Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on My Spring 2019 TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature that was created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Born from a love of lists and a love of books each week there’s a new topic for bloggers to list their ‘top ten’.

Top Ten Books on My Spring 2019 TBR List

This week’s theme is actually Top Ten Things that Make me Pick up a Book, but I struggled to come up with more than four things – the blurb, cover, author and recommendations from friends – so I decided to go back to a topic I missed from a few weeks back. I don’t normally do well when it comes to setting TBR lists but this time I’ve tried featuring books I know I’ll read sometime in the next three months, but I guess when June ends we’ll see how I actually did.

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Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron

I have an eARC for this sitting on my Kindle, so I need to read it before its release in May, and I’m excited to get around to it because Last Bus to Everland sounds really interesting, but I couldn’t think of how I could fit it into my TBR list for the Women’s History Month Reading Challenge I took part in in March.

Brody Fair feels like nobody gets him: not his overworked parents, not his genius older brother, and definitely not the girls in the projects set on making his life miserable. Then he meets Nico, an art student who takes Brody to Everland, a “knock-off Narnia” that opens its door at 11:21pm each Thursday for Nico and his band of present-day misfits and miscreants.

Here Brody finds his tribe and a weekly respite from a world where he feels out of place. But when the doors to Everland begin to disappear, Brody is forced to make a decision: He can say goodbye to Everland and to Nico, or stay there and risk never seeing his family again.

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Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

Another book I have an eARC for, and another book I couldn’t fit into my TBR list for the Women’s History Month Reading Challenge. Before picking up Archenemies I will need to re-read Renegades though, because it’s been so long since I read the first book I can’t remember what happened.

Time is running out.
Together, they can save the world.
But they are each other’s worst nightmare.

Nova’s double life is about to get a lot more complicated:

As Insomnia, she is a fully-fledged member of the Renegades, a syndicate of powerful and beloved superheroes.

As Nightmare, she is an Anarchist—a group of villains who are determined to destroy the Renegades. Nova wants vengeance against the so-called heroes who once failed her when she needed them most.

But as Nova, her feelings for Adrian are deepening, despite the fact that he is a Renegade and the son of her sworn enemies and, unbeknownst to Nova, he has some dangerous secrets of his own.

The line between good and evil has been blurred, but too much power could mean the end of their city – and the world – as they know it.

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First & Then by Emma Mills

Emma Mills is an author I will be picking up during my summer YA contemporary binge read months. I can’t guarantee I’ll get through all her releases before the end of June, but I want to start her books as soon as possible so I can say for sure that I’ll get through First & Then before the end of Spring.

Devon Tennyson wouldn’t change a thing. She’s happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon’s cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn’t want them first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life.

Pride and Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights in this contemporary novel about falling in love with the unexpected boy, with a new brother, and with yourself.

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Defy the Fates by Claudia Gray

This is one of my most anticipated releases for this year. I love the series and Defy the Worlds ended on a cliffhanger that has me desperate to find out what happens next to Noemi and Abel. I want to start this one right away but I plan to re-read the first two books in the series first.

Hunted and desperate.

Abel only has one mission left that matters: save the life of Noemi Vidal. To do that, he not only has to escape the Genesis authorities, he also must face the one person in the galaxy who still has the means to destroy him. Burton Mansfield’s consciousness lives on, desperate for a home, and Abel’s own body is his last bargaining chip. 

Alone in the universe.

Brought back from the brink of death, Noemi Vidal finds Abel has not only saved her life, but he’s made her into something else, something more. Not quite mech, yet not quite human any longer, Noemi must find her place in a universe where she is utterly unique, all while trying to create a world where anyone – even a mech – can be free.

The final battle between Earth and the colony planets is here, and there’s no lengths to which Earth won’t go to preserve its domination over all humanity. But together, the universe’s most advanced mech and its first human-mech hybrid might have the power to change the galaxy for good.

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The Fever King by Victoria Lee

I’ve seen some brilliant and glowing reviews for this book from bloggers whose opinions I trust, and while I’ve not quite been swept away by the hype I’m hoping The Fever King will end up completely blowing me away when I do pick it up. It certainly sounds like my kind of book.

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defence and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son – cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful – and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

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Finale by Stephanie Garber

Finale is going to be a book I pick up the second I have it in my hands. After the way Legendary ended and with everything that was revealed in that second book I need to know how the trilogy ends. Finale has a lot to live up to, but fingers crossed it will be the best book of the trilogy.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…all games must come to an end.

It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.

Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finally, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win…and those who will lose everything.

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When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry

Emily Henry is one of my favourite magical realism authors, so a new release from her is always going to be high on my TBR list. I couldn’t get around to When the Sky Fell on Splendor last month, but it’s going to be one of the first books I reach for now the Women’s History Month Reading Challenge is over.

The Serpent King meets Stranger Things in Emily Henry’s gripping novel about a group of friends in a small town who find themselves dealing with unexpected powers after a cosmic event.

Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren’t a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That’s the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.

In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn’t fiction—it’s a bright light, something massive hurdling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate…everything changes.

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The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

I can only handle one brick of a book per month. As much as I want to dive into The Kingdom of Copper right away The Priory of the Orange Tree is on my TBR list for April, so I’ll be reading The Kingdom of Copper (and re-reading The City of Brass) next month.

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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If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Like with Emma Mills’ releases If I’m Being Honest will be a book I pick up during my summer YA contemporary binge read months. Chances are I won’t get around to If I’m Being Honest before June but I really loved Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka’s first release so I can’t wait for this one.

High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: bitch. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good. 

In an attempt to win him over, Cameron resolves to “tame” herself, much like Katherine in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. First, she’ll have to make amends with those she’s wronged, which leads her to Brendan, the guy she labelled with an unfortunate nickname back in the sixth grade. At first, Brendan isn’t all that receptive to Cameron’s ploy. But slowly, he warms up to her when they connect over the computer game he’s developing. Now if only Andrew would notice…

But the closer Cameron gets to Brendan, the more she sees he appreciates her personality – honesty and all – and wonders if she’s compromising who she is for the guy she doesn’t even want.

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The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

The Near Witch is one of Schwab’s books that I never had a chance to read because it was out of print, but now I have a copy. It wasn’t one I could fit into my Women’s History Month TBR list so instead it will be a book I start as soon as I can (when I’ve got my eARCs out of the way).

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. 

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. 

There are no strangers in the town of Near. 

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. 

But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. 

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. 

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

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Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday?

What makes you pick up the books you decide to read? Do you rely on the blurb more or on recommendations and reviews from friends and other bloggers?

Are any of the books I featured on my list this week part of your Spring TBR list, or have you read any of them already? Are you excited for the release of Finale? Have you gotten around to The Near Witch yet, what did you think of it?