There’s a lot of “opposites attract” in romance, and for good reason! It’s fantastic trope. Usually.

But there are some pairs of opposites that really cannot possibly find middle ground, and romance shouldn’t try to make it happen.

Maybe what I mean here is that some pairings can’t be spun as “opposites attract”. I’m not referencing any one book, but there are a rash of political romances for example, which require one character to accept morally repugnant views as a mere difference of opinion.

Sometimes modern or historical “both sides-ism” gets marketed as “opposites attract”, and it isn’t. There’s no spinning “He was protesting with the Westboro Baptists at her liberal best friend’s funeral” as a meet cute. That’s just an extreme illustration. Or is it.