Hello friends! Today’s post is favorite books and reasons why. I’m sorry that this post is a day late. I totally forgot to write it this last week. I was waiting for replies on favorite books but I didn’t get any. Get on that guys! So instead, I wrote a small list of my favorite books. But its pretty short because I had so many that it was hard to narrow it down so I tried to take one form each genre and I kind of failed. So here’s the list of my favorite books.
1. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
I really liked this book. It was interesting. Here’s the summary from the dust jacket.
This is a world divided by blood - red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.
Sounds like your typical YA novel right? I enjoyed this novel because the character dynamics where really interesting. Mare sometimes seemed to fit into the Silver society and become one of them while in other scenes they openly scoffed at her. Her character changed greatly from this book to the third book and I’m hoping to see her grow more in the fourth book that’s coming out pretty soon.
2. The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid.
This book was really interesting. Here’s the summary.
Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator's daughter, Sidonia. There's no one Nemesis wouldn't kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.
She must become her.
Now one of the galaxy's most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she's been told she doesn't have - humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire...
I really liked this book because it constantly took turns that I didn’t think it would take. It definitely didn’t follow the plot line of a typical YA novel. I also liked all the different sort of characters such as the crown prince. (Keep an eye on him. He’s important. Of course, the prince’s are always important.) This book was constantly changing, and new information was always introduced in ever chapter but not in the way that it made it feel like the author kept leaving things out on purpose or accident. It felt like the natural flow of thoughts from a regular person so that was cool.
3. Burning Bright by Melissa McShane
This book amazed me. I read it in one day. Holy cow.
In 1812, Elinor Pembroke wakes to find her bedchamber in flames—and extinguishes them with a thought. At 21, she is old to manifest magical talent, but the evidence is unmistakable: she not only has the ability to start fires, but the far more powerful ability to control and extinguish them. She is an Extraordinary, and the only one in England capable of wielding fire in over one hundred years.
As an Extraordinary, she is respected and feared, but to her father, she represents power and prestige for himself. Mr. Pembroke, having spent his life studying magic, is determined to control Elinor and her talent by forcing her to marry where he chooses, a marriage that will produce even more powerful offspring. Trapped between the choices of a loveless marriage or living penniless and dependent on her parents, Elinor takes a third path: she defies tradition and society to join the Royal Navy.
Assigned to serve under Captain Miles Ramsay aboard the frigate Athena, she turns her fiery talent on England’s enemies, French privateers and vicious pirates preying on English ships in the Caribbean. At first feared by her shipmates, a growing number of victories make her truly part of Athena’s crew and bring her joy in her fire. But as her power grows and changes in unexpected ways, Elinor’s ability to control it is challenged. She may have the power to destroy her enemies utterly—but could it be at the cost of her own life?
I love love love love love military novels. Not the typical military novels like books about the World Wars. I love the sci-fi military novels. Fantasy military novels. Historical fiction military novels. They are so interesting! I loved this one though because it had this amazing military plot line but also a man versus society type of feel to it. The best part was the underlying romance that was there but not really super duper important at the beginning of the story. Although the romantic interest was immediately evident throughout the whole book. The second book was about a different person living in the same time period but it was just as amazing. I have not yet had the chance to read he third book but I plan on it.
4. The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t really provide a summary because that would ruin so much of the story. In short it’s a book with unreliable narrators that actually work. For most of the book you’re trying to figure out what’s going on and then right in the last couple chapters you find out everything that the narrator has been hiding from you and the whole book suddenly makes sense. Because of this though this isn’t a book that I would suggest to someone to read twice. You can only really read it once and be surprised. But I would definitely suggest it for first time readers. (And trust me, the fact that its an unreliable character doesn’t ruin the book. I knew that it was before I read it and I still thoroughly enjoyed the mystery.)
5. Brandon Sanderson
So I know that this technically isn’t a book but he’s the author of a whole bunch of really good books. I’ve always loved all the books that he’s written. (the ones that I’ve read.)
I have read The Reckoners series, The first book of Elantris, the Mistborn series (except Bands of Mourning. Working on that.) Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, Working on the wheel of time (but that one’s mostly Robert Jordan), and the Rithmatist. Every time I start to catch up on the list he writes something new. And they’re always these huge novels. The length and complexity of his novels and the time he writes them in are kind of a great joke in the writing world. At least where I live. At the writer’s conference I attend we are constantly saying at the end of panels, “And if you do that you can write a successful novel of a pretty decent length. Unless your Brandon Sanderson.” So yeah, good books.
So that is as short as I could make my list of favorite books. If you want to check out more of them you could always go to my Goodreads account at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/74709638-j-m-larsen. I hope you all enjoyed and that you all have good books that you enjoy reading.
So next week I’m going to be writing on Note taking. I know that its not necessarily writing related but I do think that note taking in anyone’s daily life is important. So that’s what I’ll write on next week. Make sure to read and tell all the writers you know about this blog. See you next week!