I’ve actually read really good books this year and I’ll probably still read even more as the year carries on so here’s 5 books I really enjoyed reading! So far, and this is just five of probably ten I could give 😄
Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads just uploaded the July-September Top 5 Tuesday topics so go look and then also go see which books she’s enjoyed this year so far!
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The Switch by Beth O’Leary (GR/SG) – I also read The Flatshare and although I really enjoyed it; The Switch was even better? I don’t know how it was possible, especially since I’m not a big fan of adult contemporary romances (or at least I thought I wasn’t), but Beth O’Leary is most certainly an auto-read author and I can’t wait to read her other books (I’ve got The No-Show on hold and then I’ll probably read The Road Trip after that!). ➡ Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena’s tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it’s time they swapped places…
When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.
Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.
Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn’t as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgernstern (GR/SG) – Okay I understand the hype behind this. Honestly I think I put it off so much because I was thinking it’s too overhyped, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite 😄 ➡ The magical new novel from the bestselling author of The Night Circus.
Are you lost or are you exploring?
When Zachary Rawlins stumbles across a strange book hidden in his university library it leads him on a quest unlike any other. Its pages entrance him with their tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities and nameless acolytes, but they also contain something impossible: a recollection from his own childhood.
Determined to solve the puzzle of the book, Zachary follows the clues he finds on the cover – a bee, a key and a sword. They guide him to a masquerade ball, to a dangerous secret club, and finally through a magical doorway created by the fierce and mysterious Mirabel. This door leads to a subterranean labyrinth filled with stories, hidden far beneath the surface of the earth.
When the labyrinth is threatened, Zachary must race with Mirabel, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, through its twisting tunnels and crowded ballrooms, searching for the end of his story.
You are invited to join Zachary on the starless sea: the home of storytellers, story-lovers and those who will protect our stories at all costs.
Malice by Heather Walter (GR/SG) – Yes, hello, I’ve recently read this and it has the If I cannot be better than them, I will become much worse (which is actually from The Cruel Prince – which I still haven‘t read) trope – the book does an absolute marvellous job of the trope and I hope I can get to the sequel soon! ➡ A princess isn’t supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this “bewitching and fascinating” (Tamora Pierce) retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” true love is more than a simple fairy tale.
Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love’s kiss.
You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily ever after.
Utter nonsense.
Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didn’t care, either.
Until I met her.
Princess Aurora. The last heir to Briar’s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though a power like mine was responsible for her curse.
But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating—and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can lift it. Perhaps together we could forge a new world.
Nonsense again. Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I—
I am the villain.
For the Wolf by Hannah F. Whitten (GR/SG) – This is a Beauty and the Beast + Red Riding Hood retelling and it took that and just delivered so well 😍 ➡
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he’ll return the world’s captured gods.
Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can’t control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can’t hurt those she loves. Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn’t learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson (GR/SG) -I was near approaching a reading slump and I just decided to pick this up and I flew through it? I still need to read her other books (I’ve got Vespertine out now and then soon I’ll get to Sorcery of Thorns!)! ➡
With a flick of her paintbrush, Isobel creates stunning portraits for a dangerous set of clients: the fair folk. These immortal creatures cannot bake bread or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and they trade valuable enchantments for Isobel’s paintings. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—Isobel makes a deadly mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes, a weakness that could cost him his throne, and even his life.
Furious, Rook spirits Isobel away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime. But something is seriously amiss in his world, and they are attacked from every side. With Isobel and Rook depending upon each other for survival, their alliance blossoms into trust, perhaps even love . . . a forbidden emotion that would violate the fair folks’ ruthless laws, rendering both their lives forfeit. What force could Isobel’s paintings conjure that is powerful enough to defy the ancient malice of the fairy courts?
Isobel and Rook journey along a knife-edge in a lush world where beauty masks corruption and the cost of survival might be more frightening than death itself.
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So far I’ve read 40 books this year?? And 17 of them have been in this month? I don’t even know what to say 😭 Well, only that I keep reading this much. Who knows I could even get to 100?? A HUNDRED BOOKS read this year maybe??
What are some of your favourite books you’ve read this year? Come tell me and maybe I’ll read it… Sometime soon…
DB's Guide to the Galaxy 
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