Top Ten Tuesday #39 - Things On My Reading Wishlist

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist 

This was hard! I'll happily read just about anything and if I don't like it I'll move on to the next book. After much racking of brains this is what I came up with, nine things I'd love more of in books and one thing to do with the actual books!

1. More books about books

Books about books or bookish people, why aren't there more? If I see a book involves books in just about any way I immediately pick it up!

2. YA Mysteries/Thrillers

Some of my favorite reads last year were YA mysteries and thrillers. There's something about the way they're written that I find myself drawn to and I'd like more :)

3. Retellings

This will probably be on quite a few lists but I'll go one step further and say I'd like to see more retellings from other characters points of view. Instead of Cinderella, one of the ugly step-sisters or the fairy godmother? Instead of Gerda, how about the Snow Queen? If these already exist please do tell me!

4. Prequels

I know a lot of people don't like these but sometimes it's nice to have an insight into characters before you delve into a book, especially if it sets the scene in more detail!

5. Boarding School

I have always had an obsession with boarding school, probably due to my unhealthy addiction to the Chalet School and Malory Towers books! I love the Night School books by C J Daugherty and even though I didn't think much of the book I loved that Thorn Abbey was set in a boarding school.

6. YA Horror

This could probably tie into number two but I remember being enthralled by all the Point Horror books and Christopher Pike. I'd love to see more YA Horror as it's one of my favorite adult genres, pretty please authors?

7. Fantastical Historical

I love fantasy and I love historical novels so let's put the two together!  I love Grave Mercy and The Gathering Storm but I want to see more fantastical historicals!

8. Parallel Universes

I love this idea. Sadly I cannot bring to mind a single book I've read with this storyline except for When The World Was Flat (and we were in love) which I loved! Recommendations please if you've read anything!

9. Supernatural

Yes, Supernatural. The television show. Wouldn't you love to read books that are like Supernatural, featuring hot brothers and mentors and books of monsters? Think of all the different ideas you get from this, I for one would be queuing up - and it's nothing whatsoever to do with my obsession with Sam & Dean...

10. Special Editions

Not an idea for a book but the actual book itself. I would love to see more special editions of books, pretty editions, which are not only great to read but look good on the shelf. I already have a few a lot but I'd like to see more.

Thorn Abbey - Nancy Ohlin

Thorn Abby - Nancy Ohlin @Twitter
ISBN - 9781442464865
Publisher - Simon Pulse @Twitter
Release date - May 7th 2013
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

'Becca was the perfect girlfriend: smart, gorgeous, and loved by everyone at New England’s premier boarding school, Thorn Abbey. But Becca’s dead. And her boyfriend, Max, can’t get over his loss.

Then Tess transfers to Thorn Abbey. She’s shy, insecure, and ordinary - everything that Becca wasn’t. And despite her roommate’s warnings, she falls for brooding Max.

Now Max finally has a reason to move on. Except it won’t be easy. Because Becca may be gone, but she’s not quite ready to let him go…' - Goodreads

This is one I've been looking forward to since the day I first read about it. I have had an almost lifelong love of Daphne Du Maurier's work and Rebecca was the first of her novels I ever read so it has a special place in my reading history.

The action moves from a creepy mansion by the sea named Manderley to a creepy looking boarding school by the sea named Thorn Abbey, complete with cliffs, sailing and a general air of menace. The main character, Tess, is a new student at the school, completely out of her depth and out of place at prestigious Thorn Abbey. She doesn't look right, she doesn't wear the right clothes and she doesn't know the right people. Her new room-mate Devon veers between making her feel welcome and making her wish she'd never come to the school.

Tess meets Max, a fellow student, in one of her classes. She locks eyes with him in front of Franklin, Max's best friend, and that's it - she's in love! This where I started to not care quite as much what actually happened to Tess or whether she got the guy. We've all been there, met someone's eyes and thought yes, they're the one but, in my case at least, not the point of instant obsession that Tess develops. Every waking moment is spent thinking about and this only gets worse when she discovers that in a way she has become a replacement for Becca after her tragic death, living in her old dorm room and sharing with her old room-mate. Tess is quiet, unassuming, sorely lacking in confidence in her new surroundings and quite frankly needs to start making different new friends when Devon & the other girls tell her she's fat and start controlling what she eats! She's so busy worrying what Max, Devon & all the other students think of her and so intent on becoming better , becoming more beautiful that she loses sight of the fact that Tess is fine just as she is. Max actually says this to her at one point, that he likes her for who she is but of course Tess can't actually accept this and goes back to obsessing over whether her boyfriend is thinking of his dead girlfriend every time they kiss!

A ghostly retelling of Rebecca sounds like the perfect story to me but it never really got there, it wasn't quite creepy enough and although I will willingly admit I didn't see that ending coming, it was far too abrupt. It just finished, the end. I wanted more from the whole book if I'm being honest, I wanted more build-up to Tess & Max's romance, I wanted to know more about why everyone warned Tess to stay away from Max, I wanted to know more about Killian and especially more about Franklin. I'm half hoping there isn't a sequel or companion novella because maybe it should just end the way it did but on the other hand, maybe there should be something that lets us into the world of Thorn Abbey in more depth, a novella from Max's point of view or even Devon's - I think something is needed to get that extra layer of detail that is missing.

Even though it wasn't what I was expecting I did enjoy Thorn Abbey and will look out for anything else Ms Ohlin writes, I've already read Beauty which she wrote using the name Nancy Butcher and has just been reissued. Worth reading but definitely not as creepy or gothic as I was expecting sadly.

Book Haul #24

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews, In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by The Mod Podge Bookshelf and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

At last, a relatively quiet week for me - mainly because someone who shan't be named complained about the amount of books I was getting so I did say I would rein it in for a bit. He didn't say anything Kindle books though...

Bought

Dead Ever After - Charlaine Harris

Thorn Abbey - Nancy Ohlin

Magician's End - Raymond E Feist

The Grail Of Summer Stars - Freda Warrington

Exile - Rebecca Lim

So, just five for me this week! I've already read Thorn Abbey - review coming soon hopefully! I've also read Dead Ever After and trying to forget that I did. I am not happy but there's nothing to be done. Thankfully, when True Blood finally wraps they will have the opportunity to end it the right way.. I thought as I bought the third book of the Mercy series last week I better buy the second book this week and last but not least, Grail Of The Summer Stars by Freda Warrington, another of my all-time favorite authors and the third book in her Aetherial Tales series.

What did you get this week?

Reading RoundUp #21

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Yet another good week! In all fairness though most of what I finished this week was pretty short, already started or I stayed up quite late to finish... Isn't that sunrise pretty?

Finished

Pretty Dark Nothing - Heather L Reid

Circle Of Lies - Sara Dailey & Staci Weber

The Taker - Alma Katsu

If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch

Thorn Abbey - Nancy Ohlin

If I Should Die - Amy Plum

The Coroner - M R Hall

Started

The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau

The Crimson Shard - Teresa Flavin

The Reckoning - Alma Katsu

Still reading

Zel - Donna Jo Napoli

Carniepunk  - Rachel Caine et al

A Clash Of Kings - George R R Martin

Wickedness - Deborah White

 What have you been reading?

Reading RoundUp #18

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Having patchy internet access for four days did wonders for my reading this week, as did being 'home alone'! I read like a reading demon this week which is probably just as well as I'm away next week staying with the twins so will be lucky if I get one book read!

Finished

The Blackhope Enigma - Teresa Flavin

Broken Illusions - Ellie James

Falling To Ash - Karen Mahoney

Alys, Always - Harriet Lane

Mirror Mirror - Nancy Butcher

Surrender - Lee Nichols

Started

Carniepunk - Rachel Caine et al

This Dark Endeavour - Kenneth Oppel

The Lost Girl - Sangu Mandanna

Still reading

Bitter Greens - Kate Forsyth

A Clash Of Kings - George R R Martin

The Taker - Alma Katsu

All the books I finished are library books which are due to be collected on Thursday when I'm not here so I wanted to get as many finished as possible! I'm still reading Bitter Greens, not because it's awful but because I'm loving it and don't want it to end. My reread of the 'Song Of Ice & Fire' series is going well, I'm about 250 pages into A Clash Of Kings and as I have a copy on my Kindle it will be going with me on my trip. I'm going to wait until I've reread all the way up to Dance Of Dragons before doing any sort of review, it's so hard to talk about any of the books without giving away huge, huge spoilers! I figure if I do a summary post about the entire series so far I won't accidentally blurt out that ***** gets killed or ******* gets married ;)