Hi dear friends,

Today my brain is officially fried after a long grueling day at the office where I ran like a beheaded chicken between two meetings. In these circumstances it can go both ways on the blog: either you’ll have a very conventional Top 5 where I’ll play by the rules either my overtired and feverish brain will come up with something crazy.

Let’s go for it and see what fate awaits you today on the blog!

For those buried under a rock for months or new to blogging or ….Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Shanah @bionicbookworm.

Each week Mistress Shanah gives us a topic and we follow as good pupils…or not *you always have the rebel in a classrom that’s as unavoidable as mood swings for a teenager*.

That’s Mistress Shanah if you haven’t guessed already 😉 Don’t be fooled she seems very autoritative but she is kind like a lamb …

This week’s assignment is about our favorite tropes.

But what is a trope????? Because yes when I began blogging I didn’t know what a trope was.

Well following the Merriam Webster dictionary a trope is:

Aren’t you glad already that you stopped here today?

Well I am all for educating people 😉 

In other words translated to stories a trope is a common theme.

As every overused themes and personal tastes you have some you can’t stand anymore *see next week* and those you crave like a pregnant woman craves strawberries in winter * for the rec I had a more “spicy” craving in mind but thought to keep this PG rated*.

If you want me to one click a book you don’t have to do much. You just have to tell me the story is about these themes and I’ll come running, tongue lolling and tail wagging * wait no, that’s my dog not me!*.

Let’s get serious and look at my favorite tropes. I love….

The awakening of powers alias you didn’t know it but you have badass dormant power or ability.

How cool would it be to realize that you can wield lightning (Mare) or create incredible magic runes (Clary) or discover that you are an elemental fae (Jayne)? Don’t let it go to your head though as it’s the beginning of the end when you get an inflated ego usually followed by a wake up call!

Queen Elara

Sebastian

As everyone knows Red Queen and The Mortal Instrument I will delve deeper in what could be one of the best YA series about faes and supernatural creatures: War of the Fae by Elle Casey!

In this series Jayne who always believed she was a normal human being will be thrown into a magical world right alongside other teenagers seemingly normal like her but secretly supernatural beings.

Synopsis

Follow Jayne Sparks, the (still) potty-mouthed seventeen-year-old and newly changed elemental fae and her friends -an incubus, a daemon, a green elf, a water sprite and a pixie- as they struggle to find their places in the Light Fae community of the Green Forest and prepare for the upcoming battle against the Dark Fae.

This may be the less sexy synopsis I’ve ever read for one of the most fantastic series! This story is action-packed, exciting and positively unputdownable. If you need more proof my daughter is currently reading it and she is gobbling it up! Literally devouring one book after the other!

And as I am 5 feet 2 my favorite quote is: “Small doesn’t mean weak.”

Second trop the golden boy and the geek or the bullied or the plain girl.

Because everyone deserves to win the prize and outer appearance or wealth or…should not play a part in love. It’s a revenge for everyone who’s been bullied or ignored or overlooked! Imagine that it’s YOU that he chose!!! You can see the Queen Bee’s face? Her shock? Well I can and I am secretly shouting “Take that!”. Rhaaa I already feel way much better!

One of my favorites is Sweet Home by Tillie Cole. You know before Tillie turned dark and wrote twisted crazy books about bikers. Filled with violence and revenge. Well she wrote this perfect romantice book that will sweep you of your feet! 

Synopsis

At age twenty, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot.

She knows Descartes and Kant.

She knows academia and Oxford.

She knows that the people who love you leave you.

She knows how to be alone.

But when Molly leaves England’s grey skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn — she didn’t know a summer could be so hot, she didn’t know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn’t know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football.

When a chance encounter with notorious star quarterback, Romeo Prince, leaves her unable to think of anything but his chocolate-brown eyes, dirty-blond hair and perfect physique, Molly soon realises that her quiet, solitary life is about to dramatically change forever…

My review for this one was extra short and to the point:

“Really, really good! I’m such a goner for damaged bad boys, all alpha-male and real protective of their girl. Truly good! For fans of REAL even if it’s not about MMA fighters.
Try it !”

Honorable mention to #Nerd by Cambria Herbert

Third trope the forbidden romance!
Because there is spice in braving the forbidden. You are always wondering if or when they’ll get caught. Will the vampire resits biting the girl? Because he may be all shiny in the daylight it will still be very difficult to explain to her sheriff of a dad! (Twilight) Or will the teacher resist this beautiful yet lost female student? All rebel and bravado but hurting inside? You also have the kinky forbidden in romance office where the girl lusts for her boss *one of the most classical theme in the world* And sometimes it’s forbidden for wrong reasons and they should just be happy.

I would like to highlight a fantastic book, one I haven’t talked about but that deserves all the love: A Different Blue by Amy Harmon

Synopsis

Blue Echohawk doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know her real name or when she was born. Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn’t attend school until she was ten years old. At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on with life, she is just a senior in high school. With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and overtly sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.

This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don’t know who you are. Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can’t love you back might be impossible.

What I wrote about these two:

“First, this is a love story, slowly emerging between Blue outwardly the provocative “tough and bad girl” and her History teacher, the english prodigy Darcy Wilson. He is THE dream teacher: young, cute, and so interesting and passionate. Both will get to know each other slowly and Wilson’s stories and music will tame Blue’s heart.“

 

Fourth: the kickass heroine with even better the role reversal.
You may have guessed already I am all for “Girl power” and all that. I love nothing more than a role reversal with the princess saving the knight. Or the girl winning the contest. You know when that seasoned warrior oozing testosterone thinks he’ll chew that girl and spit her bones? Whe he is all brawl and bulging muscles, nearly pounding his chest like King Kong and bam! With one dainty but brilliant move the girl crushes his balls and beat his ego to a pulp! Now the proud man is licking his wounds ….and often plotting the girl’s demise that he’ll only achieve the coward way: with treason!

Well I have three perfect books for you: Secondborn by Amy Bartol *badass Roselle St Sismode*; And I Darken by Kiersten White *Lada all the way!* but as I’ve already talked about them today I will go with “Deep in Your Veins” by Suzanne Wright!

If you can check this incredible series!

Synopsis

Sam Parker is a vampire with a gift so strong and substantial that she is invited to partake in a test for a place in the Grand High Master Vampire’s private army. She finds that not only has the army never included a woman, but it has never included a Sventé vampire; a breed that is regarded by the super strong Pagori breed and the hypnotically beautiful Keja breed to be too tame and human-like. Most refuse to take her seriously, especially a Pagori commander named Jared who she craves in spite of herself.

The Grand High Master, however, sees her potential and offers her the position of Jared’s co-commander to help train the newest squad in time for the impending attack on his home. Sam has to demonstrate to Jared and the squad of chauvinists why it is incredibly foolish to underestimate a wilful, temperamental, borderline-homicidal Sventé female.

Warning: This novel contains an iron-willed female vampire with an energy whip, a sexist male vampire who is determined to have her, explicit vampy sex, and a romance story with real bite.

Fifth as every fantasy lover : the quest, the prophecy, the curse
Because it usually makes for epic fantasy!!!! Be it to win your kingdom back (Throne of Glass), save the world because you are the foretold savior (The Prophecy of Arcadia) or .. the MC has to outdo herself or himself! She or he has to become stronger going through plenty ordeals and fulfill his destiny Or he/she’ll vanquish her/his curse after a quest (The Dark of the Moon) and my favorite this year “A Curse so Dark and Lonely” by Brigid Kemmerer.

Synopsis

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

Additional favorites:

The flawed hero
Be it because he suffers from PTSD, had a trauma or is “different” as in autist or cerebral palsy or…

Best example: “Reclaiming the Sand” by Meredith A Walters

Synopsis

Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.

Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.

Particularly Freaky Flynn.

Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger’s. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.

But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.

And moved on.

Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.

When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.

And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.

But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.

Last but not least: finding your origins or true family... that of course you did not know you possessed.

My favorite this year: Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff

Synopsis

On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

I wrote: “It was my first Jay Kristoff and like the first cigarette is rumored to *I don’t know I never smoked* it went straight to my head. And my heart. And my blood pressure. And…“

Pfew finished today!

Now do tell me if I had to sell you a book what trope would I have to use?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie