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Top Ten Tuesday: Our Most Recent 5 Voodoo Reads/Best Books

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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 10 Of Our Most Recent 5 Star Reads/Best Books

Paein

The crown of embers winners kiss night study Broken Banners Rebel Sands

1 Crown of Embers

by Rae Carson

She does not know what awaits her at the enemy’s gate.
Elisa is a hero.
She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country’s ruler should be secure. But it isn’t.
Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one has not yet been fulfilled.
To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trial of long-forgotten—and forbidden—clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom—despite everything—she is falling in love with.
If she’s lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.

My most recent 5 Voodoos, is a middle book in a trilogy! Odd right? But I thought it was fantastic. I’d recommend this series to anyone, but you’re more likely to enjoy it if you like high fantasy and stories with heroines who grow as people.

2 Winner’s Kiss

by Marie Rutkoski

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.
At least, that’s what he thinks.
In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.
But no one gets what they want just by wishing.
As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

The last book in the Winner’s Curse series which is out today! I love this series and I loved the last book too. Another High Fantasy/Epic adventure series.

3 Night Study

by Maria V Snyder

Ever since being kidnapped from the Illiais Jungle as a child, Yelena Zaltana’s life has been fraught with peril. But the recent loss of her Soulfinding abilities has endangered her more than ever before. As she desperately searches for a way to reclaim her magic, her enemies are closing in, and neither Ixia nor Sitia are safe for her anymore.

This is another second book, but I’ve given the first book in this series 5 Voodoos too. I just didn’t add it to my list because it could go under this one. I’ve been enjoying this second series a lot more than the first, which I also loved. It’s also persuaded me to re-read the Glass series, which I thought I’d never do.

4 Broken Banners

By Mark Gelineau and Joe King

Ever since being kidnapped from the Illiais Jungle as a child, Yelena Zaltana’s life has been fraught with peril. But the recent loss of her Soulfinding abilities has endangered her more than ever before. As she desperately searches for a way to reclaim her magic, her enemies are closing in, and neither Ixia nor Sitia are safe for her anymore.

These books are all over our blog at the moment, so it stands to reason at least one would make it onto this list. It will be my turn to read the one after this soon and though THIS is from my favourite storyline in this world, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the next one too.

5 Rebel of the Sands

by Alwyn Hamilton

“Tell me that and we’ll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that’s how you want your story to go and we’ll write it straight across the sand.”
Dustwalk is an unforgiving, dead-end town. It’s not the place to be poor or orphaned or female. And yet Amani Al’Hiza must call it ‘home’.
Amani wants to escape and see the world she’s heard about in campfire stories.
Then a foreigner with no name turns up, and with him she has the chance to run.
But the desert plains are full of dangerous magic. The Sultan’s army is on the rise and Amani is soon caught at the heart of a fearless rebellion…
An epic story of swirling desert sands, love, magic and revolution.

I thought this book was pretty clever and I can’t wait to find out more. Another Epic adventure! Maybe I need to expand my reading perimeters….or maybe not. There’s still to much to explore!

Ms4Tune

skinshaper little shop Rend the Dark casquette girls Station Eleven proof.indd

This weeks TTT has made me realise how picky I’ve become. I can’t believe I’ve had to go all the way back to October 2015 to find five 5 Voodoo rated books! That’s basically one 5 Voodoo rating a month! These 5 books therefore should feel very proud of themselves!

6 Skinshaper

by Mark Gelineau and Joe King

Barricades broken.

A mining town empty.

One survivor swings in a cage, waiting to die.

Ferran’s tattoos burn as horrors near. They should run. They should seek help. But to save a few, they must journey deeper into the heart of the nightmare to face an ancient foe.

Skinshaper is my most recent 5 Voodoo rated book. It’s the second book in to Rend the Dark and had me biting my fingernails at how action packed, thrilling and pulse-racing this sequel was!

7 The Little Shop of Happy Ever After

by Jenny Colgan

Given a back-room computer job when the beloved Birmingham library she works in turns into a downsized retail complex, Nina misses her old role terribly – dealing with people, greeting her regulars, making sure everyone gets the right books for their needs. Then a new business nobody else wants catches her eye: owning a tiny little bookshop bus up in the Scottish highlands. No computers. Shortages. Out all hours in the freezing cold; driving with a tiny stock of books… not to mention how the little community is going to take to her, particularly when she stalls the bus on a level crossing…

This was a wonderfully sweet and funny story. Just what I wanted for Valentines Day this year. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a contemporary romance with a nice little book-lover theme running though it.

8 Rend the Dark

by Mark Gelineau and Joe King

The great Ruins are gone. The titans. The behemoths. All banished to the Dark and nearly forgotten. But the cunning ones, the patient ones remain. They hide not in the cracks of the earth or in the shadows of the world. But inside us. Wearing our skin. Waiting. Watching.

Once haunted by visions of the world beyond, Ferran now wields that power to hunt the very monsters that he once feared. He is not alone. Others bear the same terrible burden. But Hunter or hunted, it makes no difference. Eventually, everything returns to the Dark.

No surprises here that these guys have made it on to my list twice! I’ve enjoyed all of their books so far and as one is released each month these have fast become something I look forward too. Rend the Dark is easily my favourite miniseries out of the four set in this world.

9 The Casquette Girls

by Alys Arden

Seven girls tied by time.
Five powers that bind.
One curse to lock the horror away.
One attic to keep the monsters at bay.

After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne wants nothing more than her now silent city to return to normal. But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal needs a new definition.

As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless . . . you’re immortal.

I loved this book. It was a perfect blend of historical history, modern day disaster and paranormal mystery. Its long but definitely worth a read.

10 Station Eleven

by Emily St John Mandel

An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.” But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

I read this one back in October 2015. The blurb for this one sounded so complicated and confusing that I was put off reading this for quite some time. But I needn’t have worried, It was the perfect dystopian book. Full of interesting characters. I loved how the stories all interwove.

pam id pics paein pam id pics and pam id pics ms4tune

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13 comments on “Top Ten Tuesday: Our Most Recent 5 Voodoo Reads/Best Books

  1. Christina T

    I loved Crown of Embers! I met Rae Carson in November, and she told me it was her favorite of the trilogy. Really like Rebel of the Sands as well. I haven’t gotten to Night Study yet (I’m still working on the Glass series). Great list, and thanks for stopping by my blog!

    Christina @ Books & Prejudice

  2. Barb B (boxermommyreads)

    I don’t read a lot of contemporary but I just added The Little Shop of Happy Ever After to my TBR. Every once in a while I need a cute quick read to break up some horror and fantasy titles.

    1. Ms4Tune

      I hope you like it. It’s a nice little romance, very easy reading. :)
      Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Marie

    I like your list, I haven’t read any of these books, but i have read other books by a couple of the authors. There are others that have been on my TBR (or for me it’s more like a ‘watch list’, books to look for at the library and such.)

    My TTT:Marie @ Pages to Explore

  4. Charnell @ Reviews from a Bookworm

    So many awesome books on your list, these are ones I have either loved myself or am desperate to read. Rebel of the Sands was such an amazing book, I absolutely loved that book so much and it made my list too. I am so excited for the sequel, the wait is kind of killing me. I am definitely going to be adding some of these to my already endless TBR, so thanks for the awesome recommendations!!! :) Here’s my most recent five star reads, if you want to check them out :)

  5. Cait @ Paper Fury

    Omg this reminds me that I SO need to finish of that Rae Caron series!! (The first book was soooo amazing.) AND ERMAGERD THE WINNER’S kISS!! Hopefully my copy is in the mail and dashing towards me. :’) Also I adored Rebel of the Sands and it’s on my list too! So. much. awesome in that book. I can’t wait for the sequels. XD
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

    1. Paein

      All these books are fantastic. I’m so glad I was lucky enough to get a review copy of Winners Kiss as it turned up LATE! So annoying

    1. Paein

      I really enjoyed it! I seem to be on a desert kick at the moment, I’ve read several books set in and around the desert, I’d recommend all of them!

  6. Zezee

    Station Eleven is a really good one. I wasn’t blown away while reading but when I was done and reflected on the story, I realized just how much was going on in it.

    1. Paein

      This sounds interesting, I may have to add it to my list!

  7. Lauren @ Always Me

    Station Eleven was fantastic! I’m glad to see it make your list! I’m looking forward to Rebel of the Sands. :)

    Thanks for visiting my blog earlier!

    [I've been trying to comment for awhile, but I've been encountering errors for the past few weeks.]

    1. Paein

      Rebel of the sands is good!

      Oh no! I’m so sorry you encountered this issue. If you come across it again, please email one of us directly and we’ll see if it’s anything we can fix. Thank you for letting us know

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