Top Ten Tuesday #373

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been fairly quiet as per usual. In a rarity for me, you’re getting a pre-scheduled post this week, my mum and I are going to Queen + Adam Lambert’s concert tonight which I’m super excited for as we’ve had to wait for over a year due to COVID rescheduling, but we had to go down to London yesterday due to the rail strikes taking place this week, because it’s just our luck that there would be strikes happening on the same week that we needed to be London for something! Thankfully we have managed to work out alternative transport to the O2, so fingers crossed that it all goes okay!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday so that means another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. I wasn’t really feeling this week’s topic of Bookish Wishes, so I’m going rogue again this week and instead doing something I saw Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense do on her blog back when we did the Book Quote Freebie last month and sharing 10 Random Quotes From Books On My TBR. Basically I picked 10 random books off my shelf, put the numbers between 1-50 into a random number generator on my computer and picked out the first quote I could see on that page. It did get a little tricky as some of the numbers came up with pages that didn’t have dialogue in the book, so I had to try multiple times to get a page that did, and I don’t think the quotes I’ve come out with are as good as Alicia’s but hey, that shows they truly were randomly chosen! So here we go, some random quotes from books on my TBR:

1. “Just tell me if you have him, please.” -Lexi, The Near Witch, VE Schwab

The Near Witch is one of very few Schwab books I have yet to read and I have to admit, I’m a little apprehensive, because I’ve not been the biggest fan of her earlier books, but I still think it will be interesting to read her debut and see where she started from.

2. “Marie, are you in there?” -Mirabelle, An Affair of Poisons, Addie Thorley

I really need to get to this one sometime soon because it sounds great, an alchemist unwittingly creates a poison which is used to murder Louis XIV and incite a rebellion? YES PLEASE.

3. “Never been readier.” -Daemon, Circle of Shadows, Evelyn Skye

I have to admit, a fairly boring quote but it was the first one on the random page I picked. The book sounds way more interesting than this quote, it’s about two trainee warriors studying magic and fighting in order to protect their kingdom and in order to prove themselves worthy as warriors, they infiltrate a group of soldiers during a scouting mission. I really enjoyed The Crown’s Game, so I hope I enjoy this one too.

4. “I saw something horrible. A vision of death.” -Xifeng, Forest of A Thousand Lanterns, Julie C. Dao

I love, love, love villain stories, Forest of A Thousand Lanterns is a retelling of the Evil Queen legend and this quote has me even more excited to read it. Visions of death can only mean carnage is in store in this book!

5. “You were almost a Robin. After you were born, I told the nurse that was your name, though I knew your Dad preferred Lily because lily of the valley was in bloom when we bought the house.” -Brenda, The Paris Library, Janet Skielsen Charles

I really need to get to The Paris Library soon because it SOUNDS SO GOOD. It’s about the American Library in Paris and the librarian’s role in the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation, and it just sounds so up my street. I’ve been on a big historical fiction kick recently, so there’s a good chance I’ll read this sooner rather than later.

6. “Sorry about last night, I can’t remember much.”-Lucas, Mina and The Undead, Amy McCaw

Doesn’t give much away, but I am intrigued as to what Lucas may have done that he needs to apologise for! Amy was my secret sister when we both did the Secret Sister Project on Twitter in 2017/18, so I really want to support her in her writing career. I’ve never been a huge vampire person, but Mina and The Undead does sound fun, so I want to see what it’s like.

7. “You’re lucky you got accepted to Godwin your first year at Dalloway.” -Leonie, A Lesson In Vengeance, Victoria Lee

I’m so excited for this one, witchy sapphic dark academia just sounds like such a blast!

8. “Be present,” “Stop wandering. How much power do you feel?” -Bryde, Mister Impossible, Maggie Stiefvater

I assume this is Bryde training Hennessey in how to use her dream powers? Or something like that. Anyway, I do really need to get around to Mister Impossible but I have completely forgotten what happened in Call Down The Hawk since I read it two years ago so I may need to refresh myself on that first before I can dive into the sequel.

9. “Why you getting undressed? Ain’t you going to work?” -Abe, The Foundling, Stacey Halls

My friend Hannah really liked The Foundling and she got it for me for Christmas about two years ago, so I really do need to get to it at some point! This quote doesn’t really tell me much, but from what I’ve read about it (it’s about a woman who tries to reclaim her illegitimate daughter from the foundling hospital she left her at, only to discover that someone pretending to be her has already done so), it sounds very interesting and I look forward to reading it.

10. “I would rather die than spend the rest of my life in Naimes.” -Marguerite, Vespertine, Margaret Rogerson

So many questions. Where is Naimes? What’s so bad about it you’d rather die than be there? I will admit, Margaret Rogerson’s books have always had a bit of “great concept, lacks execution” for me, but Vespertine did sound so cool that I just had to get: a nun-in-training who cleanses the bodies of the dead awakens a deadly spirit in order to defend her home but finds herself almost overcome in the process and has to find a way to control the spirit in order to save her home and herself.

So there we go, those are some random quotes from books on my TBR. Are any of these books on your TBR? Have you read them? What did you think of them? If any of them aren’t on your TBR, have these quotes inspired you to look into them? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is our annual Summer TBR topic which is always very fun, even if I do fail on my TBRs more often than not!