TBR Posts

Trope-ical Readathon TBR

“I couldn’t see his face.”

First line in The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost

Popping in with a quick post because I spontaneously decided to participate in the Trope-ical Readathon which takes place in the entire month of March. The readathon is hosted by Jenjenreviews and bookrob13, and it is team-based. I’ve chosen Team Fantasy, not because it’s my favorite genre but because I struggled to fit the other teams’ challenges to books on my TBR. It doesn’t mean I’m only reading fantasy in March, though. Let’s look at what I’m hoping to read!

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Completes Common Challenge: Blast From the Past Trope – Read a book written before the year 2000.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Completes Common Challenge: Found Family Trope – Read a book where characters form a family dynamic, based on shared understanding of each other rather than blood ties.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions—two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice.

Completes Common Challenge: Multiple POVs Trope – Read a book told through multiple points-of-view.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

The most interesting things in Maud Blyth’s life have happened to her brother Robin, but she’s ready to join any cause, especially if it involves magical secrets that may threaten the whole of the British Isles. Bound for New York on the R.M.S. Lyric, she’s ready for an adventure.

What she actually finds is a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and a beautiful stranger in Violet Debenham, who is everything—a magician, an actress, a scandal—Maud has been trained to fear and has learned to desire. Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of loathsome, aristocratic suspects, they must solve a murder and untangle a conspiracy that began generations before them.

Completes Team Challenge: Read a gaslamp fantasy novel.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts…

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Completes Common Challenge: Holiday Trope – Read a book where the character is on holiday (aka a vacation) or that takes place around a holiday.

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

Six magicians. Two rivalries. One researcher. And a man who can walk through dreams. All must pick a side: do they wish to preserve the world—or destroy it? In this electric sequel to the viral sensation, The Atlas Six, the society of Alexandrians is revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep, and as the price of power demands each character choose a side, which alliances will hold and which will see their enmity deepen?

Completes Common Challenge: Dark Academia Trope – Read a book that has an academic setting with a dark atmosphere.

It’s a readathon that rewards the number of pages read too, which I really like because then I don’t feel so forced to just read all the shortest books on my TBR. Instead, it helps me get to the books I’ve been putting off for a while because they’re suddenly the only book that fits a certain prompt (yes, that is how I ended up picking a Christmas book for March). But let me know what you think of my selection!

8 thoughts on “Trope-ical Readathon TBR

  1. Now it was my turn to almost miss this – you’re spoiling us with two posts a week! 🤗😂

    I’m obviously eagerly anticipating your thoughts on Kindred, but I also really need you to tell me whether I should pick up One Last Stop after this. Whenever I read the synopsis, my interest dwindles rapidly – like, romance on a subway just does not sound interesting – but then again, this is by the same person who wrote Red, White & Royal Blue… 👀

    Also: If you want company reading The Atlas Paradox, I’ve decided that getting and understanding your commentary might be worth paying 14,99€ for the ebook 😅 Like, I can’t wait for ChatGPT to write its revised Twilight version to find out about all these Denmark details, and I’m sure Parisa is going to be up to loads of eye-roll-inducing stuff as well… Besides, now that I’ve read Hell Bent, which is easily the worst Dark Academia book I’ve ever encountered, I might even be pleasantly surprised? 🤔

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Well, Kindred is definitely happening now! I’m done putting that book on TBRs and then not reading it! 🙈 And no, the synopsis for One Last Stop doesn’t intrigue me either but now that you’ve tested Hell Bent, I don’t mind testing the subway romance for you 😅 Also, to clarify, I didn’t like your 1-star update on Storygraph because I love the idea of you hating a book, but because I love the idea of you writing a review for a book you hated. Like, I CANNOT wait for that review 😂

      Lol I love how your opinion on wanting to read The Atlas Paradox has developed since we finished the first book 😂 Now you’re not only reading it but also paying for it! I don’t feel like I’ve done anything to change your mind but I somehow still feel responsible 😅 Now I just hope I can deliver a commentary that is worth 14.99 euros… Anyway, I’m glad you want to suffer with me! The library is giving me the ebook any minute now so I’m hoping it’ll be the first book I pick up on Wednesday 😇

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh, don’t worry, I always get very excited about your one-star updates as well, for the same reason 😂 Although if you wanted to reduce that waiting agony a little, I do have a small sneak peek at that upcoming Hell Bent rant up on Goodreads… I just needed to vent really badly!! (There are minor spoilers in it, though, so waiting for my wrap-up might be the smarter option 😅)

        And, well, I guess I just want to be in the know regarding The Atlas Paradox! What if people start complaining about how awful it is and I can’t add my two cents to the conversation? We can’t have that! 😇

        Liked by 1 person

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