Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Today I’m participating in my first ever Top Ten Tuesday, yay! And this is such a fun topic today, too.

1. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. This is one of my absolute favorites mostly because of the feels. Sooooo many feels. Maia is one of my favorite characters of all time, I want to give him all the hugs. I’ve heard that The Hands of The Emperor is somewhat similar so I picked that one up but it’s so long! Might take me a while to get to it and assess lol.
2. In Pursuit of the Green Lion by Judith Merkle Riley. This book is a sequel actually and although I do love the first one the second book is my favorite. This one is mostly historical fiction with a bit of a supernatural element. It’s a great blend of genres and it’s also hilarious and feminist. There’s also a bit of romance. I can’t pinpoint the one thing in this book that works for me because I think it’s everything together and although I’ve read other books that are fantastic genre blends it’s hard to find any that match this one for me in how it makes me feel when I read it–delighted.
3. The Gates of Ivory by Doris Egan. This is such a fun book! It’s a true Science Fantasy in that it takes place far in the future on colonized planets our protagonist takes a space cruise trip to another planet and accidentally gets left behind and stranded there. And this planet, Ivory, is the only one where magic exists. It’s a blend of science fiction, fantasy, mystery and romance. It also has some great humor. More perfect genre blends, please!
4. Transformation by Carol Berg. I think the thing that makes this epic fantasy so special and stand apart from the plethora of epics is the characters. The…sort of grudging friendship that forms between the two protagonists is great, especially considering it starts out with a huge power imbalance. (I feel like Captive Prince has a bit of the same dynamic only queer which, hey, I’m all about–I’d like even more please.)
5. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. This is such an odd book. It’s like an urban fantasy, but in a future post apocalyptic world that was destroyed partially by magic or magic wars or something. I think it’s the atmosphere that really sets this apart from other urban fantasy books. And the relationship between Sunshine and the vampire is definitely not typical. Honestly, I’d kill for a sequel. 😉
6. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I think it’s hard to find books that perfectly combine epic world-building, political intrigue, danger, sex, romance… I mean, there are a lot of great epics and there may be some books that come kind of close (perhaps the Daevabad Trilogy) but I’d love to have more. I’d read epic fantasy a lot more if that were the case.
7. A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher. This book is firmly post-apocalyptic and although it can be both full of fear and loneliness and longing and violence it’s also got family and love and togetherness and hope. I like to refer to this kind of book as ‘hopeful post-apocalyptic’. Ones that comes close are Mike Chen’s A Beginning at the End or Sarah Pinsker’s Song for a New Day but I’m always on the lookout for more like this.
8. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer. This series is amazing. It’s got so many twist and turns! I also love how each book has a slightly different feel while still very much being part of the series. The characters and the relationships between them really makes this for me. But also the twists! I really need to reread these. Anyway, give me a book that makes me stay up all night reading it because it’s just so riveting and full of action and surprises.
9. Radiance by Grace Draven. This one is a perfect fantasy romance. The thing I love the most about this book is that there is no internal drama between the characters and their relationship. Do you know how rare it is to have a romance like this??? No secrets, no miscommunications, etc. Just characters that agree to make the best of things and be good to each other. So refreshing!
10. Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton. I love this book because it kind of reminds me of that movie The Village. But also it’s got such a fantastic creepy atmosphere. And the polyamory! I’d love more books featuring polyamory. 😀

That’s it for my first ever Top Ten list! Do you have any suggestions for me? Always looking to expand my TBR pile haha. Leave a note in the comments, I’d love to chat.