Top Ten Tuesday #326

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I had my friend Hannah to stay over the weekend, which was really nice, we had a very chill time as usual, eating pizza and chatting about books. We may not have got to go to YALC again this year, but we still had a fun weekend together anyway. I’ve also been watching some of the Olympics, mostly the gymnastics and equestrian events as that’s where my main sports interest lies, and it was so exciting to see the GB women’s gymnastics team get a bronze today, it’s been such a long time in the making for them! It was also great to see us get team bronze in the Dressage as well, though I do have to admit, when it comes to Equestrian, Eventing and Showjumping are definitely the ones I prefer watching!

Anyway, enough of my rambling about sports, since it’s Tuesday, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books I’d Want With Me While Stranded on A Deserted Island. Now honestly, if this year has taught me anything, it’s that isolation is SEVERELY OVERRATED and I need to be able to see my friends regularly. Also I hate the heat, so a deserted island would not be the place for me, I’d probably do better in an isolated mountain cabin, curled up in blankets and drinking an inordinate amount of hot chocolate. But anyway, if I were on a deserted island, these are the books I’d want with me (for series I love, I chose my favourite book as I thought it would be cheating to pick the entire series!):

1. The Battle of The Labyrinth-Rick Riordan

I couldn’t be without at least one Percy Jackson book if I was stranded on a desert island, and I picked this one. I love the entire series, but for me The Battle of The Labyrinth is one of the most exciting, the whole quest through the Labyrinth is brilliant, we have lots of development on the Percy/Annabeth front and the stakes are sky high as we build towards the big fight with Kronos. I could definitely see myself whiling away a couple of hours with this one on a desert island.

2. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games was such an addictive read, I remember I was so glued to what was happening, that I could hardly put it down. It would definitely be a great read to while away the time whilst I was waiting for someone to come and rescue me from the deserted island. I also might be able to pick up a few survival tips, and it would be a great reminder that even if I was stranded on an island, at least I’m not a teenager involved in a death match.

3. Dangerous Girls-Abigail Haas

The setting for this is definitely suited to being stranded on an island, since it all takes place on Aruba. It’s another really fast and addictive read as well, so I could definitely forget about the tedium of isolation whilst I was gripped by this sun-soaked thriller. I’d also like to see if I could pick up the clues to the murderer this time around, now that I’ve read it once and know who did it.

4. Rebel of The Sands-Alwyn Hamilton

Again, this book would really suit being stranded on an island, given the desert setting. It was also a really fun and pacey story so I think it could easily distract me in my isolation.

5. To Kill A Kingdom-Alexandra Christo

Again, the setting here makes it perfect for a deserted island read, it’s all set in the ocean, it has brilliantly immersive writing so it would be easy to just sink into and distract me and it was just a lot of fun, so I would definitely love to have it with me in my isolation.

6. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

Of course I have to have my favourite VE Schwab book with me whilst stranded on a deserted island. I can think of no better way to pass the time than with one of my favourite books, and I know that the hours would fly by as I enjoyed Kell, Lila, Rhy and Holland’s adventures all over again.

7. Vengeful-VE Schwab

Are you at all surprised to see another VE Schwab book on here? You shouldn’t be! Vengeful is another of my favourite VE Schwab books, it’s incredibly pacey for a nearly 600-page book, it has brilliantly complicated villains, SO MUCH FEMALE ANGER and is really just an absolute masterclass in writing, worldbuilding and character development. I would be much happier in isolation if I had this book with me.

8. The Exact Opposite Of Okay-Laura Steven

The Exact Opposite Of Okay is so funny, it would definitely be a perfect book to have with me on a deserted island as I would spend so much time laughing that I would forget about the potentially precarious situation.

9. Code Name Verity-Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity has everything: humour, heartbreak, intense female friendship and blinding plot twists. It would be a bit of a change of pace from some of the other books on here as it’s definitely a slower build, but I think if I wanted a break from the fantasy/thrillers/dystopia that make up the bulk of my list, Code Name Verity would definitely be a good one to go for. I also would want to have at least one historical with me, as I love historical fiction.

10. The House of Hades-Rick Riordan

And we come to my favourite of the Heroes of Olympus books. This is definitely a Percabeth heavy book, which is one of the main reasons that I love it so much, but it’s also super action packed, the stakes are really high as again we race towards the climactic battle with Gaea in the next book and I feel like we get a lot of great character moments in this one. Also it’s probably the darkest book of the series, and me being me, I love that!

So there you go, those are the books I would want with me on my deserted island. Have you read any of these? What did you think? What books did you choose to have with your on your deserted island? Did we share any? Let me know in the comments!

Next week is Titles or Covers That Made Me Want To Read/Buy The Book so I will definitely be going with Covers That Made Me Want To Read/Buy The Book since I definitely judge buy the cover!

Top Ten Tuesday #325

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these! The UK is currently melting in a heatwave, and honestly I am just waiting for it to be over, I’m really not a summer person, definitely more of a cool Autumn breeze kind of girl. Still it does mean time reading out the balcony which is one of my favourite things to do so that is an upside. My week has been fairly quiet, but my friend Hannah is coming to visit over the weekend so I’m really excited for that.

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 topic is meant to be Books I Read In One Sitting but honestly even when I was a faster reader than I am, I never really read books in just one sitting. So I decided to twist this topic to suit me better and do Books I Read In Less Than 2 Weeks (which seems to be my average reading time):

1. The Perks of Being A Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky-2 days

Perks is a very short book, under 300 pages so naturally it didn’t take me very long to read. This is one of the rare times where I actually preferred the movie, the book is in an epistolary format and I just don’t get along all that well with those, I find it hard to grasp the narrative.

2. Speak Up!-Laura Coryton-3 days

This one is definitely aimed for much younger readers, but it was a nice quick read and definitely a good introduction to activism for young girls.

3. The Daughter of The Pirate King-Tricia Levenseller-4 days

I always tend to read faster in the summer when I spend hours outside reading. This was a really fun, light read with a great main character and a large dose of humour which made it very engaging. I really do need to get around to the sequel at some point!

4. City of Ghosts-Victoria Schwab-4 days

Middle grade books are always very quick to get through because they’re so short and Victoria Schwab’s middle grade debut was no exception. It was a nice refreshing break from all the dense fantasy that I tend to read, a fun little read with friendship at the heart rather than romance (YA books take note: you could do this too.)

5. Daughter of The Burning City-Amanda Foody-6 days

Another of my post-exam reads, I raced through this one whilst reading out in the sun. This was such a creative story, I loved the combination of the murder mystery in a circus setting and it was a wonderfully atmospheric read. This is one of few YA fantasy books that I actually thought could have benefitted from being a bit longer, because the world building was a little lacking. I don’t think Foody is ever going to do a sequel, but I would love it if she did as I feel there’s a lot more of Gomorrah to be explored.

6. Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo-7 days

7 days for an almost 500 page book may be quite a long time for most people, but for me that is very quick! I was so addicted to the characters that even though there were definite pacing problems in the beginning, I raced through it and I’m so happy that it was my introduction to the Grishaverse as if I’d started with Shadow and Bone, I’m not sure I would have actually read onto this one? For me, this is definitely still Bardugo’s best book.

7. The Song Rising-Samantha Shannon-7 days

I know Shannon has said this has been her least favourite book to write in The Bone Season series so far, but it has definitely been my favourite to read. It’s much pacier than the rest of the books, and more tightly plotted and just generally worked better for me as a reader. I will admit, having a five hour train journey to Scotland whilst reading this book did help me finish it faster, but I was so engaged with the story, that I didn’t really want to put it down for long.

8. The Exact Opposite of Okay-Laura Steven-7 days

It’s no surprise that this one was a fast read, it’s short and funny and Izzy O’Neill is one of my favourite main characters of any book ever. I’m not usually a massive fan of contemporary YA but occasionally one comes along that’s right up my street and The Exact Opposite of Okay was that for me.

9. Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer-Rick Riordan-8 days

Again, 8 days might seem like a while for really fast readers, but for me, a 500 odd page book in just over a week is very good. Rick Riordan’s books are always very quick reads for me, they’re funny, pacey, lots of action and I always love the characters, The Sword of Summer was no exception to this.

10. The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy-Mackenzi Lee-9 days

Given the length of the chapters in this book, I was quite surprised I finished it as fast as I did (again for me) but the long summer days reading outside definitely helped. It was also the height of lockdown number one, so I didn’t really have anything else to do other than read. I didn’t love this as much as Monty’s book, but I still really enjoyed it, Felicity was great as the main character and I loved how focused on female friendship this book was.

11. Stalking Jack The Ripper-Kerri Maniscalco-10 days

This was an engaging historical murder mystery. I loved Audrey Rose as the heroine, a traditionally feminine women in STEM in a historical fiction book was definitely a protagonist I could get on board with, and whilst I had theories on who the killer was, I didn’t find it super easy to guess, I was on the wrong track for ages.

12. The Language Of Thorns-Leigh Bardugo-10 days

I’m not usually a short story reader, but I loved this collection of folktales from the Grishaverse. I probably could have finished this faster if it hadn’t been for my exams as it was fairly short. It’s such a fun addition to the world Bardugo has created, and I really loved the illustrations, they definitely enhanced the stories.

So there you go, those are some of the Books I Read In Less Than Two Weeks. Have you read any of these? Did you like them? What’s your average reading time? Do you read a lot of books in one sitting? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Books I’d Want With Me On A Deserted Island, so that should be a fun one.

Top Ten Tuesday #324

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been fairly quiet, work has been slowing down a bit recently but I’ve got a couple more shifts booked for this week so hopefully they are busier (on the upside, slow days at work means getting a bit of reading in!).

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday from you all courtesy of Jana At That Artsy Reader Girl. Now this week’s topic didn’t quite work for me as I’ve not really read any Book Titles That Are Questions so I decided to twist the topic a little and instead do Unnecessary Title Abbreviations Used On Book Twitter. If you are on Book Twitter, you’re probably familiar with the endless abbreviations used for book titles that seem like gibberish to anyone who doesn’t know what they mean. Some of these titles make sense to abbreviate because they are super long (like A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder for instance), but some are fairly short titles that could quite easily be typed out in full. Honestly I kind of hate title abbreviations and would rather use a shortened version of the full title (like Gentleman’s Guide for The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue) because I think it looks better, but to each their own. Anyway, on with the unnecessary title abbreviations:

1. SoC-Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo

It’s three words. They’re super short words. It’s one of the most popular books on Book Twitter, so I do get that most people probably think that everyone knows what you’re talking about (and most probably do) but there’s really no reason to abbreviate this title, it’s not going to take up many characters!

2. ToG-Throne of Glass-Sarah J Maas

AGAIN, IT’S THREE WORDS. I understand abbreviating the A Court of Thorns and Roses series titles because they’re that bit longer but the Throne of Glass series is all three word titles, and whilst it’s not a problem for this particular title (I can’t instantly think of any other titles with the same acronym that have the same degree of notoriety as Throne of Glass), there are other titles in the series that share that same title as other books. Queen of Shadows for instance, there are several other books that share the same title and there are several other books in the series that have the same acronym as books by different authors. So I think it would save confusion if people just referred to these books by their full names!

3. TBS-The Bone Season-Samantha Shannon

All the books in these series have pretty short titles and whilst they are fairly popular, I don’t know if they’re so popular that you’d look at the acronym and instantly know, yep that’s The Bone Season. I can understand abbreviating the title of Shannon’s standalone, The Priory of The Orange Tree (TPOTOT), though like I said above, I tend to prefer to just shorten the title to something simpler, like plain “Priory”.

4. THG-The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

Okay, so I imagine most people probably know that THG stands for The Hunger Games, it’s fairly self-explanatory, but why not just use the full title? It’s only three words, it’s not going to take up much space in your tweet!

5. GOT-Game of Thrones-George RR Martin

I understand the series title being abbreviated, A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) is a bit of a mouthful, but Game of Thrones is comparatively simple. I imagine most people will recognise what GOT stands for in conversation because it is a fantasy phenomenon and popular outside of book circles thanks to the TV series, but unlike most book acronyms, got is actually a word, so that could be confusing if you’re not a fantasy fan!

6. S&B or SAB (I’ve seen both used)-Shadow and Bone-Leigh Bardugo

Again it’s three words, it’s not that hard to use the full title. I really don’t think any of Leigh Bardugo’s titles are long enough to be abbreviated, she tends to go for fairly short titles. SAB is a fairly popular acronym as well, it could be the TV show, Switched At Birth, there are various scientific abbreviations that also use SAB, so I think in this case being specific is helpful!

7. TRB-The Raven Boys-Maggie Stiefvater

All the books in this series get abbreviated when talked about on Book Twitter, but they all have super short titles! I can definitely see situations where it could be really easy to mix up TRB and TBR, if you’re typing in hurry, so that could quite easily be confused. TRB is also used for a lot of technical acronyms so that could also be confusing.

8. TPW-The Poppy War-RF Kuang

I can speak myself to the confusion I felt with this one, over the past year, I saw TPW floating around Twitter a lot and could not work out what it was at all, until I finally found out it was The Poppy War. The Poppy War is such a short title that I think shortening it honestly creates more confusion than it solves? Just go with the full guys!

9. TGW-The Gilded Wolves-Roshani Chokshi

Again, it’s a fairly short title so abbreviating it seems kind of redundant, and though it’s a popular book, I don’t know that it’s so popular that people will know what it is instantly by the acronym. It’s also an acronym for the TV show The Good Wife, which I reckon is probably more well known so that could be confusing!

10. TCP-The Cruel Prince-Holly Black

It seems fairly redundant for The Cruel Prince to be shortened, and there are a million and one other things that it could be because TCP is a fairly common abbreviation (there are around 100 different options if you search TCP acronym) so specificity probably wouldn’t hurt here.

So there you go, some of the Book Twitter abbreviations that I feel are unnecessary. How about you? Any Book Twitter acronyms that you don’t understand? Do you like using abbreviations for book titles? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Books I Read In One Sitting, I’m going to tweak it slightly to Books That Took Me Under Two Weeks To Read as I’m not a massively fast reader and two weeks seems to be my average.

Top Ten Tuesday #323

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I had a great time with my friends over the weekend. I’ve got quite the packed week this week, with work shifts and a lot of things booked for my days off.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday and that means another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic was supposed be Reasons Why I Love Reading, but I’ve already done a post like that a few years ago when TTT was still with The Broke and The Bookish, so I decided to change up the topic this week. I’ve picked an old one from the archived topics from TB&TB, I’ll be sharing my Top Ten Most Unique Books I’ve Ever Read. I don’t feel like it’s possible for any book to ever be completely unique, I feel like you’d be able to find underlying similarities to other stories in all books, but I do think you can take something that’s been done before and give it an original twist, or twist old tropes into a new story etc. So these books will be more of that ilk, not necessarily ones that I think “there’s absolutely nothing out there like this”, more “This author came up with a really interesting concept” or “This author twisted something familiar into something new”. Here we go:

1. Unwind-Neal Shusterman

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read anything like Unwind. I mean it’s a truly horrifying and disturbing concept, the idea of this is that after a war fought over reproductive rights, the solution that the US comes to is that abortion is outlawed, but parents/guardians have the choice to have their children “unwound” from the age of 13 to 18, where they are literally taken apart piece by piece and their organs are donated, so their life doesn’t technically end.

I know, I know, it sounds super dark and weird, but it’s a really great book. It explores a lot of interesting issues, like what it means to be alive, issues around organ donation, who has the right to decide whether a person lives or dies, what consciousness is etc. It’s probably one of the most thoughtful dystopian books I’ve read, as well as being a really action packed, fun read with great characters. Not for the faint of heart, but if you like darker books, definitely recommend!

2. Girl, Serpent, Thorn-Melissa Bashardoust

Mythology, fairytale based stories certainly aren’t anything new, but I thought Melissa Bashardoust did something really cool and creative in her second book. I’ve not seen many books with Persian mythology influences before, so that immediately made the book feel quite fresh to me and she drew a lot from other fairytales (for instance Sleeping Beauty) but the way she mixed them together was very creative.

3. Pure-Julianna Baggott

Pure was one of those books that came out after the big dystopian buzz so it doesn’t seem to be one that gets talked about much (or else I read it after all the buzz died down!). This is a shame, because I think it’s a really creative post-apocalyptic book. It’s set after a nuclear apocalypse where survivors are left fused to objects that they were holding at the time of the Detonations. However there are some survivors who escaped the apocalypse unscathed, and live in a secure bubble called the Dome. It’s a very interesting concept and world, and though it was a little confusing at first, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

4. Not Even Bones-Rebecca Schaeffer

This is a super dark book, but it’s incredibly enjoyable. It’s about a girl who dissects the bodies of supernatural creatures so her mother can sell their parts on the black market, but when she tries to save one of her mother’s victims, she ends up being sold in his place-because she is also supernatural. It definitely felt like a quite original idea, I can’t think of many other books I’ve read like it and I loved how DARK it was. A lot of books claim to be dark and then feel kind of time, this really leaned into the darkness. I liked the mix of the modern world with the supernatural too.

5. The Diviners-Libba Bray

The separate parts of the Diviners on their own, could be any number of books. Historical setting, teens with supernatural powers related to a science experiment, ghosts, murder mystery etc, all quite common to find in YA books. However, I don’t think any book I’ve read mixes them all together in the way The Diviners does. Is it confusing at first? Yes. There are a lot of characters and plot threads to keep track of. However, the further through the series you get, the more brilliant Bray’s hodge-podge of genres and ideas becomes and by the end I truly felt like it was one of the most creative fantasies I’ve ever read. Plus, the sprawling group cast became one of my favourites!

6. The Bone Season-Samantha Shannon

I will admit that the first book in Samantha Shannon’s series is not my favourite, I like other books in the series better, but I’ve never read anything like the world Samantha Shannon has created in this series. She describes it as a kind of epic dystopia and it’s true, it blends a lot of fantastical elements into a dystopian world. Honestly it’s kind of difficult to explain because there are a lot of different parts to the story, but basically the UK is run by this authoritarian regime called Scion (who also control other countries across Europe) and they monitor the population for people with extraordinary powers, called clairvoyants. Paige, a rare clairvoyant called a Dreamwalker, gets captured and sent to a penal colony run by otherworldly creatures called Rephaim and the plot unravels from there. It was really confusing to start with, I’m not going to lie and there are a lot of moving elements, but I definitely fell in love with the series the more I read of it and it really isn’t like anything else I’ve ever read.

7. The Shadow Game Trilogy-Amanda Foody

Whilst there are a lot of familiar tropes in Foody’s series, her world definitely set this book apart from others for me. It’s like a 1900s Atlantic City inspired world (I said Vegas in my initial review, I’ve since learned that this was wrong!), there are casinos and gangs and old motorcars and the setting is very much another character in the book. The magic system is also really cool, each character has two abilities, a blood talent which is the stronger, main ability and a split talent which is a slightly weaker ability and it allowed for such a brilliantly wide range of magic which I loved because so many fantasy worlds stick to maybe one or two kinds of magic and there’s no such restriction in Foody’s world. I also really love how Foody treats her female characters, she shows off a lot of different kinds of women in her books, including praising and highlighting extremely feminine women which I love and make her books feel very fresh to me.

8. The Accident Season-Moira Fowley-Doyle

I’ll admit upfront that I didn’t really like this one. However the premise is definitely unique, it follows a family that becomes suddenly extremely accident prone every October, often resulting in deaths. So that was cool, and I enjoyed the main mystery plot but there was a lot that confused me about this book and it never really fulfilled the promise of the concept.

9. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-VE Schwab

I could have used any number of VE Schwab’s books on here because I always feel like she’s so creative and inventive with her ideas, but I thought The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was probably the one that fit best. Addie is kind of a difficult book to place, it’s fantastical, historical, contemporary, kind of a bit of everything all mixed up into one so that alone makes it a fairly unique book. Then you have the twist in Addie’s bargain whereby she’s able to live forever (fairly typical) but ends up forgotten by everyone she meets (less so) and the sheer scope of this book covering around 300 years of history. I’ve read other books that cross genres before, but never something quite as defiantly undefinable as Addie LaRue.

10. By A Charm And A Curse-Jaime Questell

On the surface this book has a lot of familiar tropes: circus setting, kisses and curses being connected etc. But the way the author used those familiar tropes felt very unique: the kiss in this case is actually the cause of the curse not the solution and this curse ensures that the members of the circus stay young and never get hurt (so is actually a good thing for them), and so that’s where the conflict comes in as main character Emma wants to break the curse which is inflicted on her but in doing so dooms everyone in the circus. It’s a really cool little story, kind of like Pinocchio (the curse basically turns you into a puppet in human form) mixed with Snow White. It’s a real shame that Jaime Questell hasn’t published any books since this one because I really loved it, I hope she does at some point because I’d love to see what she does next.

So there we go, those are some of the most unique books I’ve ever read. How about you, what are the most unique books you have ever read (or rather, books that you think have a unique take on familiar tropes)? Have you read any of the books on my list? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, next week’s topic is meant to be Book Titles That Are Questions but honestly I don’t think I’ve read any? So I’m going to change twist the topic and do a different title related topic: Unnecessary Book Title Abbreviations Used On Book Twitter ie all the short titles that get abbreviated that really don’t need to be!

Top Ten Tuesday #322

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, I’ve been working mostly but I’ve got this weekend off and I’m going to meet up with my friends so I’m super excited about that. I also have another riding lesson on Thursday which is always great.

Anyway it’s Tuesday which means another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is another one of our annual ones and it’s our Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of the year. I didn’t think I’d have as many for this as most of my anticipated releases for this year seemed to be in January-June, but it turns out I have exactly the same amount and it definitely goes over ten, so that’s always a nice feeling to find out that you are anticipating more books than you thought. So here we go, my most anticipated releases for June (I snuck in a couple that didn’t make the last post) to December of 2021. As always these are in release date order, so the numbers are not indicators of my level of excitement for the book (also all release dates are correct for the UK, so if you are US, you might want check yours as for some it may be earlier than listed here):

1. Witchshadow (Witchlands #4)-Susan Dennard-Released 24th June

Cover Artist: Cliff Neilsen

Okay so technically this book is already out but I wanted to include it because I didn’t include it in my first half of the year post and I’m really excited to read it. It’s Iseult’s book and there’s so much that I want to learn about her and her powers, so I’m hoping this book will provide at least a few of the answers.

2. This Poison Heart-Kalynn Bayron-Released TODAY!

Cover Artist: Raymond Sebastien

This one releases today, so happy book birthday to Kalynn Bayron! I’m super excited for this because I loved her first book and this one sounds super cool and dark which I love. Also this cover is perhaps one of my favourites of all time, it’s so beautiful. Shoutout to cover artist Raymond Sebastien who did this most extraordinary of covers.

3. Six Crimson Cranes-Elizabeth Lim-Releases 8th July

Cover Artist: @_afterblossom_

Again, this cover is truly stunning, the pastel colours are so beautiful and the design is gorgeous, the designer is @_afterblossom_ on Twitter and they’ve done the UK covers for Elizabeth Lim’s Blood of The Stars duology as well. It also sounds brilliant, it’s a retelling of the fairytale The Wild Swans which is one I’ve never heard of before so I’m super excited as I love it when authors take on different fairytales (I love Beauty and The Beast as much as the next girl, but I need some variety!).

4. A Lesson In Vengeance-Victoria Lee-Releases 3rd August

Cover Art by Maggie Enterrios, Design by Regina Flath

Again this cover is gorgeous, I swear cover designers have been killing it this year (I mean they always do, but there are so many great ones this year). I’m also super happy that this is like a dark purply colour because purple is one of my favourite colours. But I digress, I’m super excited to read this because it sounds brilliant, a witchy, gay, dark academia? YES PLEASE.

4. As Good As Dead (A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder #3)-Holly Jackson-Releases 5th August

Okay, so technically I’ve not yet read Book 2, but I loved Book 1, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to love Book 2 and have already pre-ordered this one. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this invested in a murder mystery! This one sounds AMAZING and apparently it’s the darkest of the series, which of course is very up my street. I can’t wait to see how Pip’s story ends….and who makes it out alive.

5. The Fair Botanists-Sara Sheridan-Releases 5th August

Cover Artist: Charlotte Day

This story sounds so different and interesting, I’m trying to get a bit more into adult historical as much as I love YA, I do like finding stories with characters closer to my age! It’s all about this rare plant that blooms once in every few decades and two women whose lives entwine in 19th century Edinburgh. This cover is SO GORGEOUS AS WELL, all the flowers are lovely and I especially love the illustration of Edinburgh Castle.

6. Endgame (Noughts and Crosses #6)-Malorie Blackman-Releases 16th September

No cover for this one yet I’m afraid! I’m not going to lie, the word endgame has kind of been ruined for me by far too much non-ironic use of it in teen dramas (I’m looking at you Riverdale and Glee) to refer to shipping, but I’m still super excited for this. I may not have loved Crossfire as much as I’d hoped, but the ending of the Noughts and Crosses series holds a lot of nostalgia for me, it was one of the very first YA books I read at around 11, and the final book will be releasing just after I turn 25 so it’s a nice little full circle moment for me and it’s so lovely for Malorie as well to have everything coming full circle like this in the year of the 20th anniversary of the first book.

7. The Bronzed Beasts (The Gilded Wolves #3)-Roshani Chokshi-Releases 21st September

Cover Artist: Cover art by James Iacobelli, Design by Kerri Resnick

Can I just say before I start this what an AMAZING JOB this team have done on this whole series of covers? The Gilded Wolves trilogy has some of my favourite covers OF EVER and they are going to look so stunning together so hats off to the Kerri Resnick Books team. Also my autumn-loving heart is thrilled by the autumnal looking cover (I love that this series has such a seasonal feel in all its covers, if it was a four book series, there would definitely need to be a summery cover). Anyway, enough of my ramblings about the cover, which I could talk about all day. I’m SO SO EXCITED AND TERRIFIED FOR THIS BOOK. The second book ended on such a cliffhanger and I need to find out what happened to everyone, that everyone is okay and be reassured that Laila IS NOT GOING TO DIE. RIGHT? RIGHT?

8. Vespertine-Margaret Rogerson-Releases 28th September

Cover Artist: Charlie Bowater

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Margaret Rogerson’s debut An Enchantment of Ravens, but I am loving her second book, Sorcery of Thorns, so I’m excited to check out what comes next. It sounds fabulously dark, all about a nun-in-training whose job is to cleanse the bodies of the dead who gets more than she bargained for when she has to raise a malevolent revenant in order to save her convent from attack. Sounds good, no?

10. Once Upon A Broken Heart-Stephanie Garber-Releases 30th September

Cover Artist: Lisa Perrin

THAT COVER. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE AN ILLUSTRATED COVER and Lisa Perrin did a magnificent job! I swear I do want to read these books for more than covers, I just have to swoon a little because they’re all so pretty. Anyway, massively excited for Stephanie’s new book, it’s set in the same world as Caraval but follows different characters (and is apparently the start of a new series according to Goodreads). This new book follows Evangeline Fox who makes a bargain with the Prince of Hearts (Jacks) in order to stop her true love from marrying someone else, and much as anyone who makes a deal with Jacks, it doesn’t go quite the way she intended!

11. Little Thieves-Margaret Owen-Releases 5th October

Cover Artist: M.S. Corley

Again this cover! So beautiful and vibrant and if I’m being totally honest a lot of the draw of this book for me (look anyone who claimed that bookworms never judge a book by its cover clearly never met any of us). But the story does sound great too, I’m sure you all know by now that I’m a sucker for thieves, and this retelling of The Goose Girl (yay for another lesser retold fairytale) follows thief Vanja, who steals the life of her mistress Princess Gisele with enchanted pearls but is then cursed by a god for her greed. She is set to turn into jewels for her greed, unless she manages to break her curse within two weeks. I have a Netgalley e-ARC for this, so I’m hoping I can finally clear my huge backlog and get to it before release in October.

12. A Marvellous Light-Freya Marske-Releases 2nd November

Cover Artist: Will Staehle

A adult historical fantasy? Were you made for me? It’s like all my dreams come in one beautiful, colourful package! Also the cover has some of my favourite colours, which I love, fantasy books definitely have a tendency towards the dark and whilst that is also awesome, it’s so nice to see one with such a bright cover. It’s also a m/m romance, which is so great to see in a historical book. Historical gays for the win!

13. All of Us Villains-Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman-Releases 11th November

I’m super excited for this one, I didn’t have the best first outing with Christine Lynn Herman, but I love Amanda Foody’s books and their co-writing debut sounds AMAZING. It’s been billed as a magical Hunger Games, the plot revolves around a magical tournament where the descendants of seven families in Ilvernath compete in a tournament to the death for control of the city’s magick supply. It sounds so amazing, and I’ve really enjoyed all of Amanda Foody’s books thus far, so I have high hopes!

14. The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks-Releases 16th November

Cover Artist: David Curtis

After many delays over the past year or so, this book is finally coming out! I’m super excited to see Adrian (the Goblin, Monty and Felicity’s younger brother from the first book) as a teenager, and of course Monty and Felicity as adults. This is such a fun series and I look forward to seeing how everything ends.

15. A Psalm of Storms and Silence-Roseanne A. Brown-Releases 21st November

Cover Art by Tawny Chatmon, Cover Design by Jessie Gang

I know this book was on my last list, but sadly it got pushed back. Anyway, I’m still super excited for it, the last book ended in a really exciting place and I can’t wait to see how Karina and Malik’s stories end!

So there we go, that was my bumper edition of anticipated releases for the second half of 2021 for you. There are so many AMAZING books coming out over the next few months, I really wish my bank account was large enough to support all of these authors! Anyway, do we share any? What books are you excited about coming out in the rest of 2021? Have you been lucky enough to read any of these already? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week for another Top Ten Tuesday, next week’s topic is Reasons Why I Love Reading but I actually already did that one as a twist on a old topic back in 2016, so I don’t want to do a rehash of that list. Instead I’m going to dig out a topic from the Broke and Bookish (previous hosts) archive, and I’ve decided to do Top Ten Most Unique Books I’ve Ever Read.

Top Ten Tuesday #321

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, I had my first day of work at the vaccination centre today and it went well. I have the day off tomorrow, and I have another riding lesson which is great, it’s been so nice to get back at it especially with the warmer weather we’ve been having (though since this is the UK we get warm weather for like a week and then go back to being cold. However it does mean that my hayfever has had a chance to die down finally!).

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Bookish Wishes, in honour of Jana’s birthday (Happy Birthday Jana!) but honestly I’ve pre-ordered all the books I want for this year so I decided to change it up and do a Pride themed topic since it’s still Pride Month. There are loads of great LGBTQ+ books coming out this year so I’ve decided to share some of the ones I’m excited for. I will indicate authors’ identities where I know they have been public with sharing that information, but I equally didn’t want to exclude anyone who hadn’t publicly shared their sexuality for whatever reason. So here we go, 2021 LGBTQ+ Books I’m Looking Forward To Reading:

1. This Poison Heart-Kalynn Bayron

Kalynn Bayron was one of my favourite new author finds of 2020, Cinderella Is Dead was so great, such an interesting reworking of a classic fairytale and I’m equally excited for her newest book. Apparently it’s a reimagining of The Secret Garden with some Greek mythology involved? Count me in. Bayron herself is pansexual, and in this book, the main character Bri has two mums and Bri herself is bisexual.

2. These Feathered Flames-Alexandra Overy

This one sounds so good! It’s an f/f retelling of a Russian folktale called The Firebird, and I love reading books reimagining stories that I’m not familiar with as it’s hard to find unique retellings! It’s also all about sisters and I’m a SUCKER for sister stories.

3. Mister Impossible-Maggie Stiefvater

Obviously I’m excited for Mister Impossible because I love the Raven Cycle world and I want to see how the Dreamer trilogy continues, but it’s also been nice to see how Adam and Ronan’s relationship is developing beyond high school as you never usually get to see that in YA books.

4. The Bronzed Beasts-Roshani Chokshi

THE FINAL BOOK IN THE GILDED WOLVES TRILOGY AND I NEED IT. NEED DESPERATELY. The last one ended on such a cruel cliffhanger and I just need to see what happens to Laila, Severin, Zofia, Enrique and Hypnos already! This series also features several LGBTQ+ characters, Enrique who is bisexual, Hypnos who is pansexual and Zofia who is somewhere on the ace spectrum, though as of the last book, she’s still very much figuring that out (and of course as this is a historical fiction, the characters don’t use modern language to describe their own identities).

5. All of Us Villains-Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman

I wasn’t that thrilled with Christine Lynn Herman’s debut, The Devouring Gray but I LOVE Amanda Foody’s books so I have to admit, I’m reading this mostly because of her. It also sounds like a super fun book though, it’s basically like a magical Hunger Games for villains. The children of these seven families compete in this big death tournament in order to gain control of their city’s supply of magic. It sounds dark and bloody and incredibly fun. According to Foody, two of the four POV characters of the book are bisexual, as are both of the authors.

6. A Lesson In Vengeance-Victoria Lee

There’s been a real surge in dark academia stuff coming out in recent years which is so exciting because these kinds of books definitely sound very Me. This one is about a boarding school haunted by the ghosts of rumoured witches and the main character teams up with the new girl to research the true story behind the legends. It’s f/f, sounds super dark, atmospheric and creepy and entirely up my street. Victoria Lee is bisexual and bigender.

7. The Girls I’ve Been-Tess Sharpe

Since reading A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder last year, I’ve been craving more mysteries and this one sounded AMAZING. It’s about a daughter of a con artist who gets taken hostage in a bank heist and apparently the book takes place in less than a day which sounds very my speed as I love fast paced, action packed plots. The main character, Nora is bisexual, as is the author, Tess Sharpe.

8. A Marvellous Light-Freya Marske

This sounds so up my street! It’s an adult historical fantasy, which yay, because I love finding new adult fantasies to read, and I love historical fantasies too. There’s an underground magical world, a murder mystery and an m/m romance between the main characters. It’s also set in Edwardian England which I feel like is not often used setting for historicals? You definitely get a lot of Victorian England but Edwardian not so much. Freya Marske is also queer.

9. Ace of Spades-Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

I’m so excited for this one! Another instalment of Jo really needs to actually get into dark academia, this thriller follows two Black students at an elite private school who are being blackmailed by an anonymous texter, Aces, who brings their darkest secrets to light. This one sounds so exciting, and both main characters are LGBTQ+, Devon is gay and Chiamaka is queer.

10. A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions-Sheena Boekweg

This is set in 1926, and follows a secret society of women who are determined to gain what little influence they can in the world by training to marry influential men, and main character Elsie and her four friends end up competing to win the heart of the future President. It sounds really interesting and apparently has female friendship at its core, which is an automatic win for me. It also apparently has a lot of positive casual LGBTQ+ rep, so that makes me want to read it even more.

So there we go, those are some of the LGBTQ+ books that I’m excited to read that either have come out or are set to come out this year. Have you read any of these (of the ones that are out, I realise there are quite a few that aren’t yet!)? Are you looking forward to any? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, this time we’ll be doing our annual Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of 2021. I actually have less of these this year than I normally would, but I’m still excited to share the books I’m looking forward to, there’s a lot of great stuff due to come out in the back half of 2021.

Top Ten Tuesday #320

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has once again been fairly quiet, I have a riding lesson later on this afternoon though, so I’m really looking forward to that. I’m also finally getting my first vaccine dose this week so naturally I’m very excited about that, it’s been a long time coming!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is the annual Summer TBR topic and once again, I have to admit that I didn’t do great on my Spring TBR, I only read 3 out of the 12 books, as my reading slump continues to persist. I’m hoping that this summer I will finally break the slump, as summer is usually a great reading time for me. So here it is, my Summer TBR:

1. Sorcery of Thorns-Margaret Rogerson

My current read which I just started yesterday. I’m buddy reading this with a couple of other members of the YA Addicted Book Club on Goodreads, and though I’ve only read the first chapter so far, I already have a good feeling about this book, so I hope I’m proved right!

2. The Poppy War-RF Kuang

My current audiobook read, I’m about four hours in and I have to admit, I’m not quite sure about it. I’m not really loving the narrator and it’s been kind of slow thus far, though I’m sure it will probably pick up the further through I get.

3. Ariadne-Jennifer Saint

My current Netgalley read, I’m about 40% of the way through and I’m enjoying it though it is taking me a while to get through.

4. Scarlet-AC Gaughen

One of my #RockMyTBR reads for the year, though I’ve got super off track with the challenge because The Unbound took me so long to read, so I’ll be trying to catch up on the books I’ve missed over the past three months during the rest of the year. This is a nice short one so hopefully shouldn’t take too long to read, and I’m looking forward to it as gender-swapped stories are something I usually quite like.

5. Where Dreams Descend-Janella Angeles

I meant to read this in March but I just wasn’t feeling it due to my slump and I really didn’t want that to influence my opinions on the book as it genuinely does sound like something I’ll like when I’m in the right mood, so I’m hoping that will happen over the summer. This is another one of my TBR challenge books that got pushed to the wayside because it took me so long to get through The Unbound.

6. The Last Magician-Lisa Maxwell

This is meant to be my #RockMyTBR book for next month, we will see if I actually get around to it then or not, as I’ve been so behind on all my reading this year! I wasn’t a massive fan of the last Lisa Maxwell book I read, Unhooked, but this sounds far more my kind of thing: heists and historical New York with magic? Yes please!

7. This Poison Heart-Kalynn Bayron

I have this on Netgalley and I’m really looking forward to reading it, I really enjoyed Bayron’s last book, Cinderella Is Dead and this one sounds just as good, it’s set in a creepy old mansion with plant magic and family secrets and LGBTQ+ representation. I can’t wait to read it.

8. Witchshadow-Susan Dennard

I read all of the first three books in the Witchlands series last year, so naturally I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series. It’s Iseult’s book as well which I imagine will be really interesting as there are a lot of secrets about Iseult still to uncover. This is another Netgalley one, I went on a bit of requesting spree earlier in the year which I’m kind of regretting now.

9. Six Crimson Cranes-Elizabeth Lim

Another result of my Netgalley requesting spree. I wasn’t a massive fan of Spin The Dawn, but I thought I’d give this new book of Elizabeth Lim’s a try because I always like finding unique fairytale retellings and plus, the cover is so gorgeous!

10. The Fair Botanists-Sara Sheridan

The final of my Netgalley request spree books that I need to read over the summer. This one certainly sounds very unique, it’s a historical fiction set in 1822 and surrounds this really rare plant that only flowers once every few decades. Honestly the blurb doesn’t say much more than that, but I love historical fiction that centres women so that’s all I really needed to know.

So that’s my Summer TBR, I don’t know how much of this I will get through given my continuing reading slump but I’m hoping I’ll get through at least a few of them! What’s on your Summer TBR? Have you read any of these (of the ones that are already out)? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, the theme is meant to be Bookish Wishes, but honestly I’ve already pre-ordered most of the books I want for this year, so I think I’m going to change up the topic and talk about Books I Most Recently Added To My Bookshelves as I’ve bought quite a few exciting books lately!

Top Ten Tuesday #319

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week since I last did one of these, mine has been fairly quiet, I was mostly doing more training for my job and completing my latest assessment for my intensive Spanish course. I’m going to see my friends this weekend though, our first indoor meeting since lockdown so I’m super excited for that.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books I Loved That Made Me Want More Like Them, which is slightly confusing phrasing but basically it means books that you read that made you want to find similar ones after reading them. I love this topic since I think like all readers, when I love a book I want to go out and find similar ones! So here we go:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic became one of my favourite books after reading it and thus started my love of VE Schwab. Since I read ADSOM in 2016, I’ve now read almost all of both Schwab’s back catalogue and the books she’s released since then. I actually now only have two more of her books left to read (discounting the Everyday Angel books because I feel like they’re a bit young for me!), her debut, The Near Witch and the latest Cassidy Blake book Bridge of Souls. I also have the rest of The Steel Prince comics (I haven’t read The Night of Knives or The Rebel Army arcs yet) and her new ExtraOrdinary comics to read.

2. My Sister’s Keeper-Jodi Picoult

My Sister’s Keeper is definitely not my usual kind of read, but I loved it so much that I then went out and bought most of Jodi Picoult’s back catalogue and her new books usually make it straight onto my pre-order list (barring her upcoming release because it’s about the pandemic and I’m really just not ready to read any pandemic books yet. I’ve watched some shows that have featured it, but by and large, I’m generally staying away from any pandemic related media). She has a huge back catalogue and I haven’t been interested in reading all of her books because some of the subject matter hasn’t interested me, but I’ve read 18 out of her 24 published books so it’s safe to say I’m a fan!

3. The Lightning Thief-Rick Riordan

I may have reached a point where I feel like I’ve outgrown Rick Riordan’s books (though I do want to finish the Trials of Apollo series eventually) but when I first read The Lightning Thief at 14, I devoured the entire PJO series and over the next (almost) decade read as much of his work as I could get my hands on (barring The Kane Chronicles as for some reason they never interested me much). I’d always been fascinated by Greek mythology but Percy Jackson definitely took it to a whole new level!

4. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

This is more of a genre thing rather than an author thing, The Hunger Games was the start of my dystopian obsession: though it was fairly short lived, I think it lasted about 3 or 4 years! But because of reading The Hunger Games, I searched out other dystopian books and read (and enjoyed to varying degrees of success): Neal Shusterman’s Unwind series, James Dashner’s Maze Runner trilogy, Julianna Baggott’s Pure Trilogy, Sarah Crossan’s Breathe duology and Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series. The Hunger Games wasn’t actually the first dystopian book I read, that was Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, but it was the first one that made me want to go and search out other books like it.

5. Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo

My first introduction to the Grishaverse and I loved Kaz Brekker’s misfit gang of criminals so much that I immediately searched out all of the other Grisha books that I could get my hands on. Six of Crows is still my favourite Bardugo book, but I’ve happily bought everything that she’s brought out since. I’ve yet to read Rule of Wolves but I’m super excited to do so.

6. Skulduggery Pleasant-Derek Landy

I fell in love with Landy’s magical skeleton detective pretty instantly when I was 12 and over the next six years read every Skulduggery book that came out, plus the Demon Road trilogy. I’ve felt fairly mixed about the more recent additions to the Skulduggery series, I don’t think they’ve been as good as the original series, but I’m still going to be quite sad when the final book of the series is released next year as it will definitely be the end of an era of my reading life-these books have been with me for over half my life now!

7. Matilda-Roald Dahl

I am aware now that Roald Dahl’s views were pretty heinous (antisemitic, racist, misogynist), so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend his books now, but when I was a kid, I really did love them and Matilda was one of the first books that made me feel seen as a young reader, so naturally I searched out his other books after reading it.

8. Code Name Verity-Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity remains one of my favourite WWII stories I’ve ever read: it’s all about female friendship, it’s so cleverly woven together (one of the best unreliable narrator books I’ve read), it highlights women’s work in WWII and has a number of heartbreaking plot twists. I’ve read all of Wein’s Verity related books since then (Rose Under Fire, The Pearl Thief and The Enigma Game) and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

9. Dangerous Girls-Abigail Haas

Reading Abigail Haas’ messed up, brilliantly twisty YA thriller definitely made me want more messed up, brilliantly twisted thrillers. I’ve had mixed results, nothing has quite reached the heights of the shocking plot twist of this book, I’ve found some that I’ve really enjoyed and some that have been quite underwhelming but it was this book that made me want to read more mystery/thriller-esque stories.

10. Timekeeper-Tara Sim

Tara Sim’s brilliantly creative Victorian steampunk-esque alternative historical fantasy starring a gay clock mechanic and his pansexual clock spirit boyfriend definitely got me more interested in reading historical fantasy. I’m not sure if this was the first historical fantasy I’ve ever read, but I definitely remember searching out for them a lot more after reading this book. I really recommend this trilogy to everyone, it’s woefully underrated and SO SO GOOD.

So there we go, those are some books I loved that made me want more like them, whether it was books by the same author or in the same genre. Have you read any of these books? Did you like them? What books have you read that made you seek out books like them? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is my annual Summer TBR list, my Spring TBR did not go very well, thanks to my ongoing reading slump, so I’m hoping that I can do better with my reading over the summer than I did over the spring!

Top Ten Tuesday #318

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week since I last did one of these, sorry for the late post, I’ve spent most of the day editing something else and only just got around to it now. My week has been fairly quiet, I’ve got a lot of training stuff to do for my new job so I’m going to be spending the rest of the week doing that.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a freebie topic, so I’m finishing off my seasonal covers set of topics with Summery Book Covers. These are my Winter, Spring and Autumn cover posts if you’d like to see the rest of the set. So here we go, some Summery Book Covers:

1. King of Scars-Leigh Bardugo

Whilst I tend to think the content of Leigh Bardugo’s books falls into a more Autumn/Winter aesthetic, the bright gold of this cover definitely exudes more of a summery feel.

2. Girls In Pants-Ann Brashares

I couldn’t do a list of summery covers without including this one since for me, it’s a quintessential summer book and summer is so important to the story. I know the blue on the cover is meant to be like the jeans (I’m sorry American friends, I can’t call trousers pants even in the context of the book, it just feels wrong) but to me it kind of reminds me of the ocean. There’s also a lot of nature on the book, which I think fits summer just as well as Spring.

3. The Girl From Everywhere-Heidi Heilig

Again, it’s the ocean connection for me. I know the ocean is there all year round but I’ve always thought of it in connection to summer since that’s generally when you go on beach holidays. I think all the bright colours on this also make it feel quite summery.

4. Sixsational-Meg Cabot

I feel like this one is fairly obvious, the bright yellow being like the sun. Also though I’m not really a seasonal reader, I think The Princess Diaries fit quite neatly into the sorts of books that people usually choose for beach reads.

5. Finale-Stephanie Garber

I usually think of red as a more autumnal colour than a summery one, but I chose Finale for this topic rather than that one because I just felt like it fitted better with my summer covers than my Autumn ones. Also honestly because I didn’t think of it when I did that topic last year!

6. Fire Storm-Andrew Lane

Much like Sixsational and King of Scars, Fire Storm is on this list because of the bright yellow. I also think it’s quite cool how this cover combines summery colours with the darker imagery of the skull.

7. The Priory of The Orange Tree-Samantha Shannon

Any excuse to share this beautiful cover! In a theme here, I chose this cover largely because of the yellow-orange background which I feel are very summery colours and also because it’s very bright.

8. Sky Breaker-Addie Thorley

The burnished gold of this cover definitely feels very summery and the fact that it’s supposed to reflect the sun makes it fit this topic very well. I love the contrast between the covers of the two books in this duology, the first book is definitely the night sky and this one is the morning. It works very well!

9. Six Crimson Cranes-Elizabeth Lim

I mean I could see the argument for this fitting into either Winter or Spring book covers too, but I think that the pale pastel colours fit the summery theme too. The whole palette of the book kind of reminds me of a sunset which I really love.

10. The Exact Opposite of Okay-Laura Steven

The big burst of colour in the background is what makes this feel very summery for me.

So there we go, those are some summery covers for you! What do you think? Do you agree with my choices? Do you think any fit into other seasons as well (don’t worry if you disagree with me, I don’t mind!)? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Books I Loved That Made Me Want More Books Like Them, and since when I find a fave book, I love finding similar ones, this should be a fun one for me.

Top Ten Tuesday #317

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve been having a good week since I last did one of these. I had a really nice time with my friend last week, it was great to catch up and I also really enjoyed going riding, I haven’t been for a hack in ages, and the Scottish countryside is glorious. I’m back home now, getting stuff sorted for my new job.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was Top Ten Book Quotes on whatever theme we chose, so I’ve decided to share my Top Ten History themed Book Quotes, as a great excuse to let out my inner History nerd. I wanted to make sure I only used quotes from books I’d read, but that idea kind of fizzled out towards the end, so there are couple on here from books I haven’t read. Anyway, here we go:

1. “History is something you look back on, not something you really feel at the time. In the moment you’re just…..living” -The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, VE Schwab

I read this one last year and this particular quote definitely resonated with me hugely because of the pandemic. Like I know we’ve all been living through something historically significant in the past year but it’s not something you necessarily think about in the day to day, mostly what I thought of during lockdown was how bored I was and how much I wanted it to be over!

2. “Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end…..everyone wants to be remembered.” -The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, VE Schwab

This is part of a longer quote, but I decided to just share this part because it was the bit that I found the most poignant.

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

This quote basically sums up why I fell in love with History in the first place and why I ended up studying it at University, there’s a common misconception that studying History is all about memorizing a lot of dates, and whilst there is that, it’s far more about learning about people’s stories from kings and queens, to everyday people doing extraordinary things.

4. “But she wondered why beautiful things had to be wrapped up with evil history. Or was it the other way around? Maybe the evil history made it necessary to build beautiful things, to mask the darker aspects.” -The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan

Surprisingly poignant for a Percy Jackson book! With everything that’s happened in the last year, Black Lives Matter making everyone think more about our colonial history, this quote is definitely something that’s taken on a new resonance for me.

5. “Nothing but a symbol? People die for symbols. People have hope because of symbols. They’re not just lines, they’re histories, cultures, traditions, given shape.” -The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves series talks a lot about history, particularly with regards to colonialism and the people left out by mainstream history so there were a lot of quotes to choose from but I picked this one because I thought it was a particularly powerful one.

6. “Depending on who you ask, sometimes ghost stories are all that is left of history. History is full of ghosts because it is full of myth. All of it is woven together depending on who survived to do the telling.” -The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi

Another beautifully poignant quote from The Gilded Wolves series, which again captures another of the reasons why I love history, it really is just an extension of my love of stories!

7. “History was haunted by the ghosts of buried crimes, which required periodic exorcisms of truth.” -Lair of Dreams, Libba Bray

This whole series explores a lot about history, looking at how crimes of the past have haunted people of the future and this quote really embodies that.

8. “Where I’m from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true….we call it history” -Wicked, Gregory Maguire

I’ll be honest, I’ve never read Wicked, I know this because it’s a line in the song Wonderful in the musical. It always makes me laugh though because it is true: not that everything in history is made up, more that we’re only ever presented with one person’s or one version of the “truth” and in actual fact there’s almost always a lot more to the story than the version we are presented with.

9. “The past stays on you the way powdered sugar stays on your fingers. Some people can get rid of it but it’s still there, the events and things that pushed you to where you are now.” -The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus isn’t one of my favourite books but I found this quote when I was looking for content for this week’s post and really loved it. The writing in this book is really lovely, it’s a shame the plot was kind of thin.

10. “Well behaved women seldom make history.” -Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History, Laurel Thatcher Urich

This is one of my favourite ever quotes and I had no idea it was from a book, or at least used in a book so it counted for this topic. It’s sometimes misquoted as “rarely make history” but I think this is the right one. Anyway, I just really love this one because it’s so true: my favourite women from history were definitely not well-behaved!

So there we go, some of my favourite history related book quotes! Have you read any of these books? Which one of these quotes is your favourite? What theme did you choose this week? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is a freebie, so I’m going to be doing Summery Book Covers to complete my Seasonal Book cover topics set!