Ten Books You HAVE to Read (sometime)

In no particular order, I present to you......

TEN BOOKS YOU HAVE TO READ (Sometime)

- By RubyRed

Quick note: I've written some genres, my thoughts and then the blurb (no spoilers, I promise!). I've tried to find the blurb that you'd see on the back of the book, but some of them I've had to get off of GoodReads or the product description of Amazon. Most of the books I actually physically have which is good in terms of finding info about them ect.

Thank you and I hope you find something you might like!

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1. A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

Genres: Dark romantic-fantasy fiction.

Part of a series but the ending is good enough that you don't have to commit. (but please do!). Thrilling, intriguing and magical - but in no way predictable or childish. Oh, and the characters are unique. You have to read it to believe it! (I'm on book 2 and it took me about 4 days to finish book 1, and it's worth every cuppa tea!)

Blurb:

FEYRE IS A HUNTRESS

The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at a steep price, and Feyre just killed the wrong wolf...

Taken prisoner by a High Fae Lord, Feyre learns that her masked captor is hiding even more than his piercing gaze suggests. But as Feyre's feelings for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she's heard about his kind, a shadow is falling across the land. And if Feyre cannot fight it, she will lose everything.

2. Forging Silver Into Stars - Brigid Kemmerer

Genres: LGBTQIA+, Romance, Fantasy, Friendship.

Fiction. Interestingly romantic, another fantasy but just that little bit different. (🏳️‍🌈) You'll be up all night and i'm pretty sure there's a sequel coming out. Very addictive and unpredictable, but strong, complex characters with lots of twists and turns. Oh, and it does the "chapter by chapter new perspective" thing...although sometimes it sticks to the same character but mostly it swaps. Don't worry, it's only between a couple of characters so it's not like you have to remember 1000s of names. Overall, a very magical experience that'll leave you itching for a sequel...which I still am *cough cough*

Blurb:

AN ANCIENT MAGIC

Magic has been banished in the kingdom of Syhl Shallow for as long as Jax can remember. Now, times are changing and magic has returned - in the form of a magesmith king on the throne. But magic won't save Jax or his best friend Callyn when the tax collector comes calling.

A NEWFOUND LOVE

Jax and Callyn are desperate enough to take a stranger's silver, and to aid and anti-magical plot against the king. Until Jax develops feelings for the King's Courier, handsome Lord Tycho - a man determined to discover who's conspiring against the throne.

A DARK FATE

Suddenly Jax and Callyn are embroiled in a world of shifting alliances, dangerous flirtations and age-old magic... where even the deepest loyalties will be tested.

3. Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure.

Another fantasy fiction, but this one's less romantic and has more of an adventurous plotline. Romance is a side plot, but it's still there. Very exciting but you have to commit to the series - of course, don't let that stop you, you can always just read book 1. (I personally stopped at book 2 because I get bored easily and there's heaps of other series that intertwine, but this is the FIRST book in the FIRST series, which the other books all relate to, so start here!)

Ps: Don't you dare watch the Netflix series of the same name if you're considering reading it, because this'll spoil all 3 books in the Shadow & Bone series, and it contains the perspectives of characters from Six of Crows (one of the follow-up series that takes place after the events of the Shadow & Bone trilogy). I started the Netflix also, but then realised that it linked all the books together and i didn't want to spoil it for myself - so i can't say how accurate the storyline is to the books, but we all know that the books are always better :)

Blurb:

SOLDIER. SUMMONER. SAINT.

Alina Starkov is a soldier. When her regiment is attacked whilst crossing the Shadow Fold - a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters - Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha - her country's magical military elite - and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

But as Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

4. The Dictionary Of Lost Words - Pip Williams

Genres: Feminism, Historical Fiction, Romance.

An excellent novel. Enough said. Set in the UK and all about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, but follows Esme as she grows up during the time of the suffragist movements and the First World War. Feminist, with a twist of fiction. *chef's kiss* perfection! It has recently been adapted into a play and was #6 on the Australian Fiction Bestsellers list for 2020 and I found that by 2021 it had already sold more than 100,000 copies. A beautiful novel with an interesting message. You won't be able to put it down. And hey! There's a sequel!!

Blurb:

In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme seizes the word and hides it in an old wooden trunk that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women's experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

5. The Girls I've Been - Tess Sharpe

Genres: Thriller, LGTBQIA+, Mystery, (some) Romance, Action.

An unforgettable standalone novel. Definitely worth reading, it keeps you hooked the whole way through, straight into the action with lots of twists and turns. You will never get sick of this book; there is never a dull moment, not a single character left undeveloped, not a single secret left unrevealed. And the ending is acceptable too. As in, you're not left screaming into the void for the author to re-write the last chapter to actually tie up all the loose ends (that's a good thing, by the way). Jumps between the past and the present so you learn more about the main character's story as you go on. High intensity thriller with some romance (🏳️‍🌈).

Blurb: (from Amazon)

Nora O'Malley's been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother's protégé. But when her mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.

For five years Nora's been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:

#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they're all friends, Wes didn't know about her and Iris.

#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It's a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:

#3: Right after they enter the bank, two guys start robbing it.

The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora's something else entirely. They have no idea who they're really holding hostage . . .

6. If We Were Villains - M. L. Rio

*CALLING ALL THEATRE KIDS AND LOVERS OF MURDER MYSTERIES: THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!*

Need I say more?

Genres: Murder mystery, Thriller, Theatre, LGTBQIA+, Crime, Fiction.

(okay, fine. i'll say more. But promise me you'll read it if you have any kind of hint of oooooh this sounds good. which you will. so i don't know why i have to write but nevermind.)

An insanely action-packed theatre filled novel. Amazing. Spectacular. Yes, and i'm running out of things to say. (get it????) Action packed. Romance, murders, crime, so many things - switches perspective, also from past and present. About a tight-knit group of theatre kids at a theatre university. So awesome. Leaves you hanging on each chapter and you're turning the page because it's too good to forget about. Lot's of secrets and mysteries and clues all mixed in with the *perfect* amount of romance. Oh it's so good!!!

Blurb:

ENTER THE PLAYERS. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no farther than the books in front of our faces.

On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and, after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.

A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra.

But, in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' wortld of make-believe. In the morning the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tradgedy and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other and themselves that they are innocent.

7. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Holly Ringland

Genres: Feminism, Australian, Romance, Family, Drama, Fiction.

A very feminist book, set in Australia. Combats themes of domestic violence. Ultimately a very powerful story of self-discovery. Romance. Explores the things that are often too hard to speak. Challenges of family and secrets, and mysteries. A beautiful novel that is thought-provoking, highly memorable and unique.

Blurb:

A captivating novel about how our untold stories haunt us - and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

Nine-year-old Alice Hard grows up in an isolated, idyllic home between sugar cane fields and the sea, where her mother's enchanting flowers and their hidden messages shelter her from the dark moods of her father. When tragedy irrevocably changes her life, Alices goes to live with the grandmother she never new existed, on an Australian native flower farm that gives refuge to women who, like Alice, are lost or broken. In the Victorian tradition, every flowers has a meaning, and as she settles into her new life, Alice uses this language of native flowers to say the things that are too hard to speak.

As she grows older, family secrecy, a devastating betrayal and a man who's not all he seems combine to make Alice realise there are some stories that flowers alone cannot tell. If she is to have the freedom she craves, she must find the courage to possess the most powerful story she knows: her own.

8. Flowers In The Attic - Virginia Andrews

Genres: Gothic, Dark Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Classics.

I cannot explain how good this one was. It is dark, thought provoking, twisted and so addictive it is just something you have to read. I reckon it was one of my Mum's favourites, and she reccomended it this year so i read it and wow. Set aside some nights. You will need coffee, tea, blankets, pillows literally shout for it to rain because this one doesn't stop. A good one for a road trip because jeez louise does it get tense! Very, very, thrilling. And there's more in the series, but you really don't have to. Nothing beats the first book- yes it can get better, but the first book for the first time is just something special - and this one is an unmatched first book, let me tell you! Okay, time for the blurb.

Blurb:

IT WAS A GAME OF HAPPY FAMILIES.

The four children had such perfect lives in such a happy, golden family.

IT WAS A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK.

Their father died suddenly. The children now lived alone, hidden in the airless attic.

IT WAS A CASE OF TENDER, LOVING MURDER.

Their mother promised they would stay only long enough for her to inherit the fortune. But gradually she forgot how much she adored those children.

9. One of Us Is Lying - Karen M. McManus

Genres: Murder Mystery, Thriller, Romance, LGBTQIA+, Fiction, Crime.

An amazing novel, to say the very, very, very least. Karen M. McManus is a BRILLIANT writer - she's done heaps of murder mysteries and i would definitely check out her other books (you won't be disappointed). This one changes perspectives between the main characters (you'll meet them in the blurb) and i'm fairly sure between the past and present. Insanely unpredictable, heaps of plot twists, and she does that thing where they reveal something that makes you think "it's them! they did it!" and then she swaps the perspective. So it's a love-hate relationship that is actually part of a series (One of Us Is Lying, One of Us Is Next, One of Us Is Back). And trust me, you'll end up committing to all 3 which is 100% not a bad thing!

I guarantee you will speed-read through this one, you literally lose any self control - you say to yourself:

"Okay, one more chapter, then lights off. It's 10:32, time to sleep."

*12 chapters later*

"UGHHH THIS BOOK IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUEEEE"

(Yes, i'm exaggerating, but i mean it, this novel is incredible)

Blurb:

FIVE STUDENTS WALK INTO DETENTION. ONLY FOUR LEAVE ALIVE.

Yale hopeful BRONWYN has never publicly broken a rule.

Sports star COOPER only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond.

Bad boy NATE is one misstep away from a life of crime.

Prom queen ADDY is holding together the cracks

And outsider SIMON, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again. He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.

Everyone has secrets, right?

What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them.

10. Blueback - Tim Winton

Genres: Australian, Environment, Coming-Of-Age.

This one's a short one, but beautiful nonetheless. My dad recommended it, like "hey, you should read this" and next minute my nose was knee-deep in the plot, which happens to be short, sharp, and absolutely brilliant. (ha, shiny). I read this one a few years ago, but it's an easy read that's very meaningful. And very Australian, which is also nice. Tim Winton is one of our very well known authors and he's written HEAPS but I reckon this one is a good place to start.

Also, there is a movie. Like I've said before, I cannot say how good it is, as I have not seen it. It does look good, but please, the book is always better. Besides, it's one thing to read something, it's another to watch it, especially for the first time. I watched The Hobbit (LOTR), Twilight and The Hunger Games before I even thought to read them, and now I don't want to read them..I'm stubborn like that but now the story is a bit too predictable..

Blurb (GoodReads):

An ecologically sensitive story about a boy named Abel, who grows up loving the sea and develops an enduring relationship with a large grouper that inspires him to save his homestead.

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And that's all! Thank you all for reading, I hope you found something that caught your eye! I will probably end up updating the list sometime next year, but until then, happy reading!

- Red <3