Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!
This week’s theme is to highlight ten books you can’t wait to read in the first half of the year, which is a very broad time range. In the first six months of 2019 I probably have 60+ books on my TBR (!) so obviously I need to pick and choose. I’ve decided to showcase two books for each month, January through June, that I’m super excited about. I’m also focusing on books I haven’t really talked about much to avoid repeating myself. So this list is far from complete, just saying! Also, as I primarily read and review currently released books, all of these will be released in the months I’ve listed them under. Let’s get started!
JANUARY:
You’ve already heard me talking about these two books, since I featured them on What’s On My Plate recently, but here they are again, and I’m listing them as a reminder to myself to read them soon!
Slayer by Kiersten White. I’ve already seen lots of glowing reviews, so this might be my next read.
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan. I’ll admit I’m a little intimidated by this book. At 550 pages, it’s a longer book than I normally read. But so far I’ve only seen positive reviews!
FEBRUARY:
The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross. I received a surprise review copy of this book, and although it’s got some mixed reviews on Goodreads, I’m always up for a Beauty and the Beast retelling.
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders. I do not have a review copy of this book—yet. I am determined to get one, though!
MARCH:
Firefly: The Magnificent Nine by James Lovegrove. This is the first time I’ve mentioned this book! This is the sequel to Firefly: Big Damn Hero that I enjoyed immensely, and I can’t wait to read it.
The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan. I loved A Secret History of Witches by Morgan, and this is a new story which also deals with witches. I can’t wait!
APRIL:
I’ve been talking a lot about A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher, but this really is one of my most highly anticipated April releases. Plus I have a review copy, so I’m ready!
Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse. I suspect this book will show up on LOTS of lists! Trail of Lightning was such a wonderful surprise, and I’m anxious to jump back into her world, and revisit her amazing characters.
MAY:
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I’m so happy to have a review copy of this book! I’m a big McGuire/Grant fan and this story sounds batshit crazy, but in a good way:-)
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff. We’ll have to see if Kaufman & Kristoff can pull off another amazing collaboration, after their success with The Illuminae Files. I’m willing to give it a try!
JUNE:
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. I featured this on a Waiting on Wednesday post last year, and my excitement has only grown. Plus this cover has got to be one of my favorites!
The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell. The UK edition/version of this book is already out, under the title The Corset, but U.S. readers will have to wait until June to read it. After loving The Silent Companions, I’m all over this book!
They didn’t actually make my list (just because it was so hard to narrow the list down, lol), but I’m excited for Slayer and Middlegame as well.
Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I Read in 2018
It was very hard to narrow down!
I have the Beast’s Heart to read and now I’m also excited about the new Laura Purcell! Wonderful choices, Tammy!
Thanks Jennifer, Laura Purcell is one of my new favorite authors:-)
I tried to highlight some lesser known/indie releases as well. I am really looking forward to The Poison Thread as maybe it will motivate me to read The Silent Companions once and for all. I really enjoyed The Beast’s Heart, in fact, much more than I anticipated. I hope it works for you too.
You read The Beast’s Heart so early! I’m glad you enjoyed it, that makes me want to read it even more.
A Boy And His Dog and Gutter Prayer are high on my list. Some of these others look good too. Great list, Tammy!
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Thanks Laura:-)
I hope you like “The Beast’s Heart.”
This is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
Me too! I will be reading it in the next few weeks, hopefully:-)
I haven’t even gone past March yet, in B&N, to check out what new release are on the horizon – but I expect to see Storm of Locusts on a quite a many lists today too 🙂
DJ (MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape) recently posted…Top Reads of 2018!
I have seen Storm of Locusts all over, and rightly so!
I can’t wait to read your thoughts on Slayer!
I hope to start it soon, I’m already behind…
So many great books! I need the new Sarah Gailey book! I’m looking forward to Charlie Jane Anders as well,and Middlegame too (of course). I have a review copy of the Boy & Dog book that I need to make time for… wow, it’s only eight days into the new year, and I’m overwhelmed already. 🙂
Yeah, I know how you feel. If it’s like this in January, we’re going to be on overload by June, lol.
Added several to my TBR… Great list!! I like your thoughts on each one.
Thanks Paul!
Oh, some new books to look at!
Neither of them looks familiar, but i like the sound of a few, so might have to increase my wishlist again 😀 And here i was thinking i had it under control.
Ha ha, my wish list is always OUT of control, and I’ve just decided to go with it:-)
I like the way you decided to organize this–there are WAY too many books coming out (not that I’m complaining!)! I’m looking forward to just about all of these as well. I’m really excited to see how Aurora Rising is, I haven’t read much about it so I’m looking forward to being surprised. I’m also a bit intimidated by The Gutter Prayer, I keep meaning to pick it up but I think I’m procrastinating for some reason?? It’s up next! Hope you get to read and love all of these!
Jordan Rose recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Exciting 2019 Releases (That I Haven’t Talked About Yet!)
Yeah, I wanted to dive into The Gutter Prayer last month and get ahead, but I’m also intimidated for some reason.
It’s tough to keep up with all the many books coming out this year, so many to look forward to! I’m also intrigued by The Beast’s Heart. Two BatB retellings this year and I’m looking forward to both of them!
I’ve seen a lot of B&B retellings too, it’s funny how they come out in clumps! LOL.
Storm of Locusts *High Five* I haven’t read Big Damn Hero, but seeing as there’s another book coming, maybe I need to bump that up in my TBR. Great list!
Caitlin G. recently posted…Top Five Tuesday – Most Anticipated 2019 Sequels
I’m so freaking excited about Storm of Locusts, and the release date is sneaking up!
Slayer has me wanting to read it and I’ve never even seen Buffy lol. But I love the sound of it.
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I’ve heard it works for readers who aren’t familiar with Buffy as well:-)
Oh, the sequel to Big Damn Hero is coming soon! On the strength of your earlier review I acquired the book and plan on reading it shortly, so it’s good to know there is more Firefly on the horizon! 🙂
And anything new from Seanan McGuire is always welcome – and quickly snatched from the shelf!
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…Review: A VEIL OF SPEARS (A Song of the Shattered Sands #3), by Bradley Beaulieu
There are two more Firefly books out this year, so that’s something to look forward to:-)
Wonderful! They can’t take the sky from us… 😀
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Ha ha, absolutely:-)
Fingers crossed we’ll both like Slayer! 🙂
Yes, fingers crossed! I keep saying this, but it’s my NEXT read:-)
I really need to read Slayer! Also need to look into the Firefly books!
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If you’re a Firefly fan, the book I read was so much fun, I recommend it!
Some of these are pretty high on my list! It would be so hard to narrow down the list to ten for the first half of the year, I probably have 12 books I want to read in a month alone.
Yep, very hard to narrow down! I figured there are always books I haven’t really talked about on the blog, so that’s what I did this time. They just keep coming!
hahaha I was trying to pick out my next review book the other day and noticed how many dots Gutter Prayer had. It’s LONG. I really hope I can get to it soon though. The Poison Thread sounds SO freaking good, I can’t wait for that one.
Bonnie @ For the Love of Words recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday – Most Anticipated of 2019 (First-Half)
Yeah, I’m intimidated by the page count of The Gutter Prayer and also a few reviews that say it’s slow, but I guess we’ll see!
oh great books here! I’m looking forward to Middlegame too! I love how she writes! 🙂
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Me too, I’m a big fan of hers and I love that she’s got a new standalone:-)
I can’t wait for Slayer
Me too!
Middlegame does sound interesting, I was tempted to try requesting that one myself when I saw it. The Beast’s Heart sounds like it could be interesting too! I’ll haveto check out that Sarah Gailey one since I really liked her American Hippo book!
The new Sarah Gailey sounds really different from her hippo books, I’m so curious to see what she does next:-)
I love this blog post, thanks
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You clearly chose wisely for each month hahahah I’m most excited for The Gutter Prayer though! I’ll definitely be curious to see how you fair with it though! 😀
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I’ve seen mixed reviews for The Gutter Prayer but I love it so far. I’m trying to get my review up by the end of the week:-)
There are so many good books to look forward to . This is a great list – I’ll be starting The Gutter Prayer next.
Lynn 😀
I’m reading it right now and really loving it so far:-)
Magic for Liars — I cannot resist that title, or that cover!
Right? the cover is so eye popping:-)
I also love the cover of Magic for Liars! ✨
I’m having a witch theme on my blog in October, so I’ll have to check out A Witch’s Kind. Thanks for sharing your list! ✨
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Oh cool, there are so many good “witch” books out there, I’ll be watching your blog for sure:-)
Yes! I can’t wait to hear what you think of Slayer. I may wait on a few reviews before I commit to The Gutter Prayer. LOL. It sounds so good, but that is a lot of pages.
I’m in the middle of Gutter Prayer and I love it! I’m reading it slower than normal for some reason. It’s a very dense story with a lot going on, but the world building and the characters are amazing!
I am so excited for Magnificent Nine (especially since Jayne and his hat are on the cover), Aurora Rising, and Storm of Locusts!
This is a great list and I don’t want to know how many books are on my TBR for the first 6 months
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