Top 5 Books I Own I Want to Read

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.

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The Upcoming Top 5 Saturday Schedule Is:

6/27/20 —  Books with Morally Grey Characters

7/4/20 — Coming of Age

7/11/20 — Hyped Books

7/18/20 — Books you Own

7/25/20 — #OwnVoices Books

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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 Own

I have always had a large collection of books. Since becoming a book blogger and reading so much more often I try not to spend TOO much money on books, but I still buy a lot of books every year. I love having physical copies of books for Instagram and for my bookshelves and I especially love owning my favorite books. I work at a bookstore and I love going to used library book sales where I pick up a ton of cheap books. Books are my favorite thing to get as a gift, and even though I’ve run out of places to put them, I still want more books. I’ve been reading a lot of ebooks lately, but there is nothing like owning a book you love.

UGH I JUST REALIZED THIS POST NEVER PUBLISHED ON SATURDAY!

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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

This book series just sounds incredible. It has influences from Russian fairy tales and folklore and I love lyrical writing. This book sounds like it’s really up my alley. The last book I read that was described as whimsical and magical was The Ten Thousand Doors of January and I absolutely LOVED that book. I picked up a copy of this book at a hotel I stayed in that had a “take a book, leave a book” shelf and I feel so lucky to have gotten such a find! I have my fingers crossed that I will really love this one and hope to pick it up in the next few weeks.

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Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.

Part Wonder Woman, part Vikings—and all heart.

Pretty much all of my friends have heard me rave about how much I absolutely loved Adrienne Young’s upcoming release Fable and I haven’t even shared my review just yet. I also really loved The Girl the Sea Gave Back, but I never actually read Sky in the Deep. (The Girl the Sea Gave Back is more of a spin off than a sequel.) Based on the reviews that I’ve read it seems like people loved Sky in the Deep more than they did The Girl the Sea Gave Back, so that gives me a good indication that it will be pretty awesome. I’m here for the badass vikings!

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The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.

I got a copy of The Beautiful for Christmas. I really wanted an ARC, but didn’t get one. I really love books about vampires and while those stories aren’t super popular right now, a lot of my friends seemed to really love this book! I watched a lot of Vampire Diaries and The Originals, so when I hear the buzz words ‘vampires’ and ‘New Orleans’ I really just can’t help myself.

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Compulsion by Martina Boone

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead—a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family’s twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.

I picked this book up last year at a used book sale, but it had been on my wish list for years. This book is actually part of the reason I got into blogging. Several years ago I was searching for free books and I came across a blog tour for Compulsion. I remember thinking that this book sounded so fantastic, so of course when I saw it at a book sale I had to grab myself a copy. I really love southern gothic books and this one just sounds so good! I feel like this book keeps looking at me from my shelf, so I will probably pick it up pretty soon.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed…

They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.

Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself – and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.

On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn’t understand and doesn’t really want to fight.

What happened deep in mankind’s past?

Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?

I fell in love with Brandon Sanderson’s writing last summer when I read the Mistborn trilogy. Since then I’ve read the Wax and Wayne series, and bought all the books out in The Stormlight Archives. I want to read Brandon Sanderson’s entire backlist and this is the series I’d like to tackle next. Lately I’ve really been wanting to read huge fantasy books, so hopefully I will pick up this series soon!

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Tagged! Join this week or next!

Mandy & Sha @ Book Princess Reviews

Denise @ On My Bookshelf

Emma @ Star Crossed Reviews

Gem @ Dyslexic Reader

Sarah @ Sarah’s Vignettes

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Check out other book blogger’s Top 5!

Michael @ The Book Lover’s Sanctuary — Top Five Saturday: Books You Own

Leah @ Leah’s Book Reviews and Recipes — Top 5 Saturday – Books I Own

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday — Books I Own But Haven’t Read

Blair @ Feed the Crime –-| The Oldest Books on my Owned TBR… Top 5 Saturday|-

Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog — Top 5 Books I Own — Top 5 Saturday!

Kaya @ A Fictional Book Worm — Top 5 Books I Own That I Still Need To Read! // rip to my sanity

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Let’s Chat!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Do you have a large collection of books? Do you buy too many books? What books that you own do you really need to read already? Which books that you own are your favorite? Make sure to comment below so we can talk about books that we own!