Trope-ical Readathon TBR

It is August which means I am posting my TBR for the Trope-ical Readathon. It is a month long readathon hosted by @jenjenreviews and @bookrob13 on Twitter!

The Trope-ical readathon is a team base readathon, focusing on genres and their common tropes. This time I am joining Team Sci-fi.

There are 13 general challenges based on well known tropes (with an alternate prompt too) and 2 team prompts as well as a group read. All of which add up to points for your team! You can find all the details about how this readathon works HERE

Absent/Dead Parent(s) Trope: 

Read a book where the main character’s parents are either absent throughout the book or have passed away prior to the start of the book. Alternatively, read a book with multiple authors.

All our Demise
Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

All of Us Villains #2

This conveniently covers both prompt and alternative prompt

About the book:

For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good… no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process.

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended.

Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after.

Love Triangle Trope: 

Read a book that features a love triangle. Alternatively, have your followers or friends choose between two books.

The Dragon’s Promise
Elizabeth Lim

Six Crimson Cranes #2

eARC
Release Date: 30/8/22

About the book:

Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon’s pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined.
She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.
The pearl itself is no ordinary cargo; it thrums with malevolent power, jumping to Shiori’s aid one minute, and betraying her the next—threatening to shatter her family and sever the thread of fate that binds her to her true love, Takkan. It will take every ounce of strength Shiori can muster to defend the life and the love she’s fought so hard to win.

The New Kid in Town Trope: 

Read a book where the main character(s) have just moved to a new place. Alternatively, read a genre you don’t usually read.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Sangu Mandanna

eARC/AudioARC
23/8/22

About the book:

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….

Dark Academia Trope: 

Read a book that has an academic setting with a dark atmosphere. Alternatively, read a borrowed book (from the library or elsewhere).

The Secret History
Donna Tartt

About the book:

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.

Holiday Trope:

Read a book where the character is on holiday (aka a vacation) or that takes place around a holiday (e.g. Christmas, Halloween, etc.). Alternatively, read a book that takes place in a country that is not your own.

With Fire in their Blood
Kat Delacorte

Skeleton Keeper’s #1
Physical ARC

This book is set in Italy and I unfortunately do not live in Italy

About the book:

With Fire In Their Blood is a simmering supernatural romance set in the crumbling Italian city of Castello, where mafia clans make the rules, dark magic pulses the streets and the sins of the past threaten to consume the present. Perfect for fans of These Violent Delights, The Darkest Minds and V.E. Schwab.

When sixteen-year-old Lilly Deluca arrives in Castello, she isn’t impressed. A secluded town in the Italian mountains is not where she saw her last years of high school playing out.

Divided for generations by a brutal clan-family war, the two halves of Castello are kept from destroying each other by the mysterious General, a leader determined to maintain order and ‘purity’. . . whatever the cost.

Lilly falls in with the rebellious Liza, brooding Nico and sensitive Christian, and sparks begin to fly. But in a city where love can lead to ruin, Lilly isn’t sure she can trust anyone – not even herself.

And then she accidentally breaks Castello’s most important rule: when the General’s men come to test your blood, you’d better not be anything more than human . . .

Blast from the Past Trope:

 Read a book where the main character(s) encounters someone from their past. Alternatively, read a book written before the year 2000.

Lost in Time
A. G Riddle

Physical ARC

About the book:

When his daughter is falsely accused of murder, a scientist must travel 200 million years into the past to save her. But there are secrets waiting there. And more than her life is at stake.
From the worldwide bestselling author of Departure and Winter World comes a standalone novel with a twist you’ll never see coming.
Control the Past.
Save the Future.
One morning, Dr. Sam Anderson wakes up to discover that the woman he loves has been murdered.
For Sam, the horror is only beginning.
He and his daughter are accused of the crime.
The evidence is ironclad. They will be convicted.
And so, Sam does what he must: he confesses to the crime.
But in the future, murderers aren’t sent to prison.
They’re sent to the past.
Two hundred million years into the past—to the age of the dinosaurs—to live out their lives alone, in exile from the human race.
Sam accepts his fate.
But his daughter doesn’t.
Adeline Anderson has already lost her mother to a deadly and unfair disease. She can’t bear to lose her father.
She sets out on a quest to prove him innocent. And get him back. People around her insist that both are impossible tasks.
But Adeline doesn’t give up. She only works harder.
She soon learns that impossible tasks are her specialty. And that she is made of tougher stuff that she ever imagined.
As she peels back the layers of the mystery that ripped her father from this world, Adeline finds more questions than answers. Everyone around her is hiding a secret. But which ones are connected to the murder that exiled her father? That mystery stretches across the past, present, and future–and leads to a revelation that will change everything. 

Mixed Media Trope: 

Read a book that includes letters, texts, emails, etc. Alternatively, listen to an audiobook or read an ebook.

Belladonna
Adalyn Grace

AudioARC
Release Date: 30/8/22

As I have this as an Advanced Audiobook so it fits with this prompt nicely

About the book:

For as long as Signa Farrow has been alive, the people in her life have fallen like stars…
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being – and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy.
Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger, and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer, though, is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful – and more irresistible – than she ever dared imagine.

(Post) Apocalyptic/Dystopia Trope:

Read a book that occurs leading up to/during/following an apocalypse or a book with a dystopia. Alternatively, read a comfort read.

Doing Time
Jodi Taylor

Time Police #1

About the book:

At some time in the future, the secret of time-travel became available to all. Chaos ensued as people sought to take advantage. Because there will always be nutters who want to change history…
And so the Time Police were formed. Internationally sanctioned thugs whose task it was to keep the timeline straight by any and all means possible. And they succeeded. The Time Wars are over. The Time Police won. But who will win the peace?
Doing Time follows three hapless new Time Police recruits – Jane, Luke and Matthew – as they try to navigate their first year on the beat. It’s all going to be fine. Obviously.

Found Family Trope: 

Read a book where characters form a family dynamic, based on shared understanding of each other rather than blood ties. Alternatively, read a book that is part of a series.

The Generation Killer
Adam Simcox

The Dying Squad #2

eARC
Release Date: 18/8/22

About the book:

On the sixth day, God created MANchester. On the seventh, The Generation Killer intends to tear it down.
There’s a new serial killer in Manchester – and it’s up to a dead guy to catch him. Joe Lazarus, specifically: his latest Dying Squad assignment demands he bring to justice The Generation Killer, a psychopath who murders the oldest member of a family, as well as the youngest. Joe and his new partner Bits have mere hours to catch the killer and save his latest kidnap victim.
Joe’s former partner, Daisy-May has her own problems. Children in the Pen are going missing and Daisy-May resolves to find out who’s taking them, one of the many, Warden-of-the-Pen jobs on her to do list. Her predecessor The Duchess won’t be able to lighten her load; she’s tracked her terrorist-in-waiting sister, Hanna, to Tokyo. The Duchess doesn’t know what Hanna’s planning, she only knows that unless she stops her, it’s going to be very bad news for the living…

Celebrity Trope: 

Read a book where the main character(s) is a celebrity or famous in some way. Alternatively, read a book that is celebrity-recommended (e.g. from Oprah’s Book Club, Obama’s Recommended Reading List, Reese’s Book Club, etc.).

The Black Dog
Kevin Bridges

eARC
Release Date: 18/8/22

Not a celebrity book club but a celebrities book. Kevin Bridges is a Scottish Stand up Comedian and this is first fiction novel.

About the book:

Declan dreams of becoming a writer. It’s a dream that helps him escape the realities of his life – going through the motions at college and stacking supermarket shelves part-time, whilst fighting a battle with the ever-darkening thoughts in his head.
He has his pet Labrador for companionship and his best friend-turned-mentor, a pseudo-intellectual who works as a greenskeeper at the local municipal golf course, both of which help keep the worst of his anxieties at bay. But following a drunken row with local gangsters, Declan’s worries threaten to spiral out of control.
James Cavani – Declan’s idol and his hometown’s claim to fame – is a renowned writer, director and actor. But despite his success, his past hasn’t relinquished its hold of him, and through his younger sister’s battle with drug addiction, he finds himself returning to a world he thought he had escaped.
At face value, their lives couldn’t be more different, but perhaps fate has a way of bringing kindred spirits together – and perhaps each holds the other’s redemption in their hands.

Multiple POVs Trope: 

Read a book told through multiple points-of-view. Alternatively, read a book with multiple characters of color.

The Atlas Paradox
Olivie Blake

The Atlas #2

About the book:

“DESTINY IS A CHOICE”

The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited sequel to dark academic sensation The Atlas Six—guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal, and chaos.

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?”

Bookish Themes Trope: 

Read a book with bookish themes (e.g. writer/reader main character(s), a book about a book, etc.). Alternatively, read a book with a pun in the title.

The Book Eaters
Sunyi Dean

eARC
Release Date: 18/8/22

About the book:

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.
But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

Retelling Trope: Read a book that is a retelling. Alternatively, read a book that has been adapted to a TV show and/or film.

Undertaking of Hart and Mercy
Megan Bannen

eARC
Release Date: 25/8/22

This sounds like it is a retelling of You’ve got Mail which was a retelling of Shop around the corner so Double retelling potential

About the book:

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.
After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.
If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?

Team Challenges

Team Sci-Fi

Team Challenge 1: Read a book with the “Artificial Intelligence” trope

Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie

Imperial Radch

About the book:

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Team Challenge 2: Read a book with the “Near-Future/Technothriller” trope

Hard Time
Jodi Taylor

Time Police #2

About the book:

Team Weird are back causing havoc in the Time Police in this irresistible spin-off series by international bestseller Jodi Taylor, author of The Chronicles of St Mary’s. If you love Doctor Who, Ben Aaronovitch and Jasper Fforde, you’ll love the Time Police.

A time slip in Versailles, problems in the Ice Age and illegal time travellers in need of rescue. Must be a job for the Time Police.

Luke, Jane and Matthew are back and ready to cause havoc – inadvertently or otherwise – in their latest adventures.

I wont be reading the group books as I am not really that interested in them.

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So there you have it my Tropical Readathon August 2022 TBR.

Are you participating in the Tropical Readathon? There is still time!

I would love to chat all things bookish with you! You can comment down below or find me on Twitter or Goodreads!

Happy Reading!