smilebackwards

Mistakes have been made. I went on that social media site. The one I keep telling myself not to go on. The one I usually only go on to get pictures from.

And I came across... um... this:


At which point, Bob! went:
Darren Cahill isn’t just a brilliant tennis mind - he’s a warlock, an ancient practitioner of binding magic and protective wards, hiding arcane symbols in strategy notebooks and stringing spells into racquets. Every serve Jannik hits is laced with intention; every missed shot by an opponent is no accident.

He made a deal years ago: power in exchange for silence and subtlety. In return, his players would rise. But there’s a cost. The magic must be fed - sometimes with injuries, sometimes with reputation, sometimes with blood.

[EDIT] 5-ish hours later and I'm about to post a fic to AO3 with the summary Darren Cahill works in shadows - in chalk and string tension, in whispered spells and bloodless offerings. Rituals. Sigils. Subtle magics scratched into hardcourt and whispered into clay.

But grass is different. Older. Easily offended. It doesn't like to be used. And Wimbledon remembers him.

What are you currently reading?

Emilia Hart - Weyward I've been wanting to read this for ages and it was absolutely worth the wait. I only started it yesterday but I'm already uhh 53% through
Kelley Armstrong - Bitten A comfort re-read, dipping in and out as my mood pleases. I have so much love for Jeremy, for Clay, for the pack
Annie Worsley - Windswept My current borrowbox read - I'm about 1/3 of the way through, and I'm not quite sure what I think of it
Alice Roberts - Ancestors I have a teenytinyhugeass crush on Alice, not gonna lie. I'm about 75% through and should hopefully finish it soon

What did you recently finish reading?

Stephen Fry - Mythos 5/5 stars. Greek mythology at its most charming, clever, and chaotic. Stephen Fry retells these ancient stories with so much warmth and humour, I felt like I was being let in on the juiciest gossip from Olympus. Smart, sharp, and ridiculously entertaining — a perfect read for mythology lovers and curious mortals alike.
T Kingfisher - A House with Good Bones 5/5 stars. What starts as an odd visit home turns into a quietly horrifying unraveling of memory, family, and something deeply wrong under the wallpaper. It’s southern gothic with teeth, and I loved every uncanny, bug-filled page.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Erin Sterling - The Kiss Curse
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse

You know that moment, a few pages into a new book or fanfic, where you realise, oh no (but actually oh yes)—this is going to hit every one of your buttons? I love that. Some tropes just get me, no matter how many times I’ve seen them. I will fall for them again and again, gleefully, like it’s the first time. So today, in no particular order, here are the ones that always work on me.

Fake Dating
Top-tier. Always iconic. I don't care if it's full-on romcom chaos or angsty mutual pining in disguise, if two characters have to pretend to be together for Reasons? I'm in. Especially if they’re bad at pretending. Especially if they’re too good at pretending. Especially if one of them catches feelings first and doesn’t know what to do about it. Especially that moment, you see it coming from a mile away, that moment when, as the reader, you see the date turning real but they haven't yet twigged? It's delicious.

Grumpy x Sunshine
Give me the sour-faced one who doesn’t know how to deal with feelings, and the beaming one who crashes into their life like a golden retriever in human form. Let them banter. Let them slowly learn each other’s edges. Let the sunshine one get quietly intense sometimes, and the grumpy one be soft underneath. Peak comfort.

Forced Proximity
Trapped in a lift? Snowed in at a cabin? On the run and handcuffed together? YES. Stick them in a space they can't leave, turn the tension up to eleven, and just let me watch. Bonus points if they have to share resources, or reluctantly open up. All the better if one of them is injured and needs looking after. (Caretaking! Another micro-trope I fall for every time.)

Only One Bed
Look. It's a classic for a reason. Whether it's awkward bed-sharing full of “we’re definitely not touching” tension or the inevitable snuggling that definitely doesn't mean anything (until it does), I eat it up every single time.

Small Town Romance
There's something about the slower pace, the community vibes, the way people keep running into each other all over town. Maybe one of them is just passing through. Maybe they went to school together and haven’t seen each other in years. Maybe the town itself becomes a character. I love it all. Bonus if there’s a grumpy x sunshine and only one bed in the inn.

And here’s the weird bit: the tropes I love to read aren’t always the ones I love to write. Like, I adore fake dating on the page, but I almost never write it. Same with small town settings - I’ll devour them in books, but when I try to write them, I bounce right off. Meanwhile, I find myself writing intense, emotional dynamics or complicated power shifts, even when I’m not actively looking for those as a reader. Isn’t that odd? Not in a bad way, just... interesting. Like there’s a different part of my brain at work when I write, with its own set of fixations and fascinations.

Anyway. I could probably keep going (mutual pining! found family! hurt/comfort! age gap! power imbalance! kink!), but I’ll stop before this turns into a novella. What about you—what are the tropes you can never resist? And are they the same ones you end up writing?