Top 10 Authors Whose Books I've Consumed the Most

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the fabulous folks over at 'The Broke & The Bookish'. Want to take part? Follow the link and check out the upcoming topics!

This week it's all about the authors we've read the most books from. I'm always one for re-reading, so if it was the most read books this would be a different list entirely, but these are all authors who have written a staggering amount of books which I have greedily devoured. For the purposes of not stressing my little brain out I'm not going to include novellas unless they have been published in a physical book that I can hold in my hands, otherwise this is just going to get confusing...
So without further ado, here are the top ten authors I have read the most books from, including a handy little tally to tell you just how many of their books I have consumed.

Julia Quinn
Total Books Read: 29
My love affair with historical romance started with Julia Quinn (who has written a truly staggering number of books) when I read the seventh book in a series and promptly fell in love and devoured every other book of hers I could get my little mitts on. There are one or two that I'm saving for when I need a pick me up, but otherwise I have a rather large shelf of Julia's books - perfect summer reading, or the ideal chicken soup book when you're feeling a bit down. It's like picking favourite children, but I definitely recommend starting with the Bridgerton's if you're yet to explore Julia's books, but don't feel you have to read them in order!
(Plus I'm stupidly proud of my collection of the original American covers with the swoony stepbacks (cue heaving bosoms and shirtless rakes...)

Eloisa James
Total Books Read: 20
Reading Julia's books led me to pick up Eloisa's, who is another titan in the romance world and writes some of the cleverest, wittiest and swoonworthy-est books around. Her Desperate Duchesses are the most wonderful books, ones that I push on unsuspecting people complaining that there's no real brains or plot behind romance books. Read them and fall in love - then read all her other books. Also try her non-fiction book 'Paris in Love' about the year her and her family moved to France. A little slice of Parisian life in tiny snapshots and anecdotes.

Sarah Rees Brennan
Total Books Read: 9
Ah Sarah, how do I love thy books? Let me count the ways...
1) Your characters are incredible. Funny, brilliant, with depth and nuances, so that I fall in love with the characters with questionable morals.
2) Your plots. You twist brilliant plots that leave me gaping like a little fish because I NEVER SEE THEM COMING (which is a small miracle for me)
3) Your writing. I let my Husband read The Lynburn Legacy and when he finished (once he had dried his tears and stopped rending his clothing) he said that he had never read a book where the writing was felt so much from the heart. (Basically our household is now team SRB-TAKE OUR SOULZ)
(Numbers 4 - 1000 are basically me waxing lyrical about all the aspects and nuances and favourite moments, but I thought that it might get a little long if I detailed them all. Basically insert heart eyes and flailing here.)

Deanna Raybourn
Total Books Read: 10
Queen of historical for me will always be Deanna Raybourn. She creates such wonderfully real, flawed and human characters, twisting plots with gasp moments galore, and mysteries that unfold piece by brilliant piece. I love her books, all of them, but my favourites will always be the Lady Julia Grey series. Julia came along at just the right time for me and they are a series of books that I return to again and again.



Tamora Pierce
Total Books Read: 26
Tamora shaped my entire love of reading and the types of books I love to read. One fateful day I was browsing the shelves in the school library, becoming increasingly frustrated with what books were available when I stumbled across a slim purple volume titled 'In The Hand of the Goddess' which informed me it was the second in the Song of the Lioness Quartet. Unwilling to wait for the first book in the quartet to be returned I started with the second book. I never looked back. Because of Tamora I adore strong female characters, I love fantasy worlds, I love magic and complex relationships and love without shame. This book, and the series, gave me everything and I cannot fathom how different my reading would be without them. I since went on to devour almost every other book she's written, although I have yet to catch up on the second two books in the Beka Cooper trilogy, and Battle Magic. 

Maria V Snyder
Total Books Read: 10
Whilst I haven't been as much of a fan of Maria's last couple of books, I still love her stories and the worlds and characters she's created. Poison Study remains an all time favourite fantasy book for me, and I can still remember the excitement and thrill of discovering another fantasy world that I could get lost in and explore, and she hasn't disappointed, offering insights into the world through different characters and a whole host of exciting and thrilling stories.


Maggie Stiefvater
Total Books Read: 7
My love affair with Maggie's books began with 'The Scorpio Races' and I have never looked back. Whilst I love all of her books, her work from 'The Scorpio Races' on through The Raven Cycle is out of this world. The prose is divine and lyrical and so deceptively simple and beautiful. The characters complex and filled with humanity and you cannot help but fall in love with them. The setting utterly incredible and the stories are just, wow. Maggie's imagination will never cease to amaze me, and I will never be over 'The Scorpio Races' and 'The Raven Cycle'. They are utterly out of this world, the books I would save first in a fire, and the audiobooks I fall asleep listening to night after night.

Jean Estoril
Total Books Read: 12
These books are effectively my childhood. The Drina books (of which there are eleven) were a staple part of my bookish diet as a child, and are books that I come back to even now. They are books that my Mum read when she was younger, and still reads to this day. They are books I want my kids to read. They are timeless and brilliant and I love them. Estoril also wrote several other ballet books, but nothing will ever quite top the Drina books for me.


Rachel Vincent
Total Books Read: 11
Rachel has written so many incredible books. She is the Mistress of twisty delicious romances that you're never sure how they could possible work, and creates such unique and different stories. I adore her Soul Screamers series - they were different, bold and went in whole new and exciting directions at a time when so many YA books were coming out like copies of the same thing. I'm so excited about the start of her new series 'The Stars Never Rise' and I've fallen in love with the romance all over again. In fact it's made me want to go back and revisit the Soul Screamers...
I haven't gotten along so well with her adult books, mainly because they are a lot darker and tackle much harder subjects, but they are still incredible books.


Cassandra Clare
Total Books Read: 11
Love, hate, or feel mildly ambivalent about her books and the ever expanding world of the Shadowhunters, one thing is for sure, Cassie is consistently writing very long, engrossing books. I prefer the original trilogy of TMI and The Infernal Devices, but then I am a sucker for historical novels. Regardless though, Cassie's books have become a staple in the YA section and I'm always curious to see what she does next. She's created such an incredible and engrossing world with her stories and such a diverse and well loved cast of characters. It's phenomenal and I'm so excited to see her latest books as well as the Shadowhunters TV series.

There are quite a few authors who clock in at seven books and it was hard to work out who to include and who not to, so notable mentions go to JK Rowling (I need to get on and read her adult books, but I'm still just so in love with Harry Potter...) Terry Pratchett (I know, I know, I need to read more of him) and Neil Gaiman. As well as Belinda Jones and Sophie Kinsella.

So there you have my top ten most read authors. Do we share any? Or do you think there are other authors I should be picking up instead? Let me know and link me to your own top tens in the comments below!

Review: Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman

Publication Date: August 25^th 2015
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 384 pages

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains, and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn and in their ashes, empires rise. 
Alexander, Macedon's sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world, but finds himself drawn to a newcomer… 
Katerina must navigate the dark secrets of court life, while keeping hidden her own mission: kill the queen. But she doesn't account for her first love… 
Jacob will go to unthinkable lengths to win Katerina, even if it means competing with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. 
And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander's unmet fiancée, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

This has been one of my most anticipated books of the year, so I was incredibly eager to get stuck in, but unfortunately what could have been a fantastic book ends up tying itself up in knots.

That blurb looks awesome, and yes there is a lot going for this book, but there are a few big stumbling blocks which mean that you’re either really going to get along with it, or end up hating it and unfortunately I fell into the latter camp.

The biggest issue for me is that the entire story is told in third person present tense, not a style you see used often, and for good reason. Done well it can be used to great effect, but unfortunately in this instance it just ends up slowing the story down dramatically, and not allowing the reader to connect with any of the characters. You’re told how they feel and what they think, you’re not really able to experience anything with them and that stunts any sort of connection that would otherwise be built. Add to that the fact that every tiny minute detail is strung out in excruciating detail and I ended up skimming and skipping a lot because nothing was happening. For example, a character is walking to the stables, we don’t just get a brief ‘hey look, walking to the stables’ we get a whole page of left turn, right turn, walking through some archways, round the back of a building, past the blacksmiths, through another door and down some steps and then we’re there, and it doesn’t add anything to the story. It just slows it down, frustrates the reader and left me wishing someone had edited this a little.

Then there’s the pacing, like I’ve said the writing style slows everything down and I found myself growing increasingly bored. No real action happens until around 85% of the way through. You get odd little side plots, but there’s nothing driving the story, it’s all stagnant. Stretch that over so many different character points of view and you end up running into major problems. All but one of the characters can all be found in roughly the same place, so it isn’t so jarring skipping back and forth between them all. Zo on the other hand has no real ties to anyone or anything and I found her plot thread to not add anything and just left me feeling frustrated (again) at the lack of any real purpose behind her story. I’m sure there will be a purpose emerge in the next book, but that isn’t good enough. If you’re going to have that many characters, either make their stories compelling all the way through the series, or condense their stories and introduce them later.

This whole book was an exercise in frustration. I didn’t connect to the characters, the pacing was terrible, odd modern phrases crept through with alarming regularity and nothing really happens. I had to force myself to keep reading, which is a terrible state of affairs for a book that I had been so excited about reading.

The premise is great, and there is a lot of potential with all those characters and story threads for this to really pick up in the next book, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make me want to find out what happens to any of them.
I wanted to feel, I wanted to get swept up in this epic plot I was promised, I wanted to care about these characters and instead I just felt bored and grumpy that I'd wasted my time.

Review: Night Owls by Jenn Bennett

Publication Date: August 13^th 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Children’s Books
Length: 272 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK Children’s Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Artist Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she's spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Leonardo da Vinci’s footsteps, she's ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
Jack is charming, wildly attractive… and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in Beatrix’s own family’s closet tear them apart?

Side note: This book has been published under two different titles, because, you know, it’s fun to confuse people. So whilst you may know it as Night Owls, you may also know it as ‘The Anatomical Shape of a Heart’ (which has a much cooler cover and I wants it now) and really I’m not sure why this has happened, but it has. Let the confusion commence! Double side note, I’ve nabbed the blurb from TASOAH because it is SO MUCH BETTER than the one given to Night Owls.

So this book guys, I need to hug it, and stroke it, and generally just not let it out of my sight for a while because I loved it so much. It’s definitely one of my top books of the year with a host of brilliant characters, swoon-worthy romance and an interesting and surprising plot.

I fell in love with Bex and Jack, they were such fresh and original characters – engaging, interesting and so desperately real. They do not come across as your average YA romance types – Bex is an artist determined to make it drawing anatomical studies and Jack is a rockabilly graffiti artist creating stunning yet odd pieces of art across the city.

They meet by chance and from that first amusing conversation and heated staring match across the bus aisle, I was hooked. Whilst there is so much more to the story, the romance really drives it. It’s a gorgeous romance and is portrayed so brilliantly and realistically – all the aspects, rather than just the early smushy stuff.

Whilst we have much easier access to Bex’s thoughts and emotions as the story is given to us through her, I loved that we got to see fleshed out characters, situations and families for both Jack and Bex. They were such vivid characters, unique, fascinating and complex. I don’t want to spoil anything for the story, so I’m going to stay vague, but suffice to say I loved it. I loved them and I’m having a hard time putting it into words how much.

This is so much more than a teen romance. As with all of my favourite YA romances it is packed with incredibly real characters and issues that make this a really engrossing read, with the romance adding extra squishy feelings on top. I loved how much time is spent looking at family, as both Bex and Jack have very different family lives and situations and it was interesting seeing them tackle the problems that arose, learning how to be their own people as well as a part of a family unit. There were even several emotional moments where I got a little bit teary eyed when it came to the resolutions of the family storylines.

The writing is gorgeous and down to earth with Bex’s clear voice, her humour, her hopes and fears, all shining through in some truly gorgeous turns of phrase.

“And then he was kissing me like we were both on fire and he was trying to put the flames out, and I kissed him back like an arsonist with a pocketful of matches.”

This is an awesome book, one that took me by surprise and swept me off my feet. It’s funny, it’s unique and it’s now a firm favourite. If you like your romances with a bit of hidden depths, this is a must read.

Review: Darkmere by Helen Maslin

Publication Date: August 6^th 2015
Publisher: Chicken House
Length: 368 pages

Huge thanks to Chicken House for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

A castle. A curse. A dangerous summer. Leo has invited Kate and a few friends to spend the summer at his inheritance, Darkmere Castle: as wild and remote as it is beautiful. Kate thinks it will be the perfect place for her and Leo to get together - but instead, she's drawn into the dark story of a young nineteenth-century bride who haunts the tunnels and towers of the house. And whose curse now hangs over them all.

This book was delightfully creepy, and in some places downright terrifying. Seriously, I had to take Joey’s advice and put it in the freezer and take a time out at one point. (If you do not get that reference go and watch Friends, now.) (If you don’t believe me there is photographic evidence…)

I do not normally read scary books, I am a non-scary things kinda person. Don’t do horror films, don’t do scary books – so this was quite a departure for me, but it was so good that it was totally worth the nightmares. (Also true, ask my husband, I was jabbering about there being ghosts and creepy things in the house trying to kill me…)

It’s a dual narrative, one point of view with Kate who’s a very modern girl out for a summer adventure with a band of people from school including the enigmatic Leo who has just inherited this supposedly cursed castle. Then there’s Elinor, the original St Cloud bride, who finds herself trapped in an increasingly desperate and frightening situation. I found myself caring equally for both girls by the end, although during the story I would find myself favouring one over the other purely as the narrative fluxed over each high tension point and then relaxed again. I loved watching the two girls stories flesh out, seeing how they intertwined and watching events snowball out of control as all the pieces came crashing together for a truly nail biting climax.

This is a book that isn’t afraid to go all out and scare the pants off you. Some books will shy away from committing when there are ghostly elements involved, wanting to keep you guessing, but Helen decides firmly on her stance with this book and then brings out the big guns to weave an underlying tension that grows and tightens throughout, but also peaks into some truly chilling scenes along the way.

It’s an intriguing mix of characters, and I loved how you start out with a certain set of stereotypes in the modern thread, but those are gradually picked apart and evolve into three dimensional people. Every person starts out as the front they offer to the world, and I loved watching the castle, the isolation and the atmosphere chip away at each of them so that what you’re left with at the end are some very different people to those you thought were embarking on this summer holiday. Most notable is Kate, and I loved watching her start to embrace who she is, to come to terms with aspects of herself, and to start to break down some walls.

This is a fantastic book, a terrifying and brilliant debut from Helen, and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

Review: Remix by Non Pratt

Publication Date: June 4^th 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Children’s Books
Length: 304 pages

From the author of Trouble comes a new novel about boys, bands and best mates.
Kaz is still reeling from being dumped by the love of her life... Ruby is bored of hearing about it. Time to change the record.
Three days. Two best mates. One music festival. Zero chance of everything working out.

This book was a bit of a mixed read for me, I loved a lot of it, but there were some aspects that really didn’t work for me.

I loved Ruby and Kaz’s relationship, how well they knew each other and how deep their love and loyalty to the other went. But unfortunately there would be no story if everything was peachy, so watching the miscommunications and anger and frustrations build up was painful because you could see that they would work together (and do) so well, but they weren’t managing it now and as it hurt each of them, it hurts to read it. Being able to see into each of their heads meant that the reader is privy to the thoughts, the angst, the moments when the other doesn’t quite understand or misreads the situation. It’s a fascinating situation to be in because we can understand and sympathise with both points of view.

I loved the complex relationships with everyone around them – the sibling relationships, the exes and their fractured relationships, friendships and parental relationships. Non tackles all of them with a deft skill and offers an incredibly realistic view on all of these plus all the extra complexities of life as a teenager. School and body image and sex. This book felt real and I loved it.

The things that really caused me to gripe were the issues of cheating. I think it was handled really realistically, but that didn’t make it something I particularly enjoyed reading about it. I found the resolution of Ruby’s storyline in relation to that element particularly to be frustrating to read. Kaz on the other hand, whilst I understood her point of view and where she was coming from, felt like she was sat on her high horse about the whole thing for far too long which became increasingly frustrating to read. I liked that she does eventually see what she’s been doing and how badly she’s been handling it all, but it felt a little bit like too little too late.

My second gripe was the ending because it felt like there was too much left unresolved. I loved the resolutions we were given, but I wanted more and to see how a lot of the other story threads played out.

Despite those gripes I really loved this book. It was a quick and enjoyable summer read. It was realistic and brilliantly written and a fantastic introduction to Non’s writing – now I can’t wait to get stuck into ‘Trouble’.

Top Ten Fairytale Re-Tellings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the wonderful folks over at The Broke & The Bookish, if you want to join in then follow the link!

I love fairy tales and fairy tale re-tellings so this weeks topic was particularly fun for me to compile. There are some really fantastic re-tellings out there that it was hard to pick just ten! But here are the ten books that I think are some of the best out there!

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

A re-telling of Beauty and the Beast with some of the most intriguing world development and twisty magic I've ever seen in fiction. I loved seeing how this story diverged from the original tale. It's filled with love and terror and intrigue and I loved loosing myself in this story.


The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm, she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them

This quiet, haunting novel littered with hidden magic is one of my favourite books, and it breathes fresh life into the story of the snow child. It's raw, it's beautiful and infused with magic and wonder. An adult standalone book, it's a favourite to come back to.
You can read my review here

Entwined by Heather Dixon
Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it's taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Heather Dixon has since cemented her status as Queen of beautiful yet terrifyingly twisty with her latest novel 'Illusionarium', but the groundwork was laid with this gorgeous re-telling of the twelve dancing princesses.
Beautiful, quiet, filled with stunning moments and the wonderful bond between the sisters, as well as darkness, horror and utter terror as you fall into the final act. This was a stunning debut novel, and my favourite retelling of the twelve dancing princesses of all time.
You can read my review here

Scarlet by A C Gaughen
Will Scarlet is good at two things: stealing from the rich and keeping secrets - skills that are in high demand in Robin Hood's band of thieves, who protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff. Scarlet's biggest secret of all is one only Robin and his men know...that she is posing as a thief; that the slip of a boy who is fast with sharp knives is really a girl.The terrible events in her past that led Scarlet to hide her real identity are in danger of being exposed when the thief taker Lord Gisbourne arrives in town to rid Nottingham of the Hood and his men once and for all. As Gisbourne closes in a put innocent lives at risk, Scarlet must decide how much the people of Nottingham mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles have the rare power to unsettle her. There is real honor among these thieves and so much more - making this a fight worth dying for.

I'm not sure if this one counts, but I love it so much that it's going in here anyway! A brilliant re-telling of the Robin Hood story, with a gender twist, this series broke my heart, made me fall in love and gave a completely fresh and fascinating insight into the Robin Hood tale.
You can read my review here

Ash by Melinda Lo

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

It's been a very long time since I first read 'Ash', but it's one that has stuck with me and one I want to go back and revisit soon. Filled with elegant, lyrical writing and a stunning re-working of the traditional Cinderella tale, this is a gorgeous novel.

The Wrath & The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. 

A re-telling of the Arabian nights story, this is one of the best books I've read this year. Gorgeously vivid, filled with flawed and brilliant characters and sumptuous details with a heartbreaking story at its center, if you haven't yet hopped on the bandwagon of love for this book, do so now!
You can read my review here

The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott
Shadows have fallen across the beautiful and lush Kingdom. The queen was attacked by an unnatural beast, and the healing skills of her daughter, Alexandra, cannot save her. Too soon the widowed king is spellbound by a frightening stranger - a woman whose eyes reflect no light. In a terrifying moment, all Alexandra knows disappears, including her beloved brothers, leaving her banished to a barren land unlike her own.
Alexandra has more gifts than even she realizes as she is confronted with magic, murder, and the strongest of evil forces. She is unflinchingly brave and clever as she struggles to reclaim what she knows is rightfully hers.

A retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Wild Swans' this is a truly gorgeous novel. Another one that I read years ago and want desperately to go back and re-read, it's one of the first books that sprang to mind when this weeks topic was announced. It's not as well known a story as some of the other fairytales, but it has its own charm and magic and I loved Zoe's interpretation of it.
You can read my review here

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.
When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past—and hers?

A mash up of lots of different fairy-tales in one book? Yes please. This was such a great twist on the usual fairy-tale re-tellings with so many absorbed into one big story. Plus it's the start of a series focusing on the Woodcutter sisters and I cannot wait to get caught up on the next two books 'Dearest' and 'Hero'. 
You can read my review here

A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James
Miss Kate Daltry doesn't believe in fairy tales... or happily ever after.
Forced by her stepmother to attend a ball, Kate meets a prince... and decides he's anything but charming. A clash of wits and wills ensues, but they both know their irresistible attraction will lead nowhere. For Gabriel is promised to another woman—a princess whose hand in marriage will fulfill his ruthless ambitions.
Gabriel likes his fiancee, which is a welcome turn of events, but he doesn't love her. Obviously, he should be wooing his bride-to-be, not the witty, impoverished beauty who refuses to fawn over him. 
Godmothers and glass slippers notwithstanding, this is one fairy tale in which destiny conspires to destroy any chance that Kate and Gabriel might have a happily ever after.
Unless a prince throws away everything that makes him noble... 
Unless a dowry of an unruly heart trumps a fortune... 
Unless one kiss at the stroke of midnight changes everything.

This series of books is fantastic, Eloisa James has taken a whole host of fairy tales and given them an historical twist. The first book in the series, 'A Kiss at Midnight' is a take on Cinderella and is my favourite of the series. Magical, fun and with a brilliant heroine at its heart, this is a steamier and utterly fantastic take on the Cinderella tale.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James
Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she's betrothed to a Beast.
Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.
Linnet is not just any woman.
She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.
Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.
If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

The second in the series of James' novels is a beauty and the beast retelling and come a very close second in the favourite stakes for this series. One hell of a grumpy beast, a determined and feisty heroine and I was sniggering and swooning all the way through this one.
You can read my review here


So there you have my top ten fairy tale re-tellings. Are there any you haven't come across before on here? Or any that have made it onto your list too? Or some you can't believe I missed off? Let me know in the comments below and link me to your own top tens!

Review: Enchantress of Paris by Marci Jefferson

Publication Date: August 4^th 2015
Publisher: St Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books
Length: 336 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Fraught with conspiracy and passion, the Sun King's opulent court is brought to vivid life in this captivating tale about a woman whose love was more powerful than magic.
The alignment of the stars at Marie Mancini's birth warned that although she would be gifted at divination, she was destined to disgrace her family. Ignoring the dark warnings of his sister and astrologers, Cardinal Mazarin brings his niece to the French court, where the forbidden occult arts thrive in secret. In France, Marie learns her uncle has become the power behind the throne by using her sister Olympia to hold the Sun King, Louis XIV, in thrall.
Desperate to avoid her mother's dying wish that she spend her life in a convent, Marie burns her grimoire, trading Italian superstitions for polite sophistication. But as her star rises, King Louis becomes enchanted by Marie's charm. Sensing a chance to grasp even greater glory, Cardinal Mazarin pits the sisters against each other, showering Marie with diamonds and silks in exchange for bending King Louis to his will.
Disgusted by Mazarin's ruthlessness, Marie rebels. She sacrifices everything, but exposing Mazarin's deepest secret threatens to tear France apart. When even King Louis's love fails to protect Marie, she must summon her forbidden powers of divination to shield her family, protect France, and help the Sun King fulfill his destiny.

I love a well written historical novel that allows me to immerse myself in another country or time, but sadly they can often be a little bit hit and miss with historical accuracy, language or detailing, so I’m always hesitant when starting a new historical novel as to what I might actually get. Luckily ‘Enchantress of Paris’ was one of those rare, stunningly written and researched novels that swept me up and away into the early days of the court of the Sun King – Louis XIV.

This novel was a sumptuous treat, offering a peep hole into France in the mid-1600s. The food, the balls, the clothes, the revelry and scandal – it’s all there, beautifully chronicled. It’s a rich and enthralling narrative led by a fantastic heroine. Marie was headstrong and wilful, determined and clever. I loved watching her transformation from the start, watching her learn the power plays and games and begin to play on her own terms. Her and her sisters were so refreshingly outrageous, so determined to be themselves in a time when that was frowned upon, and it was a delight to read. What made it even more fantastic was reading the author’s note at the end and realising just how much historical fact has been blended seamlessly in and how much of the novel is real. Nothing will ever be perfectly accurate, but this novel did an incredible job of pulling so many factual historical sources and turning them into a truly incredible story.

All of the characters were brilliantly constructed, but it is truly Marie who gives the story heart and soul. I tore through the novel and loved immersing myself in another period of French history that I was sorely ignorant of. It’s a wonderful novel to add to my collection of historical fiction that is slowly filling in my gaps of French history, and is definitely my favourite to date.

The writing is beautiful, the setting superb and as I’ve said, the characters wonderfully real and flawed. It was the kind of novel I dream of, one to sink into and enjoy. To be swept away by and to fall in in love with.

My only complaints would be the sheer volume of titles and names that you need to keep up with – who is related, who is married, who is so and so’s mistress. There’s a handy list to keep you up to date of who’s who right at the start of the novel which should alleviate the problem, but alas because I was reading it on my kindle, trying to shuffle back and forth between list and book became increasingly frustrating. Book readers won’t have such limitations though, and I’ looking forward to going back and reading this one again in book form and thoroughly enjoying it. And on a slightly more picky note the descriptions of some parts of Lyon felt a little off. Perhaps it was me simply being confused, but some of the mapping of the city felt a little off compared to the city I know. Something that were I not living here I wouldn’t have picked up on at all.

If you love historical novels, or fancy a well informed and sumptuous peek at a fascinating period in French history, this is a must read. It dances the line between factual and fictional perfectly giving the perfect blend of realism and compelling story that will sweep you away. Marci is definitely an author that I’m going to watch, and I’m looking forward to catching up on her first novel ‘Girl on the Golden Coin’.

Review: The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks

Publication Date: August 1^st 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Length: 400 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark  for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Annabelle Aster doesn’t bow to convention—not even that of space and time—which makes the 1890s Kansas wheat field that has appeared in her modern-day San Francisco garden easy to accept. Even more peculiar is Elsbeth, the truculent schoolmarm who sends Annie letters through the mysterious brass mailbox perched on the picket fence that now divides their two worlds.
Annie and Elsbeth’s search for an explanation to the hiccup in the universe linking their homes leads to an unsettling discovery—and potential disaster for both of them. Together they must solve the mystery of what connects them before one of them is convicted of a murder that has yet to happen…and yet somehow already did.

So that blurb left me pretty eager to get stuck into this one, time travel, a feisty heroine and a murder mystery? I was definitely intrigued.
Which is why it was such a shame that the first half of the novel (for me) didn't live up to the promise of the blurb (it's an entirely different kettle of fish for the second half though). The pacing was a little off, there was too much extraneous detail, too many plot threads that weren’t going anywhere fast enough and were building up to several twists and reveals that were unfortunately obvious for me.

I kept putting the book down and having to really push myself to pick it back up again – my motivation was shot. There was so much attempting to be crammed into this 400 page novel. As soon as I started to become invested in one story line, we’d skip to another one (either a new one or a previously introduced one) and there was just so much happening without enough time given to develop it thoroughly.

But then at around the halfway point everything starts to pick up and I found myself becoming more invested in the story and enjoying it immensely. It was wonderful seeing all the characters converge and the threads start to make more sense as they tie together and provide a much more cohesive whole.

I began to care more about the characters and I loved seeing how the time paradox kicked in and watching events from the first half of the book play out again from different angles with different pieces of fore knowledge in the second.

The pacing also works much better in the second half – I found myself desperate to know how it would end, what would happen and breathlessly awaiting the final showdown as the baddies close in on our heroes. There were even a few gasp out loud moments of twists that I hadn’t seen coming which were very well played.

It was a strange mix of things, both good and bad, that luckily picked up so that I really enjoyed the second half and ended up thinking about the story several days after finishing the book. I've found myself feeling melancholy and wanting to go back and revisit the quiet of Annie's kitchen and the solitude that accompanies El's cabin and her back forty. Given that the story and I started on such a wrong foot it's surprising how much I ended up loving the second half. But I did, and it's one that I'm sure I'll come back to. Be warned though, the first half hides the brilliant story that emerges in the second, so if you find yourself growing tired and disenchanted, stick with it, Annie is a fascinating character that you'll grow to love and root for.