Top Ten Tuesday #220

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week this week, I have spent pretty much all my time at work, my job is fun but very full on and I’m so tired that my current read is taking me quite a while to get through as I barely have the time to sit down and read, thank goodness for my audiobook on the bus in the mornings and evenings (it’s Priory of The Orange Tree and I’m loving it for anyone who’s wondering!). I’m going to London this weekend so that should be good. It’s also only two weeks until YALC and I am so excited, it’s been ages since I last saw Hannah and our weekend of bookish fangirling is always my favourite of the year.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for all of you, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking our Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors, which should be a fun one, I’d love to see if you guys could guess who was going to be on this list, so let me know in the comments if you guessed any beforehand (if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll probably get most of them, since I talk about them quite a lot). So here we go:

1. VE Schwab

Who’s surprised? No one? Kind of figured! Yes, VE Schwab is one of my favourite authors and I will devour absolutely anything she writes, so all of her new books are automatic must buys for me. I’ve read 7 of her books already, but I’ve still got four on my shelves that I haven’t read yet, plus her most recent comics, so I’ve got plenty to be going on with until her next book comes out.

2. Leigh Bardugo

I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by Leigh Bardugo so far, i.e. all the Grisha books and I’m so looking forward to diving into King of Scars, and Ninth House when it comes out. She writes the kind of dark fantasies that I just love, so she was a very natural addition to this list.

3. Jodi Picoult

The only non SFF author on this list, Jodi Picoult probably wouldn’t be an author that most people would associate me with, but I do really love her books. It’s very rare for me to get sucked into adult books that aren’t fantasies, but Jodi Picoult has such an engaging writing style and I love how all her books tackle moral/ethical debates and really make me think about things, so every new book she releases, I’m pretty much guaranteed to read.

4. Derek Landy

Skulduggery Pleasant was one of the two big series of my teenage years (Percy Jackson being the other one) and from then on, I’ve been completely addicted to everything Derek has written. I love how well he combines darkness and humour and I just think his worlds are so creative and fun and I always really enjoy his books.

5. Neal Shusterman

I was just starting to fall out of love with science fiction dystopians when I found the Unwind series and completely fell in love with it. Neal Shusterman is another one of these writers who is amazing at combining the dark with the comedic, he creates such brilliant worlds and characters and I’ve just loved everything I’ve read of his so far.

6. Samantha Shannon

My friend actually turned me onto Samantha Shannon’s books (Nicola, from Uni) and it wasn’t love at first read, honestly I found The Bone Season kind of complicated and hard to engage with, but I’ve enjoyed every subsequent book of hers I’ve read, including my current read, Priory!

7. Rick Riordan

I’ll admit, Rick Riordan is not as much of an autobuy author as he used to be, as I’ve got older, I haven’t loved his books as much as I did when I was a teenager, which is fair enough, he does write books for people half my age! Still, I had to include him on this list because for so many years he has been an auto-buy author of mine, and I still love his older books, even if I’ve not been as keen on the Trials of Apollo series.

8. Sarah J Maas

I know there are a lot of mixed opinions about Sarah J Maas’ books, but I really love them and eagerly await her next one each time she has a new release, though I will admit that Kingdom of Ash is far too long and I have yet to finish it!

9. Maggie Stiefvater

Well any Raven Cycle related books anyway, I’ve found I haven’t had much luck with her standalones, I liked but didn’t love The Scorpio Races and I couldn’t finish All The Crooked Saints. I’m so excited for Call Down The Hawk though, I can’t wait to catch up with Ronan and hopefully some of the rest of the gang too.

10. Alwyn Hamilton

The Rebel of Sands trilogy might have had a mixed reaction from me (loved the first book, was a bit meh about the second and not keen on the third) but I love Alwyn as a person, she’s always so lovely at author signings, that I’m eagerly awaiting what comes next from her.

So there we go, my auto-buy authors. Do we share any? Are you excited for/have you read any of these authors’ most recent books? Let me know in the comments! Next week’s topic is Settings I’d Like To See More Of, so that should be a fun one as we haven’t had a settings topic in a while.

I should have another Book Vs Movie comparison soon, but that will depend on how busy I am at work!

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Top Ten Tuesday #219

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had good weeks this week, I am exhausted, my new job is a lot of hours and incredibly full on, so if my posting is a little bit more sporadic over the next few weeks, that will be why, though I am going to do my best to get as much done at weekends as possible. I’m going to Stratford and Warwick this weekend so that will hopefully be nice, since I’ve never been to either before!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Character Freebie, so any topic revolving around characters. I’ve chosen, Character Names I Butchered Because I Learned Them By Reading, as there are many characters whose names I’ve got completely wrong when I said them because I’d only ever seen them written down. It’s going to be a little shorter than usual, since I had to do this late last night after I got back from work:

1. Valkyrie Cain-Skulduggery Pleasant-Derek Landy

I always pronounced this like Val-ki-ri, with an i at the end, and I’d done this in my head for years until I was finally talking to someone about the books in a conversation, I can’t remember who, and they corrected me and said it was actually Val-ki-ree! I still occasionally read it the wrong way, but I do get it right most of the time now.

2. Paige Mahoney-The Bone Season-Samantha Shannon

It’s not Paige’s first name I have a problem with, that’s pretty self-explanatory, but her last name. I pronounced it like Ma-hoe-ney, but it’s apparently more like Mar-knee, and I’ll be honest, I still read this one wrong, all the time.

3. Rhy Maresh-Shades of Magic Trilogy-VE Schwab

Okay, so I know I’m not the only one who has got this one wrong, since she literally has in her bio that it’s RHY like WHY, but my brain refuses to read it that way and I immediately go to Ree, instead of Rye like the bread. To be honest with this one, my brain is stubborn and still reads it my way and I keep having to constantly correct myself whilst reading!

4. Chaol Westfall-Throne of Glass series-Sarah J Maas

I know I can’t be the only one who read this one wrong when they first read the book because it doesn’t sound anything like it looks! So I read it as Ch-owl for basically the entirety of the first book until I saw something online that said it was actually Kay-all. It’s supposed to be like Chaos which I suppose makes sense but that didn’t stop me from butchering it the first time I read it.

5. Celaena Sardothien-Throne of Glass series-Sarah J Maas

I instinctively thought this was meant to be pronounced like Selena when I first read the books, so I read it as that through much of the first book and then again, I saw somewhere online that her name was actually meant to be pronounced Se-lay-nah and it does make more sense but I think my brain just couldn’t quite make sense of the name when I first read it, so it went for the closest alternative.

6. Enne Salta-The Shadow Game Trilogy-Amanda Foody

I know this seems like such an easy name and how could I possibly butcher it? Well, since no one asked, I did Spanish at school and Enne’s name is spelt like the Spanish word for the letter n, En-ne, so I instinctively read it like that, when it’s actually just pronounced like the letter “n” in English.

7. Pressia Belze-Pure Trilogy-Julianna Baggott

To be honest, I’m still not sure exactly how this one is meant to be pronounced, I read it as Pres-ee-a the first time I read the books but I think it’s meant to be more like the word “pressure”. Her last name I honestly have no idea how you pronounce, I think it’s meant to be like “bells”? But I’m not sure!

8. Crepuscular Vies-Skulduggery Pleasant Series-Derek Landy

I’ve read this first name a thousand different ways, Crespucular, Crepsucular, basically any way but the way it’s actually spelt and I don’t know why because it sounds exactly the way that it’s spelt! The last name again, I’m not sure if it’s Vies with the emphasis on the i sound or more like Vees.

So there we go, all the character names I’ve completely butchered over the years and to be honest, there are probably way more than these! Have you ever completely mispronounced a character name? Let me know in the comments! Next week’s topic is Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors, so that should be a nice easy one.

I don’t know if I’ll have anything else for you this week, as I said at the top, I’m going to be very busy with work for the next few weeks, so bear with me, everything will be coming, just slower than usual!

Top Ten Tuesday #218

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all your well wishes on my graduation last week, I had a lovely day (even if the weather wasn’t great, though that actually turned out for the best because the other two grad days were scorching!), the ceremony was very nice, I had a great meal out with my family and then got to celebrate with my friends in style at grad ball on Friday, so all in all, it was a great week. I’ve started my new job this week as well, so that’s the next six weeks of my life accounted for.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re meant to be talking about our Childhood Favourite Reads, but since I did that topic a while back, and it’s not the kind of subject that changes over time, I’m going to be talking about another kind of childhood favourite, and share my Childhood Favourite Films. Fair warning, I’m a child of the early 00’s, so Disney was a staple!

1. The Lion King

My favourite Disney film! I refuse to go see the live action version because I maintain that you cannot mess with perfection and I honestly don’t think there’s any reason to remake the live actions with animals that you cannot realistically film with? Like 101 Dalmatians, fair enough, but The Lion King? Nope.

2. Beauty and The Beast

Given that this is my favourite childhood films, I think it’s pretty obvious that I mean the animated version here (though I actually did like the live action too). I wanted to be Belle so much when I was a kid, and although as an adult, I realise the more iffy parts of the Beauty and The Beast story, I do still love this film and I REALLY WANT THAT LIBRARY.

3. 101/102 Dalmatians

I’m putting both of these here as I love both films, although I think 102 Dalmatians is actually my favourite of the two, I love Waddlesworth. If it’s not clear, I’m talking about the live action films here, one of the few cases where I think the live action films are better than the animated, because of course, here you get REAL DOGS. These films started my lifelong obsession with Dalmatians and whilst I’d still like one, I don’t think I’ll have 101!

4. Wallace and Gromit (all, but particularly the short films)

I was OBSESSED with Wallace and Gromit when I was a kid, I had multiple stuffed toys of Gromit, and I think a stuffed Wallace as well? I particularly loved The Wrong Trousers, in fact I think it’s still my favourite of the Wallace and Gromit adventures. I’m honestly still in awe of how much skill it must have taken to make these films, and the fact that it’s all Plasticine is seriously mind boggling to me!

5. Chicken Run

I mean you probably could have seen this one coming given what number 4 was! Chicken Run is funny, fabulous and surprisingly feminist (I read a thread on Twitter about it and it blew my mind!) and it’s definitely one of my favourite childhood films, I think Mrs Tweedy was one of the first fictional characters I was truly afraid of! I cannot wait for the sequel, I was so happy when they announced that.

6. Shrek 2

One of very few instances where the sequel surpasses the first film (though 3 & 4 were really not necessary!), and I feel like most people would probably agree? Shrek 2 has a killer soundtrack, a great story and all in all is just a really fun film and was definitely one of my childhood favourites (tbh, still is now).

7. Monsters Inc.

Sully and Mike! An endearing friendship for the ages. Monsters Inc is just brilliant, funny, heartwarming and one of those films that you can just come back to again and again.

8. Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron

I mean I am nothing if not a massive horse girl at heart, so of course this film was one of my favourites growing up and yes, I had a toy Spirit, because of course I did. It’s such a beautifully done film, has a brilliant soundtrack, it’s very sad at times, but ultimately hopeful.

9. Harry Potter and The Philsopher’s Stone

Would I be a child who grew up in the Harry Potter era if I didn’t have at least one Harry Potter film on here? I think not. I actually don’t remember when I first saw the first Harry Potter film, I was definitely young, but I can’t imagine I saw it when it first came out, since I was about 4 then! I remember seeing the second one but that’s because I was traumatised by the spiders!

10. The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride

I actually saw this one more as a child than I did the first one, because we had the video of it (yes, I grew up when videos where still a thing. Only just though, I think DVDs were starting to become more popular when I was a kid), and I watched it constantly. It’s one of the few Disney sequels that actually lives up to the first for me, with a great story and a great soundtrack.

So there we have it, my favourite childhood films. Have you seen any of these? What were your favourite films when you were a kid? Let me know in the comments! Next week’s topic is a character freebie, so I’m going with Character Names I Butchered Because I Learned Them By Reading, which should be fun.

I’m going to be quite busy with work this week, so I’m not sure how much I will be posting, I know I want to get up my June #RockMyTBR Challenge Update, and my Mid Year Check In, but those will probably both be at the weekend, so stay tuned over Saturday and Sunday.

Top Ten Tuesday #217

Hi everyone! Today’s my graduation day, so this is a pre-planned, pre-scheduled post, a rarity in this blog’s history! This day has been four years coming and there’s a whole bunch of weird emotions heading into it, but mostly I’m really excited to finally be getting my degree and to be spending the day celebrating with my friends and family.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl and this week we’re talking our Summer TBRs. I always love these topics, it’s fun to look ahead to the books I’m going to be reading over the next few months. I actually read all the books on my Spring TBR which I think must be a first for me, so I’m hoping that the summer will be just as successful!

1. Bedlam (Skulduggery Pleasant #12)-Derek Landy

Okay, so I’m cheating a tiny bit here, since this is my current read and I intend to finish it by the end of June, but oh well, may as well knock out the low hanging fruit early! I’m really enjoying this, it finally feels like stuff in this new phase of Skulduggery is getting kicked up a notch, which is great.

2. Strange The Dreamer-Laini Taylor

My July #RockMyTBR book! I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages and both my friends Hannah and Nicola loved it, which means I really have no excuse now. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as they did.

3. Vengeful-VE Schwab

I so meant to read this last year when I was done with Vicious, but it’s a big book and I just didn’t have time. However now that it’s summer, and I’m done with Uni, I’m dying to dive back into Eli and Victor’s world and meet all of the new women who are apparently so awesome in this book.

4. An Ember In The Ashes-Sabaa Tahir

My August #RockMyTBR book. It feels like this one has been on my TBR for ages, I think about three or four years, I added it when it was still relatively new, but I only bought it last year. Anyway, I’m finally going to read it this year and find out what all the fuss is about.

5. King of Scars-Leigh Bardugo

AHHH THE NIKOLAI BOOK. I didn’t read it when it came out in January because I was feeling kind of burnt out on Grisha after reading the final two books in the trilogy back to back, but I’m feeling ready to get back to it now and excited to see where Nikolai’s journey takes him now that he’s King.

6. The Last Namsara-Kristen Ciccarelli

My September #RockMyTBR book. I’ve been meaning to get to this since I got it in a FairyLoot box, almost two years ago now, but of course, I got distracted by twenty million other books. I’m excited about this one though, THERE ARE DRAGONS!

7. Crossfire-Malorie Blackman

This is possibly one of my most anticipated books of the year! Noughts and Crosses was one of my first ever YA books, and that series meant so much to me when I was a pre-teen/young teenager and I never could have imagined back then, that we’d get another book so I’m ridiculously excited to see the continuation of Sephy and Callie Rose’s story, as well as meeting a new generation of Noughts and Crosses characters.

8. Ever Alice-HJ Ramsay

This is my current Netgalley read, so I’m cheating slightly again, but hey, I like to have books that I can quite easily cross off my TBR on these lists! I wasn’t all that into this to start off with, but things are finally picking up, so hopefully they improve in this third part of the book!

9. We Hunt The Flame-Hafsah Faizal

I honestly don’t really know much about what this book is about, but I’ve seen a lot of buzz about it and the Arabian style setting seems pretty cool, so I’m hoping that it will be good?

10. You-Caroline Kepnes

I watched the Netflix show and really enjoyed it, so I’m going to try this one as my first audiobook, it seems like a format that will fit the book well and Santino Fontana narrates it, so I’m pretty excited to dive in!

So there we have it, the books I’m attempting to knock of my TBR this Summer. I hope I’ll be able to manage them all, though with my job, I’m not entirely sure if I will, I’m probably going to be quite busy over the next few months! What books are on your Summer TBR? Have you read any of mine? Do you want to? Let me know in the comments! (I will reply to all comments tomorrow since I am going to be pretty busy with graduation today!).

Next week’s topic is Childhood Favourites, but since I’ve already done one of those for books, a while back, I’m twisting it slightly and will be sharing my favourite films from childhood.

Meanwhile, I’m going to have a special Jo Talks post up at some point during the week, talking about my graduation, and a review of my latest read Bedlam, at some point soon, so keep an eye out for those.

Top Ten Tuesday #216

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I got my Uni results last week and I’ll be graduating next week with a 2:1, which, for those of my readers outside of the UK, is really good! I also went to a HarperCollins blogger event last night which was really fun, I’m hoping now that I’m back home for the foreseeable future I might be able to get to a few more of these and meet more lovely UK bloggers.

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking about our Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of The Year. I can’t believe it’s already time for this list and I’ve only actually read five of the books on my first half of the year list! Oh well, let’s hope I have more luck with these ones (I’m doing this in order of release date rather than level of excitement):

1. Spin The Dawn-Elizabeth Lim-Releases 9th July

I’m so excited that there have been so many more releases by Asian authors coming out this year, it’s great to see. This book sounds really cool as well, a girl in a tailoring competition to become imperial tailor but in order to enter she has to disguise herself as a boy. It’s been pitched as Mulan meets Project Runway and that combination sounds just strange enough to work!

2. We Hunt The Flame-Hafsah Faizal-8th August

We Hunt The Flame came out in the US last month, but it’s finally making it to the UK in August. I actually have an e-ARC of this, so I don’t have to wait till then, but I’m really excited to read it anyway. it’s inspired by Arabian Nights which is super cool and I’ve heard pretty good things so far.

3. Tunnel Of Bones (Cassidy Blake #2)-Victoria Schwab-Releases 5th September

Now leaving aside the fact that I haven’t actually read City of Ghosts yet (I will!), I’m still really excited for a new Victoria Schwab book. This one is set in PARIS and involves the Catacombs, which just sounds amazing and gives me even more incentive to try and read City of Ghosts soon (I think I will in September or October).

4. The Tyrant’s Tomb (Trials of Apollo #4)-Rick Riordan-Releases 1st October

Okay real talk, I think I’m kind of growing out of Rick Riordan’s books? It’s sad but considering they are intended for an audience a decade younger than me, not entirely surprising! I haven’t enjoyed this series as much as his others, but I’m so close to the end, and Rick Riordan has meant a lot to me over the past nine years, so I’d like to finish out this series and hopefully end on a high.

5. Ninth House-Leigh Bardugo-Releases 1st October

I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS. A college set book with hints of fantasy? YES PLEASE. Honestly this is the kind of book that I’ve been waiting for and I’m super excited to dive into Alex’s adventures in occult Yale secret societies!

6. The Fountains of Silence-Ruta Sepetys-Releases 1st October

Another historical fiction from Ruta Sepetys, I’m so excited! This one is set in the dictatorship of General Franco, twenty years after the Spanish Civil War, another piece of history that barely gets looked at in historical fiction and I’m excited to see how Sepetys takes it on.

7. The World of Throne of Glass-Sarah J Maas-Releases 3rd October (maybe?)

I’ll be honest, I don’t actually know if this one is coming out this year or not, but it says that it is on Goodreads and Amazon, so I’m going with it. I wasn’t initially that excited about this, since it sounded like just a boring encyclopaedia of the Throne of Glass world, but apparently it is also going to show what the characters are up to following the end of Throne of Glass, so count me in.

8. Into The Crooked Place-Alexandra Christo-Releases 8th October

I loved Alexandra’s debut To Kill A Kingdom, so I’m super excited for her next book. A group of thieves who accidentally plunge their world into a war and have to fight to save it, but they don’t even know if they can trust each other? YES PLEASE.

9. A Kingdom For A Stage (For A Muse of Fire #2)-Heidi Heilig-Releases 8th October

For A Muse of Fire ended in a really exciting place, so I can’t want to read more of Jetta’s adventures in this book as she deals with the fallout of what happened in the last book and it sounds as if this one is going to be even more exciting-I am ready for it!

10. Call Dawn The Hawk (The Dreamer Trilogy #1)-Maggie Stiefvater-Releases 5th November

AGHH! I have been anticipating this book since The Raven Cycle finished three years ago and I can’t believe it’s finally almost here! I’m so excited to see what Ronan has been up to since the end of The Raven King, and hopefully some of our Raven Cycle faves might appear in this trilogy too.

So there we go, my most anticipated releases for the second half of 2019! Are you excited for any of these? What are you most anticipated releases for the next six months? Let me know in the comments!

That’s all for this week! Next week we’re talking about our Summer TBRs, but as you may have noticed from the top of this post, my graduation is next Tuesday! I will still be doing the post, but it will be pre-scheduled and I won’t be doing my usual round of comments, nor replying to comments on here, I’m sure you guys can understand! In the meantime, I will have a recap of the HarperCollins event I went to up at some point this week, and also my Spring Quarterly Rewind on Friday, so stay tuned for those.

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday #215

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I finally got to meet up with my friend Ellie, who I haven’t seen in almost two years over the weekend which was awesome & I’m getting my final grades for Uni tomorrow so I’m kind of freaking out about that, but fingers crossed everything will be okay!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re meant to be talking about our Unpopular Bookish Opinions, but honestly I don’t think I have that many? I could think of about three, and since that’s not really enough for a TTT, I decided to change the topic. Since it’s Pride Month and we don’t have any Pride themed prompts, I thought I’d share 10 LGBTQ+ books by LGBTQ+ authors. Since I couldn’t come up with 10 that I have read, I’m sharing 5 that I’ve read and 5 that I want to read (and if you guys have any recs for me, please leave them in the comments), so here we go: (I didn’t want to out anyone, so I’ve only chosen authors that I know have spoken about their sexuality online).

Books By LGBTQ+ authors that I’ve read:

1. Timekeeper Trilogy-Tara Sim

This is honestly one of my favourite fantasy trilogies out there, when you read a lot of YA fantasy, it’s difficult to find anything that feels new, but this series definitely did. It’s alternate Victorian era, steampunk, with a great romance between clock mechanic Danny and clock spirit Colton. Also Tara Sim has a way of crushing your heart that I’ve only ever found with my very favourite authors.

2. Shades of Magic Trilogy-VE Schwab

Anyone who has been following this blog for any length of time in the past three years knows how much I love this series. It’s pretty much everything I love about fantasy tied up in one book, a world that really sucks you in, a stabby female lead, a male lead who gets frequently exasperated by the girl’s antics, but secretly loves them and brilliant sibling relationships. It also has two great romances, one of which is a m/m romance that is just adorable.

3. Ace of Shades/King of Fools-Amanda Foody

Amanda Foody’s Shadow Game series has several main LGBTQ+ characters, & I love that it’s so normal in the world she’s created, there’s no homophobia, the LGBTQ+ characters are all allowed to just be, which I think is really great. Plus the Shadow Game series is just really great, there are so many awesome women (yay!), so many brilliant twists and turns & the world that she’s created, the 1920s-esque, fantasy Atlantic City, is just really cool!

4. The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue-Mackenzi Lee

Yay for inclusive historical fiction! I definitely want to see more of this, so if you guys know of any other historical fiction which features LGBTQ+ characters then please let me know. This is my current read, and I’m nearly done with it, and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Monty and Percy are such adorable dorks who love each other so much and won’t admit their feelings and I’m here for this!

5. For A Muse of Fire-Heidi Heilig

Jetta, the main character of this book is queer, biracial and mentally ill, which is something that is sadly not seen very often in books. She has the power to bind the souls of the dead to puppets, which is pretty darn awesome and the world, which is a combination of Asian cultures and Colonial French, works really well.

Books By LGBTQ+ authors on my TBR:

6. The Devouring Gray-Christine Lynn Herman

This is one of my most anticipated reads of the year, it was compared to The Raven Cycle and Stranger Things, which I think could make for a very cool combination and it just sounds wonderfully creepy and eerie, which is one of my favourite things. Two of the main characters are also bisexual, which is great and I follow Christine on Twitter and think she’s great, so I’m hoping for good things from this book.

7. Reign of The Fallen-Sarah Glenn Marsh

Honestly I was pretty hooked when I saw the cover of this one (it’s gorgeous!)  and then the synopsis just sealed it for me, a bisexual necromancer who is fighting to stop zombies from taking over her world? Yup, sign me up! This is on my TBR list for this year and I cannot wait to read it.

8. The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy-Mackenzi Lee

Having almost finished The Gentleman’s Guide, I am ridiculously excited for this one because I love Felicity so much! I also don’t think I’ve ever read about an asexual character in a historical setting, so that is also super cool.

9. This Is Where It Ends-Marieke Nijkamp

I was really excited for this book before it came out and then I haven’t really heard all that much about it since. I bought it at YALC last year, so I’m hoping to get to it at some point, but all I really know about it is that it definitely has LGBTQ+ rep in it and that it’s about a school shooting.

10. Vengeful-VE Schwab

I really can’t wait to read Vengeful, I loved Vicious so much when I read it last year, but I just didn’t have time to read Vengeful and I’ve heard so much good stuff about it since then, that the women are the focus of this book and it has Victor being confirmed as canon asexual and I just can’t wait to get back to this world and these characters.

So that’s it for my list this week. I’ve definitely read more books by LGBTQ+ authors in the last few years than I did before, but I know I need to read more, so if you have any recommendations for me, then please share them in the comments! Have you read any of these? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!

That’s all for this week, next week we’re talking about our Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of the Year, so July-December, which is always a super fun list to do. In the meantime, I should have a review of Gentleman’s Guide, and hopefully a Jo Talks post coming up sometime this week, so keep an eye out for those!

Top Ten Tuesday #214

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been relatively quiet, my parents were away so I spent the week looking after the animals. I did get to go to a book signing on Saturday though, it was Derek Landy’s Cambridge stop for the new Skulduggery Pleasant book. It wasn’t as much fun going to a signing on my own, but it was great meeting Derek again and I got a suitably awkward photo, as is mine and Hannah’s tradition when meeting Derek.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a pretty easy one, we’re talking Books From Our Favourite Genre, so naturally I’ll be talking about my Top Ten Favourite Fantasy Books. Since most of my favourites come from a series, I’m just going to be talking about my favourite book in each series, but if a series is on here, take it as me recommending the entire series and not just that specific book, as they will not all be the first book in their respective series (in fact, most won’t be)! Also I am not going to be able to keep this limited to ten, there are too many brilliant fantasy books that I love for that!

1. A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)-VE Schwab

I love all of the books in this trilogy, but this first one will always be the most special to me, because it introduced me to the wonderful world that Schwab created and some of my favourite characters of all time, Lila, Rhy and Kell and of course it was the first VE Schwab book that I ever read. And it’s also just a brilliant book, so well written and has that wonderful immersive quality that I love in fantasy novels, you fall into it and just don’t want to come back out.

2. Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)-Leigh Bardugo

This was the Leigh Bardugo novel that set the bar for all the others for me, it was the first one I read and it was just so brilliant. Such a well crafted heist, a brilliant cast of characters with such a fun, and incredibly banter filled friendship and a world that I really loved. I found a new favourite author from this book, so naturally it had to go on my list of all time favourite fantasy novels.

3. The Raven King-(The Raven Cycle #4)-Maggie Stiefvater

Again, I love this whole series, but the final book just had a little something extra for me. It’s the final book, so you get the answers you’ve been waiting for the entire series. The characters are what really make this book (and series) for me though, they have such a wonderful friendship and they grow so much over the course of the series, so it was great to see that all come to the fore in the final book.

4. The Song Rising-(The Bone Season #3)-Samantha Shannon

I liked the first two books of the series, but this instalment was definitely the most exciting for me. It’s shorter, so everything feels a lot more tightly plotted, Paige’s character development is brilliant, the world is expanded so much and it feels like a real turning point in the series: so far the action has all happened in the UK, but as of the next book, we’re finally going to get to see Scion citadels in Europe which I’m super excited for!

5. Heir of Fire-(Throne of Glass #3)-Sarah J Maas

My ratings have been kind of up and down for this series, but this one was definitely an up for me. I loved Celaena’s journey toward healing in this book and really coming into herself and we get the introduction of the witches, which I know a lot of people felt iffy about but I personally loved, Manon is the best! Much like the above book, Heir of Fire also felt like a real turning point in the Throne of Glass series.

6. The House of Hades-(Heroes of Olympus #4)-Rick Riordan

The House of Hades is not just my favourite Heroes of Olympus book, it is quite possibly my favourite Rick Riordan book as well. We get so much brilliant Percabeth content in this, with them in Tartarus, which was quite frankly what we deserved after the brutal ending of Mark of Athena, Hazel comes into her powers more, we have Leo and Calypso for the first time & of course there’s Nico coming to terms with his identity. There’s just so much great stuff packed into this book, it feels far shorter than it’s 500+ page count!

7. The Last Olympian-(Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5)-Rick Riordan

It’s honestly tough to choose a favourite Percy Jackson book, I read them all in a matter of weeks in 2010 and loved them all so much but I think if I had to choose I’d go with this one. It’s such a satisfying final book in the series, you get the culmination of the prophecy that’s been building for the past four books, the final battle with the Titans and of course, the official start of the Percabeth relationship which is built up throughout the books.

8. Chainbreaker-(Timekeeper #2)-Tara Sim

I love the entire Timekeeper trilogy, but I think the second book is my favourite. We get to go to Victorian India, which is super cool, Daphne and Colton have brilliant and emotional development arcs in this book, the world is developed so much from the first book, there were lots of brilliant twists and turns and an incredible, gut punching ending.

9. Last Stand of Dead Men (Skulduggery Pleasant #8)-Derek Landy

I had to have at least one Skulduggery Pleasant book on this list, and I decided on this one as it is definitely up there as one of my favourite books of the series. It’s so fast paced and action packed, we get to see all of the Dead Men (Skulduggery and his group of friends together) and it’s the start of the climax of the Darquesse storyline which has been building since the fifth book.

10. The Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4)-JK Rowling

Of course I had to have at least one Harry Potter book on this list and this one is my favourite. You have the Triwizard tournament, Voldemort’s return, everything gets a bit darker and more dangerous, again it feels like a turning point book, which apparently I really love!

11. Legendary-(Caraval #2)-Stephanie Garber

Caraval has become one of my favourite series in recent years and having now read all three books, I can definitely say that this one is my favourite, I loved Tella as the narrator, the pace was a lot more even than in the first book, there was a lot more worldbuilding with the Fates and everything being introduced and there were a lot of brilliant twists and turns as well.

12. Children of Blood and Bone-(Legacy of Orisha #1)-Tomi Adeyemi

Another of my favourite fantasy reads from last year, this book took a lot of recognisable tropes and made them feel fresh because of the diverse cast of characters (yay for an entirely POC world!) and fantastic world building. I can’t wait to see what is to come in the sequel when it finally comes out at the end of the year.

13. Rebel of The Sands (Rebel of The Sands #1)-Alwyn Hamilton

I loved the mix of Arab and the Wild West in this book, they worked together really well. It was also such a fast paced, exciting novel, I couldn’t get enough of it and I though Amani was a brilliant heroine.

14. To Kill A Kingdom-Alexandra Christo

The Little Mermaid has never been one of my favourite fairytales (or rather Disney movies!) but Alexandra Christo’s dark twist on it made it feel fresh and new, I loved the heroine Lira who was so vicious but also grapples with her humanity because she’s not supposed to feel anything for the people she kills and I thought the slow burn enemies to lovers romance was brilliant.

15. King of Fools-(The Shadow Game #2)-Amanda Foody

I thought the first Shadow Game book was good, but this one just took things to a whole new level. There’s so much happening, twists and turns round every corner, brilliant character development especially for Enne, so many awesome women, great new characters and an ending that punched me in the gut.

16. Enchantee-(Enchantee #1)-Gita Trelease

This was one of my first reads of the year and it was so good! I loved the whole concept of magic in the French Revolution anyway, but this book merged them so well. I loved the main character Camille, the fact that her bond with her sister was so central to this book and Trelease’s wonderfully visual writing that made me feel like I’d been dropped in the middle of the court of Versailles.

So that’s it for my supersized list this week! I know I went a bit overboard, but it was impossible to narrow down my favourite fantasy novels more than this (in fact I could have added several more!). Have you read any of these books? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week with a new Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to be talking about our Unpopular Bookish Opinions. I’ll be honest I’m not sure how many of these I have, but we’ll see if I can come up with enough to make next week’s list! In the meantime, I’m going to have a Writing Corner post up this week and hopefully I might start my new Book/Movie comparison feature and that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.