storybook romance
- noun
- Their relationship blossomed into a storybook romance, filled with love and adventure.
Examples
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My parents had this, like... storybook romance.
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She always dreamed of having a storybook romance, just like the ones in her favorite novels.
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In the movie, the couple's journey evolves into a beautiful storybook romance that captivates the audience.
Synonyms
A traditional story for children with magic and strange beings
A children's story about magic and imaginary places
An event that looks perfect and magical like a fairy tale
A story for children about fairies and magic
Antonyms
How Romantic
Surface Forms
Morphology
storybook + romance
The phrase is compositionally built from 'storybook' (i.e., like a storybook or fairy tale) + 'romance' (a romantic relationship), so its meaning 'an idealized, fairy-tale-like relationship' follows directly from the constituents. This is a common, transparent metaphorical pattern found in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Storybook romance comes from the picture of a love story in a children's storybook, where the romance looks perfect and always ends happily. That's why storybook romance describes a real relationship that seems 'perfect' or like a 'fairy tale'.