Trope-ical Readathon August 2022 TBR

I’m so excited for another round of the Trope-ical Readathon in August! This will be my fourth time participating and I always have a great time.

The Trope-ical Readathon is a monthly long team-based competitive readathon. Everything you read gets you points but there are bonus points for completing common prompts, team prompts and team books. The prompts are pretty broad and the teams cover just about every genre so it’s a great time no matter what you like to read. I really enjoy being on one of the smaller teams so that my points have a bigger impact. The only thing dictated by your team is the two team challenges which can actually be filled with books of any genre. This round, I’m joining Team Contemporary/Literary/Historical fiction despite planning to read my normal fantasy/sci-fi/romance mix.

If you’re interested in signing up, all of the information can be found on Jen Jen Reviews blog.

I’m really excited about this TBR. I decided to do things a little bit differently and instead of writing down each prompt and then fitting in books, I made a list of the top 20-something books I really want to read and what prompts each one fits and then made a list to get one book per prompt of all books I’m super excited about. Since there are alternate prompts and just a lot of prompts in general, this turned into a bit of a puzzle but I got it to work out beautifully. This means that some books really obviously fit into a prompt but I’m using them for something else. But more importantly, it means that this TBR is made up solely of books that I’m really looking forward to reading.

Without further ado, to the books!

Common Challenge #1: Absent/Dead Parents (alt: Book with More than One Author)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow features a main character who is said to be someone’s ward which leads me to believe their parents are either dead or absent. This book has been on many TBRs of mine before and I just never pick it up. I’m a little scared of it but also pretty sure I’m going to love it.

Common Challenge #2: Love Triangle (alt: Followers/Friends Choose Between Two Books)

Rivals by Katharine McGee is the third book in the American Royals series which is a lot of fun to read. The other two books had a definite love triangle so I’m banking on the third one keeping it going. This came out in May and my library still has it on order so fingers crossed I can finally get my hands on it. If I somehow manage to be doing really well, I might just treat myself and buy this one.

Common Challenge #3: New Kid in Town (alt: Genre You Don’t Normally Read)

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers is the sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built and I’m excited to get back to these characters. Plus it’s a novella, always a good pick for a readathon. The two main characters in this series are traveling from town to town so they’re often the new kids in town.

Common Challenge #4: Dark Academia (alt: Borrows Book)

Since I read mainly from my library, I used this alternate prompt as my catch all for a book that didn’t really fit elsewhere, Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book and it’s nice and short. I’m totally intrigued.

Common Challenge #5: Holiday (alt: Takes Place in Another Country)

I decided to pick a nice summery looking romance and go with People we Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. I read Beach Read by the same author and didn’t love it but this one looks like a fun time and mixing in some light romance with a lot of fantasy is always nice. The people seem to go on a vacation (aka holiday) and it might even be in another country so definitely fits.

Common Challenge #6: Blast from the Past (alt: Book Published before 2000)

This is definitely the biggest stretch on the prompts but I really want to read Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber. The blurb mentions an enemy from their past so probably not the intention of the prompt but I’m going with it. It fits prompt #1 way better so I may put it there if I don’t get to both books.

Common Challenge #7: Mixed Media (alt: Audiobook or eBook)

I loved Illuminae (and actually used some of those to meet this prompt in other rounds) but I haven’t gotten around to Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. It has mixed media elements although less than Illuminae. I’m excited to see what this one has in store.

Common Challenge #8: Apocalyptic/Dystopian (alt: Comfort Read)

I find rereads to be comforting and I’ve been itching to do a reread of my favorite book from last year, The Martian by Andy Weir. I’m a little afraid it won’t live up to my memory but just reading quotes from it for a Top Ten Tuesday post got me excited so I’m not too worried.

Common Challenge #9: Found Family (alt: Book in a Series)

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir caught my eye at the library recently. I’ve seen lots of people talk about it and never really knew what it was about but I read the blurb and it got me excited. This may very well have found family but I have no idea, it’s definitely part of a series though.

Common Challenge #10: Celebrity (alt: Recommended by a Celebrity)

The only ARC I’m putting on this TBR is Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans which comes out in September. It says right in the title that it’s about someone notorious so I say it counts.

Common Challenge #11: Multiple POV (alt: Multiple POC Characters)

I was determined to get The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian on this TBR. It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 and I somehow still haven’t picked it up. It is told from multiple POVs and I believe also has multiple POC characters.

Common Challenge #12: Bookish Themes (alt: Pun in the Title)

I have heard so many wonderful things about Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Ellie Cosimano and it sounds like a really fun read. The main character is a novelist so that’s bookish enough for me.

Common Prompt #13: Retelling (alt: Book with a TV/Movie Adaptation)

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel is another book that I’ve heard wonderful things about and it seems like a good change of pace. So I’ve decided to use it for the retelling prompt.

Team Challenge #1: Recent Loss Trope

A smart reader would probably finish Spellslinger before starting another series by the same author, but that’s just not me. I’ve got my brain set on starting the Greatcoats Series with Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell. The whole plot of this book unfolds because the king dies. Someone has to be sad about it so I figure it fits the prompt.

Team Challenge #2: Multigenerational Saga

The blurb for Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala uses the word “Aunties” repeatedly and there’s a murder, sounds multigenerational and saga-y to me. Mysteries are not something I typically read but I’ve been wanting to try a cozy mystery and see if it might be a genre I could get into since my main issue with regular mysteries is that I’m a big scaredy cat.

Team Books

Each team has two team books and you can read up to one book per team (doesn’t need to be your own) for extra points. None of the books really peak my interest and reading a book that I don’t want to read will probably slow down my reading, it definitely has in the past. So I’ve decided to skip team books this round.

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So that’s my insanely long TBR that I will never complete but I am feeling ambitious. The full list is 15 books, 5,570 pages which means I’d need to average 180 pages per day. The chance of that happening is basically zero but it’s fun to plan. I’d like to make as big a dent as I can, I’m hoping for 10 books.

If you’re joining the readathon please let me know what team you’re on in the comments. If you haven’t joined yet, you have until August 8th!