This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is books I’d want with me while stranded on a desert island. If I were in this situation I think I would want fun, trashy, fantastical reads that I could dive into and forget about my current situation and be happy to reread multiple times until I am rescued. So I’m leaning more towards series that I love that have expansive worlds and characters that I never get tired of.
The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas
Book of the Ancestors Series by Mark Lawrence
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is a spring cleaning freebie and I’m going to be interpreting that quite literally and listing the books I am going to be unhauling from my collection and why!
The books I’m Unhauling are:
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – I have two editions of this book which I don’t need
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – Multiple copies not needed
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – did not care for this at all!
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – multiple copies
The Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi – DNF, will never read again, don’t need to own!
Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi – didn’t like this book
This week’s Top 10 Tuesday is book cover redesigns that I either loved or hated. So when I looked up all the covers that I knew had been redesigned I found that I mostly loved all the changes that were made.
So this is my 10 Book Cover Redesigns that I Loved:
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart – I think these are both striking but I personally love the plain cover with the blue background and the pieces of cut hair. I think it works so much better with the premise of the book and intrigues me so much more than the smudged face.
Royals/Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins – I’ve spoken about this cover a few times on my blog but this was the perfect opportunity to say what a great job they did with the new concept for the cover/title of this book. The Royals cover just looks tacky and juvenile and I am drawn so much more to the Prince Charming!
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – I never liked the original cover for Throne of Glass! I always thought she just didn’t embody who Celaena is. She just looks too innocent and docile to me, the illustrated version is sooooo much more aesthetically pleasing to my eyes.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – as much as I love the original cover the other two books in the series don’t match it and it is soo frustrating to have them next to each other on my shelves being all different sizes and colors. Which is why I think I prefer the new paperback editions as they all match!
Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima – similar to An Ember in the Ashes, I quite love the original cover for Flamecaster, but the rest of the series match the new cover which make me more inclined to like it more because they all match.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson – I’ve always thought the original cover for this was a little too busy. There’s a whole lot going on and it all just looks a little unfocused. However, the new paperback edition is clean and still in keeping with the concept of the story so I like it a lot more!
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – This is an example of a little change with a big impact. Have the VA overlapping the face with the color change is so much more effective in my opinion. The original cover doesn’t really age well either.
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi – When I first seen the new cover for Shatter Me I thought it was beautiful and so much better than the original. I thought it was highly original for the first 3 books and then as she kept releasing more they all started to look a little too similar.
Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson – I actually love the first cover so much. I thought when it first came out that it looked super original and very pretty, but it doesn’t really give any indication of what the book is really about so I can appreciate the new cover more, especially when Mila is front and centre!
Vicious by V.E. Schwab – There isn’t particularly anything wrong with the original cover of Vicious, but I just love the new edition so much more! Its simple yet effective and had I never heard of this book before I would immediately pick it up just because of the cover!
This weeks Top 10 Tuesday is my favourite books released in the last 10 years (one book for each year). This was a lot of fun to come up with, there were some years where I had 3-4 books that were all released together and it was really difficult to just choose one, but I think this list represents my reading tastes well!
2019 – The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (Published Jan 22nd 2019)
2018 – The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware (Published May 29th 2018)
2017 – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence (Published April 4th 2017)
2016 – A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas (Published May 3rd 2016)
2015 – Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Published September 29th 2015)
2014 – Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Published March 4th 2014)
2013 – Inferno by Dan Brown (Published May 13th 2013)
2012 – Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (Published August 2nd 2012)
2011 – A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Published May 5th 2011)
2010 – The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Aug 31st 2010)
2009 – The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (Published October 6th 2009)
So I was scrolling through my Goodreads and I realised that there is one author who without a doubt I have read the most of this year and that is Sarah J Maas. I only really discovered her books through Booktube as they are highly popular and people love to review her work. To be honest I felt a little bit out of the loop as so many people talk about her books and the characters and who they ship and I had no idea what anyone was talking about so I had to pick them up and see what the deal was. I’ve found that a lot of people either don’t enjoy a majority of her books/characters or they completely love them. I think I’m a part of the love them side as the average rating I’ve given for all her books is around 4/5 stars which is pretty high for one author!
All of the Sarah J Maas books I’ve read this year includes:
The ACOTAR Series – A Court of Thorns and Roses ⭐️4/5 stars, A Court of Mist and Fury ⭐️5/5 stars, A Court of Wings and Ruin ⭐️4/5 stars and A Court of Frost and Starlight ⭐️3/5 stars
The Throne of Glass Series – Throne of Glass ⭐️4/5 stars, Crown of Midnight ⭐️4/5 stars, Heir of Fire ⭐️4/5 stars, Queen of Shadows ⭐️4/5 stars, Empire of Storms ⭐️4/5 stars, The Assassins Blade ⭐️4/5 stars, Tower of Dawn ⭐️5/5 stars and Kingdom of Ash ⭐️5/5 stars
I don’t really go into books to analyse and critique every single detail or plot point. I want an interesting premise with a entertaining storyline and unique, diverse characters in a fantasy setting. Which is exactly what Sarah J Mass gave me every time and I really enjoyed my journey.
Happy Reading📚
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