Top Ten Tuesday | Books From My Favorite Genre

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @That Artsy Reader Girl. Weekly prompts are posted on her blog each week and any blogger who want to participate can create their own list of 10, 5, 2, 1 or any combo of numbers in between in answer to that prompt. Do what works for you on your blog, and join in the listing fun!

This week’s prompt is so much fun! Top 10 Books From My Favorite Genre! 

My favorite genre far and away is Fantasy. Ever since I was a child, I’ve felt this strong connection with fantasy genre literature, movies, games – you name it! I think it all started when I was first introduced as a kid to the movies Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal – speaking of, did anyone else see the new Netflix trailer drop for the prequel show and just about die? It looks so good! – and just got lost in those magical worlds and characters.

That love for fantasy translated into a love for fantasy books. I yearn for the escape from reality, to experience true magic and nothing does that for me like the fantasy genre.

10 Books From My Favorite Genre! (Fantasy)

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• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – JK Rowling | Okay, lets be real, I could fill this list up with books from the Harry Potter series, but because I don’t want to cheat, I went with my all-time favorite instead. The Goblet of Fire was the book from the series that I probably revisited the most. I just loved the tournament aspect of the story. It provided countless hours of entertainment for me as a kid!
• Nevernight – Jay Kristoff | I read this book for the first time last year, and I was so wowed by it. My exposure to Jay Kristoff before this novel was in his joint works with other authors. This book went above and beyond my expectations! The characters were awesome, and the plot was so intriguing. I was hooked from the opening chapter to the very end.
• The Child Thief – Brom | I was gifted this book as a teenager by a family member, and as is my lot in life, it sat on my shelf unread for far too long before I finally sat down with it. I loved every moment of it! A dark fantasy retelling of Peter Pan, Brom turns the Disney hero on his head, crafting a much darker world and character than readers will be used to. The story was magic from beginning to end, and the pages are peppered with Brom’s own paintings and sketches of the characters and creatures.

 

• Circe – Madeline Miller | This book caught my eye when it was all the buzz in the book review community last year. Madeline Miller had already wowed me with The Song of Achilles, so I was pleasantly surprised when this book surpassed even those expectations. It was pure magic, from beginning to end.
• Lost Gods – Brom | Okay, Brom might be one of my favorite authors and artists, so he’s going to grace this list twice. This book is much more ambitious, and even darker than The Child Thief. It’s like a mix of carefully crafted mythology, horror and fantasy all in one. And again, the artwork dispersed throughout the book and the cover is stunning.
• A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin | How was I gonna write a list of favorite fantasy novels and not include my boy George on this list? While the book series has clearly stagnated and I’m doubtful that they’ll be finished, one cannot ignore how entertaining and ambitious this series is from the very opening page to the end. Not to mention that it birthed 8 years of my favorite televised fantasy adaptation of all time!

 

• The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson | This was the first Brandon Sanderson book I’d ever read! I won’t lie – I bought it simply because at the time I had never seen a book quite so massive and I really just wanted to have a copy on my shelf. I was blown away by the scope of this project. The world, creatures and characters therein are almost unrivaled in works by other authors in the genre. And Sanderson just keeps cranking these tomes out!
• The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss | Another series that I’m not certain will ever be finished, but I had to give this one the credit it deserves. It’s just that well done. Rothfuss’ prose is beautiful, and this is another novel where the scope of the story and of all of the history and subplots is almost unmatched. It’s an epic work, and while I didn’t love the second book quite so much, I’d still like to see how this series closes out someday.
• Ruin – John Gwynne | I read this entire series last year and while it was hard to pick a favorite, I think I have to tip my hat to this entry in the series. Every book is epic, but this one just elevates the story to another level. Plus, Gwynne exercises his considerable skill at tugging the heartstrings with some of my favorite characters in this one.

Beyond Redemption – Michael R. Fletcher | I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a brand new favorite on this list! Michael R. Fletcher’s writing was instantly engaging, and I was astounded by how creative the worldbuilding and magic system in this novel was. I loved everything about it, and definitely had a hard time putting it down once I’d started!

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Did one of your favorites make it onto this list? What fantasy series do you love that I missed and should check out?

xoxo

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