Friends, I love it when I can read about sibling relationships that are fun and healthy and tight. It reminds me of my own awesome sister. This list is by no means exhaustive of all the very excellent siblings in literature, but these are the ten siblings I’d give gold stars to for awesomeness. (As you can see, I already did.)
Guys! This is a super fun topic! Also CONGRATS, BROKE AND BOOKISH LADIES!! Five years of this awesome feature! *applause* Here’s to five more years of awesomeness!
Technically, this is supposed to be the top ten Top Ten Tuesdays of the past five years, but I’ve only been participating since 2012, so I’m limiting my list to Top Ten Tuesdays that I’ve participated in. Going through my archive was really fun, you guys. It’s like reading through an old journal; so much has changed in the way I write, the things I write, the books I talk about, everything. So, in no particular order, here are ten of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays. This is so meta!
I remember having a nerdgasm when I found this topic in the Top Ten Tuesday archive. I used it for one of the “pick a past topic” weeks. I had almost no difficulty coming up with my list of ten favorite words. Spoiler alert: first word on there? Felicity.
This Top Ten Tuesday is one of the older ones and I was surprised and also not to see how many of these things haven’t changed at all since the early days of my blogging. Like, all of them. Every single one.
Another Top Ten Tuesday that was super easy for me. I feel like I have to point that out because sometimes they’re hard. Not only has none of this changed, but I think it points to something really important for me and my reading: I have really good instincts about what I’ll like and what I probably won’t.
One my happiest early blogging memories was when I posted this Top Ten Tuesday and April from Good Books and Good Wine retweeted it and left a really nice comment. I was still pretty new to the blogging community and I had such a fun time writing this post, and so I was really stoked to have someone else enjoy it too. Also, those Sweet Valley High titles. DAMN.
I love a good, unique name, friends. It’s a fine line between “unique” and “weird,” though, so you won’t find things like Royal or Rule on this list (same offending author). But names that sound pretty and roll off my tongue are always appealing, even if they aren’t names I’ve ever heard of before. One of my favorite character names is actually not even a character that we ever meet: Festival. THE JOYOUS FEELINGS. There are a few names I’d add to this list now, as well (but…not Royal or Rule).
YAY FOR FAKE PLACES! And also awesome real places! One of the very best things about reading is getting to experience different places and worlds, so this Top Ten Tuesday was easy peasy.
For real? This Top Ten Tuesday could’ve been 50 characters long. It’s a little heavier on characters from books I’d just read, but I wouldn’t change a thing now that I’ve had some time to meet new characters and remember older ones.
One of the newer Top Ten Tuesdays on my list, but I loved putting it together and sharing some of my favorite quotes. There are so many more, even though I’m not as good as I’d like to be when it comes to marking down passages while I read.
Guys, I have a pretty awesome sibling myself, so I always love reading about them. It’s nice to know that not all character’s siblings are tools or bullies and that they have a supportive, awesome friend who will always be at their side.
Sooo, I slacked off with the words on this post, I’ll admit. But I found some pretty awesome fan art for my really awesome heroines, so that makes this one of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays.
Friends, I had lots of bookish action this month and I didn’t even realize it. BEST SURPRISE. April bloggish/bookish recap below!
NETGALLEY
The Swift Boys and Me by Kody Keplinger | Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen | Frostborn: Thrones & Bones by Lou Anders
The Inventor’s Secret: The Inventor’s Secret #1 by Andrea Cremer | We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt | Midnight Thief: Midnight Thief #1 by Livia Blackburne
KINDLE
Queen of Hearts, Vol. One: The Crown by Colleen Oakes
ARCS FOR REVIEW
Firebug: Necromancer #3 by Lish McBride | Nash: Marked Men #4 by Jay Crownover | Mortal Danger: Immortal Game #1 by Ann Aguirre | Deep Blue: Waterfire Saga #1 by Jennifer Donnelly | Landline by Rainbow Rowell
BOUGHT/GIFTED
Dreams of Gods and Monsters: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3 by Laini Taylor | The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder | What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick | The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith | The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw: Hero’s Guide #3 by Christopher Healy
House of Ivy and Sorry by Natalie Whipple | Under the Never Sky: Under the Never Sky #1 by Veronica Rossi | Through the Ever Night: Under the Never Sky #2 by Veronica Rossi | Rule: Marked Men #1 by Jay Crownover | Jet: Marked Men #2 by Jay Crownover | Rome: Marked Men #3 by Jay Crownover
Thanks to my darling dear Alyssa for these pretties!!
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand | Dragonswood: Wilde Island Chronicles #2 by Janet Carey
Don’t tease me with time traveling. THE 57 LIVES OF ALEX WAYFARE by M.G. Buehrlen was sooooo fun.
Jennifer E. Smith knows how to do the cute contemp thing. THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME was adorable. No other word for it.
All this buzz for THE WINNER’S CURSE by Marie Rutkoski? Deserves it. (Mostly.)
This month’s On The Same Page book was FAIRYTALES FOR WILDE GIRLS by Allyse Near. I made a Pinterest board!
Etsy is a book-lovers greatest dream and worst nightmare all in one. I want all of these 10 bookish things AND MORE.
Awesome siblings are awesome, like these 10 gems.
DON’T TEASE ME WITH THIS BOOK. I can’t wait another second for SACRIFICE by Bridgid Kemmerer
DRAGONSSS! Julie Kagawa is going to kill it with TALON, I just know it.
Love MG and I love pirates, so naturally I’m stoked for Heidi Schultz’s HOOK’S REVENGE.
When I saw that EGG AND SPOON by Gregory Maguire was a fantasy set in Tsarist Russia, I died.
I started a new feature this month!! It’s called Series Love, and my first series shoutout? Marked Men by Jay Crownover!
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black 
Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
MIDWINTERBLOOD has been on my radar for a little while, friends, but I always balked just a little when it came to reading it. Not sure why. Maybe it’s because it’s a hard book to describe, maybe because the thought of reading another story–even a shorter one that is merely a part of a larger whole–about vampires increased my “meh” quotient. Maybe it’s because I’d never read a book by Marcus Sedgwick and his writing intimidated me. Whatever it was, I’m glad that I held onto it until it came time for the three of us to choose our books for this year, and we all decided to read MINDWINTERBLOOD first. It really does defy description, but it’s still powerful and touching.
One of the things that fascinated me about the structure of this book is the way Marcus Sedgwick broke each of his stories down by full moon. I’ve always been intrigued by this naming of full moons, and I loved the way the moons corresponded to the tales within, and the way those tales wove the entire story together, so I thought I’d shed a little light on those full moons in MIDWINTERBLOOD while also talking a little bit about the stories within.
These seasonal TBRs are honestly some of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays. You know why? No matter how hard I try, and no matter how awesome the Broke and Bookish girls are at keeping the topics coming after sooooo many Top Ten Tuesdays, I feel like I repeat myself. And that bugs me just on a personal level. I like to keep it fresh! Enter these awesome lists that HAVE to change, and Amy is a super happy girl. I’m SO EXCITED FOR THESE BOOKS! Obvs I have more than ten. I didn’t even try to rein myself in.
Save Me | Jenny Elliott • January 6, 2015 (Swoon Reads)
Oooh, guys. So much going on in this debut. Witchcraft, forbidden love, whales. Also, I kind of can’t stop looking at the cover, with the girl floating in midair. It’s mysterious and magical and beautiful.
All the Bright Places | Jennifer Niven • January 6, 2015 (Knopf)
I have to say, I’m not really a fan of all these “THE FAULT IN OUR STARS meets whatever” descriptions just because a book has death in it. But a debut (another one! Yay!) about two sad, broken kids learning how to not be so sad anymore together is something I will ALWAYS enjoy.
The Darkest Part of the Forest | Holly Black • January 13, 2015 (Little Brown BFYR)
Holly Black is a new-to-me author, friends. I only really started reading her books this year, and I really enjoyed them. This story about siblings and faeries and a horned boy in the woods in a glass casket sounds FAB.
Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles #3.5 | Marissa Meyer • January 27, 2015 (Feiwel & Friends)
DUH.
In Some Other World, Maybe | Shari Goldhagen • January 13, 2015 (St. Martin’s Press)
Really looking forward to this one. Sure, it’s kind of adult-ish because it follows a group of young people into adulthood, but hey. Sometimes you have to see what the fictional people you own age are up to.
I Was Here | Gayle Forman • January 27, 2015 (Viking Juvenile)
DUH 2.0
I’ll Meet You There | Heather Demetrios • February 3, 2015 (Henry Holt & Co.)
No but stop. Wounded veteran? Literally, you don’t have to say anything else. Nothing. I’m in.
Better When He’s Bold: Welcome to the Point #2 | Jay Crownover • February 3, 2015 (William Morrow)
Guys, Jay Crownover is so legit. Her Marked Men series is one of my favorites, and I enjoyed the first book in her Welcome to the Point series, too. BRING IT, GIRL.
Red Queen: Red Queen Trilogy #1 | Victoria Aveyard • February 10, 2015 (Harper Teen)
First of all, THIS COVER. So provocative. But I like the sound of the story too, obviously, with it’s blood divisions and secrets.
Seeker: Seeker #1 | Arwen Elys Dayton • February 10, 2015 (Delacorte BFYR)
So, a Game of Thrones meets Hunger Games comparison. Ok, I can dig it. Although seekers remind me of nothing ever aside from Harry Potter. Also, I’m very interested in this whole “her best friend and the boy she loves isn’t who she thinks” business.
A Wicked Thing | Rhiannon Thomas • February 24, 2015 (Harper Teen)
WHOA WHOA WHOA. A Sleeping Beauty retelling about what happens AFTER the marriage? STAHPPPPP.
The Winner’s Crime: The Winner’s Trilogy #2 | Marie Rutkoski • March 3, 2015 (Farrar Straus Giroux)
DUH 3.0
The Storyspinner: The Keeper’s Chronicles #1 | Becky Wallace • March 3, 2015 (Margaret K. McElderry)
Ooh, so this story kind of has shades of Kvothe for me somehow: a fantasy about a performer with no troupe…actually that’s kind of where it stops. But there’s murder and a missing princess and magical beings and scheming dukes. *nods head*
The Orphan Queen: The Orphan Queen #1 | Jodi Meadows • March 10, 2015 (Katherine Tegen Books)
I’ve never read anything by Jodi Meadows. I KNOW. This sounds like a more Amy place to start than her previous series, so I’m really looking forward to it. There’s lots of fantasies on this list! YAY!
HUZZAH!! It’s finally here! Friends, Alyssa from Books Take You Places, Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide, and I have been waiting to start this new feature and share it with you all! In case you can’t tell from the button over there, it’s called On the Same Page and it’s pretty fun (for us, and hopefully you, too!).
So, some quick background: The three of us were reading books together all the time, so we decided to make it a THING where we read one book together a month and then put together a post each about that book. It’s been in the works for months, honestly. But the most fun part of On the Same Page is that we’re not necessarily going to be doing a traditional review–although we certainly might. We’re going to try and change it up and post different things to talk about each book we read. I’m SOO excited about this, I can’t even tell you. So without further ado, WELCOME! Our first book is…
Top Ten Words/Topics That Make Me Pick Up a BookTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday’s on their site!
Title // Author: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (web | twitter)
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Release date: November 6, 2012
Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge
Source: Own itSummary: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
