I’ve written before about how I don’t believe that an out of control TBR is a bad thing. I don’t feel pressured to keep my list of unread books low. Having a big pile of unread books gives me a whole library to love and explore at the right time for each book. Which means that I have rather a lot of books sitting on my shelves waiting for me to find that right moment and mood to read each one. I would rather wait a while and read each book at the best possible time for me to get the most value from it, and love it as much as possible, rather than read them whether I feel like it or not just because I feel like I have to keep my TBR as close to zero as possible. So, today I thought I would share my top five books that are waiting for just the right time to read. Let me know if any of these books are on your reading list too.
Zeroes
Scott Westerfield | Margo Lanagan | Deborah Biancotti
Don’t call them heroes.
But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. They can do stuff ordinary people can’t.
Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t—like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.
Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group’s “glorious leader.” After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. And at the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.
I actually own the first two books in this series, Zeroes and Swarm but so far I haven’t read either of them. I love books about superheroes and people with amazing abilities though, so I know that this book is going to be right up my alley when I do finally read them. I especially like the fact that the emphasis with the powers in this book seems to be the fact that each one of them exacts a price for using it. I love it when amazing powers have a cost to using them. There’s so much you could do with this idea, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Zeroes does with it.
Demon Road
Derek Landy
Killer cars, vampires, undead serial killers: they’re all here. And the demons? Well, that’s where Amber comes in…
Sixteen years old, smart and spirited, she’s just a normal American teenager until the lies are torn away and the demons reveal themselves.
Forced to go on the run, she hurtles from one threat to another, revealing a tapestry of terror woven into the very fabric of her life. Her only chance rests with her fellow travellers, who are not at all what they appear to be…
I’m a huge fan of Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series, with its awesome skeleton detective and the idea of magic in the real world. I love his whole style of writing so much. I know that Demon Road is likely to be quite different, maybe due to the fact that it’s about demons and not skeletons in fancy hats, but I trust his writing, and as I liked his other series so much, I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in the Demon Road series. Plus I do like it when characters suddenly make huge discoveries, like realising that magic is real, or that demons exist, and it all turns their lives completely upside down.
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since I first heard about it through NaNoWriMo, which is another of my great loves. I think this is the first book written during a NaNoWriMo that I ever heard of being published, closely followed by Water for Elephants. I fell in love with the whole circus concept as soon as I read the blurb. I mean, who doesn’t love the circus? And a magical circus sounds even better. I’m looking forward to falling under the spell of this book with its competition, romance, magic and stunning spectacles.
The Boy Who Steals Houses
C. G. Drews
Can two broken boys find their perfect home?
Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.
But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.
I read C. G. Drews’ other book A Thousand Perfect Notes a while back and I just fell in love with her style of writing. I loved her sweet and broken characters who are just trying to survive in a world that isn’t really kind to them, and who are passionate about the things that they really love. I know that The Boy Who Steals Houses continues this wonderful style of writing, and my sisters, who have all read this book already have told me that I’m going to love it, so I’m looking forward to diving into this story of two brothers who just want a home and a family to love them.
The Knife Of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
I’ve had the gorgeous 10th anniversary set of the Chaos Walking series sitting on the shelve attached to my desk for quite a long time. I love their beautiful black covers with the confused noise of words hiding in the background. I’ve actually started reading this book once before, but while I love the concept, and I did like the writing, it wasn’t the right time to read it the whole way through. I know that once I pick it up again, I’m going to really love it, and I’ll read the whole series right through. It’s still just waiting for the right time.
These are my top 5 books that are still waiting for the right time for me to read them. But I’d love to hear from you. Are any of these books on your reading list? Do you hold onto books to read at the right time, or do you prefer to read them straight away? Are there any books that you’ve been holding onto for a long time, but haven’t read yet? Let’s chat!
These are my top 5 books that are still waiting for the right time for me to read them. But I’d love to hear from you. Are any of these books on your reading list? Do you hold onto books to read at the right time, or do you prefer to read them straight away? Are there any books that you’ve been holding onto for a long time, but haven’t read yet? Let’s chat!
Looking for a new book to add to your reading list? Why not check out y brand new novel Frost Hands? It’s an awesome YA sci-fi novel about teens with mutant abilities, rebellions, secret agents, and doing the right thing the the toughest of times. I think you’ll love it. Frost Hands is available on Amazon now in print and ebook. Check it out! And while you’re at it, why not add Frost Hands on Goodreads too?
Photo by Rabie Madaci on Unsplash
