Top (Four) 10 Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke And The Bookish where each week there is a new topic for a top ten list. 

This week is Top 10 Books I've Enjoyed Recently That Weren't My Typical Genre/Type 

So I just went through what books I've read so far in 2016 and picked a couple that weren't my typical go to books. 

Right now I've read 28 books since the beginning of the year and I have 4 books that fit this topic. 

1. Me Before You

 Usually I leave the 'ugly cry' books up to Nicholas Sparks but when I saw the preview for the movie adaptation of this book I knew I needed to read it! I went out, bought it and read it all within about 24 hours of seeing the trailer.  

2. The Assassin's Blade 

 I love high fantasy but it's very intimidating! So even though I've already read Throne Of Glass I've been putting off reading the prequel which means I've been putting off all the other books in the series. Silly me these were some of my all time favorite novella's and I feel like it really helped me to get to know Celaena and her reasoning. 

3. Sword and Verse 

This is just a book that I don't normally gravitate towards but it was a very pleasant surprise! 

4. The Shadow Queen 

So if you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know I try very hard to stay away from re-tellings, but I've decided to change that this year and this book helped me do it! I loved everything about it and I can't say enough about how much I LOVED it! 

-------------------

A short post, but Top 4 is better than nothing! 

Happy Tuesday! 

Until next time,
Ginger

ARC Review of Sword and Verse

Sword and Verse   

By Kathy MacMillan   

Stars: 4

Source: EW

Release Date: January 19th 2016

Raisa was just a child when she was sold into slavery, forced to work in the very castle of the people who murdered her family. What they don't know is that Raisa's father was teacher her to read and write, something forbidden in Qilara unless you are royalty or a tutor. 

Year later, after the current tutor in training is found to be a traitor Raisa is miraculously named her replacement and spared an unknown punishment for stepping out of place. 

All of a sudden Raisa is thrust into a position that allows her to not only learn more of the language her father fought so hard to teach her but she now has the ability to help the growing rebellion that is starting to rise all around the kingdom. 

A spy within the walls, she finds herself getting caught in a game of cat and mouse, slowly but surely helping the rebels carry out their plans for a imminent uprising. But when she suddenly starts falling for the Prince she's not sure whose side she's on anymore. 

-----------------------------

I really enjoyed this book. I was really iffy going into it because I hadn't heard a ton about it but it was a really nice surprise. 

It reminded me of a mash up between The Red Queen and An Ember In The Ashes. 

What I liked about it was that most of the story was about Raisa learning to read and write this language that has been kept from most people for hundreds of years. It was repetitive, her being taught and trying to remember the different symbols for different words/letters. But it was never boring.

Sometimes with books where the plot gets a little redundant I'll catch myself skim reading but I didn't do that with Sword and Verse. It was more like I caught myself re-reading sentences over and over again because they were so beautiful. 

Honestly the only thing I didn't like about this book was the romance between Raisa and the Prince. For some reason he just rubbed me the wrong way. I ended up not hating him in the end of the book but I never fully liked him. 

Other then that this book was amazing and I would recommend it to (as I mentioned above) fans of An Ember In The Ashes or Red Queen. 

Now I've heard people say this is a standalone, which makes sense because everything was wrapped up nicely in the last chapter but on GoodReads it is marked as #1 in a series so we'll see how that goes. 

As much as I loved this book I feel like I loved it because it read like a standalone and I almost hope that it stays that way. 

I'd love to see more from this author, even a story set in this world, but I think these characters story played out perfectly in one book and I don't feel like a second one is needed. 

If you've read this let me know what your thoughts are! 

Until next time, 
Ginger 

In compliance with FTC guidelines I am disclosing that this book was given to me for free to review. 

My review is my honest opinion.