Top 5 Books I Want to Read While Quarantined

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and I kind of lost motivation for making it every week. But it’s back! This is a series of books that I want to read that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for every Saturday.

The Upcoming Schedule Is:

3/21/20 — Magical Realism

3/28/20 — Murder Mystery

4/4/20 — Books to Read while Stuck Inside/Quarantined

4/11/20 — Books with a Color in the Title

4/18/20 — Sibling Relationships

4/25/20 — Books Under 300 Pages

 

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Rules!

• Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
• Tag the original post (This one!)
• Tag 5 people

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Books I Want to Read While Quarantined

Wow it has been a hell of a week. It feels like every day has been more emotionally exhausting than the previous day. I live in NY and the whole state has been under a stay at home order for a while, but with a mom who works at the hospital, things have gotten pretty intense, especially lately. My entire household has been under so much stress and I NEED distractions. I’ve binge watched 2 seasons of Riverdale in the last two days because things have just gotten so stressful I haven’t been able to focus on reading or blogging.

Since all of this started I have had a hard time getting into the types of books I normally read, and I’ve heard from a lot of other people that they’ve been having similar issues. I haven’t been able to get into many fantasy novels at all and I don’t have the attention span for anything that starts off slow. I keep picking up books and setting them down after a few chapters, which is SO not like me. So I’ve been reading lighter books and easy reads for the most part, but also some mysteries and thrillers because they’ve captivated my attention. For some people right now they need light reads, some people want to read dystopians and others have no issue reading what they normally would.

If anyone else is having a hard time I am here to talk, or to talk about anything besides COVID-19. I hope that you all are staying safe and keeping yourselves mentally safe as well. These are rough times and we need to be there for each other.

Anyways, these are 5 books that I think might captivate me in this really rough time.

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Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

Fans of Ally Carter, especially her Heist Society readers, will love this teen mystery/thriller with sarcastic wit, a hint of romance, and Ocean’s Eleven–inspired action.

I love a book with a con artist at its center. This looks like a super entertaining light read. This looks super easy to get into during this tough time.

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The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

NEW YORK CITY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE.

A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….

This looks like the perfect guilty pleasure read. I love a book full of entertaining teenage drama, but I love that this book has a futuristic twist! I know that this is the type of book I could binge read, even during these rough days.

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Love, Heather by Laurie Petrou

What you see isn’t always what you get.

Stevie never meant for things to go this far. When she and Dee–defiant, bold, indestructible Dee–started all this, there was a purpose to their acts of vengeance: to put the bullies of Woepine High School back in their place. And three months ago, Stevie believed they deserved it. Once her best friend turned on her, the rest of the school followed. Stevie was alone and unprotected with a target on her back. Online, it was worse.

It was Dee’s idea to get them all back with a few clever pranks, signing each act Love, Heather–an homage to her favorite 80’s revenge flick. Despite herself, Stevie can’t help getting caught up in the payback, reveling in every minute of suffering. And for a while, it works: it seems the meek have inherited the school.

But when anonymous students begin joining in, punishing perceived slights with increasingly violent ferocity, the line between villain and vigilante begins to blur. As friends turn on each other and the administration scrambles to regain control, it becomes clear: whatever Dee and Stevie started has gained a mind–and teeth–of its own. And when it finally swallows them whole, one will reemerge changed, with a plan for one final, terrifying act of revenge.

Okay I will admit that I completely forgot I have a copy of this book. I can already tell that this teenage revenge story will have no trouble capturing my attention. I have really high hopes for this one!

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The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams

Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil.

Seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl has a babysitters club. She knows it’s kinda lame, but what else is she supposed to do? Get a job? Gross. Besides, Esme likes babysitting, and she’s good at it.

And lately Esme needs all the cash she can get, because it seems like destruction follows her wherever she goes. Let’s just say she owes some people a new tree.

Enter Cassandra Heaven. She’s Instagram-model hot, dresses like she found her clothes in a dumpster, and has a rebellious streak as gnarly as the cafeteria food. So why is Cassandra willing to do anything, even take on a potty-training two-year-old, to join Esme’s babysitters club?

The answer lies in a mysterious note Cassandra’s mother left her: “Find the babysitters. Love, Mom.”

Turns out, Esme and Cassandra have more in common than they think, and they’re about to discover what being a babysitter really means: a heroic lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from seriously terrifying evil. And all before the parents get home.

I wanted an ARC of this book when I first heard about it, but I wasn’t able to get a copy. This just looks like so much fun and I’m totally here for it!

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The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

I remember seeing this book on someone else’s blog a long time ago and when I saw it at a used book sale I didn’t hesitate to get my own copy for only 50 cents. I can never get enough of books with magical boarding schools and this one looks rather unique.

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Tagged!

Andie @ Books, Coffee & Passion

Aditi @ One in a Million

Kat @ The Lily Cafe

Stephanie @ Books Less Travelled Reviews

Siobhain @Living My Best Book Life

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Check out other book blogger’s top 5 picks!

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday — Series to Read While in Quarantine

Dini @ Dinipandareads —Top 5 Saturday: Books to Read While Stuck Inside

Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday — Series to dig into while Quarantining

Blair @ Feed the Crime — -|My Quarantine Reads… Top 5 Saturday|-

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Let’s Chat!

Are you having a hard time with reading because of COVID-19 related stressors? Have you read any of these books? Are they any good? What books would you recommend for me? How are you dealing with all the COVID-19 stressors? Make sure to comment below so we can chat.