For those of you who don’t’ know what TBR stands for, it’s basically this: to be read pile. This is going to be a list of the top ten books that are on my spring 2017 TBR. I’ll try to give a bit of a synopsis for each, but I am really horrible at summarizing novels that I haven’t read (and even ones that I have read). I will try my best though!
10. The Odyssey by Homer
Normally I don’t ever have any interest in classic novels but we were assigned The Odyssey for a course I’m taking in college this semester and I can’t put this book down (yes I’ve already started it). If you liked the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan when you were a kid, I’d definitely recommend reading this one. I’m learning so much and I’m not even halfway through the epic poem.
9. Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken
Another one of my favorite series is coming to a close with this second and final book in the Passenger series by Alexandra Bracken. This series is so much fun. It’s a fantasy time-travel centered book with a person of color main character (!!!!!) and the first book passenger left me hanging so I absolutely have to read this one.
8. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Throne of Glass is a fantasy series that has been published in the last couple of years ago that’s basically about a lost princess who is an assassin. The first book is slow and somewhat boring to get through but the series really picks up around the second half of the second book and into the third. Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in this series and I really need to catch up before the sixth and final book is published at the end of this year.
7. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
One of my favorite trilogies of all time is The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. I love the main character and the Victorian London setting. This series has a special place in my heart because it was one of the most unique series I had read at this time in my life (high school). I think I’ve been putting off Lady Midnight because the book is just so massive.
6. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
One of my reading goals this year was to read as many 2017 debut novels as possible. This one is a standalone novel (not a part of a series) and all I really know about it is that it’s basically the young adult version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which is one of my favorite books of all time. I’m really excited to see what Garber will do with this kind of story.
5. History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
One of the best books I read was More Happy Than Not, which was Silvera’s debut novel about a boy who lives in a futuristic world where a drug exists to wipe your memories in order to make you happy. History is All You Left Me is similar in the near-futuristic setting with a gay main character. I don’t really want to know much about this book going into this because I found I enjoyed his other novel much more that way.
4. Roseblood by A. G. Howard
This novel is a young adult retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my all-time favorite musicals. It’s Howard’s second series after she retold Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland.
3. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a debut novel that follows a girl named Starr who is it trapped between her home life and her school life. She is the only witness to a shooting and she must deal with the consequences of the situation she finds herself in. I’m really anticipating this because I’m trying to read more diverse books this year and the plot is intriguing to me. It releases on February 28th.
2. A Darker Shade of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab
I have read two of her previous books, Vicious and This Savage Song. Both of these novels are known for their gritty, dark plots and morally gray characters. A Darker Shade of Magic follows a magician named Kell who has the power to travel between four different versions of London, each with their own levels of magic from zero to one hundred (if you were thinking about it as if it were on a scale).
1. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
My favorite series that has finished in the last few years is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. They’re retellings of fairy tales but set in space (!) with unique characters and a plot that kept me reading up until one in the morning. Heartless is an Alice in Wonderland retelling but from the point of view of the Queen of Hearts, before she goes crazy and starts chopping off people’s heads. I think that the reason I’ve been putting this one off is because I don’t want to be out of Marissa Meyer books to read, because she has quickly become my favorite author.
