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.

Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly

The only thing worse than being a witch is living with one.

Camellia’s adopted mother wants Cam to grow up to be just like her. Problem is, Mom’s a seriously wicked witch. Cam’s used to stopping the witch’s crazy schemes for world domination. But when the witch summons a demon, he gets loose—and into Devon, the cute new boy at school.

Now Cam’s suddenly got bigger problems than passing Algebra. Her friends are getting zombiefied. Their dragon is tired of hiding in the RV garage. For being a shy boy-band boy, Devon is sure kissing a bunch of girls. And a phoenix hidden in the school is going to explode on the night of the Halloween Dance.

To stop the demon before he destroys Devon’s soul, Cam might have to try a spell of her own. But if she’s willing to work spells like the witch…will that mean she’s wicked too?

I got this one in my bag of books at WFC the year I attended and I’m happy to keep it in my TBR because it sounds pretty interesting. It’s also pretty short so it shouldn’t be a long read once I get around to it.. KEEP

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon.

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.

I bought this one a while ago, back when it came out, having good intentions to get to it but not getting around to it. I still really want to read this as the premise sounds fascinating. KEEP

A World Out of Time by Larry Niven

Jaybee Corbell awoke after more than 200 years as a corpsicle — in someone else’s body, and under sentence of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars.

But Corbell picked his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the Society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core, where the unimaginable energies of the Universe wrenched the fabric of time and space and promised final escape from his captors.

Then he returned to an Earth eons older than the one he’d left…a planet that had had 3,000,000 years to develop perils he had never dreamed of — perils that became nightmares that he had to escape…somehow!

This is another one of those books where I’m not exactly sure why I have it or how it got into my TBR. I probably got it free somewhere, that would explain a lot. I’m fine with letting this one go. PURGE

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

When Colin and Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge, they are saved by the Wizard. He takes them into the caves of Fundindelve, where he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred and forty knights. But the heart of the magic that binds them – Firefrost, also known as the Weirdstone of Brisingamen – has been lost. The Wizard has been searching for the stone for more than 100 years, but the forces of evil are closing in, determined to possess and destroy its special power. Colin and Susan realise at last that they are the key to the Weirdstone’s return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan and her deadly brood?

I’ve only read one Alan Garner book – The Owl Service – which I absolutely loved. I found this one at a used book store a while back and decided to pick it up because of how much I loved that other book. Still keen to check this one out eventually. KEEP

The Secret Books of Venus I & II by Tanith Lee

FACES UNDER WATER: During Carnival..six weeks of gay abandon when it’s illegal to walk abroad unmasked..it’s not unusual for some poor wretch to wind up drowned or murdered after a night of drunken revelry. Furian Furiano makes his living hunting the canals for these corpses, bringing them to an alchemist friend for his questionable cures and experiments. But one night, Furian happens upon a finely crafted mask floating in the murky waters…and is plunged into a bizzare tangle of love, obsession and evil.

SAINT FIRE: Volpa, vixen, for the yellow eyes and fiery hair that made her seem the devil’s own familiar. Yet through her misery and hardship, the girl dreamed only of angels. Orphaned at fourteen, she would have been brutally raped save for her holy gift: incited by emotion, Volpa could call down fire. Accused of witchery before the dread Eyes and Ears of God, she is saved by the warrior-priest Christiano. Enchanted against his will by her innocence and mildness, Cristiano brings her to the attention of his benefactor. 

These seem like weird books but of course it’s Tanith Lee so it’s bound to be a little weird. I’m curious to see if they aged well because the descriptions at least leave a little to be desired but because they’re Lee I’m going to hang onto them for now. KEEP

That’s all for now! This brings my total count to:

Keep	Purge	Undecided
351	118	64

More for the keep pile. Maybe one day I’ll go through and whittle these down again but for now I’m happy with my picks here. At least I had one more for the purge pile! What do you think about my choices here? Anything you’d do differently? Leave a note in the comments, I’d love to chat!