Favorite Tropes – dinipandareads

It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: favorite tropes. Does the topic of tropes feel overdone? Maybe, but it’s still fun to do every now and again! I know I’ve actually done a post on favorite tropes last month, (Friday Favorite: Tropes) but I also only listed five, so I thought I’d list another five on this post because there are always more tropes that I find I love and hate every time I open a book. TL;DR my other trope post, I’ve already listed: enemies-to-lovers, (best) friends-to-lovers, villain redemption, brooding characters who are actually cinnamon rolls with marshmallow hearts, and friendships formed during trying times.

Small Town Romance
I love a good romance and I especially love a good romance that’s set in a small town. You know, the ‘old-timer’ meets the ‘new-comer’, they’ll probably clash because they don’t see eye-to-eye, they’ll find the other incredibly attractive but they’d never admit it, and everyone and their friend will be scheming to get them together or pull them apart. Families play a big role in these types of dramas too! It’s got a good mix of many things that I love and I’m always here for it!

Found Family
I know this sounds very similar to ‘friendships formed during trying times’ but I see it as a step beyond that, when friendship groups turn into family. This trope is always so heartwarming and I will always love a good story with a found family!

Multiverses / Alternate Dimensions
I don’t know how I became obsessed with the idea of multiverses and alternate dimensions but I can’t get enough of stories that have multiple dimensions or universes where multiple yous and outcomes are infinitely possible. I’m not a science person, so I don’t know the accuracy of whatever is being spouted, but to be honest, I don’t care as long as it’s enjoyable!

Quests/Hunts
I love it when a book includes a good quest or hunt to find the truth about something. I love the search for clues, trying to decipher meanings, but also the bonds that form in the characters throughout their journey!

Magical Competitions
I’m definitely thinking along the terms of Harry Potter’s Triwizard Tournament and The Essen Tasch from Gathering of Shadows! Who doesn’t love a good magical duel (and obviously the part where the MC impossibly kicks the rude opponent’s ass)?! Yaaas!

What are some of your favorite tropes? If you’ve also done a TTT for today, don’t forget to leave your links in the comment and let’s chat 🙂

So I actually had the backbone of this post ready for me to finish off after work on Friday, but when I got home I just felt so completely drained that I didn’t even have the energy to open my laptop again. I’m going through some stuff in life at the moment that’s making me question a lot of things and it’s really been affecting my sleep. I’m already a bad sleeper (oh how I love sleep, but sleep definitely doesn’t love me!) but the past two weeks have been really bad for my sleep. I’ve been functioning on 2-3 hours of sleep every night for the past two weeks and I think I finally reached the end of my tether this weekend? I just didn’t have the energy to do anything and for the first time in what feels like the last 5 years, I slept in until the afternoon without even trying. Granted, I did end up falling asleep at 5AM, but while I usually wake up again at 9AM, this time I woke up at 1PM! It threw me off completely but I guess my body really needed it? So I know it’s Sunday and this blog post is also a bit bare boned, but I wanted to post it anyway 🙂

It’s time for another Friday Favorites hosted by Kibby @ Something of the Book! This weekly meme is where you get to share a list of all your favorites based on the list of prompts on Kibby’s page. Sounds fun, right? This week’s prompt is: favorite tropes. I thought this was a fun prompt to answer! Before I started writing reviews and taking the time to think about what I’m putting into my brain, I wasn’t aware of these terms for books, like ‘tropes’. All I really knew is that I hated love triangles (lol), but I didn’t realize there was a term for plot elements/lines. That probably sounds really stupid and ignorant (lol again) but I really used to consume books without ever thinking too much about what I read, liked and didn’t like. Thinking about that now sounds really weird and I don’t even know how that’s possible? But like I said, all I really knew was that I hated love triangles LOL So after educating myself over the last few years, here are the first tropes I love that come to mind:

Enemies-to-lovers.

Would it be surprising to see this on a lot of peoples’ lists? Nope (at least it wouldn’t be for me lol). I love this trope so much and if done right always gives me such feels! The tension that runs through these types of relationship changes is always SO charged. Oo, I get goosebumps just thinking about it!

Friends-to-lovers.

This is another one that I love and yes, I know these first two tropes are found predominantly in romance stories but hey, I’m a hopeless romantic and love me a good romance! The tension in this type of romance is always high too, but I love seeing the transition from friends to lover. They’re best friends and then they become more and a lot of the times it’s super sweet.

Villain redemption.

I admit to not having read a lot of books where there’s a a good redeemed villain storyline but there are a few that made my heart melt and my eyes get a little teary. Lookin’ at you Snape!

Brooding characters who are really cinnamon rolls with marshmallow hearts.

Okay this is another one found a lot in romances, but there are also characters in non-romances like this (please don’t ask me right now because my brain is still half-shrouded in a fog. That said, I am so trash for dark broody characters as long as they’re not acting like downright assholes 90% of the time until their marshmallow hearts are shown.

Epic friendships formed during trying times.

I don’t know even know if this is a trope? But I love how really tough times and situations can bring a seemingly random group of acquaintances or even strangers together and strengthen/solidify them as a badass group of friends that will get each other through the craziest adventures. Yes, I admit to thinking a lot about Squad 312 as I’m writing this answer 😂