Seven series to start this summer!

Series were something I fell out of love with for a little while. When I was younger I adored series! I loved spending a long time with the same set of characters, watching them grow and change and waiting to see if all of the characters I loved would still be there when the adventure eventually came to an end. I don't think I'm being melodramatic when I say my teen years were defined by the release of the next Harry Potter book and film; the books I adored, but the films went from fun Christmas treats at the cinema to, from the fourth film onwards, the summer blockbusters my friends and I looked forward to when school came to an end for the year.

Then, thanks to the Twilight franchise, publishers started to take YA publishing seriously and YA series became the new thing. Unfortunately, while I think YA publishing has done far, far more good than bad, it's actually YA I have to thank for my falling out of love with series. When YA first started out there were trends (there still are, but I don't think they have quite as much of an impact on the kind of stories that get published as they used to) from vampires to dystopian fiction that turned every YA trilogy into exactly the same story. There were the same tropes, the same love interests, the same basic story arc to the point where I could guess what was going to happen in a sequel before it even came out, and it turned series into something I loved to immerse myself in to something I was bored of.

This wasn't entirely a bad thing. Over the past few years I've developed such a love and appreciation for well-told standalone novels and, nine times out of ten, I'd much rather read a standalone to a series now. This year, though, thanks to the fantastic Six of Crows duology, I've rediscovered my love for a truly good series.

It's something of a running joke with me that my entire reading life is defined by series I either haven't started or haven't finished, but that's something I'd like to get better at, so today I thought I'd talk about seven series I'd like to start this summer! Some are long, some are short, some are new, some are old, and they're all books I'm excited to read.

This is one I've already mentioned this month and one I'm hoping to get to very soon! The first half of a duology, The Abyss Surrounds Us features pirates and sea monsters and a sapphic romance which I am so here for. Frankly I'm surprised we don't have more LGBT+ pirate stories, particularly stories featuring women, considering Mary Read and Anne Bonny were rumoured to be lovers.

I keep seeing Children of Blood and Bone everywhere - not that I'm surprised; that cover is gorgeous - and friends of mine who've read it have nothing but brilliant things to say about it. I've mentioned several times this year that I've rediscovered my love for high fantasy and I'm keen to read more African and Asian-inspired high fantasy. Not only is this fantasy world African-inspired, but it also includes one of my favourite fantasy tropes: magic banned by those in power. I can't wait for this one.

I had no real intention of getting this one when it came out; I've tried reading Kate Mosse's Labyrinth before and ended up DNFing it because it was so long and nothing happened for what felt like an eternity. The Burning Chambers is another beast, but it's historical fiction set during one of my favourite periods of history - the 1500s - featuring the religious turmoil at this time that I have always found fascinating. More than anything this story sounds like an adventure and I'm hoping to get lost in it this summer.

Robin Hobb has been on my TBR for far too long, so it's about time I read Assassin's Apprentice. I've heard so many wonderful things about this series and this world and, if I fall in love with it like I'm hoping to, there are so many more books for me to enjoy!

Fun fact: Set a story in a nunnery and I'm 100000000% more likely to read it. Turn the nuns who inhabit (get it?) that nunnery into assassins and I am THERE. Still haven't started this series, though. Oops. I actually tried reading Red Sister when it first came out after receiving a copy through NetGalley but I couldn't get into it despite seeing so many rave reviews, so I decided to put it down and I recently bought myself my own copy to give it another try.

I'm going to be completely honest and say I had no desire to read this until very recently. I remember it coming out and not paying much attention to it, but I recently received a bookmark promoting the sequel in a FairyLoot box and decided to look into Flame in the Mist again and realised that, actually, it sounds like something I'd really enjoy. I'm trying to read more books set in Asia, I feel like it's a continent that's been neglected in my reading, and another of my favourite tropes is girls posing as boys so I am ready to dive into this one.

Seanan McGuire is one of my faves - I'm still not over Feed and never will be, so thanks for that Seanan - and I've been meaning to read her October Daye series for years. Urban fantasy isn't something I read often but, when I do, I devour it in humungous gulps until I'm stuffed on it. I'm also not a big fan of faerie books, not sure why, but I'm looking forward to seeing McGuire's take on the fae in Rosemary and Rue and, if I enjoy it, devouring the rest of the enormous series. I know Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies loves this series so I'm hoping I will, too.

Do you read a lot of series, or are you more of a standalone reader? What are some of your favourite series? And are there any series you're planning to start or finish this summer?

Top Ten Tuesday | My Winter TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR' - hooray for themed TBRs which, if you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I love! 

I love reading books set in cold landscapes during the winter, such as Hannah Kent's Burial Rites and Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves, but I also love trying to tackle high fantasy and fat, epic novels that I can totally escape to in the winter, when the nights are dark and the candles are lit.

The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin: I'm half way through The Obelisk Gate at the moment but my reading year's been so poor I've accidentally left it despite having pre-ordered, and now also owning, a copy of The Stone Sky. I'd love to get this trilogy finished because I really enjoyed The Fifth Season and I want to know where this story's going!

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb: Frankly it's criminal that I haven't read any Robin Hobb and I've owned my copy of Assassin's Apprentice for a while now, so it's about time I got to it. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) enjoying a long series in which I can follow one character from childhood through to adulthood.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: My lovely friend Natalie @ A Sea Change really enjoyed this book and it sounds like a lot of fun - I'm all for a heist story, and I liked Bardugo's story in Summer Days and Summer Nights so I'm interested in reading one of her novels.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: I tried reading this one earlier this year and, sadly, couldn't get into it, but I want to give it another chance. I've heard such wonderful things about Lawrence as a fantasy writer and I'm always drawn to stories set in nunneries so I'm hoping to, if not love, then at least like this one the second time around.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: Natalie @ A Sea Change also loves this one and I still haven't read it because it's such a beast, but I think it'd be the ideal book to curl up with over winter and experience.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu: I don't know why I didn't realise it sooner, but over the past year or so I've really begun to notice just how European the high fantasy I'm familiar with is. I'd like to discover more Asian and African-inspired fantasy realms and this series sounds very intriguing - I've heard very good things thus far!

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: This is one of my favourite books of all time and I haven't reread it yet this year, so I think it'll be fun to curl up with it over Christmas. I love Maia so much.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I've been meaning to start this series for a few years now, but there are almost ten books in the series now and each one is huge. So many people I know love this series, however, and I'd really like to watch the TV adaptation - I just want to read the book(s) first!

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Another chunky book and one that I think at least begins around Christmas time, so it's a fitting read for the winter. This is about a history student who time travels back to the Middle Ages during the outbreak of the Black Death, only to get stuck there. I've heard it's amazing so I'm looking forward to picking it up (hopefully) soon!

Which books made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | O Captain! My Captain!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Authors I'm Dying To Meet / Ten Authors I Can't Believe I've Met  (some other "meeting authors" type spin you want to do)'. You may or may not know this, I have no idea, but I studied Creative Writing for four years at university and got tutored by some brilliant writers, but today I thought I'd talk about some of the authors I wish I'd been able to have some lessons with while I was a student - they're all writers I still wouldn't say no to a lesson with now!

Sarah Waters: I love Waters' fiction, The Little Stranger is one of my favourite books, and I think the stories she chooses to tell are fantastic. The focus of my MA was how historical fiction can be used as a tool to write women, the LGBT+ community, poc and any other form of 'other' back into history, so to be tutored by a woman who specialises in LGBT+ historical fiction would have been amazing.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I read Adichie's story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, earlier this year and loved it. She's also a very political, outspoken person and I think I could learn an awful lot from her.

Margaret Atwood: The woman's a genius, what more is there to say?

Samantha Ellis: Some Creative Writing MA courses in the UK make you choose between focusing on solely prose or solely poetry, but what I liked about my course at Lancaster University was that you could explore anything you wanted to. Having said that, I've never tried my hand at writing scripts and I think part of that is because we didn't have any tutors who specialised in them, and Ellis is a playwright as well as a writer of non-fiction. She also seems like a genuinely nice human being and I think a workshop with her would be really interesting - if nothing else we could gush about Anne Brontë together.

Alison Weir: I haven't actually read any of Weir's books yet (something I'm hoping to change this year!) but I think she'd've been a great tutor for me during my MA because she's both a historian and a novelist, and I think I could have learned a lot about knowing when to separate fact from fiction and knowing how much research to do without driving myself around the bend as I sometimes found myself doing.

Gail Carriger: I've been struggling to write fiction since I finished uni and entered the world of full-time work, which I'm finding really frustrating and it's making me lose my confidence when I sit down to finish an incomplete short story, and there's something about Carriger's work that seems so indulgent and fun that I think a workshop with her would encourage me to actually get some words on the page.

Angela Carter: Sadly Carter died in 1992 when I was a measly 4 months old so I'll never have the opportunity to be taught by her, and, if I'm being honest, I'm not actually the biggest fan of her work aside from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. She did teach at the University of East Anglia, one of the best unis in the UK for Creative Writing, and I think workshops with her must have been fascinating because she was so radical.

Robin Hobb: Another author I haven't read but I'm planning to read this year. I think we can all agree that Hobb is the biggest female author in the world of high fantasy and I think she'd have a lot to teach me about building a whole world, with its own countries and cultures and environment, from scratch.

Kurtis J. Wiebe: Something else I wasn't able to explore at uni is writing for comics and graphic novels, and as Rat Queens is my favourite graphic novel series I'd be happy to have a workshop all about writing for comics with Wiebe.

Roald Dahl: Yet another author who has shuffled off this mortal coil, and one who would be 100 now if he was still alive. Dahl died the year before I was born but he was still a huge part of my childhood - I got my dad to read Fantastic Mr. Fox to me so many times that I think we both knew it by heart - can you imagine having a workshop about writing for children with this man? Yes please.

Who did you talk about this week?

Author Shame!

No matter how much we read there are always going to be those books that we just haven't gotten round to yet. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us.

However, there are a few authors out there that I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read yet, and today I'm going to share some of them with you so you can judge me from afar!

J.R.R. Tolkien

I think Tolkien is the one author on this list I am most ashamed at not having read yet. I've been meaning to read The Lord of the Rings for years - I actually mentioned it in my 2014 Booket List! - because I absolutely love the films. I love the story, but I've always been rather intimated by the book/s themselves (I have a boxset with three separate books, but I know some people prefer The Lord of the Rings as one entire volume).

I'm determined to at least start read The Lord of the Rings this year!

Daphne du Maurier

Like The Lord of the Rings, Rebecca has been on my TBR for a long time now, and earlier this year I acquired a second hand copy in excellent condition from a charity shop, so now I really have no excuse not to have read any du Maurier.

Honestly I'm not entirely sure why I haven't read any of her novels yet. I suppose it could simply be that I didn't want to pay the full price for a book (books seem to be getting more and more expensive!) that I probably wasn't going to read straight away. I'm eager to read Rebecca now that I finally have my own copy, and I'd love to read Frenchman's Creek and some of du Maurier's short fiction, too!

Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is a well known name in the fantasy genre, and I'm ashamed to say that it wasn't until last year that I realised she's a woman! This realisation has made me even more eager to read her books, because it's a rarity to come across entire shelves in the fantasy section taken up by the works of a female author. It's a sad fact, but it's true.

Hopefully I can get my hand on one of her books this year and read it - I'm particularly interested in her Rain Wild Chronicles!

H.G. Wells

I love me some Victorian Literature - in fact when it comes to classics I turn to the Victorians more than any other era, so I'm sure you can imagine just how ashamed I am to admit I've never read any Wells. One of the big reasons for this is, until this year in particular, I haven't been all that interested in science fiction. Now that I'm becoming more interested in the genre, however, I'd love to read some more classic science fiction - after all, one of my favourite classics of all time, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, is considered to be the very first science fiction novel!

I'm not too bothered about picking up The Time Machine - no idea why - but I'd love to read The Island of Doctor Moreau soon!

Now you have knowledge you can hold against me in future - oh no! Are there any authors you're ashamed not to have read yet?

J.

TBR | High Fantasy

Earlier this month I talked about my sci-fi TBR, so today I thought I'd talk about high fantasy because considering fantasy is one of my favourite genres, I really don't read enough of it!

Today I've compiled a list of ten high fantasy books that are currently on my TBR list and need to be ticked off soon. I've decided to stay away from Tolkien, Martin, Pierce and Le Guin - hopefully you might find something here you haven't heard of before if I stay away from the obvious choices!

I've also decided to stay from any series continuations or authors I've already read, so all ten of these books are the first in a series and are all by authors I have yet to read.

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss

I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant "to know".

I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson

A thousand years ago evil came to the land. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk labor as slaves in volcanic ash fields. A troublemaker arrives. A rumored revolt depends on an untrustworthy criminal and a young girl who must master Allomancy, metal magic.

The Emperor's Blades

by Brian Staveley

When the emperor of Annur is murdered, his children must fight to uncover the conspiracy—and the ancient enemy—that effected his death.

Kaden, the heir apparent, was for eight years sequestered in a remote mountain monastery, where he learned the inscrutable discipline of monks devoted to the Blank God. Their rituals hold the key to an ancient power which Kaden must master before it’s too late. When an imperial delegation arrives to usher him back to the capital for his coronation, he has learned just enough to realize that they are not what they seem—and enough, perhaps, to successfully fight back.

Meanwhile, in the capital, his sister Adare, master politician and Minister of Finance, struggles against the religious conspiracy that seems to be responsible for the emperor’s murder. Amid murky politics, she’s determined to have justice—but she may be condemning the wrong man.

Their brother Valyn is struggling to stay alive. He knew his training to join the Kettral— deadly warriors who fly massive birds into battle—would be arduous. But after a number of strange apparent accidents, and the last desperate warning of a dying guard, he’s convinced his father’s murderers are trying to kill him, and then his brother. He must escape north to warn Kaden—if he can first survive the brutal final test of the Kettral.

The Dragon Keeper

by Robin Hobb

Too much time has passed since the powerful dragon Tintaglia helped the people of the Trader cities stave off an invasion of their enemies. The Traders have forgotten their promises, weary of the labor and expense of tending earthbound dragons who were hatched weak and deformed by a river turned toxic. If neglected, the creatures will rampage--or die--so it is decreed that they must move farther upriver toward Kelsingra, the mythical homeland whose location is locked deep within the dragons' uncertain ancestral memories.

Thymara, an unschooled forest girl, and Alise, wife of an unloving and wealthy Trader, are among the disparate group entrusted with escorting the dragons to their new home. And on an extraordinary odyssey with no promise of return, many lessons will be learned--as dragons and tenders alike experience hardships, betrayals . . . and joys beyond their wildest imaginings.

The Book of Three

by Lloyd Alexander

Taran dreams of adventure, but nothing exciting ever happens to an Assistant Pig-Keeper--until his pig runs away. A chase through the woods leads Taran far from home and into great danger, for evil prowls the land of Prydain. With a collection of strange and wonderful friends whom he meets on his journey, Taran finds himself fighting so that good may triumph over evil--and so that his beloved home will not fall to a diabolical fiend.

Wit'ch Fire

by James Clemens

On a fateful night five centuries ago, three made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.

Fleeing the minions of darkness, Elena is swept toward certain doom-and into the company of unexpected allies. Aided by a one-armed warrior and a strange seer, she forms a band of the hunted and the cursed, the outcasts and the outlaws, to battle the unstoppable forces of evil and rescue a once-glorious empire...

Eon

by Alison Goodman

Sixteen-year-old Eon has a dream, and a mission. For years, he's been studying sword-work and magic, toward one end. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye-an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune.

But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured.

When Eon's secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne. Eon must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic...and her life.

Falling Kingdoms

by Morgan Rhodes

In a land where magic has been forgotten but peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest is simmering. Three kingdoms grapple for power—brutally transforming their subjects' lives in the process. Amidst betrayals, bargains, and battles, four young people find their fates forever intertwined:

Cleo: A princess raised in luxury must embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of a magic long thought extinct.

Jonas: Enraged at injustice, a rebel lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country impoverished—and finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Lucia: A girl adopted at birth into a royal family discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Magnus: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, a firstborn son begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword. . . .

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

The Lies of Locke Lamora

by Scott Lynch

An orphan's life is harsh — and often short — in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains — a man who is neither blind nor a priest.

A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected "family" of orphans — a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.

Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld's most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful — and more ambitious — than Locke has yet imagined. 

Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi's most trusted men — and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr's underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game — or die trying...

The Assassin's Curse

by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. 

To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks--all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic... and the growing romantic tension between them.

I hope you came across something here that you haven't before, but if you're a fantasy buff who's read all the books I've mentioned here feel free to tell me which one I should read first!

What are some of your favourite fantasy reads?

J.