Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I’m Procrastinating


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is all about the series that I haven’t started yet.

I am terrible with series. I procrastinate starting them and rarely finish them. I’m especially bad with fantasy series. Fantasy is a genre that I’m curious about, but I usually end up hating it. It’s the tropes, people! Fantasy tropes are awful. Anyway, here are ten series that I’ve been putting off starting. Let me know what you think of them.




Series I’m Procrastinating






The Forest of Hands and Teeth – Carrie Ryan


In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?





Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo


Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. 
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. 
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.






The Crossing – Mandy Hager


The people of Onewere, a small island in the Pacific, know that they are special—chosen to survive the deadly event that consumed the Earth. 
Now, from the rotting cruise ship Star of the Sea, the elite control the population—manipulating old texts to set themselves up as living 'gods.' But what the people of Onewere don't know is this: the leaders will stop at nothing to meet their own blood-thirsty needs. 
When Maryam crosses from child to woman, she must leave everything she has ever known and make a crossing of another kind. But life inside the ship is not as she had dreamed, and she is faced with the unthinkable: obey the leaders and very likely die, or turn her back on every belief she once held dear.





Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor


Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war. 
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands," she speaks many languages—not all of them human—and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. 
When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?





March – John Lewis


March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.






An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir


Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. 
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do. 
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. 
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.





Grave Mercy – Robin LaFevers


Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. 
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?





The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater


Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. 
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. 
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. 
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.






Vivian Apple at the End of the World – Katie Coyle


Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed "Rapture," all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivian Apple isn't looking for a savior. She's looking for the truth.





Scythe – Neal Shusterman


A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. 
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.





Have you read any of these? What did you think? Which should I read, and which should I avoid?






17 comments:

  1. Great list! I recently started An Ember in the Ashes and am loving the two perspectives and the plot has a lot of action to keep you reading. Good luck and happy reading!

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  2. Grave Mercy has been on my radar for years now- and I own it. One day I'll get to it. I would like to read The Raven Cycle series too. Great list!

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  3. on your list, I have tried daughter of smoke & bone - I couldn't even get past the first few book and mostly I think the expectation was rather too high & also I really did not relate to any of the characters.

    the raven boys - couldn't even finish the first book though I really did like the excerpt from 'blue lily, lily blue' which was really why I wanted to read the series but I guess I'm not the right fan for this series or any of Stiefvater's series because I tried her wolf series & didn't like it.

    so I guess you can say book series are not for me at least, until I found a new one.

    have a lovely day.

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  4. I haven't started Shadow and Bone or Daughter of Smoke and Bone either. I own both of them but they have been sitting on my TBR for ages. I think I am going to DNF, An Ember in the Ashes. I read the first 2 books and the second one was very slow. Good luck with these series, good list.

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  5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a little slow to get into the story but I did enjoy the zombie bits. Want to see the film now! I didn't get into Smoke and Bone or Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

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  6. You put two series on your list that I totally forgot to put on mine (Vivian Apple and Ember in the Ashes). There are so many good series out there, so little time to read everything!

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  7. Looking at all these lists make me want to go book shopping!
    My TTT.

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  8. I haven't read any of these and I've been working on series of non-fictions (the King Years and LJB biography that's already 4 volumes and yet to be finished). However, I think I would like Lewis' "The March"

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  9. Hah fantasy tropes. They can be... bad. Yeah. Grave Mercy was pretty awesome but I haven't read any of the sequels. And vivian Apple- I was really curious about those, I think there's two now? I should read.

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  10. Scythe!!! You have to read Scythe (but, then, you know how I feel about Shusterman). Vivian Apple was only okay for me, but I loved Grave Mercy and Daughter of Smoke and Bone!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  11. I'd definitely recommend bumping up An Ember in the Ashes and Daughter of Smoke and Bone! They're very unique series. Hope you'll be able to read through all these series one day!

    ~Erika @ Books and Stars

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  12. I have lots of thoughts about these books!

    Did not like Forest of Hands and Teeth (awesome title though). Was pretty meh about Shadow & Bone and Raven Boys and only read one of each. Still, I love The Scorpio Races and Six of Crows, so I still understand why people are crazy about Bardugo and Stiefvater.

    I really liked Daughter of Smoke and Bone, liked the sequel, DNFed the final book. Again, other hand--I LOVE Strange the Dreamer and think Taylor is a terrific writer. Grave Mercy was fun and I read the series--not life changing, but a good time. I'm with Nicole on all things Shusterman--so far I prefer Unwind to Scythe, but Scythe is still fantastic.

    I feel guilty for not having read beyond book 1 of March. I've heard good things and bad things about Ember in the Ashes. Don't know much about the remaining two, although I kind of love that the parents who are raptured go straight through the roof.

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  13. I really liked Grave Mercy but I still need to read the third book in the series. I checked Scythe out from the library and really hope to get a chance to read it before I have to send it back. I have quite a few of your other picks on my tbr list. Enjoy!

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  14. I have been meaning to read most of these too. I did read the Raven Cycle and I loved it.
    Sam @ WLABB

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  15. Lots of books on here that I need to read too! I have read The Raven Boys and loved it, so I hope you enjoy it too.
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/top-ten-tuesday-112/

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  16. Half of these books are on my TBR as well. I recently started The Grisha trilogy and I love it so much. I wasn`t one to have book boyfriends, but the Darling is one tasty dish.

    http://www.carmensreadingcorner.co.uk

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  17. Shadow and Bone is a pretty good series! I recommend you sink into that one and don't procrastinate too much further. I have to admit I am also procrastinating the Raven Boys. Everyone keeps talking about how brilliant it is, but I didn't like the other Stiefvater novel I read, so I'm wary...

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