To explain a little about what this post will be about, every Trope Tuesday post starts with the same introduction. In every romance book you read there are tropes or archetypes you find inside its pages. You can also see them in shows, movies, plays, etc. Every type of entertainment and media. Romantic tropes are everywhere, and they are fabulous. I adore them and I always tend to find my favorite ones in romance books so I can enjoy them even more. Trope Tuesday is a weekly column where I share books that I know people will enjoy with a specific central trope.
What is a trope? Urban Dictionary explains it best: “Despite the erroneous definitions already published here, trope on the interwebs really refers to an often overused plot device. It can also be described as another variation on the same theme. TV shows, movies, comics, games, anime’, & books are full of tropes & many rabid fan-sites now name & track said tropes with a self-explanatory title for each one.” We can name a few: accidental pregnancy, best friends to lovers, sibling’s best friend, marriage of convenience, and so many more. Your favorite couples? They probably got a trope too! It’s always so nice to realize or find out your favorite romance trope and keep searching for books with the same theme. So really? I’m just helping you find that new favorite book of yours. If ever you want a post on a trope I haven’t done yet, do drop me a tweet at @thebookvoyagers and let me know!
October means “spooky month” and with it comes many, many creatures waiting in the dark night. Shifters are a big thing in romance novels, but most of the time I always see wolf creatures instead of, you know, other animals. I want to see variety! I want to see the main character/love interest interact with them and how different it is from the usual werewolf interaction. How about small creatures? How about very, big shifters that you need to be careful with? I managed to find some books that have shifter characters that aren’t wolves. Bears, elephants, pandas and maybe even a hedgehog? We have entered the spooky month, my friends!
Barista and the Bear by Rebel Carter
Rebel Carter’s new paranormal series has so many supernatural creatures. Barista and the Bear is the first book in this series, but you can read any of them as a standalone. As you can probably figure out by now, yes, it does have a bear shifter. We love bear shifters over here! And if you do too, I bet you would be very happy reading this.
Hedge witch working as a barista in this great coffee shop finds her life turned upside down when a bear shifter walks into the coffee shop and announces she is his fated mate.
The Shifter Bachelor by Shai August
Danie @DanieReads was the one who made me aware of this book. Since then I have taken an interest in it and I will soon read it! Possibly for this month, to be honest.
Matriarchy, alphas, elephant shifters, powerful heroines — you name it, this book has it! Imani, our heroine, just wants to be part of the herd, but her matriarch mother and grandmother won’t let her. Meanwhile, Ansel is constantly in a state of tiredness, because his mother wants him to mate and have many, many children. In fact, she is hosting a competition to meet and mate with him! But when he meets Imani (she is definitely more powerful than him!), she is the only one he wants to mate with.
In A Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston
I’m a huge fan of bodyguard romances and this has it which makes it ten times better. A honey badger shifter and a Giant Panda shifter fall in love in this romance! Actually this is also a whole series with shifters and Shelly Laurenston is a powerhouse, so you better get to them.
Shen Li is the bodyguard of one of the honey badger sisters — she’s the least violent one, but she gets into a lot of trouble! Stevie is scared of bears, but she isn’t scared of pandas and so she loves cuddling Shen. She wants him and she isn’t shy of making him know about it.
Prickly Business by Piper Vaughn and Kenzie Cade
Prickly, rich-boy hedgehog shifter meets werewolf once upon a day. They’re fated mates! But they have been estranged for a while now. Avery doesn’t care though— he didn’t even want to be mated to him either way. Dylan isn’t that happy either so he’s okay with their unattachment. Until Avery gets into some kind of trouble and he takes matters into his own hands. I mean, he doesn’t want Avery to be hurt…
