Trope-ical Readathon March 2023 TBR

I’m so excited for another round of the Trope-ical Readathon in March! This will be my fifth time participating and I always have a great time. I’m also hoping the competition gets me excited to read and ups my reading pace, I’m already way behind on my 2023 reading goals.

The Trope-ical Readathon is a month-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 Science Fiction. I’ve been reading more and more sci-fi books and really getting into this genre and it’s currently the smallest team so I decided to give it a go.

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. After being really successful with this readathon back in August, I decided to similarly build a TBR based on books I want to read rather than the traditional finding a book for each prompt. I basically make a list of what I want to read and what prompts each book fits and then narrow it down. It seems to work really well for me so that I am excited for all of the books.

Without further ado, to the books!

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

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller is a fairly recent add to my TBR. I heard someone talking about how fun it was and I also remember enjoying another book by this author. So I decided I wanted to give it a go and YA fantasy is usually good for a reathathon as it goes pretty fast. The blurb sounds like the main character is either an orphan or at least her parents aren’t around so using it for this prompt.

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

I keep meaning to read Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala. I really enjoyed the first book which I actually read during the August version of this readathon. This should be a fairly quick read and a nice change of pace from the fantasy and sci-fi books I have planned. There’s definitely a love triangle so a good pick all around.

Common Challenge #3: Boarding School (alt: Group/Buddy Read)

Flamefall by Rosaria Munda is the second book if the Aurelian Cycle trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book which I read in January and I want to pick this one up soon. The characters are at a sort of school where they are flying dragons and they are teenagers and live there so I say it counts even though it isn’t a typical academic school.

Common Challenge #4: Dark Academia (alt: Borrowed 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, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I’ve read both Recursion and Upgrade by Crouch and enjoyed them. I’ve been saying I’d read this one every month since December so hopefully it finally happens in March.

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

I’ve really been wanting to jump into this series and read Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. It sounds right up my alley and the premise is that Senlin and his wife go and visit the Tower of Babel so that sounds like a vacation to me.

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

I’m going with the alternate prompt on this one and planning to read Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey. I recently heard Elliot Brooks on booktube talking about how much she enjoyed this one and it peaked my interest. It was published in 1987 so using it for the alternate prompt.

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

I used this prompt to read Aurora Rising back in August so it seems fitting to finish off the series with Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff this time. I’ve heard some mixed things on this ending but I loved the ending of book 2 in December and I’m ready to find out what happens.

Common Challenge #8: Apocalyptic/Dystopian (alt: >500 pages)

I read Station Eleven late last year and have been wanting to pick up Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. It seems to fit this prompt well.

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

During this readathon in August, I won one of the giveaways and chose Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. I’ve been really excited to read this one but just haven’t gotten around to it. This seems like the perfect opportunity. I don’t know if there is found family but it is definitely part of a series so it at least meets the alternate prompt.

Common Challenge #10: Coming-of-Age (alt: Indie or Self Pub)

I have had The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson on my Kindle for way too long. I have really enjoyed many books by this author and this one sounds similar in feel to Matchmaking for Beginners which I adore. It was published straight through Amazon which meets the alternate prompt.

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

Reading a lot of fantasy makes this prompt easy. I’ve decided to go with Stardust in their Veins by Laura Sebastian. I read the first book in this series about a year ago and gave it 5 stars, I’m looking forward to getting back to the story of these triplets. It is split between their different POVs so definitely fits the prompt.

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

I had a strangely hard time with this prompt and I’m going with the alternate and planning to read The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. In looking for more sci-fi that sounded interesting, I stumbled across this book and it sounds really good. These women are stars of calculating and dealing with space so stars….I’m calling it a pun.

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

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah sounds so interesting and is on my 23 books for 2023 list. I’ve heard it’s a retelling of Aladdin and also parts of Arabian Nights so I definitely say it counts.

Team Challenge #1: Multiverse Trope

The multiverse trope is one I really enjoy and one of the reasons team sci-fi sounded interesting to me. I’ve been wanting to read The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson for a while. It’s even on the list of suggested books for this prompt so it clearly fits.

Team Challenge #2: Science Gone Wrong Trope

This is the prompt that gave me the hardest time but then I read the blurb of Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. It says something about alchemy creating the main characters and that they could become gods but hope they don’t. That sounds like science gone wrong to me. I have gotten this book out from the library more times than I can count. I’m scared of it but also think I’m going to love it. Hopefully I finally read it this time.

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. The only one that sounded interesting to me was The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older. My library doesn’t have it yet but I’m first on the list and it will be published the first week of March. If I can get my hands on it on time, I plan to read it. It’s also super short which is always nice.

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So that’s my insanely long TBR and I also made this graphic to keep track of my status. In order to complete it all in March, I’d need to read 190 pages a day which is much more than I normally read. But I did complete this readathon for the first time in August with a nearly similar page count on my TBR and I had so much fun. So it is possible and I’m going to do my best. I’d really like to read a minimum of 10 books so we’ll see how it goes.

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 March 5th!