Thursday, June 3, 2021

Best Books I've Read This Year - So Far

Posted by: Nicole Luiken

 It's the beginning of June and I've just crossed the 100 books threshold, so this seemed like a good time to put out some recommendations! These are my favourites of what I've read so far this year.


Paranormal Romance

Alpha Night by Nalini Singh - I feel like everyone knows about Singh's Psy-Changeling series by now so I'll just say the excellence continues.


Fantasy Romance

Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre - a retelling of Beauty and the Beast which fixed all the little things in the folktale that bothered me

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher - Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) had a wonderful, funny voice and builds unique worlds. She writes wonderful paladins.

The Hedgewitch Queen/ The Bandit King - Lilith Saintcrow - The first book in the duology is first person from the heroine and the second is first person from the hero which adds a lot of tension. Delicious.


Science Fiction

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott - A gender-swapped Alexander the Great in Space? Sign me up.

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells - The newest Murderbot novella. Enough said.


Steampunk

The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow - An impressive alternate-history steampunk world with a kickass sorcereress lead and her Mentath companion. Lots of action and magic.


Epic Fantasy

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett - Second in the Foundryside Trilogy with both a wonderfully inventive magic system and fast-paced plot.

The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence - Fast-paced with a very brave heroine


Urban Fantasy - my favourite subgenre, as you can tell from the large number of recs

The Difficult Loves of Maria Makiling by Wayne Santos - Humourous novella with a Filipino pantheon. A lot of fun.

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews - New spinoff series featuring Julie from their popular Kate Daniels books. And yes, Derek, too.

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs - The latest Charles and Anna book. I loved how the plot tied into Leah's past.

Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire - The latest InCryptid book, and the previous one Imaginary Numbers ended on a cliffhanger so I was very eager to get my hands on this one. 

American Demon by Kim Harrison - Rachel Morgan is back!

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo - The premise magic set at Oxford didn't excite me but the book very quickly sucked me in and I am desperately hoping for a sequel.

 

Young Adult/New Adult Fantasy

 The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen - Very strong hook in the first chapter and strong tension throughout. (I almost put this under fantasy romance, but IMO it has more of a New Adult vibe.)

White Cat/Red Glove/Black Heart by Holly Black - Having just discovered Holly Black's books I'm ripping through her backlist including this trilogy. Small-time con artist at a prep school who keeps getting sucked into his brothers' more dangerous lives with the curse-working mafia. Lots of twists.

 


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