Friday Favorites was created, and is hosted by our glorious leader Kibby from somethingofthebook.com
May 10: Favorite Books that were recommended to you
Where would I be without #bookstagram and all of the wonderful, plentiful recommendations I find there?
Well, for a start, I’d be in a house with about 150 less books. Also, not buried under the weight of a TBR equivalent to most small libraries. I add about two books a week to my wishlist and my “note to self, check these out, they might be good” reminder list grows by leaps and bounds. I’ve just decided to live forever. It’s the only practical strategy to get through my TBR.
Do I have some favorites out of the (hundreds of) books which have been recommended to me? Why, yes. Yes I do.
The Illuminae Trilogy, Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The heavens opened up, and from therein I received blessed SNARK. Snark for days. Sassy, fun, curse-wordery. I’m so glad I decided to believe the hype and read these books. I loved the unique found-footage format. It was like being immersed in a wonderful SciFi movie.
The Hating Game, Sally Thorne
I don’t even remember who recommended this, just that it started showing up everywhere on my #romancestagram feed. (Yes, there is a sub-genre of bookstagram entirely devoted to romance and it is THE BEST.) 100% deserves all the praise it has gotten and I will keep, love, and re-read this book for the rest of my life.
Tessa Dare, especially her Castles Ever After series
Romancestagram recommendation again. If you know anything about me, you know I love me some zero-angst fluff and Tessa is all about the sweet, silly, quirky, lovely, fluffy historical romance. Her books are my popcorn. I can’t stop reading and I really don’t want to.
High drama, angst-ridden, emotional trauma books? NOT TODAY
Kresley Cole, Immortals After Dark Series
Oh, wow, did I ever miss out before I started reading these books. I thought I didn’t like paranormal romance (HAHA I WAS SO COMPLETELY WRONG, POOR SMOL ME). They are packed full of action and magic and kickass heroines and worldbuilding and really, really hot sexy time. This entire series is now a firm favorite and I’m waiting as impatiently as every other fan for the next installment (MUNRO! Coming out this month! I can’t!)
Ruby Dixon, EVERYTHING RUBY HAS EVER WRITTEN, FOREVER
Ruby’s Ice Planet Barbarians series was recommended to me by April (www.bythepoweroftea.com). There are roughly 16 books in the original series? I think? I powered through them in two months and then proceeded to gobble up every other book with the name “Ruby Dixon” on it. The woman writes literary crack and I am hooked.
If you ask me what the books are about I’d have to kick at the ground and mutter “aliens”. And “blue”. And “possessive barbarians” And “sex”. And something else you couldn’t quite understand, but strongly suspected was “big blue cocks”. All of that would be true, but it doesn’t come close to describing the genius that is Ruby and the alien world/tribe I’ve fallen in love with. Just go read her series.
JR Ward, Black Dagger Brotherhood series
Author Jenn McKenzie proposed a buddy read of this series and she was VERY RIGHT to do so. What’s not to love about big, scary vampires who sink their fangs into their heroines and won’t let go? Turns out this series has a lot of my catnip tropes in it and I am all in favor of reading through it.
I forever bless the day that bookstagram convinced me to try that weird, very orange book! Illuminae is probably one of my favorite all time books now!
Bookstagram is a KILLER of free time, but my enjoyment has gone up exponentially, so I can live with it.