The WINNER of last week’s “lows” vote was… *drumroll*
RED RISING by Pierce Brown!
As promised, I’ll now add this book to my “top-TBR” shelf on Goodreads to remind me to read it within the next 18 months.
Rules:
- Link back to the original post at Howling Libraries
- Sort your Goodreads TBR shelf by date added, ascending
- Find 5-10 (or more, if you feel ambitious!) titles to purge from your TBR (the “lows”)
- ALTERNATIVE OPTION: Find 5+ titles that are at the BOTTOM of your TBR—books you want to read someday, just not right now!
- Post those 5 books in the list, with a brief explanation
- Next, sort your Goodreads TBR shelf by date added, descending
- List the last 5 (or more!) books you added to your TBR, with a synopsis or your brief summary of why you added it (the “highs”)
This week’s posts:
- We have THREE newbies this week: Abigail, Mandy, and Owl!
- Acqua and I learned we have some pretty neat differences in our reading tastes (because it takes all kinds)!
- Ari reminded me that I hadn’t officially added the upcoming Maurene Goo title to my Goodreads shelves, and honestly what was I doing with my life?!
- Sionna poured a bunch of Insta-Gro fertilizer all over my TBR, as she does… 😂💖
(books that are LOW on my TBR—vote in the comments for which one I should move UP on my list and I’ll read it within 18 months!)
1. The Arsonist — Stephanie Oakes
2. Love & Other Carnivorous Plants — Florence Gonsalves
3. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock — Matthew Quick (owned)
4. The Knife of Never Letting Go — Patrick Ness
5. Hunted — Meagan Spooner (owned)
1. The Switch House — Tim Meyer (kindle unlimited)
Adult horror novella, supernatural thriller, nightmares and visions, couple switches houses with another family for a reality TV show and returns to find their home “tainted”
2. Pretty Marys All in a Row — Gwendolyn Kiste (kindle unlimited)
Adult horror novella, “Mary”s from urban legends combine on a mission to find out who they were before their legends were written
3. Rafe — Rebekah Weaterspoon
Adult contemporary romance, steamy, fluffy, diverse, feminist, employer/nanny relationship
4. Last Will and Testament — Dahlia Adler
New adult contemporary romance, tough topics (grief, loss of family), student/TA relationship
5. The Storm Crow — Kalyn Josephson
YA fantasy, pitched as Eragon meets And I Darken, crows everywhere
6. The Bone Garden — Heather Kassner
MG fantasy, magical girl made of bone dust flees her keeper on a journey to find magic to make her “real”
7. Small Town Hearts — Lillie Vale
YA contemporary, originally a Wattpad success, queer MC (bi/pan?), barista-meets-artist fluff
8. The Grief Keeper — Alex Villasante
YA contemporary/slight sci-fi, queer (f/f), refugees, MC must take on other people’s grief in an experiment to keep her place in the US
9. Merry Inkmas — Talia Hibbert (owned)
Adult contemporary romance, Christmas, barista heroine/tattoo artist hero
If you want to read this one, it’s free in the Kindle store now, and @chandlerainsley on twitter is hosting a group read of it from Dec 2nd-7th!
10. A Darkly Beating Heart — Lindsay Smith
YA contemporary/hist-fic cross, bisexual Japanese MC spends summer with family in Japan to work on her mental health but gets sucked into the life of a 19th century girl
11. Here and Now and Then — Mike Chen
Adult sci-fi, time travel, man from the future gets stuck in the present long enough to have a family before being called back to the future
12. The Ruin of Kings — Jenn Lyons
Adult fantasy, dragons, lost prince is taken prisoner and must find a way to dismantle the kingdom
This author is being hyped as the next Brandon Sanderson or GRRM, and she’s from my home town (Atlanta), so you know I had to add this! There’s an extended excerpt available as “read now” on NetGalley US, if anyone wants to snag it!
13. A Holiday by Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella — Mimi Matthews (owned)
Adult historical romance novella, “second chance” romance, recommendation from Sionna
14. Belly Up — Eva Darrows (Hillary Monahan)
YA contemporary, teen pregnancy
15. Race the Darkness — Abbie Roads
Adult paranormal fantasy, mind-reading investigator hears the voice of a tormented woman, tormented woman has reoccurring dreams about the investigator finding her, how cool does this sound? 👀
#NOVEL19s:
I also added a handful of titles from the #Novel19s on twitter a few days ago. None of them have cover titles and many don’t have release dates yet, so I’m just adding a quick list:
- Within and Without — Deborah Maroulis
- YA contemporary, eating disorder rep, toxic relationship/abuse
- Fireborne — Rosaria Munda
- YA fantasy, “Aegon Targaryen and Hermione Granger with dragons”
- Dear Haiti, Love Alaine — Maika & Maritza Moulite
- YA contemporary, Haitian-American girl visits Haiti for the first time
- Slay — Brittney Morris
- YA contemporary, black gamer/geek girl battling trolls on the RPG she created, accusations of “reverse racism”
- Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters — Emily Roberson
- YA fantasy/mythology retelling, pitched as Minotaur meets Kardashians meets Hunger Games
- House of Salt and Sorrows — Erin A. Craig
- YA fantasy/gothic retelling, MC must unravel a curse that is slowly killing her sisters one by one, Twelve Dancing Princesses meets Crimson Peak
I didn’t know about #Novel19s so thanks for sharing! And my vote is for Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I haven’t read it but I hear its fantastic!
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No problem! There are too many good releases coming out over the next year or two. 🙂 Thank you!
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I really enjoyed Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock when I read it a few years ago! Just a heads up that it’s v dark, and not a good book to read if you’re feeling depressed. Also, I just read Rafe last a few days ago and really liked it!
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Ooooh, thank you for the heads up! And yay, I’m so glad you liked Rafe – it’s tentatively going on my December TBR, I think!
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I’m also going to say Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I loved it, it’s dark but also has some beautiful moments.
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Thank you! It sounds lovely.
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Small Town Hearts! I have that one on my TBR and it sounds adorable, I hope you’ll get to read it soon, keep that one for sure haha I’d love to hear your thoughts about it 😀
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Haha oh yes, definitely keeping that on my TBR, thank you! I’m trying to decide if I want to request an ARC or just get it some time after it releases 🙂
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I vote Hunted…I’ve not read but love the cover!
Ps, I bought Heart of the Fae, did you read yet?
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Thank you! It is such a beautiful cover 🙂 And no, I haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet but I think I may put it on my winter or spring TBR so I remember to read it fairly soon.
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I haven’t read yet either but I may put on my Beat the Backlist list!
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Oooh, good thinking!
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I vote for Hunted, but only because it’s on my TBR as well. And the cover of mine is so shiny!
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Thank you! It’s so pretty! I have the ebook but it’s one of those that, if I love, I might keep an eye out on bookoutlet for!
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Forgive Me Leonard Peacock was such a wonderful surprise for me when I read it a couple of years ago. It’s still one of my favorite audiobooks and I recommend it immensely!
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Oh, good! Thank you!
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I vote for The Knife of Never Letting Go mostly because it’s the only one I’ve read from that list. 🙂
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Thank you! I think it’s the book that has been on my Goodreads TBR shelf either the longest or the second longest, so I should really hurry up and read it lol!
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Thank you for putting Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters on my radar – it sounds ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
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Doesn’t it sound great?! 🙂
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I’m voting Hunted since it’s on my “want to read” and maybe you’ll convince me to actually get a copy? Or throw it off my TBR entirely, haha.
AND DARN YOU for making me get Merry Inkmas as well. Couldn’t resist. [I’m really, really falling down the free Kindle-hole lately..]
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Haha, deal! And yaaaaay! I love Talia Hibbert’s writing SO MUCH. Her romances are just so sweet and funny and the characters are really lovable.
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Gaaaah. I’m going to be so tempted to pick it up in December with all the Christmas-vibes but it isn’t a diverse one probably so I shouldn’t but I want to and UGH. [Maybe I’ll read it before the week’s over though. :’)]
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Oh, it is diverse! ALL of Talia’s books are diverse. She’s a black author and all of her heroines are black, many of her heroes are men of color, and there’s always some other sort of diversity rep, whether it’s fat rep (which is always REALLY well done, I think it might be own-voice but I’m not sure), queer rep, autistic rep (own-voice), or whatever else. 😀 So… it fits! *nudge nudge* haha!
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AAAH. Hallelujah now I’m going to be even more tempted to pick it up. In December, haha. Might be a fun switch from reading eARC’s on my Kindle. :’)
I want to finish The Girl King before the month’s over and done with – fingers crossed.
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So many good Highs! I do hope you like Rafe ^_^. I’m also totally adding Merry Inkmas to my TBR right now haha.
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Thank you! 😀 Yaaaaay~ I’m super excited for both of those!
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Girl, I have a copy of Here and Now and Then too! MOAR BUDDY READS (are you sick of being my friend yet?!)
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Awww it’s on my TBR but I actually don’t have it, I’m sorry! I almost requested it but ended up deciding not to because my ARC TBR for the next is just TOO MUCH. Otherwise I totally would have said yes! And I will never be sick of being friends with you ♥
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Awww okay that makes sense, and no worries I had to stop with the January arcs as well… hit my limit!
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