Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Want to Catch Up On
18 August 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Review, book-blog, Books, Fantasy, reading, Series I Want to Catch Up On, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s prompt is:
Book Series I Want to Catch Up On
A few years ago I actually went through my book lists and discovered that I had an embarrassing number of series to catch up with. I think I’m doing a little better these days. Here are ten series that I’d like to catch up with/finish.
1. The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
I was loving reading this series but I think a combination of binge reading a lot of the books at once and having maybe too many series on the go at once meant this one got left behind. I read the first 8 – the series is now up to 20 so I really do have some catching up to do, but this is a fun series and I really would like to pick it back up again, time permitting. Here is the first book in the series. If you like urban fantasy I really do encourage you to give this a try:
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
I’ve read the first two, Empire of the Vampire and Empire of the Damned and just need to give my head a wobble and pick up the third.
The Fell, New York series by Simone St James
There are two books in this series so far and although I haven’t read them in publication order I loved A Box Full of Darkness and would love to revisit this particular town again. I already have a copy of the Sun Down Motel waiting to be picked up and would love to get to it before the year is out.


Court of Shadows series by Sebastien de Castell
I’ve read and really enjoyed Crucible of Chaos and Play of Shadows and have Our Lady of Blades waiting to be read.



The Spellshop series by Sarah Beth Durst
I loved The Spellshop, which was the first in the series and The Enchanted Greenhouse was another really lovely cosy instalment. I have Sea of Charms already on my shelf and I understand that the fourth book is also in the offing, The Magical Cheese Emporium – which, to be blunt, I can’t resist with that title!. Cosy fantasy lovers keep your eyes peeled.




The Echo Archives by Melissa Caruso
I’ve read the first two books, The Last Hour Between Worlds and The Last Soul Among Wolves and the third is expected to be released in November this year. Can’t wait, I love the world that the author has created, it’s absolutely fascinating and the characters are very easy to like too.
Amina-al-Sirafi series by SA Chakraborty
I loved the first book, adored it in fact and although I’ve fallen behind a little with some of my review books I’m hoping to pick up The Tapestry of Fate very soon, I was so excited to have a copy of this and really can’t wait to pick it up. Seriously, do yourself a favour and pick up The Adventures of Amina-al-Sirafi if you love fantasy adventure with winning characters.


The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne
Such an amazing author and a great series. I loved The Shadow of the Gods and The Hunger of the Gods and have the third, The Fury of the Gods lined up and waiting both in written and audio format – so double the excitement.
Talon by Jen Williams
This is a duology so I don’t know why I haven’t managed to complete it yet, I read and thoroughly enjoyed Talonsister and couldn’t wait to pick up Titanchild but this seems to have corresponded to one of my times away and so I fell behind. I will definitely be completing this. I love Jen Williams and highly recommend the first fantasy series I read of hers that started with The Copper Promise.


The Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett
I love this series and I thought the third was the concluding episode. I’ve never been happier to be wrong. The fourth book is due out early in the new year and I can’t wait. Check out Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands and Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales. The next in the series is called Emily Wilde’s History of Dark Faerie and is due out in 2027. Exciting times.
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years
11 August 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books I read on this day xx number of years ago, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s prompt is:
Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years
I usually post a weekly wrap up every Sunday so it was fairly easy to check out what I’d been reading on this day over the past 10 years, with the odd exception where I’ve opted for the nearest review posted just after the 11th. I really enjoyed this theme and putting the post together, looking back at the books I was reading was fun even though it doesn’t feel like five minutes ago since I read some of these books. There are some little belters in this list. I particularly have to give a shout out to both Alice Feeney books. Here’s my list:
August 2025 Damned by Genevieve Cogman
August 2024 The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
August 2023 Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
August 2022 Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
August 2021 Mrs Rochester’s Ghost by Lindsay Marcott
August 2020 The Shadow Friend by Alex North
August 2019 The Truants by Kate Weinberg
August 2018 Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
August 2017 Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis
August 2016 Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Top Ten Tuesday: I’ve gone with a freebie
21 July 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Bookish Wishes, Mark Lawrence, SPFBO, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s prompt is:
Freebie: Ten Books I recently added to my wishlist
This brings me to the fact that recently I’ve added all ten of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) books to my list. For those of you who don’t know about SPFBO this is a competition, brainchild of Mark Lawrence, that is now in it’s eleventh year. Self published authors submit their books and ten judges (or teams of judges) are allocated 30 books each – they all choose a finalist which is then read by the other judges before a winner is chosen – there can be only one. I have taken part as a judge for the first ten years but stepped down for two reasons, firstly because I was struggling with the first phase of the competition, reading 30 books and narrowing it down to 1 book can be very difficult, secondly, there are so many fantastic book reviewers out there that I started to feel like I should give others a shot at judging.
Anyway, long story short. I always love the finalist stage where 10 books are selected by each judge or team of judges. These are the books, and I’m hoping to give them all a try and see how I get on, maybe choose a favourite of my own – and of course, no pressure, I don’t have to make the deadline and I have no book in the running so I can simply take my time and enjoy these – I know there will be ten fabulous reads here, I also recognise a few authors so I’m very excited. Take a look and see if there are any here you’d like to try:
I haven’t provided links today as I’m in a bit of a rush and also away at the moment, I’m hoping to do a more thorough post when I return that provides more detail on each of these finalists. But, I’ve provided a link here to Mark Lawrence’s finalist page which gives more details.
Do you fancy any of these?
Top Ten Tuesday plus Summer of Horror: Book Titles that Include the Word – House
7 July 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Titles that Include the Word 'X', Books Bones and Buffy, House, Summer of Horror, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s prompt is:
Book Titles That Include the Word – House
I wanted to use the prompt to highlight a few darker reads and House definitely seems to fit that challenge. Here are my 10:










Have you read any of these? What did you think?
With links: The Haunting of Hill House, House of Splinters, It was Her House First, The House That Horror Built, A House with Good Bones, Incidents Around the House, The September House, The Last House on Needless Street, How to Sell a Haunted House and Starling House






























