Ten of my favourite autumnal reads

Ten favourite autumnal reads Lyndsey's Book Blog

Good day fellow readers and writers! It’s Tuesday and we all know what that means, another edition of Top Ten Tuesdays by The Broke and the Bookish. If you’re new here and you’ve never heard of TTT, pop along to the lovely ladies’ blog and educate yourself, son!

It’s a brilliant weekly meme where we all choose ten books/characters/etc. on a particular theme. This week, as the nights draw in and the weather turns decidedly chilly (here in the UK, at least), the theme is Autumn.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Look at that cover! It screams Autumn to me, like bonfires and caramels and toffee apples. This is a sci-fi dystopian about sixteen year old Ruby, who survives a deadly illness that kills most American children, and the survivors discover they’ve been left with strange new abilities. It sounds like the perfect dark read for the longer nights and cooler days.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Who doesn’t love a gentle evening stroll once the stars come out? Even if death is following in the shadows… They Both Die at the End is a contemporary about two boys, Mateo and Rufus, who find out they are going to die on the same day, so they decide to spend it together and make it a last day worth living.

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Autumn brings with it some of the most beautiful sunsets, and as they’re so early we’re much more likely to be able to enjoy them! Plus, this girl’s dress is either on fire or full of magic, so there’s that. Walk on Earth a Stranger is the first in the Gold Seer trilogy, which follows Lee Westfall, a girl who can sense gold in the environment – nuggets in riverbeds, veins of it running through the earth (handy in Gold-Rush era America). Her ability has kept her family alive through many a harsh winter, but it might just put them in the gravest danger if someone finds out…

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

This cover is pretty abstract, but the combination of colours strikes me as autumnal. This is a sort of modern fairy tale about a family of miracle workers who live on a ranch in Colorado, the Sorias. The miracles they perform consist of exposing the deepest, darkest secrets of their clients so that they can overcome them, but unfortunately the Sorias are not permitted to help them do so. If they do, they will be punished. Maggie’s speciality is strange and magical settings, characters with flaws and layers, and fantastical elements unlike any you’ve ever read about.

A Shiver of Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke

I’ve thrown a few wintery book covers into the mix, so fingers crossed there isn’t a Winter themed Top Ten Tuesday in a few months or I might struggle to find ten books without duplicating! A Shiver of Snow and Sky is set on a remote island called Skane, the description gives me a very Scandinavian vibe. The sky lights up with colours that indicate different messages – green means all is well, blue a snow storm is coming, and red is a warning. Doesn’t that sound like the Aurora Borealis? Perfect reading material for frosty nights under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate.

Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi

Look at that gloriously wintery cover! This is a companion novel to Furthermore, so check that one out too, but both can be read as standalones. Laylee spends her days washing the bodies of the dead and preparing their souls for the afterlife. Her own mother passed away, leaving her alone with her father who is driven mad with grief. Laylee’s own sadness and loneliness are causing her hands to stiffen and turn silver, like her hair, until a pair of strangers turn up in the village and she rediscovers colour, magic and the healing power of friendship.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

There’s nothing like a walk through nature in the Autumn months, kicking piles of russet leaves and collecting shiny conkers. The Darkest Part of the Forest sounds right up my street – a strange town where humans and fae live side-by-side, a glass coffin deep in the woods containing the body of a horned fae-boy, who has slept for eternity. Until now. It sounds very Steifvater, I must say, which I obviously love.

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Karen Millwood Hargrave

I think this is the only Middle Grade book on this list, but I can’t resist a good fantasy, and this one centres on a cartographer’s daughter on an island filled with monsters. And just look at that gorgeous orange cover! Girl of Ink and Stars has won several awards for children’s literature, so I’ve definitely got to give it a chance, even if I tend to lean towards more mature reads.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Another contemporary! I know what you’re thinking, it’s unlike me to include more than one contemporary novel in any list, but I’m trying to expand my horizons, alright? Let me try. And that evening sky is just beautiful. So, Ari and Dante are two teens who meet at the pool and gradually realise they have more in common than they first thought. They’re both loners, but one is a rebel and one is a geek (or so I understand from the blurb). Their friendship comes to change both their lives beyond recognition.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

This cover might look slightly more summery than the others, but the story sounds very wintery indeed. Set in the Russian wilderness, where winter lasts for most of the year and snow drifts are taller than houses, Vasilisa loves to sit round the fire with her siblings and listen to her nurse telling them fairy tales. When her mother dies and her new step-mother forbids them from performing the rituals that protect the household from the bad luck and misfortune threatened by their stories, Vasilisa must expose her long hidden ability to protect her loved ones.

These are all books I’m yet to read, but I can’t wait to get to them all, I’m sure I won’t manage by the time Spring rolls around, but a few wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Would it? We’ll see!

Which books are you looking forward to reading this A/W? Pop your TTT links in the comments so I can check out your lists!

Lyndsey

Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

It’s been a couple of months since I read Nevernight now, but I just downloaded the audiobook of Godsgrave and I’m so excited to dive back into this world!

I’d never read any of Jay Kristoff’s books before Nevernight, but I’ve heard good things about the Illuminae series, and Nevernight sounded right up my street. Luckily, it absolutely was! I haven’t read a new fantasy series this good in ages.

TL;DR At just eight years old, Mia Corvere watched her father die. Since then she has trained with her mentor in preparation for applying to enter the Red Church, a group of skilled assassins who live under a mountain. Her long term plan is revenge against the men who killed her dad. Her short term plan is surviving her training.

I’m not sure what I expected from this book, but it definitely wasn’t what I got. The Red Church is basically Hogwarts for teen murderers, and I am here for it. Mia is a wonderfully conflicted mini murderess, whose pet is an undead sort of shadow cat called Mister Kindly. He’s a sarcastic bundle of not-fur. Have you run out to buy this book yet? Just go, you won’t regret it.

“’Never Flinch.’ A cold whisper in her ear. ‘Never fear. And never, ever forget.'”

The classes Mia takes sound utterly fascinating and also deadly, subjects like poisons, weapons training and the art of seduction (because every professional killer needs a few good chat up lines and a come-hither smile). The teachers are mysterious and ruthless, it’s a wonder any of the kids survive their first semester, let alone graduate to become fully-fledged assassins.

“You’ll be a rumor. A whisper. The thought that wakes the bastards of this world sweating in the nevernight. The last thing you will ever be, girl, is someone’s hero.”

Unfortunately, only two of the class can become Blades (super lethal assassin types) after graduation, the rest must stay under the mountain and basically become their servants. Is it any wonder someone is killing off Mia’s class mates one by one? But is it just a ploy to win one of the two coveted Blade positions, or is something bigger going on in the Red Church?

Kristoff’s world-building is crazy amazing in this series, which just adds to the other-worldliness and mystery of the plot and characters. Three suns rise and set over Godsgrave, the city built amongst the bones of a long-dead god, meaning it’s almost never night (hence the title). One of those suns is red, casting a bloody glow over everything every now and then. Kristoff actually got an astrophysicist friend to design a trinary solar system for him, so the whole concept is very accurate and well imagined. A day is called a turn, because the planet still turns even if the sun doesn’t set (I imagine it’s supposed to be at least somewhat similar to Earth, so a day is roughly 24 hours). I just loved the little details the author included, they really make the story feel fully formed.

“The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.”

There’s a lot of Italian influence in the novel, which you might have guessed from Mia’s name. I wonder whether the strong themes of religion inspired the choice? Either way, it helps to anchor the stranger elements of the world and story in something/somewhere we can all imagine, even if you haven’t visited Italy or the Vatican.

You might have guessed by now, but this is a very graphic series, both violently and sexually. The characters are around sixteen, but this is definitely not YA. In the world of the story, children don’t seem to get much of a childhood, and they are much older and wiser than their years as a result of the environment they’re raised in, so 16 is more like 18, or even older, in the novel.

“The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us.”

I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about Nevernight, it was gripping and twisty and stabby and I loved every minute of it. The ending was a surprise, and I’m desperate to get stuck into Godsgrave to see if everything we’re told at the end of book one is true, fingers crossed some of it was just a ruse (no spoilers!).

I’m giving Nevernight five stars because it’s probably my favourite book I’ve read so far this year, I honestly couldn’t get enough of it and must have listened to it every chance I got. I was devastated when it finished and I had to wait three months for the sequel to come out! Definitely read this if you like super dark fantasy with rich world building and plenty of stabbing and sexy times. If you’re not so cool with the graphic elements or swearing, maybe steer clear. But you’ll be missing out 😉

Lyndsey

I am a member of the Book Depository affiliate program, so if you click through and buy any of the books mentioned in this blog I might make a little commission, but I am not paid to review books and all reviews are my own opinions!

Summer holiday TBR

Hello, hello! I haven’t done a TBR for a while so I thought I’d share with you all what I’m planning to read on my upcoming family holiday in Southeast Asia. I’m off to the Singapore Formula One and a cruise round Thailand and Malaysia with my mum, stepdad and two brothers – sadly my husband couldn’t get the time off work, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me!

If you’ve been here before, you’ll know I’m a huge fantasy fan, so it might surprise you to see the stack of contemporaries I plan to take away with me. I’ve been desperate to read more YA contemporary as so many amazing sounding books have been released this year.

Here are the books I’ll be packing next month for my holiday…

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I’m dying to read this and will probably start at the airport or on the drive down, light permitting. I ordered it a few months ago but I’ve been trying to catch up with library books so it’s still sitting on my shelf giving me the eye.

If you haven’t read, or even heard of THUG, firstly, where have you been?! Secondly, it’s inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and has been on the NY Times best seller list for 22 weeks. Twenty two! Everyone I know who’s read it absolutely raves about it, so I need to catch up and read this pronto.

It’s about a teenage girl called Starr who’s in the car when her friend is pulled over and then shot and killed by police. It’s a pretty heartbreaking, gut-wrenching read by all accounts so I’ll read this one first and then follow it up with some lighter, more easy-reading style novels to ease the pain. Oh, the joys of reading for pleasure!

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

I see this book everywhere online and it sounds like such a fun, thrilling mystery that I picked it up as soon as I saw it in Waterstones. It’s billed as a cross between The Breakfast Club and Gossip Girl, with a good, old-fashioned murder mystery thrown in – how awesome does that sound?

I’m hoping this will break me out of the THUG book hangover and give me a good whodunnit to mull over while I’m sunning on the beach with a cocktail.

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

I bought this book for my best friend’s birthday and with the movie coming out soon she let me borrow it when she was done (I’ll give it back soon, I promise!).

It sounds like a nice light-hearted read, even with the heavy subject matter of living life in a bubble, allergic to everything. I get the impression it’s more about the budding romance between the MC and her cute, new next-door neighbour, and learning to live life to the full even when the odds are against you.

The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury

OK, so I couldn’t go away and not take at least one fantasy book… This is the last in the Sin Eater’s Daughter trilogy and it’s been sitting on my bookcase for months waiting for it’s moment to shine.

This series incorporates a few fairy tales, including the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the Sleeping Prince (both German in origin, funnily enough), but it gives them a fresh spin and sets them in a new fantasy world where the people have all but forgotten that fairy tales are real. This is one series where the second book was just as good, if not better than the first, so I’m really excited to see where book three takes us.

And that’s it for my holiday reading list, four books might not seem like many to some of you, or it might seem like a lot! I’m a pretty slow reader, but they’re all relatively slim and I can get through a book in two or three days on holiday, especially as the flights to Singapore will be about 16 hours in total!

What’s on your TBR this summer? Have you read any of these? Let me know what you thought in the comments, and recommend any other YA contemporaries you think I’ll love!

Lyndsey