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Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where bloggers are given a prompt that is usually a list of ten bookish things.

This weeks prompt was –

Love Freebie…. Top Ten Romance Tropes!

Rivals to Lovers – Celaena Sardothian and Sam Cortland are honestly one of the most beautiful couples I have ever read – just EVERYTHING about their relationship is swoonworthy. So Rivals-to-Lovers has to go to their romance in Assassins Blade.

Enemies to Lovers – Powerless, Kai Azer, Paedyn Gray. Everything about their relationship redeemed Enemies to Lovers for me, they are just such a swoony couple and I was supporting them from page one (that meeting scene….how could I not?)

Friends to Lovers – Changeling by Molly Harper (she is also best friends with his sister so we get the friends older brother trope in there too!)

He falls first and harder – Graceling, Kristen Cashore (tho Kat falls pretty hard for Po too!).

Flirty sparring – I think this again has to go to Powerless (I had to try really hard not to add sharing a bed non romantically and comforting them from nightmares because all of these are in the perfection that is Powerless).

Arranged Marriage – Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson – this was tricky, I love arranged marriage theoretically but it is rarely done well (if you have any recs I’d love them.) Arranged Marriage is a huge trope in it but not romantically.

Royalty/Aristocrat – I think that Jessica Day George’s couple from Dragonskin Slippers (review coming!) Luka and Creel might just have to take this one, the book is slightly younger than many of my other recs (still a 12+ because of violence etc) but it is 100% worth a read and it does hold up even as an older reader.

Slow Burn Romance – This was tricky because slow burn can mean over the book, the series or whatever but I think it goes to Connor and Jade from KM Shea’s Magiford subseries! It is the only book I haven’t written a full review on yet but I promise its coming!

Academia Romance –  Deadly Education, slow burn, subplot romance, dark but stunningly intricate and deadly.

Do you have any recs with these or other tropes??

Happy Reading!

Lottie

7

A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson

13+B

Okay so I have heard so much about this series, people are talking about it all over booktube and several of my friends have loved it. And it held up.

I used to read a LOT of mystery – I mean a lot, I still have an entire three deep shelf of enid blytons mysteries – and this is a nice step up and it does hold up! The investigation style with Pip conducting various recorded interviews, getting access to police logs and cross examining different peoples accounts unfurled an insane story about Andie Bell and Sal Singh two teenagers who died five years ago.

It is a cold case Pip takes on as a summer project because the inaccuracies have always nagged at her. Sal is universally believed to have done it in her town and yet Pip’s personal experience of Sal isn’t one of a boy who could kill his girlfriend in cold blood. It is complex, the logs, Pip’s own life apart from her investigation which starts to overlap more and more and then the realisation that several people she knows had a very intimate part in the lead up to Andie Bell’s murder. I am trying not to give too many spoilers and that is so hard in mystery so I’ll stop there!

Plot – 1000000/10. I did predict a few things but the lies and the coverups had my doubting myself several times before I realised I was right!

Characters – 5/5 stars. They are nuanced and none of the main cast feel like a recycled archetype while they still show all the different things that have lead to a seemingly simple cold case. It is horrifying how the police didn’t even bother interviewing several people surrounding her because they just instantly assumed it was Sal, her Indian boyfriend who committed suicide. i am diverging from characters here so I will just say that I appreciated Pip calling the reporter out on his racism and prejudice he was insufferable and it is people like him that meant Sal would never have got justice for something he got caught up in.

World – 5/5 stars.  well its our world! I love it being set in England tho – so many books are sent in America it is always nice to have a British book. It felt realistic, Holly Jackson didn’t end up ignoring the natural assumptions and darker side of mystery while not making it glorified or graphic.

Romance – 4/5 – Soft Romance – *giggles and kicks feet in the air* just adorable

Things to be aware of: Racism, sexual assault, rape, murder, police injustice, drugs – none of the SA is on the page or the murder. Animal death (specifically a dog)

2

Just Stab Me Now, Jill Bearup

Age Rating: Complicated.

This book isn’t my usual genre, but I watched all her shorts as she developed this world with skits and parodies of the usual romance genre and I loved them. I got the book for Christmas and read it in less than 24 hours.

Layer 1

The essential basis of the book is that it is multiple layers. At the bottom there is the fantasy enemies to lovers story. It uses an older heroine whom has children the usual age of the main characters and is subsequently wiser to the world. Rosamund deals with her problems like an adult, an adult whom has already been through one political foreign marriage to Hugo and has been left a widower in a war that is being fought with the king her sister married too. Honestly the basic story while it has a twist or two on the usual tropes isn’t that exceptional. Its not supposed to be, the interaction between the characters and the author is where Bearup has focused her efforts.

Layer 2

Caroline the author talks to her characters regularly in the middle of scenes, directing them what to do and arguing with them about what to do. She is desperately trying to make genre expectations work despite characters whom are actively rebelling against her outline.

Layer 3

Carolines own life with her annoying CFO at a tech firm. Essentially it is there to support Carolines frustrations with her character and also to slid in some parallels like the book plot reflecting her own life just with a more satisfying ending.

Layer 4

Editor Comments. Like the gorgeous cover which looks half way through editing, Henry her hot editor (his descriptor throughout all of the book) occasionally puts in a note about historical accuracy and she responds with her own ideas.

It sounds complicated, and it semi is. I struggled for a few chapters to get a grasp on the rapid switching of POV and layers. I think that Caroline chiming in for only a few lines and then ducking back out was the hardest thing for me to follow. I do know that I read exceptionally fast, and so reading the book that fast means that I do wrestle with Pov changes that are that small because I have to double back and figure out who said what.

The point of this book is to parody and show a different side of an authors life, the one whom wrestles with deadlines, her other life and horrible historical limitations that should NOT exist in fantasy (but have to. For the record if it is a historical fantasy I don’t want modern inventions!) Its not what I usually would review but I do think its worth a read if you read a lot of fantasy/romance/anything in the YA/adult popular booktok categories that centre on magical systems.

Plot – 3/5

Characters – 3/5

Romance – 3.5/5 – Sweet Romance – (I am giving a lot of 3s! but the Romances of both, Leo and Rosamund (sweet and I did like it.) and Henry and Caroline (sneaking in that boss/employee trope in there to play with which I usually hate but can just let slide this time.)  NB – I did appreciate that Bearup had Leo (mmc) point out the flaws in her plan for him to make an inappropriate comment during the plot.

World – 4/5 – Standard fantasy world but with some interesting world building details thrown in. because what we are reading is the first draft, there are a few notes that Caroline will add more lore in later. I would have liked that lore in the book but still a good dual world with multiple aspects.

Things to be aware of: so for the age I have no clue, its mostly suitable I’d say 12+B but the actual content does not reflect whom it is written for. I would hesitate to say it is a YA novel, I would say it is an adult novel that is enjoyable and its content is suitable. I would honestly recommend this for after all the samey samey romantasys and random rom-coms. I have been reading a lot lately so this was nice to see my own thoughts reflected.

Overall I am delighted that the skits managed to turn into a manageable book and if you are looking for a chill read with a relaxing predictability and some new interesting perspectives then give it a go!

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