Earl Grey Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is books I loved so much I had to get a copy for my shelves. I decided to do a little bit of a mixed one for this week, so I’ll be sharing five books I had to add to my shelves and five that I wish I had just borrowed. So without further ado…

I Needed This For My Shelves

Lovelight Farms (Lovelight #1) by B.K Borison

I picked up Lovelight Farms on a total whim from Kindle Unlimited and then read the entire thing one night. Before I’d even reached the halfway mark, I knew I was going to have buy myself a copy immediately. This is now one of my favourite series, and I’m constantly trying to push people to read it because it’s just such an adorable read.

Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1) by Olivia Dade

I bought this one while it was on sale on Kindle, and it took me ages to get around to it. I really enjoyed it right from the start, but couldn’t decide whether I wanted a physical copy or not while I was reading it. But by the time I reached the end, I knew I was going to order it and the sequel.

Lore Olympus, vol. 1 by Rachel Smythe

This one is a little different because I was reading it as a WebToon when I heard that it would be compiled into a physical book later in the year. I stopped reading the WebToon, and I’ve been keeping up with the physical ones ever since. I had actually read a significant amount, so we haven’t hit any new content for me yet, but I think that’ll come in volume three, which is out in October.

Pestilence (The Four Horsemen #1) by Laura Thalassa

I took a huge gamble when I borrowed this from KU. At the time, I was very much only reading historical romance, which is decidedly less intense than dark fantasy romance, but I picked this up. And well, I freaking loved it. Again, before I even reached the halfway point, I knew I would be buying myself the whole series, and now they have a special spot on my shelves.

Broken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #1) by J. Bree

This is slightly cheating because I haven’t actually bought these yet but bare with me. I read this in July, and honestly, wasn’t that fussed by book one, but I needed to know what happened in book two, and then, bam I was obsessed. J Bree is due to be at a romance event I’ll be attending next year, so I’m waiting to buy the series through her then so I can get them signed.

I Should’ve Just Borrowed This

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Highland Pleasures #1) by Jennifer Ashley

I went into this one with pretty high expectations. This is a historical romance (as you may have guessed from the ‘lord’), but it also features a character on the spectrum. I’d been told by some people also on the spectrum that it was a pretty good representation, so I was excited. I ended up being seriously disappointed, and I wished I hadn’t gone to the trouble of ordering this one.

The Winter King (Weathermages of Mystral #1) by C.L Wilson

If that was bad, The Winter King was worse. I’d honestly been loving this at the start—it’s a historical fantasy romance, and it was really intriguing. And then, my mind just suddenly changed, and I was hating it. For one, this book is about 200 pages too long—there was so much that could’ve easily been cut out. I don’t really like saying this, but honestly, the writing was just bad. This definitely could’ve been one I just borrowed from the library.

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

This was actually the first book I bought this year and one of the first I read. Just like with The Winter King, I was loving it at first, and then something changed. This one follows a lot of perspectives, sometimes only for a chapter, and I struggled with that a lot. However, I read Haynes’ non-fiction, Pandora’s Jar, in April and loved that one, so it was definitely a case of finding the right book.

The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie #1) by Marie Rutkoski

I read this one as a buddy reads with my bestie Angel (@ Angel Reads) so we could put together this discussion, and I really wish this had been one I’d skipped. I loved Rutkoski’s Winner’s trilogy—to this day, it remains one of the best YA series ever in my mind, but this just was not it for me. It’s been a while that I don’t even remember why I didn’t like this one, but every time I think about it, I just feel disappointed.

Savage Lands (Savage Lands #1) by Stacy Marie Brown

And finally, this is my most recent read from this section. I read the first two chapters of this months and months ago on KU and was so intrigued by it that when I had the chance to order it, I did it straight away. I finally picked it up in July, and I definitely should’ve just stuck with the ebook. This felt very much like most other YA fantasies that take place in a prison/some kind of camp, and I really didn’t enjoy most of it. Definitely one I didn’t need on my shelf.

And there we are for today! Have you read any of these?