I’m joining in with That Artsy Reader Girl and her meme, Top Ten Tuesday. It’s a very Happy 10th Birthday to this meme, so the floor is open for the choice of topic.
I was considering using the very first prompt ever, but my childhood was a loooong time ago, and I’m not sure I could remember all of my favourite books, so have decided to pick my favourite 10 books of the year so far.
You can read all about the Top Ten meme over here at That Artsy Reader Girl, the blog that kindly hosts the meme and supplies prompts for each week.
I don’t particularly have a Summer TBR list, or a Spring, Autumn or Winter one either. I have a rapidly expanding TBR mountain that, until recently, I was only ever adding too. Until a few months ago I belonged to far too many arc teams, along with having an addiction to a bad habit of signing up for additional arcs with promo companies.
I’ve significantly scaled back that overcommitment. I still belong to quite a few arc teams, but those authors either allow us to pass on them if we are too busy or only write a couple of books a year. Prior sign ups mean I haven’t really felt the benefit until the last couple of months, but I finally feel like I AM taking tiny chips out of my huge TBR list. I still get those stressful moments when several authors simultaneous drop arcs on me, but it’s much easier to cope with when my schedule isn’t already packed out 5 weeks in advance!
So inspired by this weeks topic I shall make myself a separate TBR list of books that I would like to have read by September, and you will be sharing in my decision on the first 10 to grace that list.
By putting this on my list, I’m actually adding 6 books, because it’s quite a while since I read books 1 – 4, and there is another book, just released, that completes the series. This is a story of magic, witches, demigods, shifters and a kick-ass human teenage girl (she is the adopted daughter of the MFC). With it’s wonderful mix of humour, action and sexy times, this is one fantastic Urban Fantasy series.
I have books 1 and 2 of this series. There are more, a lot more, and I’ll probably find that reading this means I’ll be buying and reading the rest of the series. So again, I am probably adding at least 3 books here, if not more.
I’ve had this sat on my TBR list,and my ereader, for ages. And by ages I mean a couple of years. I loved the Beyond series by these authors and it’s only the fact that I’ve spent the last few years over stretched on arc books that means I haven’t read this.
I have several of this author’s books on my ereader but have only read one story of hers, which I really enjoyed. This was recommended to me by quite a few different friends, so I know I’m going to enjoy it!
Kitty Thomas is one of my go-to authors when I want a well written, darker read. Her’s is one of the arc teams that I have remained on because, well *Kitty Thomas*!!! Despite this being the older book, at the author’s recommendation I read The Escape Artist first. So this is definitely a catch up read.
Title – Devious Resolutions Anthology Author – Various
Dark MM romance by a whole host of talented and twisted authors. I know I won’t love every story, there might even be some I don’t like. However it has Jennifer Bene and K Webster, and I’m happy to read it just for those two authors alone.
It’s Pippa DaCosta so there really is no excuse for not having read this yet. I bought this over a year ago and am really disappointed in myself! Needing to read this also gnaws at my brain incessantly, so it will be good to tick it off the list.
This is another series where I own some of the books. It’s been a while since I read #1 so I’ll probably read that AND the other ones in the series I own. The jury is out on whether I will buy and read the rest of the series or not. Oh who am I kidding, of course I’ll be buying it!
Title – Last Ship of Polaris-G Author – Carol Van Natta
I’ve read a couple of books from this series. Although they are interlinked they can be read stand alone. I plan on working my way through the series, so might as well start with the first book, particularly as this is another one I bought a few years ago.
I’m really enjoying this author’s work at the moment and having one-clicked this recent release I really want to read it. Again it’s a while since I read book 1, so I may well read that first.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This is probably going to see me trawl through my contemporary romance reads, since dark romance and sci-fi doesn’t lend itself to the topic that well. I’m looking for books with blue skies, wide open plains, heat, beaches, lakes or the ocean.
As he presses a sweet, tender kiss to my lips, my tears fall harder as I wonder if we can survive this when this already feels like dying. It’s one thing to say you’ll wait for someone. It’s another to actually do it. My father didn’t stick around. My husband didn’t stick around or even fight for us. And Leo? He could have any woman he wants, why wait an indefinite amount of time for me?
“I want my soul back.” There was such utter desolation in his expression that it took every morsel of strength within me not to cry. This man bleeds goodness. Alongside his misery.
So I sadly don’t have a quote for this one. My bad because this was just such a wonderful second-chance romance with ALL the feels and the most swoon worthy hero!
She wanted him. She wanted to live out every filthy fantasy she’d ever had with him, but she couldn’t get past he fact that she hadn’t come here freely.
“You hadn’t forgotten about me,” he says. “If you had, you wouldn’t be reacting like this.” “Like what?” “Like you know just how good it is between us.” “It was good between us,” I admit. “Was being the key term.” “I have a feeling it would be even better these days.”
Today’s prompt for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted over at That Artsy Reader Girl) is on the them of opening lines. The suggestion is to go for “Best, favorite, funny, unique, shocking, gripping, lines that grabbed you immediately“, which immediately threw me into a tail spin because I’m not that sort of organised reader who keeps meticulous note of such things.
Perhaps I need a new shelf on Goodreads, but since I am trying to reduce said number of shelves maybe not. I’m sort of inspired to set up a spreadsheet in order to record future opening lines that are in some way memorable. Trouble is I have an atrocious memory so there is every chance the spreadsheet would collect cobwebs since I’d forget to fill it in.
So back to my dilemma of ‘I don’t really remember/have any opening lines that spring to mind’. I mean, there’s always “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” which I’ve probably misquoted since I haven’t actually read A Tale of Two Cities. So here’s what I’m going to do, I will choose 10 books from my favourites of 2019, and since I read 318 books according to GR (give or take a few beta reads, the odd DNF and a few re-reads) that might not be such an easy choice to make.
Title – The Son & his Hope Author – Pepper Winters Genre – NA/ Contemporary Romance
Today I must watch my husband die all over again. I tried to refuse. I pointed out how cruel it would be to relive the worst part of my life – the life that never managed to heal. I don’t have the strength to watch my love story, curse my life story, cry at my broken romance.
Title – Broken (Omega’s Destruction #1) Author – Eva Dresden Genre – Paranormal/ Omegaverse Romance
Shinj’s constant presence hummed at the back of my thoughts, beating in time with her two massive hearts. As those I loved fell apart around me, I wondered what it would have been like to fall into her embrace and bond as her pilot.
Title – The Black Prince Author – Ariana Nash Genre – Dark MM Fantasy Romance
They did things differently in this land, Akeim considered as the dragonkin, Lord Clarion, swung his axe down with devastating accuracy. The blade severed the elf’s head from her neck and slammed three inches deep into the woodblock beneath her.
Title – Sexy As Sin Author – Julie Kriss Genre – Contemporary Romance
The Haul Ash Truck and Trailer rental office in Ashland, Texas, didn’t have a neon or LED ‘open’ sign in the window when Christina Lee Dodd showed up for her closing shift that Thursday, even though it was one o’clock in the afternoon. That was because her boss was too cheap for them to have one.
Title – The Five Author – Lily White Genre – Dark Romantic Suspense
Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This weeks prompt was suggested by Book Lovers Pizza and is “The Last Ten Books I Abandoned”. So off to goodreads where I store all my book related information!
The majority of books I would like to abandon tend to be arc commitments, so rather than DNF I tend to skim read and jump ahead to the end. Whilst technically this isn’t ‘abandoned’, the books would have been had I not had that commitment to review.
1 Lock by Kimberly Knight
I just didn’t click with the authors voice on this one. I found the writing style felt, for want of a better word, basic. I didn’t feel the emotions, it was a case of being told not shown.
2 RIP Parts 1&2 by Charity B
This is a book that I will give a second chance to. It’s quite a dark, twisted read and sometimes my enjoyment of these is affected by my mood/state of mind. It ticked all my boxes and should have rung all my bells, so it is still on my TBR list for some time in the future.
3 Insolent by Cynthia A Rodriguez
Another where the writing style just wasn’t my cup of tea. I gave this the old college try but just had NO idea of what was happening or where the plot was going.
4 Innocence by Lee Savino and Stasia Black
From inconsistent time lines to a pacing so slow even skim reading didn’t help, this felt like one story stretched over three books. I didn’t even reach the end of book 1. It wasn’t really dark, it was so far removed from reality it needed to be fantasy and it just plain irritated me. I’m not sure if it’s a US/UK thing but in England insure means to pay money to safeguard an item, the word for to make sure something happens in ENSURE (yep it was that level of annoying.)
5 Irrepairable by LeTeisha Newton
A dark romance by two authors I love should have been an automatic shoe in to my ‘best book ever’ list. Sigh. I couldn’t even finish it because it hit several of my triggers. And I’m not talking about rape/abuse/violence triggers, I don’t have those. No I’m talking about “let’s have the plot revolve around a secret and then keep it a secret for the entire book”. That is NOT a story, it’s not even a plot, it’s lazy writing. Not to mention that this is a reverse harem where it was virtually impossible to separate the men, particularly as they were only ever referred to by their nicknames – Love. Faith. Honor. Trust. Devotion – I kid you not. Love had a personality, and then there were the other 4. The men were constantly vile to her (and had her beaten to a pulp) but somehow she still fell madly in love with them. Because they were so hot. I love a redeemed anti-hero as much as the next dark romance lover, the key word being REDEEMED!
6 The Body Painter by Pepper Winters
I came to this after reading The Ribbon Duet, by the same author. That still lives with me today. I don’t think it will ever leave my heart and soul. So maybe I had too many expectations for this book, but lord above it was frustrating. This is a quote, from Serilin on Goodreads, that perfectly sums up the issues I had.
“If our heroine was shocked by a behavior, Winters provided us with fifty-two different phrases to express that shock. It was so tedious, like others, I ended up skipping page after page.“
Then there was the complete disregard for researching the English education system, instead writing about it as though it were American.
7 Twisted Doms by Felicity Brandon
In contrast to all the rest of the books, it wasn’t the writing that was the issue here. Instead I could not bring myself to like or respect the “hero”, and I use that term loosely since this man was prepared to murder his twin brother for no other reason than when they had both been adopted his twin had gone to a nicer home. The “hero’s” brother didn’t even know he HAD a twin, so in now way could be held to account for anything the hero experienced. I’m not sure how I was meant to want this guy to get the girl because at no point did he atone for his behaviour.
8 Sorrow’s Queen by Ashleigh Giannoccaro
This just felt as though many events were written purely for the shock value, rather than to progress the plot. I also couldn’t understand why the author made the female protagonist underage at the start of the book. The kidnapping of a girl who wasn’t even 18, to hand her off to the man she has been promised to, didn’t ‘gel’ with the rest of the series either. The hero of each book may have been an assassin, a gun for hire, but they did seem to have some basic morals at the very least.
9 Wicked Games by Vivian Wood
A little too predictable, a little too generic, a lot too bland. Whilst the writing voice was easy enough to read, the characters just didn’t draw me in, I felt no connection to them, didn’t care and just felt very *meh* about the book.
10 The Black Door by J.L. Massey
I loved The Red Door, which was the previous book in this series, but this triggered my “don’t go there” button when it had characters calling the heroine a bitch because she didn’t put her wellbeing after everyone else. This girl had been sex trafficked, she had been abused and raped and what did the supposed hero do? He lied to her repeatedly. Nor did he stick up for her when another characters was persistently abusive because she had faked her own death. OK this wasn’t the best move BUT sex trafficking victim…
I am adapting this weeks Top 10 Tuesday theme. I’m not a hugely social person, I don’t think many bookworms are, so I’m not sure I’d ever hold a Bookish Party! I was really struggling with things to include, so decided to share my Top 10 book related items instead. Gifts I’d love to recieve, or items that make me smile.
I hadn’t originally meant to choose so may clothing items but, hey, the world needs to know that we haven’t come out of our book willingly. I’m almost exclusively an ebook reader. I don’t currently have space for bookshelves, not with 2 adult and 1 almost adult offspring still living at home.
Books are just such beautiful things, both inside and out. I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. I’m rather a home body so a book can take me worlds and places I would never experience otherwise. They can put me in times and places that I would be far too timid or naive to ever survive. They can give me powers beyond my wildest dreams and take me on the greatest of adventures . What isn’t to love about them?
Today’s challenge posted by That Artsy Reader Girl felt a little challenging at first. I was a voracious reader as a child, the library was my second home and a good chunk of my pocket money (and my parents money) went on feeding my obsession. So on first reflection I read what I wanted to as a child.
I read The Famous Five, Tom’s Midnight Garden, Carrie’s War, The Secret Garden, Little Women and so many more. I think I read all the Chronicles of Narnia, I remember Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Prince Caspian. These books, however, belonged to my brother and he had strict rules for how they were to be treated.
His book shelves were organised to the nth degree and the books upon it looked unread, even though they weren’t. He kept them pristine, no bending of the spine on a paperback, no folding dog-ear corners. I had to gently curve the pages to form a shallow ‘u’ shape, so that no creases formed anywhere on the cover. Lo and behold if any damage occurred, and the stress of maintaining his high standards often negated any enjoyment to be found from the story.
But then inspiration struck and I realised that there have been quite a considerable number of years between when I was a child and now. Which opens up a whole host of books, both read and unread, that have been released in the intervening years. There were also a couple that were around then that I can add to the list.
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and it’s sequel Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator, were amongst my favourite stories as a child. However it wasn’t until I saw Rik Mayall perform this book on Jackanory – one of the greatest shows the BBC ever created for children – that I knew of it’s existence. I felt a little too old to read it, but I sure enjoyed secretly watching Rik’s amazing and funny performance.
On a side note Bernard Cribbins was hands down my favourite narrator on Jackanory, though Kenneth Williams was a close second.
I have since read the book many times to my children, along with many other Dahl classics that we all love and enjoy.
I adored science fiction and in particular fantasy, as both a child and teenager. I’m sure that love developed from my love of fairy tales and Alice in Wonderland (oh and Through the Looking Glass too).
I was the strange kid who willingly read Day of the Triffids and not only enjoyed reading the short story A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, but still to this day remember both the plot and how it made me feel.
Via my son our household actually has the paperback copies of these three books, and one day I WILL read them!
I have read some of these, but as an adult. I still loved them, with all the wearing of black and the Wee Free men, but I do feel my childhood would have been enhanced had they been available back then.
Nobody writes quite like the late, great Terry Pratchett. The random, seemingly bizarre little facts and events that, with one tug on a thread, he could pull together into the most astounding and amazing of stories was simply amazing.
I’ve read every single one of these books, and watched the films too many times to count. I envy those who grew up alongside Harry, Hermione and Ron. I was forever the adult peering in from the outside, but these a right of passage books and should be on every child’s reading list.
I might have seen 1 or 2 of the film adaptations, though we all know the book is always better, but that’s probably as close as I’ve gotten to this series.
The fact that the main character is a boy (yucky😉 ) might have put my younger self off, but gods, myths, legends and magic? Who could resist that? Not me.
So technically my list is either a lot more than 10 books, or a lot less if you count a series as 1 entry, but it’s my post so there! I was wondering if there were any other books to add into the mix but, if I have to go searching for inspiration, then they probably wouldn’t have been for me. Thank you if you’ve taken the time to read my list! Are there any of these books you would have, or indeed DID read, as a child?
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a topic is suggested and you can adapt it to suit your needs. As someone who doesn’t listen to a great deal of music, and only then in the car, this topic really IS quite a challenge this week. This week I chose books that I’ve read, rather than from my TBR.
Do you have 10 book titles that could be the name of a band or group? If so share them in a post and join in the fun!
1. In The Garden Of Discontent
This is a love story. It’s brutal. Heart-wrenching. Dirty, terrifying, and raw. But a love story nonetheless because it is so beautiful.
Ensley: Noah Carter was the type of guy that every girl wanted. Gorgeous. Talented. Smart and kind. He was the world that revolved around me even though I didn’t deserve him. But then something went wrong. He snapped maybe, just lost his mind.I found him the night my family died, their blood staining his hands. I put him in prison. I got my revenge. But then years later he found me again… …and stole me away from my life.
Noah: You couldn’t know Ensley without wanting to strangle her. She was beautiful, she was wild, she was the girl next door. I grew up with her by my side. I watched her destroy herself while I held on. I protected her when she had been blind to the danger that surrounded her. I let her go once only to find her again. She would see me this time no matter what.
2. Condemned
She owes them her life. She’ll pay with her body.
After she is caught trying to steal an artifact from an alien temple, Avalon is saved from a terrible fate by four veteran warriors, but the battle-scarred brutes make it clear they have no intention of setting her free. She belongs to them now, and one after the other they bring her roughly to heel, using and enjoying her beautiful body as thoroughly and as often as they please.
Though their plan to rescue her goes smoothly, Avalon remains distrustful of these alien beasts, and her efforts to escape them soon earn her a painful, humiliating punishment. Despite her shame, she cannot hide her response to their touch, and before long she is screaming with pleasure as she is brought to climax again and again by acts she’d never thought she could enjoy.
Over the coming days, Avalon’s captors become her protectors, but will they be able to keep her safe when her life is threatened by the man who sent her to steal the artifact in the first place?
3. The Devil’s Soldier
“My silence is not weakness, but the beginning of my revenge.” Lucien Eve is gone. They took her from me. I will have my revenge. So I train. Hone my body and my mind. But rage burns in my veins. Fuels my anger. I let it fester and grow to use against him: The Devil’s Soldier. I will destroy everything he knows.
Eve The world believes I’m dead. It’s the only way. For now, I hide in the shadows. Growing stronger, more determined. For the Devil’s Soldier must be stopped. And I will stop him! Only then can I be with the man I love.
4. Stealing Cinderella
Every royal has their dirty little secret. His was… me.
It should have been simple. Go to the ball, meet the prince, and secure his patronage for my favorite charity. But beneath the mask, the brooding beast of a man was not at all who I expected. He was dark and intense and eerily quiet. When I left, I could still feel the ghost of his touch branded into my skin. He haunted my dreams, but I never expected to see him again. Then he came for me. And he took me. And I learned that his darkness was a void I never could have conceived. He’s the crown prince of Norway. And, now, I’m his captive.
5. Breaking the Chain
Step into the hottest BDSM club aournd and meet the Stronghold Doms…
Jared and Leigh both know what it’s like to be trapped in a seven year relationship where they give more than they get, the question is whether or not they can move on from them.
Two steps forward, one step back. That’s how Jared’s life feels when it comes to his ex Marissa. Every time he thinks he’s escaped the vortex of her emotional demands, she ends up sucking him right back in; but for the first time, he thinks he might have the strength to pull free entirely. At least he hopes so. Right now it just seems like he’s hurting everyone around him and he doesn’t know how to make it right.
Leigh Douglas spent seven years with the man she thought she would one day marry, but she’s now realized that she needs him to fight just as hard for her as she always fought for him. Since he won’t, she’s working on getting over him and finding someone who won’t take her for granted. On the other side of the equation, she’s definitely falling for Jared, but he’s still entangled with his ex. No one can understand the hooks that Marissa has in him like Leigh can, but that doesn’t mean that she’s willing to take the back-seat again in another relationship.
As Jared tries to side-step his ex and Leigh takes her first steps into the domination and submission-filled world of the Stronghold club, their friends hold a collective breath as everyone wonders whose heart will be broken in the end.
6. Primal Sin
Fallen for love. Risen for revenge.
Severn knows love. He knows how it feels to fight for love, and have it torn from his reach. He knows that when the killing fields are strewn with the dead, and love is all gone, only one thing keeps his demon heart beating: Vengeance.
His life is now a web of lies. His act, a perfect one. His enemy, the guardian angel Mikhail, sits beside him, turns to him for guidance, and even loves him.
The time has come to make all the angels fall, beginning with the most powerful of them all.
Severn thought he knew love. But he’s about to discover that love takes no prisoners, and as demons and angels clash over London’s battle-weary streets, love will claim the souls of two destined enemies.
7. Deliverance
“You can’t say no to a pistol in the face.” ~ Caleb
Bren’s missing with a bounty on his head, which isn’t Caleb’s problem, until Turner Candelario makes it Caleb’s problem. But why does a pirate with an axe to grind suddenly want to work with the down-and-out captain who killed his sister? Coded messages. Abandoned mining outposts. And Fran’s keeping secrets. The mission stinks worse than the iron mines, but what else is there to do in the Nine systems now Caleb’s trying to fly-right? Besides, Bren’s bounty looks mighty tempting.
One should be dead, but death didn’t stop her before. Chitec is gone, the Nine systems left in disarray, and in the chaos, One moves among them like a ghost, seeing what others cannot: a new malevolent force rises. A force One has encountered before. And caught in the middle of it all? Brendan Shepperd. Chitec was just the beginning. The true 1000 Revolution begins now… Caleb and the crew of the stolen Fortuitous are back. Vengeful pirates, bitter betrayal, gratuitous sex, missing synths, and more… You didn’t think it was all over… Did you?
8. Sin & Spirit
Kieran has stepped up to take his place as the ruler of magical San Francisco. As his girlfriend, that unfortunately means I’m under the magnifying glass. Everything I do is noticed, from how I act to how I style my hair. Most notably, of course, is how little I know about my magic.
The Hades Demigods want me on their team, and they don’t plan to ask nicely. Kieran and I are both under fire. They will kill him to get to me, and they’ll take me by force if necessary. It is essential I learn more of my magic.
With no other options, I do what scares me the most – I summon the last Spirit Walker to help train me. Except, he’s a loose cannon with looser morals and learning spirit is treacherous. I might evade the Demigods only to be lost in spirit forever.
9. Other Side of Love
After her last relationship ends in disaster, travel nurse Sarah Drexel takes a job on the Navajo Nation, believing it far enough away from civilization for anyone to recognize her.
But all that changes when environmental protection specialist Benny Turner walks into her clinic. He used to be her best friend until the night she told him her deepest darkest secrets and everything changed between them.
But Sarah’s not the only one with something to hide.
For Benny, being half-Navajo means straddling two worlds. It means never quite belonging to either one without having to constantly prove himself.
But just when he decides to settle down on the reservation for good, Benny runs into the only woman he’s always wanted but convinced himself he could never have.
Until now.
Duty or love? Which one will he choose?
10. Safe Harbor
PREACHER When it comes to firewalls, no one gets through my defenses. For the past five years, protecting this band of f-ed up brothers has been my mission. But Everly pulls me from my cave and does the one thing no one else ever has… She makes me believe there’s a life outside the world on my screens. Too bad actions have consequences, ones that threaten everything and everyone around me. Including the beautiful tattoo artist who has managed to etch herself onto my heart.
EVERLY The emotional upheaval of the last six months would be enough to break anyone. And I can already feel myself cracking. A tall, sexy, tattooed bad boy is the last thing I need thrown into the mix. All I want is to keep my head down and pour my pain into my art. But Preacher walks into my life and offers me safety in a world where I thought there was none. Until our pasts finally catch up with us… Preacher and Everly. Fear and loss. Hope and heartbreak. This gamble may be worth the risk.
Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Enjoyed but Rarely Talk About
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a topic is suggested and you can adapt it to suit your needs. I think this weeks theme is quite challenging – most of us don’t seem to be able to be quiet about the books and authors we love! However digging through the archives on goodreads soon reminded me of some amazing books, authors and series’ that all deserve a mention.
These are stories I read way back when I didn’t always review everything that graced the screen of my kindle. I’m really sad that I didn’t record my thoughts for these books as I do recall that they held me spellbound and as soon as I finished one book I immediately one-clicked the next.
They are a wonderful blend of greek mythology, magic and things paranormal. Each book features a separate couple though their is a story arc that also runs through the series. Elisabeth Naughton is probably better known for her contemporary stories but I highly recommend this series to those who love a steamy romance with fantasy/mythology leanings.
Part of a series of stand alone, interconnected mafia romances, this is a great mix of action and passion. The author made me care for these characters in way that doesn’t always happen and despite not being in the mood to read a mafia book I ended up not wanting to put this great little enemies-to-lovers story down.
Sadly the author’s health meant he was unable to complete this fantasy series but I still recommend it. I couldn’t read these books quickly enough and whilst I’d love more of this motley crew of misfits I enjoyed every moment of reading what is available. And you know what? It is possible to enjoy a series of books AND survive the fact that they it isn’t finished.
Cari Silverwood is an antipodean author who is high on my list of all time favourites. Some days I’ll put her at the top, other days it will be Pippa DaCosta/Ariana Nash. Neither of these has written a book that has disappointed me, but Cari just has a quirky humour and naughty streak that just resonates with my own. This is the first of three kinky, fast paced, steampunk stories. all of which can be read stand-alone.
It’s a long time since I read this YA dystopian story, and I have part two languishing on my kindle so I do believe a re-read is in order. This is part of the reason that I’ve cut right back on signing up for every arc that passes in front of my eyes and have left some arc teams where the frequency of releases was getting burdensome. It means that I can catch up on reading books that I should have completed years ago!
If you’ve read many of my posts you’ll know I’m a fan of Omegaverse stories. About a year ago I was asked if I would like to read the work of a new author (well three actually), which is always a risk. In part because first books often need a little bit (or lot) of work, also because you are taking a leap in the dark, betting on an unknown quantity, but mainly because I want to be able to support and encourage new indie authors. Helping them get a foot up onto the “author ladder”, promoting and supporting them is a real honour. So I always feel a sense of trepidation when I open an arc by a newbie, because I desperately want to be able to enjoy their work. I’m not an arc reader who only ever gives 4 or 5 stars, they have to be earnt. I only post positive reviews on my blog, but you can find all my reviews on Goodreads.
So back to this author, well the word Omegaverse was enough to have me jumping straight in, and Merel Pierce did NOT disappoint. The world she created felt fresh, she gave the story her own spin and definitely bought something new to the party. Whilst I’m itching to see another release by this author, I’m glad that she would rather take time and focus on quality rather than quantity releases.
This is a series I read way back in time when I first got my kindle. Again it was in the days before I discovered both Goodreads and the importance of writing reviews for books I love. However it was another series where I was one-clicking the next book before I’d even finished the one I was reading. It’s a fast paced, full of snark and banter, PNR series that I still love years later.
As a lifelong Bridget Jones fan, every now and then I hanker after a well written rom-com. Lila Monroe is my favourite author in this genre. I find her writing transports me to another world, her books are guaranteed to lift my mood and leave me with a wonderful feel-good vibe. I randomly chose this book but TBH her work never really disappoints and there are many of her books that I could have chosen from.
Another antipodean author (New Zealand rather than Australian this time), Wendy Smith writes romance that has a women’s literature/family saga feel to it. The stories are about so much more than the romance, with friends and family playing a large part in her stories. Her books aren’t about being perfect but about accepting each other and compromise.
She originally wrote under the pen name Ariadne Wayne, but is slowly merging her work under the one pen name.
Lindsay Buroker writes the most amazing, action packed epic fantasy, as well as some darn good space opera too. Her writing reminds me of authors such as Anne McCaffrey, Katherine Kerr, David Eddings, Andre Norton, Julian Mya etc. Authors I read voraciously in the 90’s. Whilst these stories have a mild romantic element, they are very much more about the adventure and the battles of good verses evil.
Do you have a Top Ten to share? Join in the fun and lets see if we can add to each others TBR lists!
