Top Ten Tuesday: best sequels

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week is about the best sequels ever!

I love sequels. I even tend to like second books in a series best, which is apparently unusual (and will be the subject of another post soon). For now, I'll give you ten of my favorite sequels :) I'm sure there's something glaringly missing. This post would be so much easier to put together if I had all my books lined up on shelves instead of in boxes in my parents' basement >.<



Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J. Maas
Oh my god, this book. If I still had some issues with Throne of Glass, they disappeared with this book. It was simply brilliant. The characters, the world building, the suspense, the romance... spot on!

Clockwork Prince, by Cassandra Clare
Also called the heartbreak book. It made me cry at 2am on Christmas Eve when I finished it. I'm not usually a fan of love triangles but the Will-Tessa-Jem one worked really well because it's balanced and not weighed down by buckets of jealousy. All three love each other so much and it's just... unfair.

The Demon's Covenant, by Sarah Rees Brennan
I really loved being in Mae's head! The plot, the action, the set-up, the make-outs... my favorite book of the trilogy :)



The Golden Lily, by Richelle Mead
So far my favorite of this spin-off. Sidney grows so much over the course of the novels, and I also really enjoyed Adrian's development and how the two grew closer.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin
I read book one in a day and didn't have much longer for this one. I love Noah. I love Mara. I love her brothers. The writing is sharp, and the mindfuck at the ending left me like o.O The waiting for book three is killing me...

If I Die, by Rachel Vincent
Because the feelings and the wonderful quotes and Tod and Kaylee. Ahem. The whole series is amazing but I think this one is my favorite. I reviewed it here.



Shadow Bound, by Rachel Vincent
I really liked Kori, and I thought it was strange (and a really smart move on Vincent's part!) to get a completely different perspective of the main characters in the first book. The world building is just so tight and the stakes only got higher... loved it!

The Eternity Cure, by Julie Kagawa
One of my most anticipated sequels of the year, and definitely worth the wait! I love how Julie combines a great vampire novel with the dystopian genre, and that she's not afraid to show the gory parts. My review's here.

Red Glove, by Holly Black
"Curses and cons. Magic and the mob." I think by far you all know how much I love this trilogy. It's heartbreaking, thrilling, full of amazing cons, unfavorable odds, twists, unreliability... just wow. I loved all the books, but I think this one I liked best. You can read my review of book three here.


Dance of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin
The atmosphere, the way things turned out, Araby, and Will made this book for me. I really didn't know what to expect after the way book one ended and knowing there would only be one sequel, but I ended up loving it. You can read my review of book one here and book two here.



Runners-up: At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost, Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh.


What do you think of my choices? And what are some of your favorite sequels?

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors that deserve more recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week's topic: top ten authors that deserve more recognition

The tricky thing about this topic for me is that sometimes I'm not actually sure just how well-known an author is... so maybe some of my picks are a bit off? Let me know in the comments, I guess ;)

Cat Winters
Her debut, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, is haunting and brilliant. It made me feel anything ranging from happiness to sadness to anger or despair. I'm looking very much forward to reading more from her! I think the book has gotten a bit of coverage in the blogosphere (and rightfully so) but still I think the majority has never heard of it.

Karen Mahoney
A British author whose books I love! She concluded the Iron Witch trilogy in April with The Stone Demon and I can't wait for the next book in her series about Moth, a teen vampire. She has a great sense of humor and I enjoy the aspect of popular culture/nerdiness and snark in her books ^^ She's also really nice to talk to on twitter!

L.A. Weatherly
Her Angel series is amazing! She crafts strong, likeable characters and I love how she balances action and romance! I met her in April in the context of a writing workshop and she was very approachable and gave great, concrete advice :)

Sarah Rees Brennan
Not sure she really belongs in this list? Anyhow, I think many people know of her as Cassandra Clare's friend, but I actually read the Demon's Lexicon books before I heard of Cassie and The Mortal Instruments and damn, they're amazing! The snark! The dangerous, unique magic!

Kate Griffin
When I read A Madness of Angels, I put sticky notes all over the book because there were so many amazing passages! It will make you look at the city in a whole new way. One of my top favorite Urban Fantasy series!

Susan Dennard
Another case of I'm not sure she's 'unknown' enough for this list? Anyhow, her series is awesome! It's a great mixture of historical, steampunk, and zombies. I can't wait for A Darkness Strange and Lovely!

Kelly Creagh
I can't fawn enough over her Nevermore series! If you love E.A. Poe and creepy YA, you should definitely give it a try! She also wrote one of my favorite book boyfriends into existence - Varen Nethers. Her writing is wonderful and I love how she incorporates Poe and his work so seamlessly into the story! It's way too long until the release of the final book :(

Bethany Griffin
Another Poe-person! I love her Masque of the Red Death duology. Her writing is lush but with an unflinching sharpness to it. She's not afraid to hurt her characters but she also shows that they can find moments of beauty in despair. Can't wait to see what her next book will be about!

Gina Damico
If you like reaper books, get this one asap!! Gina Damico is hilarious - I laughed so much while reading Croak on the train that I kinda wanted to stop because everyone was looking at me all weird but I just couldn't because it was so damn good! She mixes the horrible and creepy with the sarcastic and absurdly funny and her imagination is made of awesome.

Susan Kaye Quinn
I've only read episodes 1-6 in her Debt Collector serial but I tell you, it's amazing! If you want male POV New Adult that is not a contemporary but an awesome kind of sci-fi retro-noir story - give it a shot! Fantastic world-building, mysterious characters, and very engaging writing! After reading episode 1-3 I had to get the bundle for 4-6 immediately and I read it all on the same day.


Well... I can't really stick with 10 this time around, so here are four runner-ups that I think are amazing but also well-known -ish, I think? Not sure.
Holly Black, Kelly Keaton, Kiki Hamilton, and Rachel Vincent.


So, what do you guys think of my picks? Have you heard of these authors? And who do you think deserves more recognition? Link me up :)

Waiting on Wednesday: Untold, by Sarah Rees Brennan

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.


This week's pick:

Release date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages

Goodreads description:
Free from bonds, but not each other

It’s time to choose sides… On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be?


My sister just finished my copy of Unspoken, so the series is more present in my mind again. She also reminded me of the TERRIBLE cliff hanger and is now all sulky about having to wait until September, nevermind that I've been waiting for half a year longer :P But yeah, I'm extremely curious about what's going to happen because pretty much anything could at this point.
On a side-note: I'm not happy about the cover change. I really hope they will make a new cover for the US edition that will match the old Unsopken cover with the silhouettes!
Are you also excited for Untold? And what did you pick this Wednesday?

Stacking the Shelves: Confessions of Legendary Likenesses and fiery Graves in Peru

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


I got a bit more books this week :) Maybe it's because I was feeling bad so I bought myself something pretty. I don't know. This apartment-hunting stuff really grates on me :(
Anyway, here's what I got this week.


From NetGalley:

Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend, by Louise Rozett
A Fatal Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd

I really enjoyed Confessions of an Angry Girl (my review) and with the way it ended I just HAD to have the sequel! Thank you, Harlequin UK :)
A Fatal Likeness caught my eye on Netgalley, I hadn't heard of it before. But the time period and the involvement of Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley intrigued me. It's also been a while since I've read a literary novel that isn't 100+ years old.

Print:

Legend, by Marie Lu

People have been raving about it for ages and I always thought it sounded interesting. I was at the bookstore and it was fairly cheap for a book around here (13 bucks for a paperback is a bargain), so I got it :)


Ebooks:

Destiny's Fire, by Trisha Wolfe
What Really Happened in Peru, by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan
Magic Graves, by Jeaniene Frost & Ilona Andrews

I've had Destiny's Fire on my wishlist for a while. I don't remember why I got it just now, maybe it was a bit cheaper than usual or otherwise highlighted somewhere. Anyhow, I'm curious about it!
And I just had to have Magnus Bane's adventure ;) I also can't wait to see what a collabo of Sarah and Cassie reads like!
As for Magic Graves, I didn't know it existed until a couple days ago. I was reading book 6 in Jeaniene's Night Huntress series and checking for the next release dates when I saw that she's written a couple novellas I don't have in any of my anthologies yet. This is also a chance for me to finally check out Ilona Andrews :)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of these and can urge me to move them up in my pile? Also, please leave a link to you own haul :)
While you're here: I have 2 giveaways going on at the moment, one for Flight, a YA sci-fi with harpies, and one for Marking Time, a YA time travel/paranormal/urban fantasy which I loved and also marks my first author interview! Both of them are open internationally.

Stacking the Shelves: the Epic Haul edition

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme created by Tynga's Reviews to showcase books that we got - be it for review, by trade, because we bought them, whatever. Those can be printed or ebooks.

As announced in the title, my haul since Sunday has been huge! Part of that is because I had ordered and preordered quite a bunch of books (I was lured in by bargains and vouchers and the like) and part is because I have an amazing friend who gave me a ton of books she had gotten from a relative who moved, but that she didn't want for herself (it was like 3 huge boxes, she kept some, but were also a load that will be given away to a used book shop).

First off, the bought ones:

Masque of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin
Carnival of Souls, by Melissa Marr
Unspoken, by Sarah Rees Brennan



I've wanted all of those for forever! Unspoken finally arrived today (I had hoped I'd get it be Tuesday). I can't read either of them now because of the sequels challenge, but I finished Masque on Thursday night and the review will probably go up on Sunday.


And now... *drumroll* the very pretty signed Foretold anthology I won in a giveaway from Malinda Lo!

It's so pretty *hugs* I have few signed books so this is precious to me! Click the pic to get to Goodreads.


And the gifted ones:

Jeff Lindsay: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, Dexter by Design
Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands & Teeth
Neil Gaiman: Smoke and Mirrors

I've only seen the first two seasons of the Dexter TV show bu I loved them! So I'm curious about those first four books. I've read a short story of Carrie Ryan's that is connected to the novel but not the novel itself, so yay! And Neil Gaiman is one of my big loves when it comes to books. So yay again!

And... MORE Gaiman&McKean! Graphic novel edition ^.^
The Last Temptation
Black Orchid
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch
Mirrormask
Marvel 1602
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
Crazy Hair

I'm curious about all of them but slightly (*cough*) despairing about when I'll get to read them all! o.O

Anyhow, that's my pile. And I'm offically on a Book Buying Ban now. Apart from that copy of Obsidian that still hasn't arrived yet *grumble*. So... what's on your pile? Leave me a link in the comments so I can check it out :)