Top 5 (1 word titles) Tuesday

While I do like longer titles sometimes quick titles, like these 1 word titles, are best! Come and look at 5 books with 1 word titles that I like (or maybe I haven’t read some… who knows?) Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads, as usual, has given us this prompt and I intend to fulfill it!

Reforged by Seth Haddon (GR/SG/My Review) –

Since time immemorial the warriors of the Paladin Order have harnessed arcane powers to protect their rulers. For Balen, who has given up his chance at love and fought his way to the top of the Paladin Order, there can be no greater honor than to serve his king. But when assassins annihilate the royal family, Balen suddenly finds himself sworn to serve the very man he abandoned.

Now with their nation threatened by enemies both within and outside the kingdom, Balen must fight hidden traitors and unnatural assassins, while also contending with the biting wit and dangerous charm of young King Zavrius. To save themselves and their nation they will have to put aside their past and reforge that trust they lost so long ago.

I loved this book. In fact I might reread it soon. It was so fun and I can’t wait for Haddon’s next book!

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (GR/SG) –

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape–until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts–and fails–to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets–and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down–or join the fight.

I’m currently reading this. It’s good so far? Right now I’m feeling mostly average things about it, I guess. We’ll see as I carry on.

Babel by R.F. Kuang (GR/SG) –

A new dark academic fantasy by the New York Times bestselling author of The Poppy War

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.

 

Okay, like, techincally, this is one title and also a very long title because it’s sometimes called:

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution 😂. I… have no idea when I’ll read this. Maybe sometime this month? Who knows lol.

Malice by Heather Walter (GR/SG) –

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.

I have a physical copy of this so it’s time to reread it and finish the duology! I really liked the first book and can’t wait to get back to it.

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (GR/SG) –

The islands of Lake Wranglestone are a safe haven in a world filled with the restless dead. But as the lake freezes over, there’s nothing to stop them crossing the ice.

Peter has never really felt at home in a place where practicality and grit are valued above all else. He’s nothing like Cooper – the boy he’s always watched from afar. But when he is ordered to join Cooper on the mainland, they find more than just each other.

There they unearth a dark secret about Wranglestone’s past. One that forces the pair to question everything they’ve ever known.

I have plans to finish this one this year (it’s… an arc. I am terrible, I know) and it now has a sequel so that’s fun! I believe it’s about zombies so DOUBLE FUN.

📚 🚀 📚

1 word titles are also easy to recommend to other people, I think. In a fast-paced world people want things fast and now so they’re probably more willing to take recommendations of books with a short title. What about you? What are some of your favourite 1 word titles? Drop them here and let’s discuss!

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