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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree This Year

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that other bloggers are welcome to join in, to create Top Ten lists on varying topics. This week it’s Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree This Year

Paein

doctor who timelord tales The Shattered Court Reawakened i am her revenge the kingdom of little wounds

1 Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales

by Justin Richards

A stunning illustrated collection of dark and ancient fairy tales from the world of Doctor Who. These captivating stories include mysterious myths and legends about heroes and monsters of all kinds, from every corner of the universe. Originally told to young Time Lords at bedtime, these twisted tales are an enchanting read for Doctor Who fans of all ages. Written by Justin Richards and illustrated by David Wardle.

So excited about this book! Doctor Who and Fairy Tales! DOCTOR WHO FAIRY TALES!!!!!!
No other explanation needed.

The Shattered Court

by M.J. Scott

First in a new fantasy series from the author of the Novels of the Half-Light City.
Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…
The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.
Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.
Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.…

This one sounds exciting and thrilling and I have no idea why I don’t own it yet.

Reawakened

by Odette Beane

Emma Swan’s life has been anything but a fairy tale. She’s been on her own since she was abandoned as a baby–that is, until the night of her twenty-eighth birthday, when Henry, a ten-year-old boy, shows up on her doorstep. He’s the son Emma gave up for adoption, and this surprise visit turns her life upside down.
Henry takes Emma back to his home in Storybrooke, Maine, where, Henry claims, all the residents are actually fairy tale characters who can’t remember their true identities. And if Henry’s right, that means that his sweet-natured, lonely schoolteacher Mary Margaret Blanchard is really Snow White, the iconic princess … and also Emma’s long-lost mother.

In Fairy Tale Land, we meet Snow White as a bandit on the run, forced into exile by her stepmother, the Evil Queen. Snow’s a young woman learning to become a hero, who will do anything to live happily ever after with her one true love, Prince Charming.
The closer Emma comes to Henry in Storybrooke, the harder it is for her to ignore the dark curse that haunts this small New England town and binds her to Mary Margaret. If Emma can learn to accept her destiny as Storybrooke’s savior and break the curse, she just might get the family reunion she’s dreamed about her entire life.
ABC’s “ONCE UPON A TIME” is a modern adventure with thrilling twists and hints of darkness, brimming with wonder, and filled with the magic of our most beloved fairy tales.

Once Upon A Time in a book! I know the books are always different, but so much more happens in a book and I wonder what surprises there are. I love Once, Snow White is my favourite, or she was. I may have a new favourite but right now I Have half a season to catch up on! I’d love to have the books in my collection too.

I Am Her Revenge

by Meredith Moore

She can be anyone you want her to be.
Vivian was raised with one purpose in life: to exact revenge on behalf of her mother. Manipulative and cruel, Mother has deprived Vivian not only of a childhood, but of an original identity. With an endless arsenal of enticing personalities at her disposal, Vivian is a veritable weapon of deception.
And she can destroy anyone.
When it’s time to strike, she enrolls in a boarding school on the English moors, where she will zero in on her target: sweet and innocent Ben, the son of the man who broke Mother’s heart twenty years ago.
Anyone… except for the woman who created her.
With every secret she uncovers, Vivian comes one step closer to learning who she really is. But the more she learns about herself, the more dangerous this cat and mouse game becomes. Because Mother will stop at nothing to make sure the truth dies with her.

I remember mentioning this book before – possibly before it came out. I found it on my list again and I remembered really wanting to read it! So I’ve added it to my santa list.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds

by Susann Cokal

A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid find themselves at the center of an epic power struggle in this stunning young-adult debut.
On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches: brocade and satin and jewels, feasts of sugar fruit and sweet spiced wine. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion.
Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem — and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined with that of mad Queen Isabel. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.

This one has a pretty cover and sounds odd. That may seem like an odd description for a book I want to read, but to be honest, I’ve been trying to not look at too many new books or I’ll want them…and this is on my reading list and to be honest, pretty and odd sounds like a pretty good book to me. It also sounds different and different is usually good.

Ms4Tune

 shadowshaper dreams and rust Pretty Girls Fortune Hunter Thief's Magic

6 Shadowshaper

by Daniel Jose Older

Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in SHADOWSHAPER, an action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent.

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “No importa” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick’s supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family’s past, present, and future.

In 2016 I want to up my intake of books written by males authors, apparently out of the 95 books I’ve read so far this year I have read exactly 7 by male authors and I think that’s terrible. So, when I saw this beautiful cover on the 2015 Kirkus Finalists: Young Readers list, and read that awesome description and then, saw that it was written by a man, I just knew I had to have this book in my life! So fingers crossed its not to late for Father Christmas to get his hands on a copy for me!

7 Of Dreams and Rust

by Sarah Fine

War erupts in this bittersweet sequel to “Of Metal and Wishes”, inspired by The Phantom of the Opera and called “relentlessly engrossing” by The Romantic Times.

In the year since the collapse of the slaughterhouse where Wen worked as her father’s medical assistant, she’s held all her secrets close. She works in the clinic at the weapons factory and sneaks away to nurse Bo, once the Ghost, now a boy determined to transform himself into a living machine. Their strange, fragile friendship soothes some of the ache of missing Melik, the strong-willed Noor who walked away from Wen all those months ago—but it can’t quell her fears for him.

The Noor are waging a rebellion in the west. When she overhears plans to crush Melik’s people with the powerful war machines created at the factory, Wen makes the painful decision to leave behind all she has known—including Bo—to warn them. But the farther she journeys into the warzone, the more confusing things become. A year of brutality seems to have changed Melik, and Wen has a decision to make about him and his people: How much is she willing to sacrifice to save them from complete annihilation?

I loved book one of this series, Of Metal and Wishes, and I really need this book! 2015 has seen me binge on quite a few of Sarah Fine’s other work but I still haven’t been able to get hold of this beauty!

8 Pretty Girls

by Karin Slaughter

#1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

I’ve read very little  Adult Fiction this year, which is a shame. Nearly all my reads have been YA, which isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes I need some adult fiction to make me thing a bit harder! I’ve seen great reviews of Pretty Girls, so far, so I’m quite excited.

9 The Fortune Hunter

by Daisy Goodwin

In 1875, Sisi, the Empress of Austria is the woman that every man desires and every woman envies.

Beautiful, athletic and intelligent, Sisi has everything – except happiness. Bored with the stultifying etiquette of the Hapsburg Court and her dutiful but unexciting husband, Franz Joseph, Sisi comes to England to hunt. She comes looking for excitement and she finds it in the dashing form of Captain Bay Middleton, the only man in Europe who can outride her. Ten years younger than her and engaged to the rich and devoted Charlotte, Bay has everything to lose by falling for a woman who can never be his. But Bay and the Empress are as reckless as each other, and their mutual attraction is a force that cannot be denied.

Another thing I missed this year was Historical Romances. The website Pop-Sugar recommended this (along with a few others) for those suffering the Outlander Hang-over. I haven’t read Outlander yet but I plan to and this one! It sounds great. And as one of the Pop-Sugar 2016 Reading Challenges is to read a book about a culture you don’t know much about, I think both this and Outlander should fit the bill!

10 Thief’s Magic

by Trudi Canavan

n a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.

Elsewhere, in an land ruled by the priests, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows she has a talent for it, and that there is a corrupter in the city willing to teach her how to use it — should she dare to risk the Angels’ wrath.

But not everything is as Tyen and Rielle have been raised to believe. Not the nature of magic, nor the laws of their lands… and not even the people they trust.

And finally I want this! Trudi Canavan has been a favourite author of mine for years but I haven’t started her newest series Millennium’s Rule. My brother was lovely enough to get me a signed copy of Angel of Storms (book 2) but I haven’t got book one. Soooo if I can have this one please I would finally be able to start it!

pamspaein pamsms4tune

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4 comments on “Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree This Year

  1. Gwendolyn

    I actually saw a copy of The Fortune Hunter in the bargain section at B&N. So make sure to check for it there. It was under $5 I think :) Great lists. Hope you both have a fabulous Tuesday. Happy Reading!

  2. Veronika

    I’d love if you read and reviewed I Am Her Revenge because thanks to the mixed reviews, I’m not sure I’d enjoy it. It sounds REALLY good, but I feel like so many things can go wrong in that story – especially if the characters aren’t well-made.
    I’ve yet to read anything by Karin Slaughter, and I’m thinking about starting with Pretty Girls because it sounds so mysterious and just plainly awesome. Also, I’m loving the cover.
    Wonderful lists, girls! <3
    My TTT

  3. SDCB Steph

    I love the variety! I hope some of these bookish goodies make their appearance under the tree. Merry Christmas.

Leave a Reply to SDCB Steph Cancel reply