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?

 

Top Ten Strong Female Characters

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 character freebie so I decided to go with Strong Female Characters. Check out the links to go to the first book in each series (except for Queen of Shadows and Outlander) to read more about these characters. Queen of Shadows and Dragonfly in Amber are the first books that my selected character appears in those series.

• Vin from the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
• Lysandra Ennar from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
• Mia Corvere from Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff
• Jude Duarte from The Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black
• Ead Duryan from The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

• Nynaeve al’Meara from The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
• Audrey Rose Wadsworth from Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco
• Kady Grant from the Illuminae trilogy by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
• Karou from Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor
• Bree Fraser from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

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Who are some of your favorite strong female characters?”

Top Ten Childhood Favorites

Hey everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts but I have so many anticipated releases for the rest of the year that this one came pretty easy to me. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is Childhood Favorites.

I love this week’s topic. I devoured books when I was a child, even more than I do now. I loved going to the library to pick out new books. And over the years I’ve gradually been collecting the books I loved to read when I was growing up. Here is a stack of ten of my favorite books that I read when I was growing up.

• Dove and Sword by Nancy Garden – This was one of my absolute favorites, in case you couldn’t tell from how worn the spine is haha. I think this was one of my first purchases from the Scholastic Book Fair. I actually found a hardcover copy at Half Price Books a few years ago so I have that as my back up if/when this copy falls apart. This book is about Joan of Arc from the perspective of a childhood friend who went along on Joan’s journey. I think I read it at least 4 times.
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – This entire series holds a special place in my heart as well as the movies. I feel such a kinship with Anne Shirley and love her story so much.
• Matilda by Roald Dahl – This one is kind of representative of several of Roald Dahl’s books, but this one is definitely my favorite one that he wrote.
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This series also holds a special place in my heart. I’ve also been able to visit at least one of the places where Laura Ingalls lived.

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt – I’ve always loved this story and really need to find a copy that doesn’t have the movie cover on it. I liked the movie for what it was but I just generally don’t like movie cover editions of books.
• Save Queen of Sheba by Louise Moeri – This was a book I first read with my 4th grade class and loved. I still remember parts of it pretty vividly although I haven’t read it in a long time.
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry – Everyone loves The Giver, and while I enjoyed it too, it’s not my favorite she’s written. This book is. I’ve lost count of how many times I read this book and count it as one of the reasons why I love WWII history so much.
• Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech – I loved a lot of her books – Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird – but this one was probably my favorite. And totally funny story but since we were so young, my friends and I pronounced “Chaos” as “Ch-ouse” haha. We still get a kick out of it when we talk about that book.

• A Journey to the New World  by Kathryn Lasky – This one is representing the entire Dear America series. I freaking loved these books so much and couldn’t get enough of them. I still am working on collecting as many as I can get my hands on.
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – One of my all time favorite classics. I always identified most with Jo with a splash of the other three sisters.

Also, shout out to some other books I loved while I was growing up – Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Sideways Stories From Wayside School, and the Boxcar Children.

What were some of your favorite childhood reads?

Books On My Summer 2019 TBR

Hey everyone! I’m back for another Top Ten Tuesday this week. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is Books On My Summer 2019 TBR. I went with eleven books this week because two of them go together. (Click the book cover to be taken to the Goodreads page for more info about each book.)

• Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa – I absolutely loved Shadow of the Fox last year so I was really excited to get an eARC of Soul of the Sword. I actually plan to read this one next after I finish the current review copy I’m reading.
• DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff – I love everything and anything written by Jay Kristoff and the first book, LIFEL1K3, was awesome and DEV1AT3 is officially out today so I’ll be reading this one as soon as I possibly can.
• Lock Every Door by Riley Sager – This one will be my first book by Riley Sager but I’ve heard nothing but great things so I’m really looking forward to reading this one. I have an eARC to review for it so I’ll be reading it fairly soon.

• The Darkest Time of Night by Jeremy Finley AND The Dark Above by Jeremy Finley  – The Darkest Time of Night is the first book in a series that has the sequel, The Dark Above, coming out in July. The publisher sent me copies of both. They’re being called a cross between The X-Files, The OA, Stranger Things, and Mr. Robot. Very much looking forward to reading these sci-fi thrillers.

• Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – This one is a no-brainer for me. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t read it right away already. I love the books these two write together.
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson – I LOVED her debut novel, An Enchantment of Ravens so I’ve been super stoked to read this one.
• A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer – I picked this one up on a bit of a whim at Target. When I first heard about it, I loved the cover and synopsis but was planning to wait on it for awhile. But the more I saw it on the shelf at Target, the more I wanted it.

• The Handmaid’s Tale graphic novel by Margaret Atwood – I really enjoyed reading this book in high school as well as Hulu’s adaptation. I’m so glad that she is writing a sequel so I really want to read the graphic novel version of The Handmaid’s Tale.
• The Steel Prince graphic novel by V.E. Schwab – I’m really interested in finding out more about Maxim Maresh before he became king of Red London. I loved the Shades of Magic series and I love graphic novels so this should be great.
• Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson – The sequel is coming out soon so I think it’s finally time to read this one. I had a feeling I was going to need book 2 immediately after reading this one so I waited to start this one until closer to book 2’s release.

What books are on your summer TBR?

 

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2019

Hey everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts but I have so many anticipated releases for the rest of the year that this one came pretty easy to me. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2019. (Click the book cover to be taken to the Goodreads page for more info about each book.)

• Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff – September 3 – This is my absolute #1 most anticipated read for the entire year. I can’t believe this trilogy is ending. It is seriously epic and if you haven’t started Nevernight yet, then I recommend you drop everything else and pick up a copy so you are ready for what is sure to be an insane series finisher.
• The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black – November 19 – When Holly Black announced that QoN was going to be releasing months early AND on the day after my birthday, I flipped! Another series ender that I have been DYING to read since I read the previous book.
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern – November 5 – I have been waiting and waiting for her to write another book after absolutely falling in love with her writing and creativity in The Night Circus. Really looking forward to what she creates in this new novel.
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – October 1 – I would read absolutely anything that Leigh Bardugo writes. She is pure magic.
• The Wives by Tarryn Fisher – December 31 – This one barely makes the cut by publishing on the last day of the year but it is Tarryn Fisher and I can’t wait to read it. I have devoured every book she has ever written.

• Regretting You by Colleen Hoover – December 10 – Like with Tarryn Fisher books, I devour anything written by Colleen Hoover. I am not even sure what this book is about but I don’t care. CoHo forever!
• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – September 9 – Another author I’ve enjoyed every book they’ve ever written. If you haven’t read any of her books and love thrillers and mysteries, I definitely recommend reading them. I’m super excited because Barnes & Noble has signed copies available for preorder.
• DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff – June 25 – Very much looking forward to reading this sequel to LIFEL1K3. Jay Kristoff is one of my favorite authors and 100% autobuy.
• Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater – November 5 – Ronan was one of my favorite characters from The Raven Cycle series so I am so stoked that he is getting his own series.
• Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw – November 5 – Man, my November 5th is going to be a great day for book releases as this one makes #3. I absolutely loved her first book, The Wicked Deep, so I knew I needed this one the second I heard about it.

And there you have it! Those are the ten books I am most anticipating for the rest of the year. I have two others also preordered for this year that deserve honorable mention. Warrior of Altaii by Robert Jordan and Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab.  Warrior of Altaii is the first book that Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time series, wrote but never published. He passed away in 2007 so his wife (who was also his editor) is having it published finally. Tunnel of Bones is the sequel to City of Ghosts which is a great middle grade series about a girl who can see ghosts.

What book releases are you looking forward to during the rest of 2019?