In Defence of the Third Act Breakup

On romance and why it needs angst

I consider myself a romance girlie. At this point, it’s my second most-read genre after fantasy, and I have some thoughts on the third-act breakup.

The most hated romance trope?

It’s probably, next to miscommunication, the most hated romance genre convention. There’s a third-act break-up to be found in almost every romance book.

I used to hate it. My stomach would fill with dread at the thought of the oncoming heartbreak. I saw someone on Threads mention how they would stop reading romance books before the third act break-up to give the couple time to just be happy. I can emphasise with that feeling.

But then I read Cross the Line by Simone Soltani, and it’s like a switch flipped in my brain. I am now completely in favour of the third-act breakup or third-act conflict.

Here’s why (spoilers ahead):

I was so disappointed by the way Cross the Line ended. We had all these conflicts set up (she was dating her boss, who was also her brother’s best friend) but they just sort of fizzled out. Everything just worked out in the end with no lasting consequences.

I mean in reality that’s probably the right thing to do. Just have a normal, adult conversation and avoid the dreaded miscommunication trope. But in doing the adult thing, a key element of the book was lost for me. I wasn’t rooting for the characters.

There was no angst and no drama

It feels like they didn’t fight to be together, they just sort of were. For me, the core of a romance book should be characters coming together against all odds. It’s the ultimate wish fullfilment, right? To have someone love you through even your darkest days. It doesn’t always work out that way in real life, but in romance books, you’re guaranteed a happy ending.

There was nothing for them to overcome in Cross the Line, and their internal conflict wasn’t strong enough to replace any of the external conflicts.

It’s the reason why characters like Damon and Elena or Klaus and Caroline (from The Vampire Diaries) stick with us for so long. We rooted for them, and watched them suffer to be together and maybe not make it at all.

I’m not saying that a quiet, easy kind of love is not valid

Or that if there’s no suffering it’s not real love. That’s not what I mean, and I’d like to point out that I’m talking about fictional people here. My ideas on love in reality are different. This is simply my thoughts on the craft of romance novels.

So what could Cross the Line have done differently?

In my humble opinion, the epilogue should have been the third act conflict.

I’m using third-act breakup and third-act conflict interchangeably here, because in my mind a break-up is just a conflict, and conflicts happen in the three-act structure.

So, in the epilogue of Cross the Line, our racing driver MMC gets in an accident during a race. It was the perfect moment to build tension, to have the characters confront their inner and outer demons. But it was used too late, and by that point I didn’t care anymore.

A better example

The third-act breakup doesn’t always have to be a breakup either. One of my favourite examples is actually from a fanfiction. Instead of breaking up like the outside forces wanted them to, the two characters stay together in secret, working against the external conflict.

The tension of them having to pretend to break up, along with the emotional toll that took, is still something I think about to this day. I could not stop reading.

Compared to Cross the Line where I just felt meh, the well-placed third-act conflict in the fanfic had me hooked.

Third-act conflicts can be well done

I think the third-act breakup gets a bad rep in romance because some authors haven’t given us a believable build-up between the characters and their flaws.

Some of my favourite good examples is Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. The third act conflict made me cry, and I’ve never forgotten it.

I’ve read many third-act breakups where they break up for the most stupid, inane reasons, and I rage at those too.

But I don’t think we should hate the genre convention itself. It can be well done, and we just have to find the books that do it well.

Basically, I am a glutton for punishment. Give me all the angst, tension, and heartbreak please.

Let’s chat!

💬 Are you a fan of the third act breakup?

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