My Top Ten Romance Tropes

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is a Love Freebie so I decided to do a post about my favorite romance tropes with two book recommendations for each one. I’m the kind of person that loves having some kind of romance in just about every book I read… I’m a hopeless romantic, what can I say lol. A lot of romance tropes drive people crazy and I’ll admit there are quite a few that do not float my boat at all. But the ten on this list are ones that I usually end up enjoying. Click on the book cover image to go to the Goodreads page for each book.

 

TIME TRAVEL

Anything with a person traveling back in time and finding true love, I am there for it. Might be a bit obvious with my first choice of Outlander but hey, that’s one of my all time-favorites so it had to make the list. In addition to Mariana I would also recommend The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley that would fall under this category. I really enjoyed both.

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ENEMIES TO LOVERS

In this category you’ll find books like the classic Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen but I decided to recommend two that I have recently read and enjoyed. Well Met was super cute and I loved seeing Emily and Simon’s relationship shift and change throughout the book. Dating You/Hating You was also a fun read.

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FORBIDDEN LOVE

There are so many great books with a forbidden love story but I decided to go with two of my favorite fantasy forbidden love stories. In A Discovery of Witches, Diana, a witch, and Matthew, a vampire, are forbidden to be together and yet their love will change the world of the supernatural forever. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou and Akiva are beings from two different worlds… or are they? They are two different beings but who Karou really is makes their relationship forbidden.

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FAKE RELATIONSHIP

I put off reading To All The Boys for the longest time because I thought it would be too cutesy but I adored it. I devoured the entire trilogy in a few days and I’ve watched the Netflix adaptation probably at least 3 times. I’m really looking forward to the sequel which premieres on Netflix on the Feb. 12th! Lara Jean and Peter K forever! Another fake relationship story I really enjoyed was The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

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SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE

I really love when characters are able to take a second shot at love with someone it didn’t work out with the first time around. I love second chances in general so adding the romance to it has me sold. Say You Still Love Me was a book I really got into. A cute first love story that didn’t work out and years later they get another chance to rekindle the flame.  And of course, I couldn’t get through this list without adding one from Jane Austen. Persuasion is one of my favorites.

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OPPOSITES ATTRACT

I love reading about two people who seemingly wouldn’t fit together but something sparks between them. These are two recent favorites that fit into that category. Bringing Down the Duke has Annabelle, a recent female entrant into Oxford from a poor family and Sebastian, the Queen of England’s favorite duke. In The Simple Wild, Calla and Jonah are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum… She’s a city girl, he’s a wilderness man.

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SECRET ROMANCE

For one reason or another, some romances need to be kept a secret. In the case of The Royal We, a prince falls in love with an American and they try their hardest to keep their romance out of the tabloids. In Slammed, the new girl and the boy next door hit it off, and then find out that he is her teacher so their relationship has to be kept a secret.

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FRIENDS TO LOVERS

I loved both of these books. F*ck Marriage had a little bit of a difference where the guy had been carrying a torch for the girl for a decade while she was with his best friend. Maybe Someday had two strangers connecting over music, becoming friends and then more.

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SOULMATES/FATE

Last year I ended up binge reading the first 9 books in the Charley Davidson series. If you’re looking for a great paranormal series with a soulmate/fate angle, then look no further than First Grave on the Right. Another great fantasy series in this category is the Caster Chronicles series starting with Beautiful Creatures.

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LOVE TRIANGLE

Lastly there is the love triangle. I don’t typically read a lot of this trope but these are a couple that I really enjoyed. The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher and The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

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What are some of your favorite romance tropes?

 

February 2020 TBR

February is finally here! January seemed to drag on forever and ever. I had a great reading month starting off the year with 27 books read (thank you audiobooks haha). I’ll probably hit a few slow spots this year as is my usual way with reading so I’m glad I’ll have some extra cushion for those times so I can still meet my goal for the whole year. As you may know if you’ve been following me for awhile, I am a mood reader 100% so TBRs don’t always work out for me. I try to keep them pretty loose and just go with the flow. I don’t force myself to stick to my TBR if I’m not in the mood for what I had originally picked. For right now, I’m feeling pretty much locked on to fantasy so this is my plan for the month.

• Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
• The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
• The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab
• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
• Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

I also have an eARC for Ruthless Gods, the sequel to Wicked Saints so I may fit that in this month, too. I will also still be working on finishing my reread of Gone With The Wind. That one has taken a little bit of a backseat the last couple weeks of January so I’m looking forward to picking it back up.

Have you read any of these books? What books are you planning to read in February?

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

Camelot Rising #1

Published November 5, 2019 by Delacorte Press

352 Pages

Goodreads Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a new fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend, set in the magical world of Camelot.

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution–send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old–including Arthur’s own family–demand things continue as they have been, and the new–those drawn by the dream of Camelot–fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur’s knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

Review: I started off reading this book during a reading slump so for the first 8% I was a little out of touch with what was going on. I was really intrigued by Guinevere’s personality and back story. She is not all she appears to be, hence the title of the book. There are so many twists in this book that I’m not even sure how much I should say about the story or characters. When I got out of my reading slump, this book clicked so well with me. I loved everything that was going on and was on the edge of my seat. I was starting to ship Guinevere with a character who was NOT Arthur about halfway through. There is a mysterious character referred to as the patchwork knight and I was so sure I knew what was going to happen with this person but I was really surprised when I hit that particular twist. I’m not completely familiar with Arthurian legend but I really loved how Kiersten White approached this retelling. SUPER shocked about the major twist at the end. I seriously cannot wait until the next book comes out. I will definitely be buying myself a copy of this book and recommending it to fantasy fans.

4 stars

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

December 2019 TBR

Happy December everyone! I can’t believe we are starting the last month of 2019 already. This year has gone by crazy fast. Last month I had a HORRIBLE month of reading. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you know I participated in this fall reading bingo in September and October…. well I completely overdid it (got a blackout) so once November hit, I had zero desire to read anything. The books I did try to read didn’t exactly go very well. I started The Scorpio Races on November 1st to go along with the setting of the book but I just could not get into it. I’m still only about a third of the way through it and I haven’t touched the book since November 8th. I did start and finish The Wives by Tarryn Fisher though. I was lucky enough to receive an eARC from the publisher and really enjoyed it. Check out my review here. I also started another eARC that I was excited to get approved for but that has been slow going as well. Not that the book isn’t good… I just don’t feel like reading.

But I am hoping to turn things around in December because what’s better than curling up with a cozy blanket and a good book on a cold, snowy night. I’m putting together a very loose TBR so I have some options but also have a general idea of what I want to try and read this month. I have some review copies piling up so I would like to focus on getting those read. A couple of them are sequels to books I haven’t read yet so I’m also going to add in the first book for those.

• The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White – First off I need to finish this eARC since the book was already published on November 5th. So far I’m really intrigued by this Arthur retelling.
• Wonder Woman: Warbringer graphic novel – I want to get this one read but you won’t be seeing my review until it is released per publisher’s request so hang in there until January 7th.
• The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey – I was invited to read this from St. Martin’s Press and it sounds so good that I accepted. It also turns out to be one of the choices for Book of the Month this month so it must be good! This one publishes on December 10th so look for a review sometime around then.
• Blood Countess by Lana Popovic – Ever since I saw the movie Stay Alive, I’ve had a weird interest in Countess Elizabeth Bathory so I am really excited to read this one. This one is scheduled for publication on January 28th.

• Wicked Saints and Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan  – I’ve been really looking forward to this one and now since I was approved for the eARC of the sequel, I’m even more excited! Ruthless Gods is going to be published on April 7th so I may put that one on the back burner until I can get through a few more of these that are going to be published sooner. But I may end up loving Wicked Saints so much that I won’t be able to wait.

• A Curse So Dark and Lonely and A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer – I bought A Curse So Dark and Lonely shortly after it was published because it sounded so good and look at that cover… I then got an ARC of the sequel that is due to be published January 7th so I am thrilled to get to these two this month.

• One More River To Cross by Jane Kirkpatrick – This one I got a couple months ago from the publisher through LibraryThing. I’ve been putting it off because it didn’t quite fit into the bingo I was doing and then in November I just wasn’t feeling reading at all. This one published on September 3rd.

I’m also leaving things open for myself to read any of the books that I’ve purchased in 2019 but haven’t read yet. There were so many that I was excited for but had to put on hold because I didn’t want to attempt them when I wasn’t in the mood to read. Some of those may include:

What are you planning to read in December?

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Expected publication: December 30th 2019 by Graydon House

256 Pages

Goodreads Summary: Imagine that your husband has two other wives.

You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself.

But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.

You thought you were fine with your arrangement, but you can’t help yourself: you track her down, and, under false pretenses, you strike up a friendship. Hannah has no idea who you really are. Then, Hannah starts showing up to your coffee dates with telltale bruises, and you realize she’s being abused by her husband. Who, of course, is also your husband. But you’ve never known him to be violent, ever.

Who exactly is your husband, and how far would you go to find the truth? Would you risk your own life?

And who is his mysterious third wife?

Review: I am a huge fan of Tarryn Fisher’s previous novels so I was ridiculously excited to get to read her upcoming novel early. Based on past experience with her writing, I was fully expecting something twisted and crazy… and The Wives is exactly that! Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, Tarryn throws in a twist, and then another twist, and another, until I’m not even sure what is happening! What I love about Tarryn’s books are that they aren’t what they seem in the beginning. The Wives appears to be a book about a polygamist marriage but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it ends up being in the end. I was completely shocked! I don’t want to say too much about the actual plot of the story because I think this book is one you kind of want to go in without any preconceived notions. If you are into psychological thrillers or Tarryn’s books, I highly recommend checking this one out! You won’t be disappointed.

4 Stars

I received an early copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.