Happy Valentine’s Day! 🩷 For this “special” day, I decided to join this week’s Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Jana @thatartsyreadergirl. This week the prompt is a “love freebie” and I had a hard time figuring out what to choose as a topic: Characters I love? All-time favourite books I love? Settings I love? …? There are just so many possibilities! In the end I settled for “Bookish tropes I love” and added some examples or rather recommendations. Most of them, I have also read myself, only a few are books I know fit into this category but haven’t read yet.
I hope you have fun with the post and as always please let me know if you participated in this week’s TTT too! I always LOVE discovering new book blogs but especially for this TTT since I am really curious to see what everyone did with their freebie topic.
1. Enemies to Lovers
Starting with the classics. Starting with THE trope of tropes (some might say): Enemies to lovers. We have seen it so many times, yet it still is one of the most popular romance tropes especially within the fantasy genre. I can’t really argue with that. 🤷🏽♀️ There is nothing as frustrating and at the same time entertaining as the back and forth of this trope. Add in a tragic betrayal and you have my favourite concept; the “enemies to lovers to enemies to (maybe again lovers)”. If any of you have recommendations for that scenario, please let me know! 🙏🏽
Meanwhile, I have The Wrath and the Dawn and Sorcery of Thorns here for back, both solid four-star reads of mine.
2. Friends to Lovers
This one doesn’t seem to be as popular as enemies to lovers, but I think this trope has its own charm. ✨ One might not have the back and forth of enemies to lovers but there is a lot of angst. Once you cross the threshold, you can’t really go back and things aren’t as they were. For this trope I definitely have to read more of, I present Jane Austen’s Emma and Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation.
3. Found Family
On to the trope I constantly look for when picking up books, movies, tv shows – really anything – because it’s so wholesome and refreshing to read: Found family! 💖 I recently picked up Jonathan Stroud’s middle grade/ya series Lockwood & Co. and it’s one of the best examples there: Three teenagers living together in central London, drinking tea and eating toasts with jam in the morning while also risking their lives ghost hunting at night. I love the bond they have and how different they are. That’s really the two ingredients I am looking for within this trope: Mix together random people and make them go through thick and thin. Same here with Six of Crows – one of my all-time favourites.
In case you want to hear more about Lockwood & Co. this is the post for you: Lockwood & Co. on Netflix Turns One Year Old: Discovering a Fantastic YA Mystery Book Series 10 Years (!) after its Release and Why You Need to Do The Same 💚
4. Slow-burn Romance
Me not being a fan of the instalove trope means that I in contrast love slow-burn romances. They often go hand in hand 🫱🏻🫲🏽 with the starcrossed-lovers or enemies-to-lovers trope. I read An Ember in the Ashes some time ago but remember that it was very well written and incorporated this trope perfectly. King of Scars, following Nikolai and Zoya, I have yet to read.
5. Wholesome Platonic Mentor and Mentee
The Mentor and Mentee trope is one of my absolute favourites. I highlighted the part of “wholesome” and “platonic” because I am well aware that authors sometimes tend to turn this one into a romance. But, for all the Star Wars fans, I am thinking more of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. To my shock I couldn’t think of any other examples for this trope! If you do have some, please feel free to share!!
6. Prince(ss) and the Pauper/ Forbidden Romance
The classic Romeo and Juliet trope. It often revolves around families, gangs, clubs, magical abilities and other associations. If you are looking for a magical slow-burn, slow-paced romance I can recommend The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore. I read that one two years ago and really enjoyed it. These Violent Delights, on the other hand, is still on my want-to-read list. 🐉
7. Royal Court
Preparing this post I just realized that I haven’t read books set at royal court for a while now. Probably, because I haven’t been reading “traditional fantasy”. 🤔 It is a great trope though, with lots of politics, intrigues, secrets and … usually ball gowns. Exemplarily, I picked two fantasy series I read: Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen and Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone.
8. Academic Rivals to Lovers
Thinking about it academic rivals/ academic rivals to lovers might be my favourite trope of all. 😊Unfortunately, I haven’t read that many books yet that follow this one. The Atlas Six has it but I was a bit disappointed by it (you can find my review here). An example and recommendation I can give you instead is Kerri Maniscalco’s Stalking Jack the Ripper series. Set in Victorian England, it follows Audrey Rose, a (due to the setting secret) forensic student that investigates the Ripper murders 🗡️ in London teamed up with another forensic student – Thomas Cresswell. The series is one of my absolute favourites (especially book #2!) and I read them back when they came out. A Study in Drowning is a newer release that is patiently waiting on my tbr.
9. Unreliable Narrator
The trope of mysteries and thrillers that keeps you guessing. As mystery is often a subgenre of the fantasy books I read, I have yet to read more books with unrealiable narrators. It seems that this trope can rather be found in mystery/thrillers only but correct me if I’m wrong. For authors, I believe this trope to be a tricky one as well 🤹🏼🤸🏽♀️ but with a lot of potential if executed well! Personally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of One of Us is Lying but maybe you have enjoyed it more.
10. Villain as the Protagonist
This seems to be rare category (or at least I find it exteremly difficult to find respective examples!). In lists Vicious is often mentioned, sometimes even Six of Crows. Setting a clear line for morally grey characters and villains is hard. 🛑 I added The Cruel Prince although it might not entirely work for this category depending on how you look at it. Having villains as the protagonists would naturally also include having unreliable narrators. I believe it to be a refreshing and interesting concept. I also think it might work well within a dark academia concept. More of it, please! 🖤
What are bookish tropes you love? Do you have recommendations for the tropes mentioned? If you participated in this week’s TTT, let me know!
Linda's Literary Lobby 
I love the friends to lovers trope. It’s actually how my spouse and I ended up getting together. We were friends first. 🙂
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
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That’s such a sweet story!!
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What a great list! I enjoy so many of these and will devour any slow-burn/enemies to lovers romance. I am also a fan of the unreliable narrator, but like you said, it can be tricky. Done right though, it makes for some unforgettable stories.
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