Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on my Winter TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is Top Ten Books on my Winter TBR List.

Now that I’ve gotten through more of the ARCs I have that need to be read and reviewed for the new year I’m back to tackling my (humungous) TBR list. I had a mid-year to-read goal, and by now it’s pretty safe to say I’ve kind of failed at managing it, but hopefully the ten books listed below will be more manageable for me to get through than the fifty odd that were part of my mid-year to-read goal.

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Morning Star by Pierce Brown

With Iron Gold being released soon I really need to read the last book in the Red Rising trilogy. I’m not sure what’s taking me so long, I loved the first two books so I know I’m going to love Morning Star as well, I just haven’t gotten around to picking it up.

Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating conclusion to the Red Rising Trilogy: Morning Star.

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.

Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honour and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.

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The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Becky Albertalli’s first book was a favourite read of mine, and I was so excited to hear she had another YA contemporary release in the works. I’ve heard some great things about The Upside of Unrequited, so again I know it’s going to be a book I love when I finally get around to it.

“I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back.”

What does a sixteen-year-old girl have to do to kiss a boy? Molly Peskin-Suso wishes she knew. She’s crushed on twenty-six guys…but has kissed exactly none. Her twin sister Cassie’s advice to “just go for it” and “take a risk” isn’t that helpful. It’s easy for her to say: she’s had flings with lots of girls. She’s fearless and effortlessly svelte, while Molly is introverted and what their grandma calls zaftig.

Then Cassie meets Mina, and for the first time ever, Cassie is falling in love. While Molly is happy for her twin, she can’t help but feel lonelier than ever. But Cassie and Mina are determined to end Molly’s string of unrequited crushes once and for all. They decide to set her up with Mina’s friend Will, who is ridiculously good-looking, flirty, and seems to be into Molly. Perfect, right? But as Molly spends more time with Reid, her cute, nerdy co-worker, her feelings get all kinds of complicated. Now she has to decide whether to follow everyone’s advice…or follow her own heart.

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The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

I was lucky enough to snag an ARC of Emily Barr’s next release at YALC, so I figured it was as good an excuse as any to pick up her other book as well. With The Truth and Lies of Ella Black being released soon I need to read and review it, but first I need to get through The One Memory of Flora Banks.

Seventeen-year-old Flora Banks has no short-term memory. Her mind resets itself several times a day, and has since the age of ten, when the tumour that was removed from Flora’s brain took with it her ability to make new memories. That is, until she kisses Drake, her best friend’s boyfriend, the night before he leaves town. Miraculously, this one memory breaks through Flora’s fractured mind, and sticks. Flora is convinced that Drake is responsible for restoring her memory and making her whole again. So when an encouraging email from Drake suggests she meet him on the other side of the world, Flora knows with certainty that this is the first step toward reclaiming her life. 

With little more than the words “be brave” inked into her skin, and written reminders of who she is and why her memory is so limited, Flora sets off on an impossible journey to Svalbard, Norway, the land of the midnight sun, determined to find Drake. But from the moment she arrives in the arctic, nothing is quite as it seems, and Flora must “be brave” if she is ever to learn the truth about herself, and to make it safely home.

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The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

I’ve already said it all previously; The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is being released in January, so it’s going to be a book I read before then so I can review it on my blog. Both of Emily Barr’s releases that made it on my list this week are books I know I’m going to be able to cross off my TBR list soon.

Ella Black seems to live the life most other seventeen-year-olds would kill for…

Until one day, telling her nothing, her parents whisk her off to Rio de Janeiro. Determined to find out why, Ella takes her chance and searches through their things.

And realises her life has been a lie.

Her mother and father aren’t hers at all. Unable to comprehend the truth, Ella runs away, to the one place they’ll never think to look—the favelas.

But there she learns a terrible secret—the truth about her real parents and their past. And the truth about a mother, desperate for a daughter taken from her seventeen years ago…

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The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

Not only was this book on my Fall TBR list, but it was the book I got as part of my latest Souvenirs from Around the World package (from the lovely Marie). I’ve heard amazing things about The Forbidden Wish so this is one I am determined to get through before the year’s end.

She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world… 

When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years—a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. 

 

But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart? 

As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of the Aladdin story from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.

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The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

This was another ARC I managed to get my hands on at YALC, but for some reason despite The Hazel Wood being one of my most anticipated releases I still haven’t read it. It’s currently at the very top of my to-read list so like Emily Barr’s books this is one I’m going to be able to cross of my TBR list very soon.

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate – the Hazel Wood – Alice learns how bad her luck can really get. Her mother is stolen away—by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD. 

To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began…

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Lost Boy by Christina Henry

I was so excited when I saw Christina Henry had a new book out, I rushed out to buy it immediately but have left it gathering dust on my bookshelves ever since. I loved Christina Henry’s dark Alice in Wonderland retelling so I have high hopes for Lost Boy, and I know it’ll be worth the wait.

There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened. How I went from being Peter Pan’s first – and favourite – lost boy to his greatest enemy.

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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

This was a book I featured as part of the Standalone Sunday meme a little while ago. Granted there have been a few mixed reviews for The Book of Lost Things but it sounds like a book for me, and I love fairytale retellings so I can’t wait to get started on it.

High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own—populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.

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Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Again this book was on my Fall TBR list but I didn’t get around to it so now it’s on my Winter TBR list. Stalking Jack the Ripper seems like the perfect book to pick up in the Winter when the weather is cold and it’s dark and dreary outside.

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

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A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

The third book in the Wayfarers series is being released next year (on my birthday no less) so I want to get around to A Closed and Common Orbit before then. I loved the first book, as far as sci-fi releases go The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet stands out from all the rest.

Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.

Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for—and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.

A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to Becky Chambers’ beloved debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.

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So what do you think? Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, if so let me know what books are on your Winter TBR list.