Top Ten Tuesday: The Books That Y'all Want *US* to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.

This week's topic is the Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read -- whether because they think it's a "you" book or it's just been generally recommended so often.

April's Picks:

The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I've had these books recommended to me by so many people. I will eventually get to them when I'm old and gray.

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - I'm a huge fan of  the show. My husband and I love it. My brother however calls me all the time to tell me how the episodes differ from the original story and the books are so much better, blah blah blah. I know I know, but I can only read so much! lol. :)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - These books didn't interest me at all, but Jen says they are really good, so now I'm going to have to read them.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta - Again, lots of people recommend this one. I really must read it soon.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - My cousin is the first person to recommend this to me. She's an english teacher and swears I have to read it. I actually recently started listening to the audio from my Library and I like it a lot. I only have two days till it expires though, and I can't renew. So I may need to finish with my kindle or just put it on hold again.


What it comes down to is... There are just too many books and not enough time! I wish I could read everything! :)

Jen's Picks:

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner - Shae mentions this one frequently and I keep promising I'm going to give it a chance. The first book was on sale recently for Kindle and I picked it up. Now to find the time.

The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta - Everyone and their mama has loved these books and insisted that I MUST read them. I have the first book, so I don't know what I'm waiting for...except maybe to procure the other two books so I can read them back-to-back. Though, I have been considering the audiobooks...anyone listened to those? Are they any good?

The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima - Another one that TONS of people swear by and rec to me often. It's an obvious TBR add considering my love of fantasy.

The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout - More recommendations for this one than I know what to do with, but Danielle assures me that even if I don't love the first book, I should keep reading because it's her least favorite in the series.

Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce - I think this is one of the first books Summer ever listened to on audio, and she LOVED it and went on to recommend it to anyone she knew listened to books on audio, including me. I'm much more likely to get to an audiobook than a physical copy these days.

I've been recommended a ton of books over the years, but these are the standouts and the ones that I'm still hesitant to pick up, for whatever reason. Maybe I'm just afraid I'll be the black sheep and I don't want to disappoint my reading buddies?

We'd love to know what books have been recommended to you time and time again or if you have any MUST READS for us. :) Be sure to share a link to your TTT post so we can visit!

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Labels: must-read, recommended reads, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Faerie Books for Those Who've Never Read Them

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.

This week's topic is the Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read "X" (examples: New Adult novels, historical fiction, a certain author, books about a certain topic, etc.), and we chose Faeries:

April's Picks:

The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr

Modern Faerie Tales trilogy by Holly Black

Wings series by Aprillynne Pike

Paranormalcy trilogy by Kiersten White

When I first started reading YA, I was drawn to faerie books. So I've read quite a few. The Iron Fey and the Wicked Lovely books are my favorite. If your'e looking for light and fun fey books, I recommend Wings and Paranormalcy. Admittedly I have yet to finish those series, but I will someday!! It's a matter of time. I know that Paranormalcy isn't all about Fey, but there are a lot of them in it. Now if your looking for something a little darker, the Holly Black ones might be the way to go. Also note worthy, the spin off from the Iron Fey books. Call of the Forgotten, but the Iron fey should def be read first. Just writing up this post is making me crave these creatures again. I need to make time. :) 

Jen's Picks:

Blythewood series by Carol Goodman

Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

Books of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater

The Falconer series by Elizabeth May

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

I don't read a ton of faerie-based stories myself, but of the ones I have read, I've enjoyed most of them. And I've found that most of my favorites are series where faeries aren't the only focus of the story. Aside from these, I'd also recommend Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, and for adult readers, you should try Richelle Mead's Dark Swan series.


Do you love faerie stories? Which faerie books would you recommend for a newbie? :) Be sure to share a link to your TTT post so we can visit!

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Labels: faeries, recommended reads, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Books in Our Beach Bags

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.

This week's topic is the Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag or Ten Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag This Summer:

We already put together a post on our favorite summer reads and recommendations, so this post might seem redundant, but we're just going to list the summer-themed books that we hope to read this summer, whether by the beach, at the lake, or next to the pool. =D


April's picks:

Even though we just did a summer reading post (linked above), it's all good because every day my lists change. I'll see a great review of a book and squeeze it in, or I'll get a new arc that needs to be pushed ahead of others. So here are ten that I'm absolutely going to try and get done this summer. Two I already finished just last week. My Life Next Door and Since You've Been Gone. There are a couple on this list that aren't really summerish but I have to get done before the leaves start to fall. :) We Were Liars was recommended to me by my cousin, and so I squeezed it in. I've heard it's pretty good.


Jen's picks:


I feel pretty industrious already, having knocked two of these out -- I'll be reviewing What I Thought Was True and Since You've Been Gone later this week -- and started another two: From What I Remember, which I'm buddy-reading with my sis, and Second Chance Summer, which I'm listening to on audio. I've done all of Morgan Matson's books on audio now, and I love them. LoveloveLOVE them. Also, I recently discovered that Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend is written under her pseudonym. Now I'm even more excited to get to that one! April bought me The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy for my birthday, and since she loved the series so much, I'm sure I will, too. We have pretty similar taste in books. =) The rest have just been collecting dust on my shelves, and I think I owe it to myself to have a meaningful summer flirtation with all of them. :D


What books will be in YOUR beach bag this summer?  :)  Share the link to your TTT post so we can visit!

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Labels: recommended reads, summer, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Recommended Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.

This week's topic is a FREEBIE, so our list features the Top Ten Books That Were Recommended To Us...For Better or For Worse:

April's picks:


The first three, Angelfall, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and The Sky is Everywhere were all recommended to me by Jen! I'm always turned off by angel books but she insisted that I would love those two and she was right. The Sky is Everywhere was my first Audio book, and I told her to pick it out for me. She did good. :)

Hopeless was recommended to me by my friend Autumn, and our tastes don't always jive, but in this case, they did. :) The Host, my friend Jackie told me I should give it a try and it's now one of my favs.


Fifty shades was recommended to me by Autumn also, but I didn't love it. Or even like it but it was the source of much entertainment over the years, so there is that! I can't even remember who recommended the rest of these books. Poughkeepsie was recommended by multiple people but it just couldn't get into it. Evermore, The Summoning, and Imaginary Girls was so long ago, I can't think of who, but I didn't really like them all that much. 

Jen's picks:

These first few had been recommended to me time and again by several different people, and I kept putting them off because I hadn't hit my stride with contemporary young adult novels yet. But these all did the trick once I finally acquiesced and gave them a chance. And now they're absolute favorites, ones that I recommend over and over again to friends and random strangers. =)


I can't wait for Jandy Nelson's new novel, especially after the love-fest I had with The Sky is Everywhere. And I'm so glad I read The Fault in Our Stars so I can see the movie when it's released next week!

Kristen at My Friends Are Fiction recommended the following books to me earlier this year and I will forever trust her because they were both epic reads. I want the sequels stat.


My good friend Emily at Book Jems went on ad nauseam about this book, so I finally gave in and read it. And promptly loved it. It's written under Diana Peterfreund's pseudonym, too!


Heather from The Flyleaf Review was so eager for me to read this next book that she even lent me her copy, and I loved the girl power elements even more than I expected to.


And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the two that April's rec'd to me on more than one occasion, even going so far as to gift me with her copies...which I've still yet to read. o_O It's probably time I remedied that, especially with all the love this author gets from my fellow readers.



What are your favorite/least favorite books that were recommended to you?  :)  Share the link to you TTT post so we can visit!

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Labels: recommended reads, top ten tuesday