Wednesday 29 July 2015

Top 5 Wednesdays: Favourite Character Tropes

Hello everyone and welcome back to my ever-expanding blog! Today I bring you another Top 5 Wednesday list, inspired by the wonderful GingerReadsLainey. This week's topic of 'Favourite Character Tropes' was another difficult one for me (Lainey isn't making this easy for us at the moment!), as to start with, I am ashamed to say that I didn't even know what a character trope is! I hope I have now got the gist of it, as it'll be pretty embarrassing if none of the items on this list count as character tropes, but *fingers crossed*. 

So, without further ado...I should probably just launch straight in! 

5) A man considered to be a 'player' who becomes smitten with a girl and becomes tamed.
I have to admit, I tend to see this more in films, but I am sure there are loads of books too that I am overlooking! One that springs to mind is Gideon from the Crossfire series. He is the huge player who doesn't ever commit and has a hotel room permanently rented out for when he wants to bring random girls back. Then he meets Eva, and she is the first to be allowed into his home and into his heart and he settles and devotes everything to her...I love it! :)

4) An interfering family member.
Who doesn't love a bit of a family feud or drama?! I can think of so many examples of this:
- The whole family in Almost English
- The mother-in-law in The Other Woman
- The mum in the Crossfire series
- The sister in The Ugly Sister
All of these cause family drama, and it reminds me how lucky I am to have the family I do! :)


3) Really really kind and wonderful religious people.
I'm sure this is obvious to many people, but I think that these characters in books are so fantastic as they help to neutralise some of the bad press that religious people get! What with extremism etc (wow this is getting heavy..), many atheists can't see the benefit of religion. That's why I think it is so important that religion is represented in its way of creating wonderfully patient, kind and caring people, such as:
- Owen Meany from A Prayer for Owen Meany
- those who work in the convent in Instructions for a Heatwave
- the monks in Hector's Search for Happiness
- the sisters in The Secret Life of Bees


2) A romance that grants the couple a new lease of life.
Back on the loved-up theme, I love really cheesey stories where a romance can change a person's life for the better.
- Violet and Finch in All the Bright Places
-  Pat and Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook
- Lou and Will in Me Before You
All of these characters are going through hardships, and in finding each other, they get a renewed faith in the beauty of life, and I love it! :)



1) An alien trying to make sense of human life.
This has got to be my favourite, because it makes for some hilarious writing at times! Some of my favourites are
- The Humans
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- The Lorien Legacies
An 'alien's' perspective on what it is to be human can be so refreshing and amusing at the same time. These books are thoroughly entertaining, and I would highly recommend them to people who want a little taste of SciFi! :)


That's it for another Top 5 Wednesday! I hope you enjoyed it. If you know of any other books which fit my favourite tropes, please let me know! Also, I'd love to read your lists, so please post the links in the comments below :) 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kristi, thanks for the recommendations, can't wait to check out these books :-)

    I recently read a Contemporary Romance book: "JUST THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE" by "JULIE JAMES". Not only was it a fun and enjoyable read but it also seems to fit to one of your favourite tropes: "A man considered to be a 'player' who becomes smitten with a girl and becomes tamed". I hope you enjoy it too if you get a chance to read it :-)

    Anyway, thanks again for such an interesting post,
    --Ramla Zareen

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