a meteorologist who understands the logic of storms but can't calm his daughter's fear of them. The new artist next door, however, chases lightning with a sketchbook. She starts teaching the girl the beauty of a storm, and shows the father the beautiful chaos his predictable life has been missing.

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Forced Proximity Romance

41. Two rival historians, locked in a remote archive, must solve a coded royal secret.
42. After a public breakup, two lead singers are trapped on their tour bus for one last week. They must write one final song while navigating the wreckage.
43. A stoic bodyguard and his independent client locked themselves in a safe house. With a threat outside, they must trust each other to survive the enemy and their simmering dislike.
44. A cranky baker and his cheerful rival are snowed in together. Trapped by the blizzard, they must share the last of their flour and the warmth of one oven.
45. Trapped in a stalled elevator during a citywide blackout, a powerful executive and a struggling musician share secrets in the dark they would never tell in the light.
46. Married to her family's enemy for a fragile peace, they are confined to a remote estate. They must forge an alliance while their families wait for them to fail.

Friends To Lovers

47. She's been his shadow, his confidante, his biggest fan for years. Everyone knew she loved him. Except him. And now he’s bringing someone home.
48. She is his emergency contact, a role she's held since kindergarten. But this time, the call from the hospital feels different. And so does he.
49. He's the best man at his lifelong best friend's wedding, a wedding he knows is a mistake. He has until the vows.
50. He always made her coffee just right. A silent morning ritual that defined their life as roommates. Now he's moving out, and she realizes it wasn't the coffee she'd miss.
51. The secret of what they buried that summer has been their silent, unbreakable bond. Now, years later, a construction crew is breaking ground near that very spot.

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Love Triangle Prompts

52. The band's lead singer is torn between her steady boyfriend on drums and the brilliant, chaotic new guitarist who writes songs only for her.
53. A resident doctor is caught between a charming, reckless surgeon and a kind, by-the-book pediatrician. Her choice of specialty will also be a choice of a man.
54. Her past and present collide when her high school flame returns, just as she's falling for her quiet neighbor. One offers nostalgia. The other, a new beginning.
55. She fell for the charming younger brother first. But his quiet, responsible older brother is the one who truly sees her. A family crisis reveals all.
56. A rookie firefighter is torn between her steady, respected captain and a fearless, risk-taking smokejumper. A wildfire will force her to choose who to follow.
57. An idealistic campaign manager loves her candidate. But she has an undeniable chemistry with her cynical rival. An election-night scandal will reveal her true allegiance.

Unrequited Love Prompts

58. As his personal assistant, she knows all his secrets. He just doesn't know her biggest one. Now he is moving for a promotion.
59. He broke her heart years ago. Now they are colleagues, and he must watch in silent agony as another man tries to win her back.
60. She tends the garden of the woman she secretly loves.
61. His job is to take a bullet for her. Not love her.
62. For years, she has secretly kept his chaotic life from imploding. He thinks she's just a friend. Now he's bringing someone new home.
63. The weatherman performs tiny tweaks on his forecast from his studio so that he can protect the florist’s flowers across the street. She thinks she’s just lucky.

Marriage of Convenience and Arranged Marriage

64. Two rival spies, trained to lie, must enter a marriage for a mission. Their greatest danger isn't the enemy, but the terrifying honesty they only find with each other.
65. To inherit a priceless greenhouse, she marries the botanist for a year. She films a “love story” with him as proof, only to find the fiction becoming dangerously real.
66. A bookish prince is forced into a political marriage with a formidable warrior queen. Their alliance is for peace, but the respect he finds for her could start a different war.
67. To win a custody battle, a child’s devoted nanny and her reclusive uncle must marry. Their partnership to protect the little girl unexpectedly begins to mend three broken hearts.
68. Paired by an algorithm on a voyage to a new planet, their arranged marriage is for survival. But their illogical, inconvenient love becomes its own reason to live.

Age Gap Romance

These prompts depict consenting adults.

69. A young journalist interviews a celebrated novelist twice her age. His sharp answers hide regrets, and her persistence tempts him to reveal a chapter he swore he would never share.
70. She is twenty years younger and works at the bakery across from his antique shop. When her landlord threatens eviction, he offers help, but neither expects how complicated affection can feel when trust is fragile.
71. A college graduate joins a historical excavation team. The lead archaeologist, a man seasoned by decades in the field, is drawn to her daring questions, yet the project’s investors view their closeness as a risk to the funding.
72. She manages his social media while he runs for mayor. The late nights, the laughter over typos, and the whispered fears of losing the campaign blur the careful lines between professional and personal.
73. She tutors his daughter, but his kindness keeps slipping into her thoughts.
74. A widowed rancher in his fifties hires a much younger woman to help with the horses. The small town watches closely, and every rumor turns affection into a trial they must quietly endure.

Billionaire Romance

75. The gala was supposed to be a simple fundraiser, yet when she publicly questions his newest tech project, the spark between them feels sharper than the clash of their opinions.
76. She wins a lawsuit against his corporation, only to find herself offered a consulting role. Every meeting turns into a test of boundaries, where attraction lingers behind each legal clause.
77. She built a billion-dollar cosmetics line from scratch, and when the small-town carpenter she hires to restore her childhood home pushes back on her every demand, the friction feels far too personal.
78. He is a chef known for his stubborn independence, but when a woman worth billions falls for his food and insists on backing his dream restaurant, the partnership feels far more complicated than the menu.
79. The city buzzes about her new art gallery, yet his investment threatens to turn whispers of scandal into front-page news. She wonders if trust is possible when money shadows every compliment.

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Workplace Romance

80. The new assistant organizes the CEO’s impossible schedule with quiet brilliance, but after a snowstorm traps them in the office, the unspoken attraction becomes dangerous in a company where rumors spread like fire.
81. In a glass-walled law firm, the junior analyst’s bold strategy saves the partner’s faltering case, yet one slip of affection could end her career before it even begins.
82. She runs the campaign, he is the senator’s chief of staff, and their late-night debate over policy sparks more than strategy, though every aide outside the door listens for whispers.
83. A business trip pairs her with the notoriously aloof department head. Hotel mishaps and delayed flights force them into unguarded conversations that make returning to the office unbearable.
84. The brilliant intern challenges the CEO in a boardroom filled with shareholders. His grudging respect grows into admiration, but the entire staff knows HR has zero tolerance for such entanglements.
85. She manages the newsroom deadlines, while he anchors the evening show. Their rivalry hides respect, yet a quiet dinner after a grueling broadcast makes secrecy feel like the most reckless choice.
86. At a startup where gossip is currency, she balances the books while the founder dazzles investors. A shared weekend encounter at a farmer’s market threatens to undo months of careful distance.

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Grumpy Vs. Sunshine

87. Her new neighbor is always cheerful and plants flowers on her porch. The widowed professor next door grumbles at the noise until she quietly repairs the squeaky hinge on his gate.
88. She is assigned to share a community garden plot with the surly mechanic who scowls at every suggestion. But she is kind, and when she brings him coffee after his late shifts, he can’t suppress the crooked smile.
89. He hates being bothered. But when his neighbor insists on checking on him during his flu and brings him a coffee, he mutters thanks to her with affection.
90. His car is stolen and he has no choice but to carpool with her to go to work. Her laugh bounces through every mile.. He scolds her optimism until she defends him from gossip at the diner, and his quiet chuckle in return feels like a truce.
91. The bakery owner greets every customer with joy, except the gruff accountant who counts every penny. When she slips a cinnamon roll into his bag without charge, he complains, then later admits it was the best he ever tasted.

Travel Romance

92. A missed train strands her in Kyoto, where the quiet temples and neon-lit alleys pull her into the orbit of a reserved photographer who is also searching for a past he never confronted.
93. In Marrakech’s chaotic markets, she loses her passport and finds help from a grumpy language teacher stuck there after his flight was canceled. Their shared hunt through crowded alleys reveals more than either expected.
94. He travels to the Scottish Highlands to scatter his father’s ashes, but a washed-out road leaves him sharing a cottage with a cheerful botanist cataloging rare plants. Storms force them together, yet departure looms too soon.
95. A double-booked rental car in New Zealand throws a corporate lawyer on leave after burnout and a carefree travel blogger into an uneasy road trip. Every detour becomes a fragile thread tying them closer.
96. She flies to Buenos Aires to fulfill her grandmother’s last wish, but when her hotel overbooks, she ends up rooming with a local chef preparing for a festival. Their late-night tango lessons blur promises of return.
97. In Iceland’s icy wilderness, his high-stakes work assignment falters when his translator never arrives. Instead, a woman stranded by a snowstorm steps in, guiding him through glaciers where silence and shared awe melt his defenses.

Survival Romance Prompts

98. A viral outbreak empties the city, but survival binds her fate with his.
99. After the avalanche, she is the mountain guide who keeps him alive, though her steady confidence unnerves him more than the cold.
100. A viral outbreak leaves him panicked in an empty city, but her medical training turns survival into partnership, with fragile hope growing daily.
101. After a volcanic eruption strands her on an island airstrip, she and the pilot turn every ruined supply run into survival.
102. A train derailment leaves her trapped in the wilderness with a brooding doctor, where shared injuries force tenderness beneath stubborn pride.
103. When their boat capsizes off the coast, she swims them to shore, her resilience forcing his admiration even as hunger sets in.

Royalty and Commoner Romance

104. At a royal banquet, the princess notices the stable boy’s sharp wit, though one word of gossip could ruin them both.
105. He is a crown prince betrothed to a foreign duchess, yet his heart lingers on the village baker’s daughter who slips him warm bread.
106. A widowed queen visits the battlefield to honor her fallen, where a wounded soldier’s courage sparks a dangerous affection.
107. The blacksmith’s son is summoned to craft a sword for the king’s daughter, and every hour in the forge deepens forbidden admiration.
108. She is a maid serving the royal court, but when the young duke finds her sketching portraits, her artistry threatens to upend tradition.
109. A scholar from the countryside tutors the princess in ancient languages, yet their closeness invites whispers that could strip him of his post.
110. He is a fisherman with salt in his hair and tide in his voice, and she is the weary princess seeking escape beyond her jeweled cage.

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Romance Prompts by Settings

Highschool Romance Prompts

111. Online, he’s a legendary gamer; in school, she’s his valedictorian rival. When a tournament forces them to team up, their digital and real worlds collide, forcing them to question which identity truly matters.
112. After his dad’s public scandal, he's a social outcast. The school editor sees him as her scholarship story, but the boy behind the headlines is making her question her own ambition.
113. To save the arts budget, a cellist and a punk rocker must perform together. Their mashup goes viral, forcing them to decide if they are more than the labels their friends have given them.
114. She runs an anonymous, body-positive Instagram account. He’s the popular photographer trying to interview the mystery influencer, not knowing he’s already falling for the quiet girl in his photo club.
115. Their families are rival food truck owners. Their secret romance is a betrayal of a feud they never chose. They must now decide if their future will be their own.
116. Cast as romantic leads, kissing him on stage feels more real than anything in her life. It forces her to confront the terrifying line between playing a part and finally being herself.

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Small Town Romance Prompts

117. He bought the only cotton mill in the town and plans to replace the majority of the workers with modern machinery. But the vicar’s daughter, a formidable woman, stands in his path. He feels vexed that he is not just yielding to her ideals but to her spirit as well.
118. She who fled the town for a life of supposed glamour has returned in disgrace. She has no option now but to rely upon the kindness of the very gentleman whose earnest proposal she cruelly rejected. He remembers it and so does the entire town.
119. His inheritance requires him to marry a local woman of good standing. A most unfortunate and provincial requirement.
120. A lady of good sense but poor prospects inherits her family’s failing bookshop. She must now seek the business advice of her childhood rival, a man whose success she finds both infuriating and, to her great surprise, rather attractive.
121. The annual Harvest Festival has been thrown into chaos. Its fate now rests upon a reluctant alliance between the town's most respected spinster and the scandalous rogue who has just returned to claim his family's disgraced estate.
122. He is the new town physician, a man of science and logic. He finds the local baker's daughter, with her talk of herbal remedies and old wives' tales, to be a most charming and illogical affliction upon his reason.

Sports Romance Prompts

123. A gruff, veteran hockey enforcer is in his final season. He needs a win. The new team doctor, sharp and entirely unimpressed by his reputation, demands he heal. Or lose his chance.
124. The Olympic hopeful, a gymnast whose entire life is precision, faces a career-ending injury. Her only path back is through a reckless, charming physical therapist who believes passion is better than perfection.
125. He's the arrogant rookie quarterback, a star destined for glory. She’s the pragmatic athletic trainer determined to keep his head from swelling. And his knee from buckling.
126. A disgraced figure skater, banned for a past scandal, is offered one last shot. And that is to coach a volatile, brilliant pairs team. He finds himself battling the sharp wit and stubborn heart of the team's publicist.
127. She's the underdog marathon runner, sacrificing everything for a personal best. Her new, infuriatingly handsome agent sees her as a precious commodity worth millions. He must learn to see the woman, not just the race.
128. The star baseball player, infamous for his cocky smile, is riddled with anxiety. He finds an unexpected confidante in the team's quiet, brilliant statistician. She sees the numbers. And the man.

LGBTQIA+ Romances

129. He thought his online gaming rival was a guy. Now they're roommates in college.
130. The lead singer and the quiet bassist have been writing secret love songs about each other for years.
131. A bisexual painter feels invisible until she meets a gallery owner who sees every color on her canvas and in her heart.
132. In the repressed 1950s, a by-the-book librarian discovers a secret drag club. He's only there for research, but finds himself captivated by the club's star performer.
133. A closeted, rising-star politician relies on his brilliant, openly gay speechwriter to craft his public image. Their late-night strategy sessions become a dangerous confessional as the man who writes the words falls for the man who is too afraid to live with them.

Holiday Romance Prompts

134. A skeptic who debunks haunted houses for a living is forced to work with a true believer to cleanse his childhood home before a Halloween party. He thinks it’s a joke, until things start to happen that only she can explain.
135. Two cynics, both ghosting their dates at the same fancy restaurant, decide to share an anti-Valentine's dinner together instead.
136. He's spent an entire year getting over her. Now they're trapped on a stalled subway train just minutes before the New Year's Eve ball drops.
137. Stranded by a Thanksgiving snowstorm, they agree to share a meal at a lonely roadside diner. The only two customers.
138. The first Thanksgiving alone is a quiet, hollow thing. To escape the ghosts in his own house, he volunteers at a community dinner. There he is partnered with a woman who moves through her own grief with a gentle strength, showing him that sometimes, gratitude is a lesson you must relearn.

Over To You!

No more blank page curse, no more lack of ideas, and no more confusion between the tropes. These romance prompts have all the ingredients of setup, hook, conflict, and trope or setting-specific stakes built in to give you the nudge for your next romance novel.
And if you are short on time and want a romance prompt on the go, then don’t forget to check out our prompt generator.