Summer reads

Hey guys! How nice has the weather been lately? Now it's officially summer, holidays are approaching, as are lazy weekends in the garden or weeks by the pool if some of you are lucky enough to have a holiday in the sun booked! And nothing goes hand in hand more with lazy holidays than a good book. I've got a whole three months off before I go back to university so I've compiled a list of books that I want to read whilst I have all of this spare time over the summer and I thought I'd share it with you guys, in case you're in need of a read too!

• "Magician" by Raymond E. Feist. Currently reading this and LOVING it, I'm such a fan of fantasy novels, especially if they're set in a completely fictional world. I just started this book and it is ticking all the boxes of a high quality fantasy book. Plus my dad has been trying to get me to read it since I pretty much learnt to read, and if my dad loves it, I can guarantee it will be a good 'un.

• "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. I have heard SO much praise for the Gemma Doyle novels and it's been sitting in my "to-read" list on Goodreads for such a long time and I think this summer I'm going to sink my teeth into it. Anyone who knows me at all will know that I simply adore anything set in the Victorian era, so add a female protagonist, a Gothic setting and the fantasy genre and you'll have me jumping around with excitement at the prospect of finally getting to read this!

• "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor. This is yet another novel that I've heard nothing but wonderful things about. A novel half set in Prague and half set in a fantasy world sounds incredibly interesting, plus the opening lines of the blurb are so intriguing: "Errand requiring immediate attention. Come. The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came."  How much do you now want to know everything about everyone mentioned in that tiny passage?!

• "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. Now, this is an author and a novel that I've never come across before, but yesterday  I bumped into an old friend in Waterstones. She had a tattoo on her forearm and another on her collarbone and when I enquired, she explained they were quotes from this novel. She walked me straight over to the shelf this book was sitting on and insisted that I read it because she knew how much I'd love it. So I have no idea what it's about but with such a glowing recommendation, how could I resist adding it onto this list?

• "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. In all honesty, even reading the blurb, I am not entirely sure what this is about, but Patrick Rothfuss (author of the above novel) rated it 5 stars, as does pretty much everyone else who's read it on Goodreads. I find the title really enthralling and there's just something about it that makes me want to dive into the world of Locke Lamora. 

• "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. I have been dying to read this book for YEARS. Literally, years and years. I don't know why I haven't got round to reading it, but I am adamant that I will get round to it this summer. A haunting fantasy novel set on a mysterious island in an abandoned orphanage accompanied with vintage photographs throughout the novel. It. Sounds. FASCINATING.

• "Seraphina" by Rachel Hartman. I'd be totally lying if I said dragons wasn't the main reason this ended up on my "to-read" list. I love a good dragon novel, especially considering I'm probably The Inheritance Cycle's biggest fan, and I've been at a loss since finishing those books, and I'm constantly searching for something to fill the dragon-shaped void in my heart and hopefully this book can do that for me!

• "The Strange Affair of  Spring Heeled Jack" by Mark Hodder. Now, I think this is a little different to all of the other books on this list, as it's a mixture of fact and fiction. But don't you just love reading a book that includes real historical figures, and then when you fact check you realise that some of the things in this work of fiction ACTUALLY happened?! Well, I do. And the protagonist in this book is none other than 19th Century scholar and explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton. He, and (yet again, another real person) poet Algernon Charles Swinburne end up investigating assaults on young women by a mysterious character known as Spring Heeled Jack. And hey, why not add a few werewolves in there too?!

Have you read any of these books?  If so, what did you think of them? If you want to have a look at any of the other books I'd like to read, or the one's I've read already, head over to my Goodreads here. I hope this helped you find a few new books, or inspired you to get reading again! 

Until next time my dears!