I’m blessed with the opportunity to read many advance reader copies (ARCs) of books, but some of them are tricker to get or just never release as ARCs because the publisher doesn’t need them in order to sell books (or they’re the last book in a series and ARCs don’t happen in order to minimize spoilers). The following books are titles I’d really love to get my hands on early.

1. Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco (Out 9/18/19)

Everyone who knows me knows I won’t shut up about how much I loved Hunting Prince Dracula last year. I cannot WAIT to read the next installment in Audrey Rose’s and Thomas Cresswell’s story. And this one takes place on an ocean liner! I couldn’t have asked for a better setting.

2. The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely (Out 7/10/18)

I love a good fake romance, and this one sounds fun and flirty, not to mention the fact that it has all the right ingredients for a hilarious string of events. April needs a date for her family’s summer reunion, so what better place to look than Craigslist? I can’t wait to read it!

3. The Governess Game by Tessa Dare  (Out 8/28/18)

Tessa Dare is my favorite historical romance author, and I can’t wait for her new book!

4. Snow in Love by Melissa de la Cruz, Nic Stone, Aimee Friedman, and Kasie West (Out 10/30/18)

I love wintry/holiday romances, and I’ve come to really enjoy YA anthologies. And Kasie West has a story in this one!! I’m sold.

5. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (Out 1/29/19)

I live for Beauty & the Beast retellings, and this one sounds wonderful. Plus, that cover!

6. Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson (Out 8/7/18)

With the exception of the final book in the trilogy, which went kind of wonky for me, I love the Remnant Chronicles. The world is amazing, the characters are great, and Mary’s storytelling and writing are out of this world. I’m so excited to see where she goes next.

7. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (Out 2/5/19)

It’s Leigh Bardugo! And it’s Nikolai from the Grisha trilogy! I’ve always wanted him to get his own book, and now he has it!

No covers yet!

8. Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye (Out 1/22/19)

It’s a ninja-inspired fantasy! I love Evelyn’s writing and worldbuilding skills, so I’m counting on this one to be amazing.

9. 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (10/2/18)

To be honest, I don’t care what this book is about. I just know I want it. I loved The Hating Game so much, and I’m excited for Sally’s next book!

10. Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett (2019)

I am such a Jenn Bennett fangirl. She writes such cute contemporary romances. And this one has some mystery aspects to it, from what I’ve heard!

Which books would you love to read early?
Do we share any of the same picks?

So this fun little topic came through on the TTT topic submission form, and I’ve actually had a lot of fun with this one! We all see the trends that come and go regarding book title structures and word choices. I spent a lot of time searching the books I’ve added to Goodreads and came up with this list of commonly used words in YA book titles. The number next to each word tells how many YA books I’ve added to Goodreads that have that word in the title. And these are just the ones I added. There are like a million others. lol.

1. Girl/Girls (60)
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Dangerous Girls, New Girl, The Goose Girl, The Coldest Girl In Coldtown, Smart Girls Get what They Want, Geek Girl, Girl Underwater, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, The Lost Girl, Fangirl, Jesse’s Girl, The Girl at Midnight, etc.

2. You (49)
P.S. I Like You, The Devil You Know, A Thousand Pieces of You, Wish You Were Italian, As You Wish, The Distance Between You and Me, What You Always Wanted, Seven Days of You, The Season of You and Me, The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, etc.

3. Star/Starry (48)
Starry Eyes, Starry Nights, Stars Above, The Fault In Our Stars, Second Star, These Broken Stars, Even the Darkest Stars, For Darkness Shows the Stars, The Name of the Star, The Chaos of Stars, Eyes Like Stars, Across a Star-Swept Sea, The Last Star, etc.

4. Shadow/Shadows (31)
Shadowlands, Shadow and Bone, Dance of Shadows, Shadows On the Moon, The Shadow Society, Prince of Shadows, Shadow Scale, Shadow Study, Shadow Kiss, Queen of Shadows, A Shadow Bright and Burning, The Shadow Queen, Reign of Shadows, The Library of Light and Shadows, etc.

5. Blood (27)
Silver In the Blood, Blood Promise, Anna Dressed In Blood, Days of Blood and Starlight, Blood Passage, Sisters of Blood and Spirit, Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke, Blood Rose Rebellion, RoseBlood, Frostblood, etc.

6. Queen (26)
Beauty Queens, The Queen’s Choice, Red Queen, Queen of Shadows, The Orphan Queen, Queen of Hearts, The Shadow Queen, The Impostor Queen, The Star-Touched Queen, etc.

7. Daughter (23)
Daughter of Deep Silence, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Daughter of Venice, The Musician’s Daughter, The Madman’s Daughter, etc.

8. Blue (22)
Into the Still Blue, Nantucket Blue, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Words In Deep Blue, Everblue, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Savage Blue, Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, etc.

9. Bone (13)
Ivory and Bone, Shadow and Bone, Ink and Bone, The World of Shell and Bone, The Bone Witch, etc.

10. Smoke (10)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Curses and Smoke,Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke, Silver Smoke, Bright SMoke, Cold Fire, Riot of Storm and Smoke, etc.

Which genre or age group did you decide to focus on today?
Do we have any words in common? 

Today’s TTT topic was submitted by Brandyn @ Goingforgoldilocks. Thanks for the fun idea, Brandyn! If you have ideas for future topics, submit them here!

A note about last week’s topic:

I know how hard it was for many of you to come up with a list of characters you liked from books you didn’t like, and I’m sorry if you couldn’t participate! Always feel free to switch up a topic to make it work for you when this kind of thing happens. I really loved the topic idea when I saw it come through my TTT topic submission form, but was pretty daunted by it at the same time. I usually don’t like a book because I didn’t like the character(s). I know I’m just one person, though, and I shouldn’t only pick topics that are easy for me. And honestly, I really liked the challenge because I ended up mentioning some books I’d never talked about before on the blog!

Anyway, I posted a discussion a few days ago about whether or not you’re a character or plot driven reader, and we’re having fun over there. Jump in and tell me what kind of reader you are, and if last week’s topic was a bit of a challenge for you!

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We did a topic a couple months ago on books we could re-read forever. This time we’re showcasing books we liked but will never re-read. For me those books are usually books I loved years ago that I’m scared I won’t love anymore if I read it now (tastes change, you know?). It’s kind of like meeting up with a best friend from childhood and then not liking them anymore and ruining the memories of your time together as kids. I don’t want to erase the experience I had reading it when I loved it. I also run into this issue with books that have major plot twists or are mysteries because I know I will never be able to duplicate the amazing reading experience I had before I knew what was going to happen. These are the kinds of books I’m going to talk about today.

 

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
I really loved Twilight (it came out while I was in college), and it re-ignited my love of reading and introduced me to the magical world of YA books. I didn’t have YA as a teen and spent my teens years reading historical romance novels. I wish I’d had YA back then, with characters and situations that I could relate to.

 

2. Wanderlove by Kristen Hubbard
Wanderlove changed my life. It’s one of those books that I found at just the right time, and I’m not sure I’d ever feel like I did when I read it. It scares me that I’d taint that life-changing reading experience if I tried to re-read it now. 

 

3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
I read Delirium right when it came out. I was still on a dystopia kick after reading and loving The Hunger Games. I LOVED this book so much. When I read the synopsis now, though, it’s the kind of story I’d pass over. Maybe I read too many dystopian novels, or maybe I got tired of reading so many similar stories. I don’t think I’d love it anymore, which is sad because I own Requiem and want to see how it ends. But that means I’d have to re-read Delirium and Pandemonium because I’ve forgotten everything. I’m worried I wouldn’t make it through and then I’d have ruined one of my favorite books for myself.

 

4. Till Death by Jennifer Armentrout
Ah, this is one of my favorite romantic suspense novels! And I’m oo scared to re-read it because I already know what happens and I don’t ever want to forget how terrified and confused I was. lol. I had NO CLUE who the culprit was, and I loved trying to figure it out. Would I enjoy this book as much the second time if I already knew the ending?

 

5. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
This is another favorite book of mine. There is a very strong musical theme throughout that I really connected with. It’s the kind of connection I would never want to lose, and it scares me to think of re-reading it even though I want to so bad!

 

6. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
I miiiiight not hold myself to this becuase I LOVE this book so much. It’s another one I’m scared I won’t love anymore because I’ve been having a hard time with contemporary YA lately.

 

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
While the writing is beautiful, and I loved this book a lot, I’m not sure I could put my heart through it again.

 

8. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
I’m really done with any and all fae that are not Sarah J. Maas’s.

 

9. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Maggie’s writing is beautiful (and I loved this book), but I’ve really fallen out of love with most paranormal/folkloric creatures. I still love mermaids, but that’s about it. I also think I’d eyeroll over the instalove and the Twilight-esque feelings.

 

10. Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
MAJOR PLOT TWIST that I can never ever re-experience unless I get amnesia. If I do, remind me I want to read this book.

Which books did you enjoy, but will never re-read? Why?
Do you ever experience this problem I have where you’re worried you won’t like a book as much the second time and end up ruining everything? What do you suggest I do about this fear?

Today’s TTT topic was submitted by Annemieke of A Dance With Books through the topic suggestion form. If you have ideas for future topics, submit them here!

Ok, so have you ever come across a character who you actually liked but really didn’t like the book they were in? Maybe the character was amazing, but the author never put him/her in the limelight or developed their character enough. Maybe the author had this character do something really dumb? Or maybe this character was just the only bright spot in the book for you. OH, and my least favorite situation? When I LOVED the character until they turned into someone I didn’t love anymore as the series continued. Today we’re showing those characters some love.

Ok, so… confession time: THIS LIST WAS REALLY HARD. It’s hard for me to curate this list because usually the lack of great characters is what makes me hate a book in the first place! I don’t usually dislike a book if I liked the characters. A great character will make it easier on me to enjoy reading a book, even if the story is not resonating with me as much as I’d like. Needless to say, I was pretty stumped. After a TON of thinking, though, I’ve done it!

1. Nikolai from The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye
Nikolai was wonderful in The Crown’s Game, but his character was unrecognizable in a bad way in this sequel. He went in a very heartbreaking direction that I did not get over by the end of the book. He was one of the main reasons I rated this book so low.

2-4. Rafe, Leah, and Kaden from The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson
My beloved characters became flat, shells of themselves. Rafe lost his backbone, Leah got selfish and demanding, and Kaden was completely ignored. This book kind of broke my heart all over the place.

5. September from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Now… I liked September, but not as a twelve-year-old. Her voice is very strong and dynamic, but she does not act her age. She acts WAY older, so it all just felt really weird. And that book is a trip. I don’t even know what happened there. lol.

6-7. Emma and Galen from Of Neptune by Anna Banks
Emma became very selfish and immature in this third and final book of the Syrena Legacy trilogy. Also, things I found funny in book one, like Emma’s “ohmysweetgoodness” and “fan-freaking-tastic” and sarcastic quips were not funny this time. I wanted her to grow up a little and show me that she has changed over the years. I didn’t love Galen anymore either. His uses of marine words inserted into human phrases is not endearing anymore. He calls Emma “Angel Fish” and that really started to bug me! He has also gotten way too broody. I loved the romance in the first book, but things really fizzled in book 2 and even more in this one. I don’t even believe their love story anymore.

8. Jules’s Father in Everless by Sara Holland
This man is sweet and caring and loyal and way too good for his crappy, lying daughter.

9. Catherine in Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Catherine is sweet and spunky and so full of innocence and hope. I just loved her personality and her quirky love of baking and her sarcasm. We all know how she turns out (Queen of Hearts, duh), but boy was I hoping for a different outcome.

10. Rose from Public Relations by Katie Heaney and Adrianna Rebolini
I liked Rose for her ability to stand up for herself (and not keep quiet as she was instructed) and voice her opinions during the client meeting that would inevitably change her life. Her inner monologue was very entertaining. The book itself was pretty awful.

So there you have it! Which characters are you loving on today?
Do you agree with any of my picks?

And did you have as hard a time as I did coming up with your list this week? Do you tend to dislike books, but still like the characters? It’s super rare for me.