This concept of a five star audit was, I think, created by Megwithbooks on YouTube and many people have run with it. It’s been something teasing my brain for months now and I’ve been desperate to try it myself, although I’m also nervous because do I actually know my own taste well enough to pull off an audit of my five stars? Essentially the concept is that you try and narrow in on what specific almost micro-tropes help you to know a book is likely to work for you. And I think for people accustomed to reading in a lot of genres, sometimes they’re able to have a more broad takeaway. Like “friends to lovers” or something. For me, I can tell you that broadly speaking I like friends to lovers, fake dating, marriage of convenience, etc., but as a voracious romance reader, I also know that those more broad concepts aren’t necessarily getting me information that’s super helpful. But, it does seem like a good place to start. So I’m going to begin by picking some of my favorite tropes and then trying to figure out what the 5 stars within those tropes have in common aside from the broad trope. Let’s see how this goes, shall we?
Single Parent Romances
My current obsession of single parent romances… Here is a visual representation of my five stars that fit this broad trope:
Some common themes within this grouping is that the majority of these books are small town romances as well. In fact about 15 of 21 are single parent blended with small town, which makes sense, because I love a community and a found family trope too. Also interesting to note is that 8 of the 21 have some element of a guardian taking over the role of parent. Only 2 of the 21 have the nanny trope, although I do have several four stars that I think of quite fondly that do as well. There are 14 four star single parent romances that I found going through the last three years on Goodreads. Of those, eight more are small town romances, and four have the nanny trope. Also, while only two of my five star single parent romances are a romantic suspense (technically, I think Juniper Hill is arguably NOT), four more of my four stars are. My four stars that have a guardian as parent add four more to that total.
So overall, I think single parent x small town romances are a good bet for me, guardian as single parent is a great bet for me, and single parent x romantic suspense seems to be something that is likely to work for me.
Friends to Lovers
I don’t actually know that I’ve been reading as much friends to lovers in the past three years as I used to, but regardless, here are the 18 books I’ve pulled for a five star sampling of friends to lovers (mostly from the last three years, with three rereads that are from older than that). I notice a couple of trends here. First, I really like when the history between the friends is pre-existing. For example, Lovelight Farm, Friends Don’t Fall in Love, The Roommate Risk, Scoring Off the Field, etc. In total, 15 of the 18 have a solid background and I would argue for at least one more. Some are childhood friendships, which if I include through high school, brings me to 11. So I think it’s safe to say childhood friends to lovers is a safe bet for me. Some of my childhood friends to lovers romances though have an element of second chance like Built to Last, Full Moon Over Freedom, and Things We Left Behind. Or they have childhood friends to “enemies” to lovers like in Things We Left Behind and A Proposal They Can’t Refuse. If we add in my four stars, there are a couple more that are similar. There are three more that have an element of second chance and there are two more that have the enemies or rivals aspect. Six of them are childhood friends to lovers in some way. (Also, for the record, there are 12 books that I’m looking at in the four star category.) And finally, nine of the 18 (or half) are set in a small town.
Fake Relationship
Next I want to look at fake relationships, whether that’s a marriage in name only or simply fake dating and we can see what these books I’ve loved have in common besides this overarching trope.
Honestly, I could have kept going, pulling out the fake relationship books that I’ve loved. This is definitely a favorite trope of mine, without a doubt. It’s why I read and try so many of them. But what actually makes a fake relationship book work for me? Because, let’s be honest, the market has been over-saturated with fake dating books and they definitely don’t all work for me. So what is the secret sauce that gets me to love a book like this? I’ve pulled books for the image that have high stakes and include actually getting married, In a Jam, One and Only, The Bluff, and Terms and Conditions. I’ve pulled books that have like two or three scenes of faking a relationship, Behind the Net, Role Playing, Savor It, and Well Matched. I’ve got at least one book I loved where the couple is just pretending between themselves, practice dating, Mixed Signals. Six-seven do take place in a small town, so given everything we’ve learned so far, I think small town paired with a trope I already like is a promising start. Honestly, y’all, this is where I think I’m just struggling. Do I really just like the fake dating part? I may. Tell me if you see anything else certain groupings of these books have in common because right now, I’m not taking away anything else from these 18 books.
Second Chance Romance
I used to not like second chance romances, but lately, I’ve found more and more of them working for me. So let’s switch from trope I know I consistently enjoy and try examining one that’s historically been more of a hit and a miss.
Even while compiling this list I kept going, “ooh, it’s the angst.” And honestly, I think that’s exactly it. Well, it’s two fold. In none of these second chance novels was there cheating (though there was some suspected cheating in a couple), because whether I should or not, my brain tends to throw up blockades for that, but in all of them there is some measure of angst and usually a lot of it. There is also a lot of growth of the characters in all of these books, even though five of them are pretty short, with two actually being novellas. But for the most part, we really do get to see that these characters went through a lot of growth that has allowed them to be better together now than in the past or, in the case of the relationship in trouble books, at the beginning of the book. And speaking of relationship in trouble, I’m pretty sure that is a trope that will always work for me. I’m willing to put in the effort to find out otherwise at any rate.
Closing Thoughts
I could keep going, I do have five stars hanging out that I haven’t categorized, but I think this was a helpful exercise overall and I can always revisit it later if I feel so inspired or come up with any other brilliant insights to my reading. Let me know what you think some of the secret sauce is for you in your reading. I would love to know!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 