Welcome to the flirty, filthy (usually in the best way) back alleys of the Haven. Where the restaurants are those holes in the wall with the best food, and you don't have to turn far to find someone with the same tastes as you, from classy to "trashy", dark and erotic to sweet and fluffy, and everything in between... Welcome, to Trope City.
First off, to quote the brilliant ladies on a few of my favorite podcasts*, I'm not here to ever yuck someone else's yum. What I am here to do with this segment, is share with you my personal favorite and least favorite tropes, give a few recommendations, and hear back from you with your own favorites and recs.
*if you haven't already, go check out the
Heaving Bosoms https://heavingbosomspodcast.com/
Fated Mates https://heavingbosomspodcast.com/
Wicked Wallflowers https://heavingbosomspodcast.com/
A quick primer for Trope City. What is a trope, and why do we care? For our purposes here, a trope is a recurring theme in genre fiction, such as friends to lovers or second chance romance. We care, because tropes are a great way to narrow down or ask for recommendations. And for anyone who looks down on genre fiction (especially romance) for being to "tropey", I ask simply:
How else could I narrow down my particular catnip in books
to a few succinct words that all other readers of my genre
can understand in an instant?
What better way is there for me to go to
social media, book twitter, or a group of friends and say:
Quick! I need some hate-to-love, and I need it now!
There's so many to choose from, and I am notoriously bad at choosing favorites.
Death Personified / Sexy Grim Reaper Trope - pretty straightforward. I love a story where one of the characters (especially a love interest) is some form of Death or the Grim Reaper. (A horseman of the apocalypse, Lucifer, or son of Satan type character fits here, too).
Morality Chain - love makes an otherwise villainous character act outside of his usual fiendish ways. I love a (redeemable?) baddie who (begrudgingly) does good for the sake of their love interest.
Strong Lady Relationships (Friendships or the sort of Frenemies that make all parties better for it)
Enemies to Lovers / Hate to Love - If you know, you know.
Protagonists vs. Environment - Every now and then, I want the entire world / environment / realm to be gunning for my main characters. Sometimes you just full-blown mayhem, magic, and a little bit of murder
Jaded Female Main Character - I love a heroine who is pissed off, has good reasons to be, and is just here to get the job done
Catharsis Factor - I'm actually not sure how common of a trope this is, or if this is even the right name for it. But basically, I'm looking for a book where a certain scene or scenes just hit me HARD in the emotions. Maybe they let me play out the sort of conversation I wish I'd had with someone in the past; maybe they just make a broken part of me feel seen.
That's all for now. Comment below and let me know some of your favorite tropes. Do we have any of the same ones? Hit me with your best recommendations if we do.
Happy reading, witchlings,
<3 Cat