Guys, I LOVE these book tags. I’m going to do ALL OF THEM. Every time. You don’t even need to tag me in them. I’m just going to do it. So when my girl Brittany legitimately tagged me in the Throne of Glass book tag–shout out to Alexa and Hannah! (haaay girls!)–I immediately started putting together my list. Sometimes I struggled, other times I knew right away which book I would be choosing. Regardless, I had so much fun thinking about this amazing series and about other books I’ve read. So without further blabbing from me, onto the fun times!
As a general rule, I HATE book cover changes. They almost NEVER improve anything for me. (Go check out the original cover of THE GOOSE GIRL and then check out the paperback redesign. I’ll pass you a barf bag in a second.) That being said, and maybe this is cheating because of the tag we’re working on here, but I REALLY love the redesigns for the Throne of Glass series. One of my bigger cover pet peeves is when fantasies have photos on them. Something about it just seems frustratingly incongruous, since none of those books ever have anything like that technology. I always liked the UK covers of this book better and LOST MY SHIT when Bloomsbury USA adopted that same style and reissued book 1.
*Sigh* It’s so awesome, and Celaena is so much more badass looking. 
Oof. Any of the old Tamora Pierce fantasies. The covers on some of these are just not pretty. There’s one of ALANNA where Alanna looks really angry and has very strong mannish features, and even though she’s supposed to be disguising herself as a boy, she looks like a pissed off 40-year-old. Which sucks because Tamora Pierce is QUEEN.
There are so many books I could choose from with epic world-building. My standard is A Song of Ice and Fire, but I’ve also gone with The Kingkiller Chronicle. This time, however, I’m going Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I’m constantly enamored with the way Laini Taylor describes Eretz. I would read books set just in that world. I want to know all of the Chimera. I want to walk the streets of Astrae. I especially want to revisit the land far to the east. I just want to BE there.
One of my favorite genre mash-ups is historical fiction and fantasy, and one of the most underrated books to combine those two things, and a few other favorites of mine, is THE FALCONER by Elizabeth May. The book is set in 1800s Edinburgh (hellooooo, SCOTLAND!), and Aileana Kameron is not only the daughter of a widower noble, but is also a faerie slayer who loves to tinker with machines and things and create devices of her own making. She’s amazing. Plus I really enjoy the faeries in this book. They’re not friendly. They are dangerous and scheming. I can’t wait for THE VANISHING THRONE to come out so that I can read on.
I remember the first (well, and the only) time I read THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson and knowing that something CRAZY happens but now knowing what it was, and then BOOM. BIG THINGS. Yes, plural.
I had a hard time coming up with a book for this one. I didn’t want to go with CODE NAME VERITY because I saw it on someone else’s list and didn’t want to steal, even though it’s an excellent answer. So I thought and thought and decided on basically everyone from THE 5TH WAVE. They aren’t all necessarily narrators, but so many characters’ motives are unknown and everything messes with your head–Evan, Colonel Alexander, everything. It’s just one giant mind fuck, pardon my French. I definitely need to reread this one before I dive into book 2. THE 5TH WAVE was so good.
You might not know it from my lack of reviewing lately, but I read SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo…umm…a while ago. And even though “squad goals” makes me think of SO MANY literary gangs–the Fellowship of the Ring, the Order of the Phoenix, the Raven Boys and Blue Sargent, the crew of the Rampion–the one freshest in my mind was the Dregs. Kaz and Inej are two of my favorite characters right now, and their crew is full of dangerous, kind of selfish people. I loved them all.
I just started listening to the audiobook of OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon and guys? I was ecstatic from the first words that left Davina Porter’s mouth. I’m in full OUTLANDER fangirl mode right now. This book and these characters just jump off the page to me and make me want to go to Scotland and live in their world.
Have you all seen the teaser preview for A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness? The one with Liam Neeson voicing the tree? The one where the minute I heard him start speaking, I welled up? You haven’t?
This book ABSOLUTELY KILLED ME. It killed me so hard. One of my ugliest cries ever. Red face, snot, sobbing, heartbroken–the whole 9 yards.
I almost chose another book on this list for my Manon, but went with THE BONE SEASON by Samantha Shannon instead. There are a few books that I’m intimidated by, but I haven’t read them so I went with something I HAVE read because Manon wouldn’t be a wuss. I wasn’t necessarily intimidated by the content of THE BONE SEASON, but I think what made me hesitate to read it was the buzz and the reviews. I’m glad I got over both of those things because I’m really enjoying this series.
Gurl, basically any book by Jay Crownover could be my Rowan, but my favorite has always been NASH. There’s just something about his relationship with Saint (the names in these books though) that got me right in the feels. But all of Jay’s books are swoonworthy.
Confession: I’ve had a pretty nice life. I wasn’t spoiled, really, but I was very fortunate when I was growing up to have lots of opportunities that not everyone has. I traveled to Europe, went to private school, had parents that went overboard on Christmas. I didn’t struggle for much, aside from having friends who weren’t assholes. I’ve always understood that these things came from hard work (both my own and my family’s), but when I first read ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell, all of that was reinforced. Eleanor had very little opportunity for anything. A home life that was, frankly, awful. She struggled for basic things that I did not. It was a great reminder for me that I was incredibly fortunate growing up, all things considered, and it increased my love and admiration for Eleanor a million-fold.
I almost chose this book as my Manon, but not because of what it’s about or the length or anything like that. It’s a Celtic fantasy. HELLO, I love that stuff. What intimidated me was this: Alyssa gave me DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST by Juliet Marillier, as she often does to basically anyone, because she adores it, because it speaks to her, and because it legitimately kept her up when other things wanted to bring her down. THAT’S PRESSURE, YO. Me telling Alyssa that I didn’t like DoTF would be like me telling a new mother that her baby is ugly. Probably that wouldn’t happen, but, like, what if her baby IS ugly? AHHH STRESSS! Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and I’ve continued to be thankful to Alyssa for introducing me to this series and wanting to share her favorite book with me.
This one is hard for me. I don’t know how to choose! I think what I’m going to go with is slump-breakers, and for that, it’s not necessarily a specific book as much as it’s a genre. Any kind of historical or adult romance novel will get me out of any rut, any time. AH that feels like a cop out! But I literally cannot choose anything else.
There are very few series that could be better Fajitas than A Song of Ice and Fire. The world-building in this series is spot-on. It’s got details, it’s got history, it’s got maps, religions, cultures, languages. There are so many details in the world-building that it’s sometimes hard to keep things straight, but that’s why I love it.
Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been wrong.
