Top Ten Tuesday: V is for...

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Villains (favorite, best, worst, lovable, creepiest, most evil, etc.). 

I did start having a think about villains and a couple did spring to mind, but not ten, so in the end I decided to twist the topic a little bit. V is for villains but it can also be for many other words, so here are my ten V is for....books

V is for Venetia by Georgette Heyer - I couldn't not include this book seeing as I have listened to it at least 4 times. Narrated by Richard Armitage this is an ultimate comfort book to listen to. Aural bliss! (review)

V is for Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain - This was such a fun read. A group of strangers share a bottle of wine from 1954 and find themselves back in the past. (mini review)

V is for Voice of the Falconer by David Blixt - I loved, loved, lovedthe first book I read by David Blixt which was The Master of Verona. This was the sequel to that book and I thoroughly enjoyed that one too! (review)

V is for Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I mean, there are a whole heap of books in this series set in a town called Virgin River, and a few of them have the word virgin in the title. I couldn't not have at least one of them in the list! (post about the whole series)

V is for Vision in White by Nora Roberts - I loved this whole series of four books which features a group of wedding planners, coordinators, florists etc who work together and it's their turn to fall in love!

V is for Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik - As soon as I saw this title I knew I would have to have a V for Victory included in the list. This book is the 5th book in the excellent Temeraire series by Naomi Novik which features dragons and Napoleonic history. So much fun! (reviews from earlier books in the series)

V is for The Vineyards of Champagne by Juliet Blackwell - This was an enjoyable dual timeline which tells the story of the Champagne region of France and the events that happened there during WWI

V is for The Visitors by Jane Harrison - This book tells the story of the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney but from the perspective of the indigenous people who were already here.

V is for The Venice Hotel by Tess Woods - I would love to be in Venice. Sigh. 

V is for The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey - I would, however, be just as content to be sitting at a cafe in the Loire as well! (review)

There are plenty of other words that I could have used for this list, but there are ten books with titles begining with V.

Top Ten Tuesday: Rereads

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I’d Like to Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

I am not normally a re-reader so originally I was thinking that I would do something different this week and actually have a post started on a different theme where I have got 10 books selected. Then when I thought about it some more I did wonder if I could make it to a list of 10 books that I have re-read, and I could! I guess that means my next freebie post is pretty much already done! Yay for me!

Here are 10 books I have re-read.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I could actually include most of the Virgin River series in this post, with the exception of the last book which I still haven't read yet. I read all the original books in the series back in 2010-2011, and then proceeded to re-read the first 7 books in the series over the course of two weeks in 2012. Here is a post about the whole series and how it made me break several of my own rules

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley -  I have re-read this book three times so far, twice by reading the book and once on audio with the most recent time being earlier this year, and I still loved it! Note the words so far. There is every chance I will read this again at some point. It is a bit odd though. I have other Kearsley books that I have loved but I haven't re-read any of those. Maybe I should. Here is my most recent post about this book 

Hogfather by Terry Pratchell - Listening to this in the lead up to Christmas has become one of my Christmas traditions over the last four years. I first read it back in 2007 which means that so far I have read it 5 times. 

The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - This is now part of my Christmas tradition too. I first listened to in 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I forced my husband to listen to it too so in the end I listened to it twice in a week. My original post about this book is here

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas - Ah, Sebastian and Evie! What a book. What an author! I wish she was still writing. (my review)

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Ah, Thomas Mackee, you break my heart. I have actually read a few of Melina Marchetta's books a couple of times but my favourite thing is to listen to the audiobook of The Piper's Son. I have listened to it five times now, including three times in about a month. It just affected me that much! I haven't listened to it for a few years now, but I have thought about listening to it again. 

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - If I had to describe my idea of aural bliss it is Richard Armitage narrating Georgette Heyer's books. I have relistened to Venetia three times and Sylvester four times after initially reading it! (original review)

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie - I had forgotten that I had re-read this one until I was searching through my blog looking for inspiration for this post. (My review)

Relish by Lucy Knisley -  I had read this years ago and then it was selected for Cook the Books a couple of years ago. I did enjoy revisiting it! (My Cook the Books post)

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - Years ago I read and loved the first three books in the series. A couple of years ago I decided that it was time to read the whole series. I started by rereading the first two book and never got any further. One day I will read that whole series. One day! (my original review)

Are you a re-reader?

Top Ten Tuesday: Surprise!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books that Surprised Me (in a good or bad way)

I wasn't sure how I was going to go about this topic, but in the end I found ten books which surprised me in different ways

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley - I was recently looking through the reviews that I have written for Susanna Kearsley books, and I came across this review for The Rose Garden where I said that I gasped in surprised when I read the big twist!

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult - This was a surprise in a bad way. That ending made me want to throw the book against the wall. And I have never read another one of her books in the 20 years since.

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton - The surprised for me in this one was that I didn't know that Japan had occupied Korea for so long! I knew that they had invaded Manchuria in the years before WWII but not Korea.

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - I searched my blog for the word surprise and this is one of the books that came up. I do love this book! (my review)

Undercover Billionaire by Amy Andrews - The surprise for this one was that I forgot to add it to my blog tours list and suddenly realised I had to read and review it in the space of a couple of day! Surprise! (my review)

Return to Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I was surprised that this book was released 8 years after the previous book in the series. Still haven't read it!

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson - I am a bit surprised I haven't read any more of Helen Simonson's books given how much I loved Major Pettrigrew's Last Stand which I reviewed here. I will be reading this one soon!

A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - I was surprised I had so few books with the word surprise in the title! (my review)

Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey - I am a bit surprised I have had so many 5 star reads so far this year. Normally I have two or three but so far this year I have had 6! This was the first. (my review)

Pictures of You by Emma Grey - And this was the most recent!

Top Ten Tuesday: Trees

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature (covers/titles with things like trees, flowers, animals, forests, bodies of water, etc. on/in them) (Submitted by Jessica @ a GREAT read) I am choosing to focus on trees for my post!

At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker - Listened to this on audio this year and it was really good! It is a fictionalised story of how her grandparents met just after WWII in Japan.

The Flame Tree by Siobhan Daiko - If you are looking for a WWII story set in the Pacific theatre of war, then this could be a good option.

Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - This was one of my favourite reads of 2022.

Under the Christmas Tree by Robyn Carr - This is part of the Virgin River series.

The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman - I have read a number of this author's books but it has been a while.

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky - I don't remember anything about this book. To be fair, I did read it back in 2008.

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan - This is another author I haven't read for a long time.

The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay - I often think about the love story in this book.

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now.

The Cedar Tree by Nicole Alexander - This is one that has been sitting on my Kindle for a while! The description does sound good.

Top Ten Tuesday: Have you read this?

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books I Recommend to Others the Most.

I am going to mix the theme up a bit. I am going to do some books that I recommend to others, and the rest are books that were recommended to me.


Books I recommend to others



The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley  - I have recommended this author to so many people!

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley  - I have recommended this author to so many people!

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - Most recently I recommended this to my boss.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry - I also recommended this to my boss. She has since read more Emily Henry books than I have!

The Island of MissingTrees by Elif Shafak - Love this book

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - Back in the day pushed this book on multiple people

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - I was looking back through my blog and found a post where Bree and I from All the Books I Can Read talked about me recommending this book to her years ago.

Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffe -This was so good!




Books recommended to me by Bree

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins - Bree and I often recommend book to each other. This author is one that she recommended to me as a great read!

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - And this one!

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - We went to an author event, and this was not one of the authors, but it was a book that we talked about while there.

There are plenty more but that's for starters!

Have you read any of these books? What other books would you recommend to me?

Top Ten Tuesday: There's Books in Them Thar Hills

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This 

week the theme is Books with Geographical Terms in the Title but I am limiting it to just hills and mountains.

The Vineyard in the Hills by Lily Malone and Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna and Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden

Black Hills by Nora Roberts and Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt

Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr and And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazer

I am sure that there is a joke in there somewhere that I have missed about Mount TBR!!

Top Ten Tuesday: Series that I just sort of stopped reading

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This 

week the theme is Completed Series I Wish Had More Books. I have decided to twist it a little bit and talk about the series that I kind of, sort of, just stopped reading. It wasn't a conscious decision to stop, but just haven't picked up the next book in the series.... yet. In some cases it has been 10 years or more since I stopped.There's still time right?

The last book I read in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series was The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection which is book no. 13 in the series by Alexander McCall Smith. Book number 23 is due to be released this year. Just a little bit behind then.

The last book I read in the Play by Play series by Jaci Burton was Quarterback Draw which is book no. 9 in the series. It does look as though the series has ended at book no. 14. This is especially strange given that this was one of the few contemporary series I was reading a few years ago. Now I am reading lots! Just not sports ones!

I used to wait with great excitement for the next Diana Gabaldon book to come out. I would buy it as soon as I saw it in the shops. I still haven't bought the latest book in the Outlander series let alone read it!

I listened to the first two books in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy on audio. Goodness knows when I will get to the third one.

This is another trilogy where I have read the first two books in the trilogy and meant to read the third one, Ambulance Girls At War by Deborah Burrows. I did borrow this book from the library at least twice but still didn't read it.

I read and loved Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley, the first book in the Daughters of the Outback trilogy, a few years ago. Still haven't read the other two books in the series. I have bought other books by Wasley since then too!

I have read the first 18 books in the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr at least twice. So why haven't I read the last book that was released a couple of years ago yet.

I have read a lot of books by Lisa Kleypas over the years. The last book I read in The Ravenels series was the third book, Devil in Spring. There are now seven books in the series. One of the issues is that I just don't read a lot of historical romance any more.

I have read the first 3 books in the Study series by Maria VSnyder twice, including a couple of years ago when I read them in anticapation of moving onto the next book in the series. Still haven't  read the next book which is sometimes referred to as the first book in the Glass trilogy or as part of the bigger overall series, Chronicals of Ixia.

A series that I really can't understand why I stopped reading is the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I loved them so much. I read up to The Golden One, book 14, and then just stopped. I feel like I would have to reread a lot of them before I could pick up the next next book in the series. The series ended up being 20 books long.

Do you ever just stop reading a series without meaning to?