Top Ten Tuesday | November 3, 2020

Happy Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a Bookish Meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s theme is MY NON BOOKISH HOBBIES! (SPOILER ALERT: That’s Not What I Did!)

Honestly, I don’t think I have ten non-bookish hobbies. I thought about it for a long time and the most I could come up with was four- singing, planning, watching tv, and coding. And honestly, I don’t do three of them as often as I would like to. So! Since I didn’t want today’s post to be really really short, I decided to show off the TOP TEN MOST RECENT ADDITIONS TO MY TBR instead, AKA my favorite topic. 🙂

And now without any further ado, here’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday!

Wider Than the Sky by Katherine Field Rothschild
Published on January 19, 2021 by Soho Teen
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 288
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In the wake of sudden tragedy, a pair of twin sisters uncovers a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothchild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.
Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton and her identical twin, Blythe, don’t have much in common. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way—Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support . . . at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a creepy stranger named Charlie.
Soon the sisters are united in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. Neither is prepared for the bombshell they uncover. Confronted with a past both parents kept hidden, the sisters must fight for a path forward and decide—on their own terms—if they can embrace the legacy their father truly wanted.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal
Published on April 27, 2021 by Quirk Books
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal, YA
Pages: 320
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Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship and the hairy side of chronic illness.
Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year sends her back to her loving but overbearing family in New Jersey—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.
When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
Published on October 13, 2020 by Erewhon
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Pages: 384
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Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress who practices magic in secret, terrified of the day she will be locked into a marital collar that will cut off her powers to protect her unborn children. She dreams of becoming a full-fledged Magus and pursuing magic as her calling as men do, but her family has staked everything to equip her for Bargaining Season, when young men and women of means descend upon the city to negotiate the best marriages. The Clayborns are in severe debt, and only she can save them, by securing an advantageous match before their creditors come calling.
In a stroke of luck, Beatrice finds a grimoire that contains the key to becoming a Magus, but before she can purchase it, a rival sorceress swindles the book right out of her hands. Beatrice summons a spirit to help her get it back, but her new ally exacts a price: Beatrice’s first kiss . . . with her adversary’s brother, the handsome, compassionate, and fabulously wealthy Ianthe Lavan.
The more Beatrice is entangled with the Lavan siblings, the harder her decision becomes: If she casts the spell to become a Magus, she will devastate her family and lose the only man to ever see her for who she is; but if she marries—even for love—she will sacrifice her magic, her identity, and her dreams. But how can she choose just one, knowing she will forever regret the path not taken?

The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez
Series: Afterlife #1
Published on September 22, 2020 by Entangled Teen
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, YA
Pages: 352
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I didn’t even want to go to the party.
Seriously, I’d rather have stayed home with my librarian-witch grandmother and her mystical book club than go. But my best friend Skyler begged me. So I went.
And it was the worst party of my life. The last party of my life.
Not only was the band downright horrible, but the lead singer bit me afterward. And then stole Skyler.
Now I’m chasing down a band of angry vamps with my other best friend Vaughn in tow—and a buttload of feelings between us we can’t even begin to address. And worse, I’m changing into something else…
Let the afterlife begin.

When You Get the Chance by Tom Ryan, Robin Stevenson
Published on May 4, 2021 by Running Press Kids
Genres: Contemporary, YA, Queer
Pages: 272
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As kids, Mark and his cousin Talia spent many happy summers together at the family cottage in Ontario, but a fight between their parents put an end to the annual event. Living on opposite coasts -- Mark in Halifax and Talia in Victoria -- they haven't seen each other in years. When their grandfather dies unexpectedly, Mark and Talia find themselves reunited at the cottage once again, cleaning it out while the family decides what to do with it.
Mark and Talia are both queer, but they soon realize that's about all they have in common, other than the fact that they'd both prefer to be in Toronto. Talia is desperate to see her high school sweetheart Erin, who's barely been in touch since leaving to spend the summer working at a coffee shop in the Gay Village. Mark, on the other hand, is just looking for some fun, and Toronto Pride seems like the perfect place to find it.
When a series of complications throws everything up in the air, Mark and Talia -- with Mark's little sister Paige in tow -- decide to hit the road for Toronto. With a bit of luck, and some help from a series of unexpected new friends, they might just make it to the big city and find what they're looking for. That is, if they can figure out how to start seeing things through each other's eyes.

Love in English by Maria E. Andreu
Published on February 2, 2021 by Balzer + Bray
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, YA
Pages: 336
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A fresh, compulsively readable novel about finding your voice—and your heart—in any language.
Sixteen-year-old Ana has just moved to New Jersey from Argentina for her Junior year of high school. She’s a poet and a lover of language—except that now, she can barely understand what’s going on around her, let alone find the words to express how she feels in the language she’s expected to speak.
All Ana wants to do is go home—until she meets Harrison, the very cute, very American boy in her math class. And then there’s her new friend Neo, the Greek boy she’s partnered up with in ESL class, who she bonds with over the 80s teen movies they are assigned to watch for class (but later keep watching together for fun), and Altagracia, her artistic and Instagram-fabulous friend, who thankfully is fluent in Spanish and able to help her settle into American high school.
But is it possible that she’s becoming too American—as her father accuses—and what does it mean when her feelings for Harrison and Neo start to change? Ana will spend her year learning that the rules of English may be confounding, but there are no rules when it comes to love.
With playful and poetic breakouts exploring the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Love in English tells a story that is simultaneously charming and romantic, while articulating a deeper story about what it means to become “American.”

Unchosen by Katharyn Blair
Published on January 26, 2021 by Katherine Tegen Books
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy, YA
Pages: 416
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Katharyn Blair crafts a fiercely feminist fantasy with a horrifying curse, swoon-worthy sea captains, and the power of one girl to choose her own fate in this contemporary standalone adventure that's perfect for fans of The Fifth Wave and Seafire, and for anyone who has ever felt unchosen.
For Charlotte Holloway, the world ended twice.
The first was when her childhood crush, Dean, fell in love—with her older sister.
The second was when the Crimson, a curse spread through eye contact, turned the majority of humanity into flesh-eating monsters.
Neither end of the world changed Charlotte. She’s still in the shadows of her siblings. Her popular older sister, Harlow, now commands forces of survivors. And her talented younger sister, Vanessa, is the Chosen One—who, legend has it, can end the curse.
When their settlement is raided by those seeking the Chosen One, Charlotte makes a reckless decision to save Vanessa: she takes her place as prisoner.
The word spreads across the seven seas—the Chosen One has been found.
But when Dean’s life is threatened and a resistance looms on the horizon, the lie keeping Charlotte alive begins to unravel. She’ll have to break free, forge new bonds, and choose her own destiny if she has any hope of saving her sisters, her love, and maybe even the world.
Because sometimes the end is just a new beginning.

Muted by Tami Charles
Published on February 2, 2021 by Scholastic Press
Genres: Contemporary, Poetry, YA
Pages: 400
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A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.
For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.
So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights -- plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.
Until they're not.
Denver begins to realize that she's trapped in Merc's world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.
Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl's dreams can be used against her -- and what it takes to fight back.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Published on June 1, 2021 by Tordotcom
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Queer
Pages: 272
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Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.
But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.
Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.

As Far As You'll Take Me by Phil Stamper
Published on February 9, 2021 by Bloomsbury YA
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 320
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The author of The Gravity of Us crafts another heartfelt coming-of-age story about finding the people who become your home--perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli
Marty arrives in London with nothing but his oboe and some savings from his summer job, but he's excited to start his new life--where he's no longer the closeted, shy kid who slips under the radar and is free to explore his sexuality without his parents' disapproval.
From the outside, Marty's life looks like a perfect fantasy: in the span of a few weeks, he's made new friends, he's getting closer with his first ever boyfriend, and he's even traveling around Europe. But Marty knows he can't keep up the facade. He hasn't spoken to his parents since he arrived, he's tearing through his meager savings, his homesickness and anxiety are getting worse and worse, and he hasn't even come close to landing the job of his dreams. Will Marty be able to find a place that feels like home?

Also shout out to WHAT WE DEVOUR by Linsey Miller, which doesn’t have a cover yet but WOW am I excited for it!!!

What We Devour by Linsey Miller
Published on June 2021 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Aspec, Queer
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr

...about a young girl caught up in the machinations of a bloodthirsty queen, her violently oblivious son, and a magical door that demands blood sacrifices in order to keep demons from overrunning their world.

What books have you recently added to your TBR? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous week!