Top Ten Tuesday: Beach Bag Books

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag or Ten Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag This Summer”. I’ve gone for the latter … noting that it’s the third day of winter here and even if I had a beach bag I wouldn’t be using it.

Either way, this is the top ten books on my “to be read” pile to read over the next three months, more or less. The top of the pile is subject to change; I’ve noticed lately that I don’t like to read two of the same type of book in a row, no matter how awesome it is, so books by the same author often get interspersed with others.

Anyway. Here goes.

Spider by Jennifer Anderson. Young adult suspense. Jennifer is a fellow Turquoise Morning Press author and a real sweetheart, so I was keen to try one of her books. I’m currently reading this one (but I started it on 1 June so it TOTALLY COUNTS!). Liam is a hottie. Truth.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. Young adult sci-fi. I loved Cinder and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next. Because cyborgs and a honey of an Asian prince. Also, since Cinder was inspired by Cinderella, I curious about how Little Red Riding Hood is incorporated into Scarlet.

Dancing on Knives by Kate Forsyth. Contemporary suspense. This one just arrived — I had it on preorder — and I’m pretty excited, you guys. Kate is one of those versatile authors who’s written everything from epic fantasy to historical fairytale retellings and middle grade fiction. Plus she’s an Aussie so it counts for my Aussie Women Writers (AWW) challenge. I can’t wait to see how Kate handles this genre.

The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig. Adult urban fantasy/horror. This is the third book in the Miriam Black series, about the sweary visionary of the same name. Her “superpower” (as my Isla would say) involves seeing the moment of death of every person she touches. This isn’t urban fantasy for the fainthearted. Chuck likes his gore.

Splintered by A. G. Howard. Young adult fantasy. I’ve heard so many good things about this series, so I want to see what all the fuss is about. Plus I love that cover enough to frame it and put it on my wall. (The sequel’s cover is great too!)

The Iron King by Julie Kawaga. Young adult urban fantasy.I bought this entire series as a boxed set more than a year ago. It has been staring at me ever since. I swear I will read it before the end of winter. If I don’t, harrass me!

Kiya: Mother of a King by Katie Hamstead. Historical new adult. This is the sequel to Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh, which I really enjoyed. I really want Nefertiti to get her comeuppance! Plus, it’s another AWW read, even if Katie lives in the US now.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Young adult urban fantasy. This is another one I bought quite a while ago — although not as long ago as the Kawaga books. The blurb sounds intriguing.

The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Paranormal fantasy.There are some superficial similarities between this and the book I’m currently querying, in that we use the same mythical beastie as the “fantasy” part of our urban fantasy. I bought this to scope out how she handled it, but I’ve been a bit chicken about actually reading it. One day soon.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. Young adult urban fantasy. I picked up the second and fourth books in this series from a second-hand bookshop, so of course I had to grab the first and third new. This was another instance when the pretty cover and blurb were enough to suck me in!

Looking back over that list, there’s a definite theme there — all the books bar one are either young or new adult, or urban fantasy/paranormal, or both. The exception is Kate Forsyth, who I came to be a fan of originally via her epic fantasy series.

What can I say, I’m a girl who knows what she likes! 😉

What’s on the top of your TBR pile?