TBR | August 2023 & the Trope-ical readathon

Hello Hello! How are you all doing?

Today I’m back with a super exciting post! In August, I’m finally going to be participating in the Trope-ical readathon created and run by Jenny from JenJen Reviews and her partner Rob! They’ve been organising this readathon for a few years now and I either give it a half-hearted try, or never manage to take part because of work or uni. But this year, since university is done and work is settling down into a normal routine, I’m really going to give it my best shot, and I am so excited for this TBR.

I’m still struggling with my reading moods and feeling a bit slumpy still, so I’m only going to concentrate on the books I’ve set out for all these prompts, as I own most of them and figured it would be a great way to tackle the physical TBR.

This year, I’ve joined the readathon in Team Romance! I usually pick the Fantasy team, but decided that I wanted to read out of my comfort zone, and I liked the sound of the team books and the team challenges more than the Fantasy team’s ones this year! Saying that, most of the books I picked for the common prompts are fantasies, but I’m feeling hopeful.

Keep on reading to find out what books I hope to tackle in August for the Trope-Ical readathon! If you like the sound of these challenges, you can find out more and join the readathon here!

This readathon has 13 common challenges that you can try to achieve which can help you earn points, and you can pick any of the 6 teams. The idea is to pick your favourite genre as your team, or one that is out of your comfort zone. I think that what drew me to this readathon was the wide range of prompts and it made me want to give each my best shot. Each team has two team books to pick from (you can read only one or both of them!) and two team challenges, so I am going to try to tackle every single challenge (picking the new team book only!), which will bring my TBR to a total of 16 books!

As I mentioned above, I picked Team Romance this year, as I thought I would have a better chance of tackling the team challenges, and felt drawn to the newest team book! Here is my Team Romance TBR!

Team Book — An Echo in the City by K. X. Song

This one is kind of out of my comfort zone, but I really liked the sound of it. This takes place during the Hong Kong protests, and our two main characters fall in love amid all the chaos and danger. I also like the sound of the characters as they seem to come from two very different backgrounds, but ultimately very much want the same thing. I think this is going to be a bit of a hard-hitting but also interesting and important coming-of-age story and I’m ready to read something different.

Team Challenge: Read a book with the “holiday” trope — Book Lovers by Emily Henry

I’ve already tried to pick this one up a few times, but it was never the right time, or I never had enough time to read it. I’m sure that I’m going to be able to fit it in during the month of August, especially since it’s no doubt a quick and enjoyable romance and I’ve got a week off from work to enjoy it. From what I had already read, I enjoyed it a lot and I’m looking forward to getting into this book properly and reading more from this author, as I already likes what she does!

Team Challenge: Read a book with the “meet cute” trope — One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston

This author wrote Red, White and Royal Blue — a book I absolutely adored a few years ago — and I have no idea why it has taken me so long to pick up another of her books. When this book was released a few years ago, I loved the sound of it. It’s a sapphic romance which quite a twist, one of the characters is displaced from 1970s, and I really like that kind of time travel vibe, so I have great feelings about this one and think it will be just as cute and enjoyable as the other romance books on my August TBR.

And here is the list of 13 common challenges or alternative prompts. I’ve set out a book per challenge and I already owned all but one of them, so I’m looking forward to tackling my physical TBR and finishing all these prompts. Here is my TBR for the common challenges!

• Absent/Dead Parent(s) Trope — Pax (#1) by Sara Pennypacker
• Hand-Picked Crew Trope — The Atlas Six (#1) by Olivie Blake
• The New Kid in Town Trope — Get a Life, Chloe Brown (#1) by Talia Hibbert
• Multiple Timelines Trope — The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
• Love Triangle Trope — Legendborn (#1) by Tracy Deonn
• Recent Loss Trope — The Fifth Season (#1) by N.K. Jemisin
• Mixed Media Trope — Sadie by Courtney Summers
• Outbreak/Pandemic Trope — Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• Found Family Trope — Every Heart a Doorway (#1) by Seanan McGuire
• Food Themes Trope — With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Revenge Trope — Lore by Alexandra Bracken
• Bookish Themes Trope — Inkheart (#1) by Cornelia Funke
• Retelling Trope — These Violent Delights (#1) by Chloe Gong

I feel like some of these books are recurrent members on Trope-ical readathon TBRs for me, but this year I’m determined to read as many of them as I can and I’m so excited to finally tick these off my physical TBR. I’ve been waiting years to read some of them and I’m so happy it’s finally time to discover these worlds!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx