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

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. 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.

Right now it’s all about Christmas, but in my mind the winter season runs from December all the way through to the end of February so expect to see a lot of 2019 releases on this list that I cannot wait to get my hands on. January and February seem to be the best months for book releases but that doesn’t mean I haven’t also featured a few older books which have spent way too long on my TBR list.

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I featured this book in my Top Ten Wintery Reads post a couple of weeks ago so it shouldn’t be too surprising to see it this week. Even though this is a re-read for me The Night Circus is the perfect book for the Christmas season, and I can’t wait to dive back into the magic of Le Cirque des Rêves.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Based solely on the blurb there’s something about this book that makes me think, like The Night Circus, it will end up being a story full of enchanting magic perfect for this season. Either way it’s been on my TBR list long enough that I need to make an effort to move it to my read list.

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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Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

I loved the first book so I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to actually get around to the second. I re-read Every Heart a Doorway today to prepare to pick up Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and again this is a series which in mind is perfect for the winter/pre-Christmas season.

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretence of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

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The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck

I have an ARC of this book which I really really need to get around to. I started The Lantern’s Ember when I was in the middle of a reading slump, so obviously that didn’t work out well. I was drawn in by the pretty cover but there are plenty of good reviews so hopefully I’ll enjoy this one.

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal – or not-so-mortal – soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare. 

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

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The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

The first book in the Winternight trilogy also appeared on my Top Ten Wintery Reads post a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure how wintery this second book in the series is but I loved The Bear and the Nightingale so I want to get around to The Girl in the Tower sooner rather than later.

For a young woman in medieval Russia, the choices are stark: marriage or a life in a convent. Vasya will choose a third way: magic…

The court of the Grand Prince of Moscow is plagued by power struggles and rumours of unrest. Meanwhile bandits roam the countryside, burning the villages and kidnapping its daughters. Setting out to defeat the raiders, the Prince and his trusted companion come across a young man riding a magnificent horse.

Only Sasha, a priest with a warrior’s training, recognises this ‘boy’ as his younger sister, thought to be dead or a witch by her village. But when Vasya proves herself in battle, riding with remarkable skill and inexplicable power, Sasha realises he must keep her secret as she may be the only way to save the city from threats both human and fantastical…

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The Wicked King by Holly Black

The first of the new (and highly anticipated) 2019 releases on my list this week and I know I’m not alone in being beyond excited for the release of The Wicked King. I loved The Cruel Prince, but after the cliffhanger ending I need this book so I can find out what happens next to Jude.

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

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The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

Roshani Chokshi’s debut, The Star-Touched Queen, was a favourite of mine and I ended up loving A Crown of Wishes even more. If that pattern holds The Gilded Wolves will be the best of her releases so far. It sounds amazing, and the cover is beyond gorgeous.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

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King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

Do you need any explanation as to why King of Scars is on my list this week? It’s written by Leigh Bardugo (who is an incredible author) and features Nikolai (who is one of my favourite characters from the Grishaverse) as the main character so it should be obvious why this is a book I literally can’t wait for.

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

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The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass was one of my favourite reads of 2016, and after the way it ended I needed the next book in my hands as soon as possible. It’s been a long wait but the release of The Kingdom of Copper finally nearly here (and I’m already mentally preparing for another unbearable cliffhanger).

Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid the unpredictable water spirits have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.

And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates…and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This book has dragons, and it’s written by one of my all-time favourite authors; Samantha Shannon. The hype I have for The Priory of the Orange Tree is unreal, but based on what the people who have been lucky enough to snag an ARC have had to say I feel like this will be one of my favourite reads of 2019.

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

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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 your books are on your winter TBR list. Have you read any of the books that made it on my list, if so what do you recommend I start first? What January or February 2019 release can you not wait for?