top ten tuesday

Books with Flowers on the Cover

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’s topic is May Flowers and so these are 10 books from my TBR with flowers on the cover


Jaimie Admans – The Beekeeper at Elderflower Grove
Lex Croucher – Infamous
Kiley Dunbar – The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday
Sarah Hawley – A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon
Talia Hibbert – Untouchable


India Holton – The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
Freya Marske – A Marvellous Light
Holly Martin – Spring At Blueberry Bay
Ali McNamara – Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
Julia Quinn – The Duke & I

top ten tuesday

New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’s topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023 and I’m picking ones that I read for the first time in 2023, not necessarily the ones I only heard of first – because I did a lot of ‘picking the popular thing up to see what the fuss was all about’, and they were books that had been around for a while.
I have 8 though, not 10 -I read more than 10 new authors, but these are the 8 that stuck with me, and i have something to say about.
That made more sense in my head – in my defence, I’m writing this under a heady cocktail of codeine, naproxen and not enough caffeine because today is A Bad Pain Day.

Matthew Reilly Definitely one of my top author discoveries of 2023. I picked up Temple because it was set in Peru and filled the ‘South America’ prompt on a Reading Around The World challenge and completely fell in love, proceeded to read 2 more of his books, just bought a 3rd, and have further 2 on my TBR.

Andrea Penrose I absolutely devoured the Wrexford & Sloane books last year, and read books 6 and 7 in January of this year. I am now very impatiently waiting for book 8 to come out in like Aug/Sept
Note to self – you should check out her other series too

Jeremy Clarkson Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t discover Jeremy Clarkson last year. I’ve known who he is for years, I live in the UK and I’ve watched Top Gear, Grand Tour, Clarkson’s Farm etc, but this was the first time I picked up one of his books. It won’t be the last
Note to self – do the library have any of his other books too?

Talia Hibbert Talia Hibbert is someone I first heard of a couple of years ago, and knew I wanted to read. How could I not want to read spicy diverse romance novels, with characters who are fat, or autistic…i.e. like me. And they were wonderful and I adore her!

Alix E Harrow The Once and Future Witches was one of my standout reads from last year, and Harrow’s beautiful writing style is one of the main reasons for that. I absolutely loved it and, yes, want to read more.

Meik Wiking I’d actually attended a bunch of webinars that Wiking has either led as part of The Happiness Institue, or been part of through places like Action For Happiness, but I’d never read one of his books. And then I devoured all the Hygge books he’d written because that all just

Raynor Winn I had been wanting to read The Salt Path for years and when I saw it sitting on the shelf in the library, I was overjoyed. Thankfully the book was every bit as amazing as I expected it to be, Winn’s writing style flows so easily and all three books were completely unputdownable

Stel Pavlou The one author on this list I don’t have the burning desire to read more by but Decipher was definitely one of my top books of 2023. Li recommended it to me and it was fucking batshit crazy, OTT, sci-fi action thriller and I LOVED IT. His other book/s, the precis don’t appeal to me, but he deserves to be on this list for my love of Decipher!

top ten tuesday

Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’s topic is Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To and I am feeling VERY called out right now, because oh there are SO MANY


Ben Aaronovitch – Lies Sleeping (Rivers Of London #7)
Travis Baldree – Legends and Lattes
Becky Chambers – A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Bonnie Garmus – Lessons in Chemistry
Ali Hazelwood – The Love Hypothesis


Talia Hibbert – Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Emily Henry – Book Lovers
Sarah J Maas – A Court of Wings and Ruin
Emily St John Mandel – Station Eleven
Tamsyn Muir – Gideon The Ninth

top ten tuesday

Books or covers that look/feel like summer

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

I’m picking one from a few weeks ago that I missed Books or covers that look/feel like summer

Emily Henry – Book Lovers
Holly Martin – Summer at Buttercup Beach
Jaimie Admans – The Wishing Tree Beside the Shore
Mandy Baggot – Desperately Seeking Summer
Ali McNamara – Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay


Christie Barlow – Kitty’s Countryside Dream
Alexandria Bellefleur – Hang The Moon
Talia Hibber – Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Taylor Jenkins Reid – Malibu Rising
Kiley Dunbar – The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday

This might just be the least eclectic collection I’ve ever posted LMAO

top ten tuesday

Bookish People I’d Like to Meet

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’ topic is Bookish People I’d Like to Meet so I’m going with authors I would love to not only just meet, but sit down and have a coffee with. And I will say that the whole JK Rowling… situation… has made me much much warier of wanting to meet the people whose books I love, I even hesitate at following them on social media – I definitely have a quick google and check their social media history before hitting that button. sigh

But, here we go:
Jaimie Admans
So I have been friends with Miss Jai online for… let’s say a very long time, at this point. The very first book I ever read on Kindle was her debut Kismetology – she’s the reason I even have a Kindle.

The next three are authors whose books are my current auto-buys, and I have interacted with them and fellow fans in Facebook groups, etc and that’s
Mandy Baggot, Christie Barlow and Ali McNamara
I love all their books, reading them is like snuggling into a familiar warm comfy blanket while sipping a mug of hot chocolate!

My current favourite author who I’m busy devouring books by is Talia Hibbert. She writes, and I quote ‘spicy, diverse romance because she believes that people of marginalised identities need honest and positive representation’ and there’s just… informed consent and safe sex and characters LIKE ME. I’m in love and flail madly at Li when I’m reading!

Spots 6-8 go to some of my favourite history folks, who I’d love to sit down and bend their ears about all things Plantagenet, Wars of the Roses, and Tudors and they are of course
Philippa Gregory, Dan Jones, and Alison Weir

The last two have been my among my favourite authors since I was a teenager, are responsible for my love of all things horror, vampire, gothic and New Orleans.
Anne Rice (RIP) and Poppy Z Brite