Top Ten Tuesday #211

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. It’s my last week at Uni, so I’m spending the week packing up my room which is pretty much my least favourite thing because I despise packing but I am excited to be going home as I’m going to see my friends Zoe and Hannah for the first time in three months next week!

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’s topic was meant to be a Page To Screen Freebie, but since I did that topic last week, I’ve decided to go a little bit off script this week and do something completely different. It’s Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK this week, and I thought it would be great to share Top Ten Books You Should Read For Mental Health Awareness Week. I’ve picked a mix, so some are books where the characters mental illness is central to the plot and others are books where the main character has a mental illness but it’s not a central plot point. So here we go:

1. Challenger Deep-Neal Shusterman

Challenger Deep follows teenager Caden Bosch as he struggles with schizophrenia, it takes place in parallel timelines, partly in reality as Caden is in treatment and partly in Caden’s hallucinations on a ship to the Marianas Trench. The entire book follows the descent of Caden’s mental illness as his hallucinations slowly start to leak into his everyday life.

2. Under Rose Tainted Skies-Louise Gornall

Louise Gornall’s debut is an unflinching look at OCD, agoraphobia and anxiety, based on her own personal experiences. The story follows Norah and her struggles with these illnesses as she grows closer to the new boy next door, but never fear, there is no love cures all here! It’s not an easy read, Norah’s thoughts are so pervasively intense that reading them can be a struggle, but it’s definitely an important one.

3. Countless-Karen Gregory

Countless is another one that’s quite difficult to read, but it’s certainly a unique story, about a girl with anorexia who finds out that she’s pregnant. She attempts to tackle her eating disorder for the sake of her unborn child, but it’s much harder to get rid of “Nia” (her name for her eating disorder) than she first thought. It’s frustrating and difficult to read about Hedda’s attempts to tackle her eating disorder, but ultimately does end in a hopeful place.

4. For A Muse of Fire-Heidi Heilig

This is an #ownvoices story with the main character suffering from the same bipolar disorder that the author does, which I loved because I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve read a book that features a bipolar character before, especially not one also by an author with the disorder. The story is brilliant too, Jetta (the main character) is able to bind the souls of the dead to shadow puppets and her family travel around the country performing. The world is also a really cool blend of French colonialism and Asian cultures.

5. Radio Silence-Alice Oseman

I have to admit, this wasn’t my favourite book of ever, but it definitely does tackle mental health issues well, Aled suffers from depression (though it would have been better if it was named on page, it’s very very heavily implied) and both Aled and Frances are dealing with anxiety, especially surrounding school. If you love contemporaries, you will probably enjoy this one more than I did.

6. The Perks of Being A Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky

Again, I have to admit, I didn’t totally love this book, but that was mostly a format issue for me, I’m not really one for epistolary novels, so personally, I would go for the film over the book for this one. However, it is a great book for mental health awareness week since a lot of the book focuses on Charlie dealing with his mental illnesses (anxiety & depression, I think) and struggling through his first year of high school.

7. Asking For It-Louise O’Neill

Asking For It follows the aftermath of main character Emma’s rape, in a small town in Ireland. Emma struggles a lot with her mental health following the incident, as can be expected, dealing with the trauma results in serious depression and suicidal thoughts and it’s incredibly harrowing and difficult to read. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has made me this angry before, no one deserve what happened to Emma and the reactions of her town are just……AGHHH.

8. Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo

One of the main characters Kaz Brekker, suffers from PTSD after a traumatic event in his childhood and as part of this, he also has a fear of touching people and being touched himself, so he constantly wears gloves in order to avoid physical contact. Plus, the story is a brilliant fantasy heist caper, with a great ensemble cast and a wonderful group dynamic.

9. Timekeeper-Tara Sim

The main character in Timekeeper, Danny, is suffering from PTSD and anxiety following a terrible accident which took place before the beginning of the book, he was caught up in a clock tower explosion and his subsequent fear affects his job as a clock mechanic.

10. Rose Under Fire-Elizabeth Wein

Rose Justice, the main character of this novel, when we first find her, has just escaped from Ravensbruck concentration camp and is clearly suffering PTSD as a result of her experiences, she’s unable to dress, eat, sleep, anything for several days following, all she can do is sit and write about her experiences. It’s obviously an extremely tough book to read due to the subject matter, but an incredibly important one as well.

Have you read any of these books? Did you like them? What books would you recommend for Mental Health Awareness Week? Is there anything you would like to see more of in YA books addressing mental illnesses? Let me know in the comments!

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week for another Top Ten Tuesday, next week we’re talking Books That I Refuse To Let Anyone Touch, which might be a difficult one for me because I’m generally quite good about lending my books out, but I’ll see what I can come up with. Meanwhile, I’m almost done with my current read, Uprooted, so I should have a review of it up before the end of the week.

Advertisements

Top Ten Tuesday #210

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I’ve had a relatively quiet week, working on the sequel for This Is Not A Love Story and reading a lot, I’m trying to distract myself because I’m waiting to hear back about my grades for this semester, and to hear back from agents, so basically I need to keep as busy as possible to stop myself from stressing (it’s not working very well!).

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Characters That Remind Me Of Myself, but I actually did that topic back in December as an old one from the archives, and since I didn’t want to give you guys a list that was a complete replica of that one (because it would be), so I’m going to do next week’s topic early and talk about Films/TV Shows I’ve Watched, but Haven’t Read The Book, since it ties in quite well with the discussion post I want to do this month. So here we go:

1. The Hate U Give-Angie Thomas

Okay, okay, hear me out. I tried reading The Hate U Give but I wasn’t getting into it, however, I was still interested in the story, because obviously so many people loved it, so I decided to watch the film and I thought it was really great, so I am now going to go back and give the book another chance-see watching the movie first can have its upsides!

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

A friend of mine loves this book, but I’m not a massive lover of books with an epistolary format. However, I loved the sound of the story and I’m a big fan of Lily James, so the movie was right up my alley. I really loved the film, the 40s is very my aesthetic (in terms of fashion, I love 40s and 50s stuff), Lily James is amazing in it and the story is beautiful and heartbreaking. I’m in two minds as to whether to read the book now, because I did love the film but I know the book’s format will not work for me.

3. You-Caroline Kepnes

I was actually already interested in reading the book before I watched the show for this, but it just so happened that the show came out before I’d had a chance to read it yet. so I watched the show first. I thought the show was really great, and so now I am definitely going to check out the book, but I think in audio form, because I loved the narration on the show and Santino Fontana reads the book!

4. Love, Simon-Becky Albertalli

Simon Vs is not really my kind of book, so I hadn’t read it before the film came out and then everyone loved the film, so I decided to try it. I thought the film was really cute, but I’m still not entirely sure if I’m going to read the book, because the point about it not really being my kind of book still stands.

5. It’s Kind of A Funny Story-Ned Vizzini

I didn’t know this was a book before I watched the film, I was just looking for something to watch on Prime, this came up and looked interesting so I watched it and I did really enjoy it. I still haven’t read the book, I’d like to, but it’s not one that’s at the top of my TBR list.

6. Game of Thrones-George RR Martin

I only really started watching Game of Thrones because my friends kept talking about it, it wasn’t really on my radar before then, but I really wanted to understand their references, so I ended up binging the show in the two weeks before Season 7 came out. I’m still not overly sure whether I will read the books, because they are SO LONG, but if I do, it will definitely be in audio.

7. Outlander-Diana Gabaldon

I started watching Outlander when it came out on Channel 4, and then quickly binged the rest of the series, up to the end of 3, which was what was available at the time (I think this was two years ago, I’m not quite sure!) and I love it, but I’m not entirely sure I would read the books, they are massive and I don’t think I could deal with that much romance in the books (I’m far more tolerant of on screen romance than book romance, don’t ask why, I really don’t know).

8. Bridget Jones’ Diary-Helen Fielding

I think I had briefly read maybe like a chapter or two of the book before I saw the film, but the film was my first experience of the full story, so I’m counting it! It’s one of my favourite films but I’m not sure I’d read the book, again because of the disparity of my interest in romance between books and TV/Film.

9. The Miseducation Of Cameron Post-Emily Danforth

I’m honestly not sure why I watched this, it’s not exactly my kind of thing, but I was bored and wanted a film to watch one night and landed on this. I didn’t really enjoy it, I found it kind of dull, so I don’t think I’ll be reading the book.

10. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (Full Frontal Snogging for the book)-Louise Rennison

I was kind of vaguely aware of the book before I saw the film and I hadn’t read it, but I did like the film, in it’s own cringey way, but I’m not sure I could read the book now, the second hand embarrassment would be way too much!

Have you watched any of these films, or read the books that they are based on? Did you enjoy them? Do you ever watch the film before reading the book? Let me know in the comments!

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week for another Top Ten Tuesday. Obviously I’ve done next week’s topic for this week, but since next week is a freebie, I figured I could do a different Page To Screen topic for next week, so I’m going to talk about Upcoming Book To Movie Adaptations I’m Excited For. Meanwhile, my Q&A with Amanda Foody went live today, so please check that out, and in the meantime I should have a review of my most recent read, We Are Blood and Thunder up by the end of the week.

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday #209

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these! I spent the weekend preparing my novel for querying, writing query letters, synopsis etc and as of yesterday, my book is officially out on query with agents which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I’m not expecting anything to come of it anytime soon, but it’s really exciting just to have taken that next step and hopefully someone out there will love my book as much as I do!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This time we’re talking Inspirational/Thought Provoking Quotes, which is a great one because I haven’t got to share some of my favourite book quotes in a while! So here we go:

1. “History isn’t about the dates and places and wars. It’s about the people who fill the spaces between them” -The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult

This particular quote just really speaks to me as a History student, it’s why I love the subject so much, getting to understand what life was like for people who lived hundreds of years before me.

2.“Delilah Bard never read many books.
The few she did had pirates and thieves, and always ended with freedom and the promise of more stories. Characters sailed away. They lived on. Lila always imagined people that way, a series of intersections and adventures. It was easy when you moved through life–through worlds–the way she did. Easy when you didn’t care, when people came onto the page and walked away again, back to their own stories, and you could imagine whatever you wanted for them, if you cared enough to write it in your head.” -A Conjuring of Light, V.E. Schwab

I love how meta this quote is and I just think that it’s really beautiful.

3. “Words are, in my most humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it” -Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling

I had to have at least one Harry Potter quote on here, and I think that this one is my favourite.

4. “Libraries were full of ideas-perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons” -Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas

I had to include at least one quote about reading on this list!

5. “He was a book and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went and he didn’t want it to be over” -The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater

Honestly this quote just describes the exact feeling I get when I get to the end of a book (or series) that I’ve really loved.

6. “I am haunted by humans” -The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

This is honestly one of my favourite lines ever from a book.

7. “Plenty of humans were monstrous and plenty of monsters know how to play at being human” -Vicious, V.E. Schwab

And V.E. Schwab strikes again. Genuinely I could just include all her books on this list as they all have so many beautiful and brilliant quotes to be pulled.

8. “Words are everything, words give wings even to those who have been stamped upon, broken beyond all hope of repair” -The Mime Order, Samantha Shannon

All of my signed Bone Season books have a different quote in them, this is the one Samantha Shannon uses for The Mime Order and it’s actually one of my favourite quotes from the whole series, I think it’s so beautiful.

9. “Something still exists as long as there is someone around to remember it” -Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult

This is a Jodi Picoult quote that I often take a lot of comfort in because it reminds you that even long after you’re gone, you can still exist in a way.

10. “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone”. -Matilda, Roald Dahl

Matilda is one of my favourite books of all time and this is possibly one of my favourite quotes from it, it just really speaks to me as a reader.

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, this time with Characters That Remind Me of Myself, I’m not sure I’ll be able to come up with ten, but we’ll see! Meanwhile I should have my review of King of Fools up on Thursday, as that’s UK release day!

Top Ten Tuesday #208

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I had a rather busy one, with a final dinner for Trampolining on Wednesday, Sports Ball on Friday and then a day out to the Edinburgh Dungeons for a friend’s birthday on Saturday. The Edinburgh dungeons were really awesome, but it took us over two hours to get home because all our trains kept being cancelled which was severely annoying.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking the First Ten Books We Reviewed which should be a fun one, to look back at the early days of this blog, but I won’t be sharing links to any of the reviews because they were all pretty terrible (you can find them in the drop down menu if you really want to see them!). So here we go, the first ten books I reviewed:

1. Dangerous Girls-Abigail Haas

My first ever review, and it was a 4 star one, so a nice start to my blog. The review itself was pretty terrible, I hadn’t really got the art of reviewing down yet, but I really enjoyed the book, it was a fun and engrossing psychological thriller with an ending that has basically ruined all other thrillers for me, because it was so shocking that nothing else has ever lived up.

2. Skulduggery Pleasant: The Last Stand of Dead Men

Yes, I know, it seems strange for one of my first reviews to be the eighth book in a series, but I’d been reading Skulduggery Pleasant since long before I started the blog, I think I started them in 2008/2009? Anyway, this book is one of my favourites of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, it was such an exciting book and a great, what was then penultimate book to the series (it has since been extended).

3. Specials-Scott Westerfeld

The third book in the Uglies series, I’d got the first book as a birthday present from my friend Hannah and then got the others for myself because I enjoyed it. Sadly the rest of the series went downhill, and although my review of this book was quite glowing at the time, I’ve kind of changed my opinion in the five years since.

4. Son of Black Beauty-Phyllis Briggs

This book is kind of like a faux sequel to Black Beauty, but nowhere near as good, the story just wasn’t as interesting, and I didn’t really like the horse narrator, Stardust and it just wasn’t written as well as Black Beauty was.

5. Extras-Scott Westerfeld

This is one of those series that didn’t really need another book, and one was retconned in at the last minute because the trilogy did so well. I found Aya as the narrator kind of infuriating and honestly it barely tied into the main series at all.

6. Split Second-Sophie McKenzie

I really loved this book and I think it’s even more relevant now than when I read it because of everything that’s been happening with Brexit, it shows a very scary portrayal of what a corrupt government could look like, and it’s actually kind of horrifying seeing the parallels between the politicians in this book and our own.

7. The Maze Runner-James Dashner

I got this book from my friend Hannah as a Christmas present and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at first, but I ended up really enjoying it, it was a fun, fast paced dystopia with a really different premise and going to see the film of this was the first thing that Hannah, Zoe and I did as a group, so in that respect, it’s an important book for me!

8. The Scorch Trials-James Dashner

I think I was a bit generous on this book when I reviewed it for the first time, because when I watched the film, I struggled to remember why I liked the book so much in the first place, Still, I gave it five stars at the time, so there must have been something that I really loved about it.

9. The Death Cure-James Dashner

The final book in the Maze Runner trilogy and again I feel like I might have been a little generous on this book, I’m not sure I’d give it a five star rating if I read it again now, but at the time, I thought it was a good conclusion to the trilogy and I was feeling incredibly emotionally gut punched because of page 250 (Maze Runner fans will KNOW).

10. Burn-Julianna Baggott

The final book in the Pure trilogy, I’d read the first two in the couple of years before I started blogging. It’s a really cool concept, the world has been destroyed by a nuclear apocalypse and the world is split into Wretches, those who have suffered fusings(objects or even people attached to them) and those who were saved, taken into a safe place called the Dome and are therefore known as Pure. I did like the final book in the series and thought it was a relatively satisfying ending, though there were some things I still want answers to.

So there we go, the first ten books I reviewed. It’s weird looking back on it, because it’s quite a strange mix of books, only the one fantasy and the rest being dystopia and then Son of Black Beauty which is kind of an outlier. It does reflect my reading tastes in 2014 quite well because I did read a LOT of dystopia back then, but it’s not so reflective of what I read now.

Next week’s topic is Inspirational/Thought Provoking Book Quotes, which should be a fun one as I love sharing book quotes. Meanwhile, I should have a review up for you this week, as I just finished A Girl Called Shameless, so keep an eye out for that.

Top Ten Tuesday #207

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been relatively quite, just quite a bit of dogsitting for my parents and a lot of reading, I finished King of Fools and OMG it was amazing but I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to wait for the third book now? I’ve also got a lot of final things coming up for Uni this week, final dinner, final club photos, last Sports Ball and it’s kind of hitting home that Uni is going to be done soon, which is a whole weird mix of emotions!

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have a new Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Rainy Day Reads, and I have to admit I wasn’t really sure what to make of it, because I don’t really match my reading to the seasons/weather, so I’ve decided to kind of interpret it as engrossing books that you could sit and read all day if you were stuck inside. So here we go, Rainy Day Reads:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

Completely engrossing, with fantastic characters, an incredible world to dive into and fast paced, action packed plot, A Darker Shade of Magic is a great book to get stuck into if you’re inside all day because you will be instantly transported into the Londons and you won’t want to come out again until the rain has stopped.

2. The Exact Opposite of Okay-Laura Steven

What better to curl up with on a rainy day than a funny book? You can while away the hours laughing hysterically at Izzy O’Neill but also getting righteously angry about slut shaming, revenge porn, the Friend Zone and all of the other important topics this book touches on.

3. Moxie-Jennifer Mathieu

In a very similar vein, Moxie is also a super fun, super feminist book and it’s quite short so you could easily get through it in a day, heck, even an couple of hours if you’re a really fast reader. I read this one on the train from Stirling to London last year, and it was the perfect distraction for a five hour train journey!

4. Unwind-Neal Shusterman

Not exactly the most upbeat book to spend a rainy day with, but it is engrossing, I read most of it whilst waiting for three hours in a car for my mum to buy a kitchen in France (it’s a long story) so I can personally attest to its powers of distraction.

5. Percy Jackson and The Olympians series-Rick Riordan

Depending on how long the rain goes on for/how fast of a reader you are, you could easily get through all five Percy Jackson books in the course of one rainy day, and Percy’s snarky inner monologue would be the perfect distraction from the miserable weather outside, plus what better way to forget about the rain than by diving into dangerous quests with Greek demigods?

6. Rebel of The Sands-Alwyn Hamilton

This one has a double edged bonus, it’s set in the desert so whilst it’s raining outside, you can escape to somewhere warm through the pages of a book and plus the book travels at such breakneck speed that you’ll easily be able to while away the time waiting for the rain to pass.

7. Skulduggery Pleasant-Derek Landy

If you’re looking for a funny, exciting, Irish urban fantasy to while away the rainy hours with, then Skulduggery Pleasant is definitely for you. The series does get a lot darker as it goes on, but the first book is the perfect, humorous, magical adventure to dive into on a rainy day (and the rest of the series is even more amazing).

8. Dangerous Girls-Abigail Haas

Dangerous Girls is probably my favourite YA thriller that I’ve ever read, it’s twisty, intriguing and has what I think is the best WTF ending of all time. It’s all about toxic friendships and you’ll be kept guessing as to what actually happened to Elise till the bitter end, plus it’s set in Aruba, so you can escape somewhere warm and sunny on a cold, rainy day.

9. The Raven Boys-Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys isn’t exactly the fastest read, but I feel like it’s atmosphere fits so well with the idea of a “rainy day read”. It’s wonderfully atmospheric and intriguing and has my favourite group of friends, possibly ever in a book and the idea of curling up with this book and a mug of hot chocolate (or whatever your warm drink of choice is), on a rainy day seems perfect to me.

10. Caraval-Stephanie Garber

Again, perhaps not the fastest read, but the mysterious atmosphere fits perfectly with a rainy day, this is another one where you could easily curl up in bed with a mug of your preferred warm drink and just forget about the world as you’re transported into Caraval.

So there you have it, books I think would make perfect Rainy Day Reads, or any day really, these are all great books! Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What are your favourite rainy day reads? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is First Ten Books I Reviewed, so that should be a fun one, though I will not be sharing the reviews because honestly some of my early reviews are incredibly embarassing! Meanwhile I don’t really have anything planned for the rest of the week, so my next post likely won’t be until next Tuesday, so keep an eye out for that.

Top Ten Tuesday #206

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I am finally DONE! All my project work has been handed in now, so all that’s left to do is wait for my grades and I am making the most of my newfound freedom by doing a LOT of reading, I’ve read over 200 pages of King of Fools in just the last four days alone!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have a new Top Ten Tuesday for you all courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we were meant to be talking about Outrageous Things We’ve Done For The Love of Books, but honestly? I haven’t done that many. I can think of a few, but not enough to fill up a list of ten, so I’m going my own direction with the topic this week and talking about my Top Ten Favourite Sister Relationships In Books, as I love books that feature a great sister relationship and there definitely aren’t enough of them. So here we go, my favourite fictional sisters:

1. Scarlett and Tella-Caraval Trilogy (well it will be in May)-Stephanie Garber

Sure Caraval does have some swoony romances, but Scarlett and Tella’s relationship is at the heart of the series, Scarlett only entered the first Caraval in order to save her sister after all. Scarlett and Tella are both very different people, but they would do anything for each other, the mark of a great sibling bond.

2. Camille and Sophie-Enchantee-Gita Trelease

I loved Camille and Sophie’s relationship in Enchantee, it’s the driving force behind the entire book, as Camille goes to Versailles in the first place in order to make money so that she can move her sister away from their awful apartment in Paris and their abusive brother can no longer find them. It’s wonderful to see how much Camille cares for Sophie and the lengths she will go to protect her.

3. Anna and Kate-My Sister’s Keeper-Jodi Picoult

Anna and Kate have quite an interesting relationship, given the premise of the book is that Anna was born to be an organ donor sibling to her sick older sister, who is suffering from leukaemia. Their sibling dynamic is quite different, since Anna’s purpose in life is to be a donor for Kate, there’s a lot of resentment there, even though she really loves her sister and it’s quite an interesting dynamic to read about.

4. Pauline, Petrova and Posy-Ballet Shoes-Noel Streatfeild

My original favourite sister relationship! Pauline, Petrova and Posy aren’t biological sisters, they were all adopted by the mysterious man known only to them as Gum (Great Uncle Matthew) who left when they were babies, but they bond together and take the shared last name of Fossil (as Gum is a paleontologist and brought them back in place of fossils) and vow to each other to make their name mean something. I honestly think this book is probably where my love of found families comes from!

5. Katniss and Prim-The Hunger Games Trilogy-Suzanne Collins

I couldn’t really do this list without including Katniss and Prim, I mean how many sisters would volunteer to fight in a deadly game where only one person ever comes out alive for you? I’m guessing not many!

6. Feyre, Nesta and Elain-ACOTAR Trilogy-Sarah J Maas

Sister relationships aren’t always sunshine and rainbows, and Maas’ sisters from the ACOTAR trilogy definitely prove this! Feyre obviously loves her sisters but there is a fair bit of resentment there too, as she is the one who has had to go out and hunt for the family whilst her sisters sit at home & obviously she changes quite a lot after the time she spends with Tamlin and Rhysand so it will be interesting to see how that dynamic has changed in the third book (yes I still haven’t read ACOWAR, yes I will get to it at some point).

7. Willow and Amelia-Handle With Care-Jodi Picoult

Another Jodi Picoult book with an interesting sister relationship, this one is interesting for two reasons, firstly that there is quite a big age gap between Amelia and Willow (Amelia is Charlotte’s daughter from a previous relationship) and like My Sister’s Keeper, it’s another book where the sibling has an ongoing health condition, in this case Osteogenesis Imperfecta so much as Amelia loves her sister, there’s also a lot of resentment there as Willow is paid far more attention than Amelia, given that she is the sick one.

8. Sephy and Minerva-Noughts and Crosses series-Malorie Blackman

Sephy and Minerva’s relationship is quite interesting because they’re never really that close? Sephy spends most of her time with Callum and her older sister never really seems to want much to do with her, but they become closer as they grow older, because this series takes place over a very long stretch of time (beginning when Sephy is a child, and by the fourth book, Sephy is an adult with a teenage daughter) so you get to see her relationship with her sister go through a lot of changes, which is something you don’t usually get to see in a YA series, since they don’t usually cover that large a period of time.

9. Lou and Amy-Heartland series-Lauren Brooke

Lou and Amy have quite a large age gap, I think it’s about 10 years between them & they are very different people, Lou is more practical and business minded, Amy just wants to continue her mother’s work in helping horses and it causes a lot of clashes between them throughout the series, but they are also incredibly close and rely on each other a lot for advice-they changed a lot in the TV series, to it’s benefit, I think, but the core relationship between Amy and Lou is very similar to the one seen in the book.

10. Claudia and Jenny-Heading Home-Katie Flynn

You get to see Claudia and Jenny growing up throughout this book, and unlike the example I mentioned above, with Sephy and Minerva, Claudia and Jenny grow apart as they get older (which can happen with sisters) and their divergent personalities come through.

So there we go my Favourite Sister Relationships In Books, I have to admit, I was struggling to come up with them by the time I got to number 6, which shows there definitely needs to be more books with sisters at the heart of them! Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite fictional sister relationships? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Rainy Day Reads, which I’m not entirely sure what to make of, since I don’t really base my reading around the weather, but we’ll see what I manage to come up with! Meanwhile, I’m nearly done with my April #RockMyTBR book, Catwoman: Soulstealer, so I will likely have a review of it up for you guys by the end of the week, so keep an eye out for that one.

Top Ten Tuesday #205

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week since I last did one these, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my project, collecting it all together and formatting and all that boring stuff, but by Friday, it will be handed in and 3 months of hard work will be finally be over, in fact my entire Uni course will be over which is a strange thing to think about!

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Things That Make Us Pick Up A Book, and we did kind of a similar topic when TTT was still with The Broke and The Bookish last year, however for that I mostly did what content would make me want to pick up a book, so I’m going to try and mainly focus on external factors today, to make this post a little different. So here we go things that will make me pick up a book:

1. It’s by a favourite author

I do like discovering new authors, if I didn’t then I wouldn’t have any of my favourite authors, since they were all new to me once! But once an author has become my favourite, it’s likely I’ll keep returning to their work again and again, because it’s very comforting to read a tried and trusted author and can often help me get out of a reading slump. So safe to say, if a book is by VE Schwab, Samantha Shannon, Rick Riordan, Jodi Picoult, Sarah J Maas, Leigh Bardugo, Neal Shusterman or Derek Landy, I will be reading it.

2. The cover is nice

Yes I know, I know “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” but all bookworms know that saying is utter garbage and that everyone judges books by their covers. If it has a pretty cover, then nine times out of ten, I will want to pick it up to see what it’s about. That doesn’t mean I’ll read it, I do still check the blurb to see if I’m interested, but I’ll be far more likely to be drawn to it in the first place.

3. Bloggers are recommending it

More and more now, especially with new books, I’ll check them out because I’ve seen a lot of buzz about them on Twitter, or on other people’s blogs. In fact I generally worry now if I haven’t seen much about a book anywhere, which I know is bad and I’m probably missing out on some hidden gems, but I feel a lot more confident going into a book when I know that bloggers I trust have liked it.

4. There is magic in it

I am and always will be a massive fantasy lover, so the first hint of magic in a book and I will be all over it. It’s not that I don’t like contemporaries, there are plenty that I have loved, but I just think that everything is better with a little bit of magic!

5. It’s part of a Buy One Get One Half Price offer

I get a lot of books from Waterstones and they always have this particular offer, so if there’s a book I want to read that’s included in the offer, I’ll often try to find something else as well so that I can make the deal.

6. It’s part of a series that I love

Naturally if I’ve read book one in a series and loved it, I will be picking up the next books in the series when they come out.

7. Humour

I love books that make me laugh, if your book is promising humourous dialogue, then 9/10, I will read it and love it because humour is one of my favourite things. Honestly I actually wish there were more books out there that made me laugh? Oftentimes it seems like YA is trending towards the more serious side of things, which fair enough, but you can have dark books and still inject some humour in there (case in point, Neal Shusterman’s Unwind series, they’re dark as hell, but also darn funny!).

8. Strong focus on friendship

I love books where friendship is celebrated and loved, just as much, if not more than the romance in a book. All of my favourite books have some form of strong friendship in them and they probably always will, for me, I find the friendship dynamics even more interesting than romantic ones.

9. The film/TV show was good

Okay don’t all shudder at once, but yes, sometimes I watch a film based on a book without having read the book first. Obviously I do prefer to go see book/film adaptations where I have already read the book first, but that’s not always possible and sometimes I see the film first. This does work in my favour sometimes though, as I’ll try books I might not have gone for previously, I never would have read Perks of Being A Wallflower if I hadn’t seen the film, I wouldn’t be considering reading either Game of Thrones, or You if I hadn’t seen the TV shows. So sometimes, a film or TV show can introduce you to a new book.

10. The book is historical/has historical elements

I’m a history student, so naturally any kind of historical fiction is a big draw for me, though I have to admit, I’d love it if YA authors were a bit more creative with their historical settings, as I’ve read an awful lot of WWII fiction and not much else! I also love fantasy books in historical settings, I’ve read a few of those and they’re brilliant, I’m so glad they seem to be on the rise right now.

So there we go, Things That Make Me Pick Up A Book. Do you agree with any of these? What things make you want to pick up a book? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Outrageous Things I’ve Done For The Love of Books, but honestly I can really only think of about three things I’ve done that would come under this category, so I think I’m going to pull a topic from The Broke and The Bookish archives, and talk about my Top Ten Best/Worst Series Endings (I have A LOT of thoughts). Meanwhile, I’m going to have a review of my latest read, Descendant of The Crane up at some point this week, it will probably be over the weekend, after I’m done with all of my project work, but keep an eye out. I’m also going to have a really exciting post, a Q&A with author C.G. Drews, better known to most of you as PaperFury up over the weekend as well, so definitely keep a look out for that one as well.