Is it just me, or do you tend to buy more books than you read? I have a TBR list that I’m whittling down little by little, but it’s kind of like one of those monsters where, when you cut off a limb, it instantly regenerates. I lobb a book off the ‘ol TBR, and BAM, another one appears. I just keep buying and adding more to it, over and over and over again. Resolutions to kick this addiction have been willfully unsuccessful.
Me:
I was looking through my TBR list last night, and the amount of books I added to it in the past two weeks alone is absurd. I think there’s like +20! 😂
I can’t really complain, though. It’s a not a TERRIBLE problem to have. Books make me ridiculously happy, and a mountain of books is basically the secret to eternal happiness as far as I’m concerned. Knowing I’ll always have something to read is Christmas morning on Repeat, year-round.
Still, sometimes when you take a step back and really look at your TBR list, it’s like, HOW?!
So, what are some of the books on your TBR that you’re most looking forward to, or are there any you think you’ll never get to? There are some that I definitely push back in favor of others, I won’t lie! XD
Since you’re showing me yours, I’ll show you mine. Here are the top books I’m looking forward to on my TBR:
‘Royal Bastards’ by Andrew Shvarts follows a group of royal and non-royal bastards on an epic adventure in order to try and stop a Great War from going down.
Here’s the full summary:
Being a bastard blows. Tilla would know. Her father, Lord Kent of the Western Province, loved her as a child, but cast her aside as soon as he had trueborn children.
At sixteen, Tilla spends her days exploring long-forgotten tunnels beneath the castle with her stablehand half brother, Jax, and her nights drinking with the servants, passing out on Jax’s floor while her castle bedroom collects dust.
Tilla secretly longs to sit by her father’s side, resplendent in a sparkling gown, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family. Instead, she sits with the other bastards, like Miles of House Hampstedt, an awkward scholar who’s been in love with Tilla since they were children.
Then, at a feast honoring the visiting princess Lyriana, the royal shocks everyone by choosing to sit at the Bastards’ Table.
Before she knows it, Tilla is leading the sheltered princess on a late-night escapade. Along with Jax, Miles, and fellow bastard Zell, a Zitochi warrior from the north, they stumble upon a crime they were never meant to witness.
Rebellion is brewing in the west, and a brutal coup leaves Lyriana’s uncle, the Royal Archmagus, dead–with Lyriana next on the list.
The group flees for their lives, relentlessly pursued by murderous mercenaries; their own parents have put a price on their heads to prevent the king and his powerful Royal Mages from discovering their treachery.
The bastards band together, realizing they alone have the power to prevent a civil war that will tear their kingdom apart–if they can warn the king in time. And if they can survive the journey . . .
You can pick up your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Bastards-Andrew-Shvarts/dp/1484767659
Jennifer L. Armentrout is one of my favorite authors. Anything she writes, I read. The book series I first read by her is the ‘Lux’ series, and I absolutely fell in love with not only the characters, but Armentrout’s vivid writing style. So, of course I was over the moon when I found out she was writing another book in the ‘Lux’ universe, ‘The Darkest Star.’ In the Lux series, there’s aliens, romance, action, and government intrigue. And ‘The Darkest Star’ continues on in that vein in a totally new series.
Here’s the full summary:
A girl pulled into in a world she doesn’t understand finds herself confronted by long buried secrets, a betrayal that could tear her life apart…and Armentrout’s most swoonworthy book boyfriend yet.
Seventeen-year-old Evie Dasher knows firsthand the devastating consequences of humanity’s war with the aliens. When she’s caught up in a raid at a notorious club known as one of the few places where humans and the surviving Luxen can mingle freely, she meets Luc, an unnaturally beautiful guy she initially assumes is a Luxen…but he is in fact something much more powerful. Her growing attraction for Luc will lead her deeper and deeper into a world she’d only heard about, a world where everything she thought she knew will be turned on its head…
To learn more about the ‘Lux’ series, this is the first book: https://www.amazon.com/Obsidian-Lux-Jennifer-L-Armentrout/dp/1620610078
And for ‘The Darkest Star,’ head here: https://www.amazon.com/Darkest-Star-Jennifer-L-Armentrout/dp/1250175739
I highly recommend all of the Lux books, and really anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
I loved Julie Kagawa’s ‘Iron Fey’ series, and I was really intrigued when I read the plot for ‘Shadow of the Fox.’ This book has shapeshifters, samurai, kami, legends, humans, demons, and brings Japanese mythology to life. This book is definitely different than anything else I’ve read, and I love it all the more for it. And it has a badass female MC who is a fox yokai. 😍
If anyone is a fan of Inuyasha, you’ll know why I have so much love for fox yokai! 🦊
Here’s the summary:
One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.
Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.
Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.
There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.
With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.
Check out ‘The Shadow of the Fox’ here: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Fox-Julie-Kagawa-ebook/dp/B07843G18J
One of my favorite book series is ‘The Madman’s Daughter’ trilogy by Megan Shepherd. I even liked her ‘Cage’ series, though to a lesser extent. When I saw she came out with a new book, I was immediately intrigued. She’d written about animated human-animal creatures in ‘The Madman’s Daughter’ trilogy, but ‘Grim Lovelies’ was something altogether different.
Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Anouk envies the human world, where people known as Pretties lavish themselves in fast cars, high fashion, and have the freedom to fall in love. But Anouk can never have those things, because she is not really human. Enchanted from animal to human girl and forbidden to venture beyond her familiar Parisian prison, Anouk is a Beastie: destined for a life surrounded by dust bunnies and cinders serving Mada Vittora, the evil witch who spelled her into existence. That is, until one day she finds her mistress murdered in a pool of blood—and Anouk is accused of the crime.
Now, the world she always dreamed of is rife with danger. Pursued through Paris by the underground magical society known as the Haute, Anouk and her fellow Beasties only have three days to find the real killer before the spell keeping them human fades away. If they fail, they will lose the only lives they’ve ever known…but if they succeed, they could be more powerful than anyone ever bargained for.
I think this sounds so different than the usual YA books you typically see. I’m looking forward to delving deeper into it.
To get your own copy, head here: https://www.amazon.com/Grim-Lovelies-Megan-Shepherd/dp/1328809188
Kiersten White, the author of ‘And I Darken’ (another book on my TBR) is coming out with a new book set in the world of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ I don’t know about anyone else, but I am a HUGE fan of ‘Buffy’ (and the spin-off series ‘Angel’), and have literally seen every single episode. I’ve even read some of the comics. Buffy is one of the reasons I have such a love for Strong Female Characters. And the fact that there’s a book coming out set in the ‘verse that I miss so much? I am all over that! ‘Slayer’ doesn’t release until January 8th, 2019, but you know I pre-ordered a copy! 😍
Summary:
Into every generation a Slayer is born…
Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.
Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.
Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.
As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…
But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.
One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.
In case you want to pre-order your own: https://www.amazon.com/Slayer-Kiersten-White/dp/1534404953
One of my CR’s is ‘The Way of Kings’ by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m loving it so far. But, one of his books that I’m chomping at the bit to feast my eyes on isn’t the next book in the ‘Stormlight Archive’ series. It’s Mistborn.
Goodreads summary for Mistborn:
In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more? In Brandon Sanderson’s intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage — Allomancy, a magic of the metals.
If you’re interested in Mistborn, too, here’s where I got mine: https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-No/dp/0765350386
The last (but not least) book I’ll share off of my TBR is ‘In Order to Live’ by Yeonmi Park. I first learned of Yeonmi’s story in her TedxYouth talk, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/Sg3kC4uKDJU
Yeonmi came from a world that most of us cannot imagine, but that it’s so important to educate ourselves about. We need to stand up to oppressors like North Korea who violate human rights – who use paranoia, rape, state-sponsored murder, work camps, and starvation as weapons to imprison its people. People who deserve freedom, who deserve to LIVE. Educating ourselves is the only way to fight back and work to help put an end to it all.
When I saw Yeonmi’s book featured on a Bookstagram page that I follow, I knew I had to get it. This is one vital read I will honestly be bumping up on the TBR.
Summary:
Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape.
Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country’s dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China.
Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not have imagined the extent of the hardship to come . Those years in China cost Park her childhood, and nearly her life. By the time she and her mother made their way to South Korea two years later, her father was dead and her sister was still missing. Before now, only her mother knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to freedom. As she writes, “I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the rest.”
In In Order to Live, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom.
Park’s testimony is rare, edifying, and terribly important, and the story she tells in In Order to Live is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. Her voice is riveting and dignified. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.
To pick up your own copy, head here: https://www.amazon.com/Order-Live-Korean-Journey-Freedom/dp/014310974X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542579478&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=in+order+to+live+yeonmi+park&dpPl=1&dpID=51UjzlaZaBL&ref=plSrch
Now it’s your turn! Show me those TBR’s! 📚
