Time for another round up of books from my TBR to go through! Each week I’ll be going over a selection from my physical unread books and deciding what to keep and what to purge. There will be a third option–undecided–which I might ask for your input on why you think I should keep or purge that title from my list. You can also check out my full TBR pile here.
Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Be careful of the dark, dark wood…
Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.
Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.
But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.
I just got this one last year in one of my Owlcrate boxes. It looks interesting and I’ve heard good things, plus it’s signed. I’ll hold onto this one. KEEP
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Living in peaceful Shady Vale, Shea Ohmsford knew little of the troubles that plagued the rest of the world. Then the giant, forbidding Allanon revealed that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destroy the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could only be used by a true heir of Shannara–Shea being the last of the bloodline, upon whom all hope rested. Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him….
I just don’t have the strength for all these ‘classics’ I guess. I felt the need to pick so many of them up because it’s what everyone talks about but my desire to read them is pretty low lol. PURGE
A Shiver of Light by Laurell K. Hamilton
Merry Gentry, ex–private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of both courts of faerie are coming to court Merry and her men, at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own.
Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry and, failing that, raped her. He’s using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the babies is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can’t prove it.
To save herself and her babies from Taranis she will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, the Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie—while trying to keep the war from spreading to innocent humans in Los Angeles, who are in danger of becoming collateral damage.
This precious trash <3. There was a time when I was SUPER into LKH and I actually really love a lot of things about this series because it never really pretended to be much other than what it is from the start. This is the last book in the series that came out iirc (who knows, I really don’t keep up anymore). I think I still need to read the one before this one? Can’t remember. Either way. Still want to read this for some crazy reason hahahaha. KEEP
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come….
Another one of those ‘classics’ but I have no desire to read this series. I just….I haven’t read it by now I’m probably not going to plus MZB was kind of a garbage human so. PURGE
Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter Elizabeth is in trouble, she just doesn’t know what kind. Mysterious phone calls from San Francisco at odd hours of the night are the only contact she has had with Elizabeth for years. Now, Elizabeth has sent her a plane ticket and reserved a room for her at San Francisco’s most luxurious hotel. Yet she has not tried to contact Martha since she arrived, leaving her lonely, confused and a little bit worried. Into the story steps Mayland Long, a distinguished-looking and wealthy Chinese man who lives at the hotel and is drawn to Martha’s good nature and ability to pinpoint the truth of a matter. Mayland and Martha become close in a short period of time and he promises to help her find Elizabeth, making small inroads in the mystery before Martha herself disappears. Now Mayland is struck by the realization, too late, that he is in love with Martha, and now he fears for her life. Determined to find her, he sets his prodigious philosopher’s mind to work on the problem, embarking on a potentially dangerous adventure.
I’ve been meaning to read this forever, I think Janny Wurts recommended it on reddit a looooong time ago and I picked it up from that. I really am still keen to get to this one so of course I’ll keep it in my pile. KEEP
That’s all for now! This brings my total count to:
| Keep | Purge | Undecided |
| 182 | 60 | 33 |
Two more purges for this week, I’m on a roll! What do you think about my choices here? Anything you’d do differently? Leave a note in the comments, I’d love to chat!
Way Too Fantasy 
I am so glad you decided to keep Winterwood BECAUSE LOOK AT THAT COVER!! Soo pretty! I’d have been brokenhearted if you had chucked it out! 😭
AHHH!! You have purged 60 till now? That’s a good amount! I don’t think I’d have had the heart to do that, to be honest! Maybe that’s why my tbr is such a mess! 🤣🤣🤷🏻♀️
The cover was what attracted me hahaha. 😀
Yes, I can barely believe it myself but I have over 800 so 60 somehow still doesn’t feel like a lot. Maybe I’ll get up to 100 at this rate. Then I’ll only have 700 unread books in the TBR lol. 🙂
Still, Lisa, your tbr pile is the very definition of organised as compared to mine 🤣🤣 Mine is a mess. And I even tried to do one of these cleaning sessions but it’s just…TOO BORING GAHHHHHH!! 😭😭🤣🤣
Oh well I will concede to that haha. I like to stay organized if nothing else. 😉 If you tried to do a little bit at a time it might be doable, but I get it, organizing is not for everyone–I like it because it helps my anxiety. 😀
Oh. That TOTALLY makes sense! Keeping busy with something that demands all of your attention is the best way to keep those anxious thoughts in check! You are doing great, Lisa!🦋🌻
Thank you. ❤
And that’s exactly why I love these posts of yours, knowing that some of my fellow readers are getting it done beautifully! 😉😘❤️
Aw, thanks! <3<3<3
Loveee this post!
Thank you! ❤
Good purge round!
Thanks! It feels good to purge some. 🙂
I bet! My tbr is insane
Same haha!
One day I’ll figure it all out lol
😀
I am keeping Winterwood as well in my TBR. I am quite curious about it.
Same, the cover drew me in haha. 🙂
I really hated Winterwood 🙈
I hope it works out better for you! I love the white cover.
That’s okay not every book is good fit for every reader lol. 🙂
I hope so too! I really do love the cover for it.
I read The Mists of Avalon a LONG time ago and loved it. And I used to be a big LKH fan as well. She just had a new book released, or it’s about to be released, I think.
I think LKH has still been steadily producing for her AB series, which is probably why I’m so behind. Well, that and the interest level lol.
Glad you loved Mists of Avalon–I know it’s one of the more ‘classics’ of the genre (2nd wave classics maybe?).
Ugh! That Shannara book. I tried it a couple years ago and was majorly bored.
I still want to try the Mists of Avalon although I know the author was not a great person.
Yeah, I just have no desire for the Shannara. I’ll admit that I am still curious about Mists of Avalon but I have soooooo many other books in my TBR realistically I’m probably not going to get to this one, considering my feelings on the author it’s a low priority so I might as well purge. I hope that you enjoy it if you do read it! 😀
Winterwood has such a GORGEOUS cover!! I hope you enjoy all the ones you decide to keep😂
Thanks, Kaya! I do love that cover for Winterwood. 😀
I’d say you’re not missing much with Mists of Avalon. Looking back, for a book that was purported to be about uplifting women and exploring womenhood (and I’d loved that at the time) there was just a lot of graphic violence and questionable scenes. I purged my physical copy of it lol. And glad you decided to keep Tea with the Black Dragon! I’ve never heard of it but it sounds fun. 😀
Yeah, I’ve heard about some of the questionable scenes in it before and that’s another reason why I don’t mind purging.
I know that Janny Wurts has recommended Tea with the Black Dragon more than once on r/fantasy so it’s why I became interested in it. She gives the best book recommendations. 🙂
I’m not familiar with Janny Wurts AT ALL but I believe you haha
Janny is like an old school sff writer, she’s been around forever has really great recommendations.
I blame The Sword of Shannara for my 20 years long absence from fantasy: reading it shortly after my first read of the LOTR I saw it as a bad mirror image (to be kind about it…) of Tolkien’s work that I gave up on fantasy altogether for some time… 🙂
Oh my!
To be fair, that time period in fantasy was RIFE with Tolkien clones so maybe you didn’t miss much from then haha. I think the genre has come a long way and I’m excited for its future as it continues to grow. 🙂
Indeed! I came back in 2002 when I discovered Martin’s ASOIAF, but since then good authors and stories in the genre keep coming out of the damn walls – as they said in “Aliens” 😀 – and we’re faced with a delightful embarrassment of riches 😀
Yep, we’re very lucky. 😀
Winterwood is wonderful! I definitely recommend waiting until winter to read it because it’s got the perfect snowy vibes. Shea Ernshaw’s writing is just so magical and lovely.
Good to know, that sounds like a solid plan–at least then I have a legit reason to procrastinate a bit hahaha. 🙂
Just because I’m fickle I’m going to say Winterwood is a good choice to keep – purely based on cover – I know, *hangs head with shame*.
Lynn 😀
Hahaha, don’t feel bad, I pick books based on their covers all the time 🙂