Top Ten Tuesday: 10 of My Favorite Bookish Tropes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Favorite Tropes. Now there are plenty of tropes that I wish would just disappear – instalove, love triangles, and damsels in distress would feature prominently on that list.  That said, however, it was still pretty easy to come up with 10 bookish tropes that I love seeing in the books I read. I’ve shared them below, along with a couple of my favorite books from each.

 

10 of My Favorite Bookish Tropes

 

1. FRIENDS TO LOVERS – Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating (Christina Lauren), Starry Eyes (Jenn Bennett)

 

2. ENEMIES TO LOVERS – Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), The Unhoneymooners (Christina Lauren)

 

3. STAR-CROSSED LOVERS – Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare), Beasts of the Frozen Sun (Jill Criswell)

 

4. SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE – Say You Still Love Me (K. A. Tucker), One Summer in Paris (Sarah Morgan)

 

5. MAN IN DISTRESS WHO IS SAVED BY THE DAMSEL – The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Beasts of the Frozen Sun (Jill Criswell)

 

6. MONSTERS WHO AREN’T MONSTERS AFTER ALL – This Savage Song (Victoria Schwab), Beasts of the Frozen Sun (Jill Criswell)

 

7. BOOKS SET IN SCHOOLS OR ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES – Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling), Nevernight (Jay Kristoff), Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)

 

8. TOURNAMENTS OR OTHER FORMS OF COMPETITION – Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling), Throne of Glass (Sarah J. Maas)

 

9. ANTI HEROES – Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo), Vicious (Victoria Schwab)

 

10. GIRLS WHO ARE INTO STEM – When Dimple Met Rishi (Sandhya Menon), Zenn Diagram (Wendy Brant)

 

* * * * *

 

Who are some of your favorite bookish tropes?  Do we share any favorites?

36 replies
  1. Angela
    Angela says:

    I like the star-crossed lovers trope – I like the idea of the characters having to overcome some major obstacle to be together.

  2. Dini @ Dinipandareads
    Dini @ Dinipandareads says:

    So much yes to your list! I LOVE monsters who aren’t monsters and man in distress (omg so good) 😍Star-crossed lovers is also another great one that I totally forgot lol I totally stuck to the boring oft repeated tropes (even though I DO love them) haha

    My TTT post

  3. ShootingStarsMag
    ShootingStarsMag says:

    I love that you have some different ones. I really love friends to lovers and enemies to lovers. I also love books set in school/on campus/at boarding school, whatever! I think anti-heroes (or morally gray villains) are great too.

    -Lauren

  4. Stephanie
    Stephanie says:

    Ooh, yes, books set in schools! Boarding school books were totally my jam when I was young; I loved the idea of living away from home like that.

  5. Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads
    Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads says:

    I will never get enough of enemies to lovers, though I also need more friends to lovers in my life for sure! Also love books set in school, anti-heroes, monsters who aren’t monsters and tournaments. So basically I agree with your entire list 🙂

  6. Sam@wlabb
    Sam@wlabb says:

    Josh & Hazel is such a wonderful friends-to-lovers story, but I couldn’t decide if Starry Eyes (which I wanted to include this week) was friends-to-more or hate-to-love. Lenon and Zorrie were friends, and then they were on the outs, and then they were lovers. I wasn’t sure where to put that, but I adore the book and the trope

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Haha! I had the same confusion on Starry Eyes, but decide to go with it anyway. I guess it’s more of a friends to enemies back to friends, then to more, haha.

  7. sjhigbee
    sjhigbee says:

    I think all of these tropes can work really well in the right hands. And you have certainly picked some of my favourite examples. Oh for sure – Harry Potter series – yay! And Jane Austen – I also LOVE her second chance romance Persuasion:). And I’ve recently loved Changeling – a fantasy school series:) Thank you for sharing these!

  8. Greg
    Greg says:

    I don’t know what it is about books set in schools but they are pretty awesome. 🙂 Especially if they’re magical academies or something. And men getting saved for a change- always ready for more of those.

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      I’m glad I’m not the only one who loves the school settings. I don’t know what it is about them but I will read just books set in schools from any genre.

  9. Jessica at Booked J
    Jessica at Booked J says:

    Genuinely love ALL of these tropes but especially MAN IN DISTRESS WHO IS SAVED BY THE DAMSEL. It gets me everytime and I wish there were more that I could get my hands on with that trope featured heavily.

  10. Verushka
    Verushka says:

    Definite yes for men in distress saved by girls AND girls into STEM — that one especially, I could absolutely need more of !!

  11. Brittany
    Brittany says:

    I agree love triangles should disappear 😂 😂 And Enemies to Lovers is my Favorite <3 (and P&P is my favorite haha) Great list!

Comments are closed.