TTT (28) - Best Books I Read in 2018 so far

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Read up on the rules here and join in on the Top Ten Tuesday fun.

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This week the theme is best books we read in 2018, at least so far, and this week's post by That Artsy Reader girl can be found here.

We're halfway through the year so this is a great moment to look back and choose a few books that I've loved so far. I've been reading quite a bit. More or less two books a week is my goal and so far I've kept up with that. Actually, I think I'm a few books ahead. But I also have ARCs piling sky high. I've linked my reviews in case any of these pique your curiosity.

These are my top ten books so far:

• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. Read this if you're looking for a mystery in an interesting fantasy setting that is different. There's politics, religion and at its heart a murder mystery. My review will be up shortly. 
• Bright Ruin by Vic James. The Dark Gifts trilogy is a fantasy YA that is about the common man owing the elite, who wield magic, ten years of servitude. It's political, it's intriguing and it's got characters I love. Here's the review of the first one, Gilded Cage.

 

• Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence. Read this, but start with Red Sister, if you want to see a young girl being trained in a convent by nuns to become an assassin. The protagonist reminds me a lot of Arya Stark and what would have happened if GRRM would have focused on her story.
• Every Last Minute by Ellen Smith. Time travel. Fast paced. Great couple. What if you could go back and undo something terrible which happened in your past?

 

• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. Read this if you're looking for a fun YA romp in the world of the fae.
• The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts. Read this if you're a fan of lyrical prose and epic high fantasy with a world filled with endless lore and are prepared to take on eleven books.

 

• Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. Read this if you're into philosophy, history, the age of enlightenment, and don't mind language like Voltaire would have used. This is one of the most different books out there in the SF world.
• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. Read this if you enjoy hard science fiction and are looking for something epic spanning galaxies and centuries.
• Inda by Sherwood Smith. Coming of age in a military academy, again in a fantasy setting. Read this if you're looking for betrayal and pirates.

 

• Daughter of the Empire by R. Feist and Janny Wurts. Read this if you're looking for a fantasy inspired by Japan, where a woman is the main character who uses her intelligence to solve all her problems. (It's in the same universe as the Riftwar Saga by R. Feist.)

Special mentions:

• Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell (because, I technically finished it in July and it'll probably be on my end of the year list.) Read this if you are looking to support an indie author who wrote a complex grimdark fantasy with an amazing plot.
• Sorcerous Rivalry by Kayleigh Nicol (because it was heartwarming and exactly what my news-battered cynical soul needed, a good dose of fantasy romance with irresistible characters.) Read this if you're looking for a m/m romance in a fantasy setting.