Top Ten Tuesday #113

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week since I last did one of these, I’ve had a pretty quite week really, but my parents were away over the weekend, so I made the most of it by watching all my favourite musicals plus all the Harry Potter movies! Best weekend ever! Anyway, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of the lovely ladies over at the Broke and the Bookish. This week is Best Books We’ve Read So Far in 2017. I’ve had a pretty good 2017 when it comes to books, but most of the books I’ve read have been in the 3-4 star range, with only one book standing out above the rest as a 5 star. I’ve only read 18 books so far this year, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to pick a full 10 out of that, but we’ll see! Here are my current 2017 favourites (for once in order of preference!):

1. A Conjuring of Light-VE Schwab-5 stars

My only five star read of 2017 so far! I swear this book is the reason I’m having trouble finding any more five star books, because nothing I have read since has lived up to this. It was the most perfect series finale I could have hoped for and probably one of my most favourite books ever, not just of 2017.

2. Caraval-Stephanie Garber-4 stars

I was worried about this one, because I’d heard a lot of comparisons to The Night Circus which I struggled with when I read it last year but I fell in love with the beautiful writing and the magical setting and the growth of the main character was so wonderful.

3. A Court of Mist and Fury-Sarah J Maas-4 stars

Everyone and their cat seemed to love this book and I was worried that I’d be the black sheep who didn’t, luckily that was the case! This book was so much better than the first one, Feyre grew so much as a character and actually became someone I liked rather than merely tolerated. I also loved the new cast of characters in Rhys’ court and can’t wait to see where they all go in the final book.

4. The Dark Prophecy-Rick Riordan-3.5 stars

I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the first one, but it still had a great cast of characters, was extremely witty and a fast paced fun adventure. Plus my favourite Leo was back in this book, so that made it even better! The best thing about Rick Riordan books is that they never fail to put a smile on your face, they remind me of one of the things I love most about reading, the simple joy that immersing yourself in a new world can bring.

5. Daughter of The Pirate King-Tricia Levenseller-3 stars

Some of the books lower on this list actually have a higher rating from me, because the writing style in this one was little simplistic and the pacing was a little off, but it was such a fun, piratey adventure and I just really enjoyed reading it, so I thought it deserved to have a high place on my list, even if I did only give it a 3 star rating.

6. Traitor To The Throne-Alwyn Hamilton-3.5 stars

This book did suffer a little from middle book syndrome, but I still really enjoyed it, the stakes were higher, the plot was more complex, Amani’s development was brilliant, we got to meet some great new characters and there were a lot of great twists, it was just a shame about some of the pacing issues in the middle of the book, otherwise it would have got a much higher rating from me.

7. The Crown’s Game-Evelyn Skye-3.5 stars

There were some pacing issues in this, but I did overall love it, the magic was great, the setting was wonderful, there was so much gorgeous FOOD, the writing was vivid & there was a masquerade which is basically catnip to me!

8. Under Rose Tainted Skies-Louise Gornall-4 stars

I know this has a higher rating than some of the other books that are placed higher on here, it was a really great book, just extremely intense due to the nature of the subject matter discussed, so I’m not sure “enjoy” is really the right word for how I felt about this book, it was enlightening more than anything else.

9. Paper and Fire-Rachel Caine-3.5 stars

This book also suffered a lot from middle book syndrome (it’s not technically the middle book of this series, but I think the syndrome still applies), however it was still a really solid read, I love Caine’s characters and world, I’m just not always thrilled with her writing or pacing. Still, the great character dynamics, diverse cast and brilliant settings in Caine’s book definitely overcame my lack of love for her writing and pacing.

10. Salt To The Sea-Ruta Sepetys-3.5 stars

I didn’t love this one as much as I loved the other Sepetys book I’ve read Between Shades of Grey, but it was still an interesting book about a historical event that I knew nothing about and as a History student, I always love getting to learn about new things that I didn’t know about before!

I’m going to stick to just ten this week since I only have 18 books to choose from anyway! What have been your favourite books of the year so far? Have you read any of these? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday is going on hiatus until August, the girls deserve a break after all! Don’t worry though, I’ll be going through the archives and seeing if there are any old topics that I can do until they’re back. In the meantime, I’m hoping to keep regular posting going throughout the summer, so there should be no shortage of new stuff for you guys!