Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!

It’s been a while since I did a TTT, but I’m feeling pretty ill atm and this seemed like a lovely, easy thing to work on while I get back on my feet! Most of these are books I actually have, but haven’t gotten around to reading yet, since I’ve already talked about forthcoming books I’m excited for recently.

Lifelode by Jo Walton is a book I’ve been dying to get my hands on for years – Walton + magic + normalised polyamory??? Gimme! Unfortunately, it was only published in hardback, in an extremely limited run, and unavailable for years and years. It was recently released as an ebook, though, so I really want to find the time to finally dive into it!

Cinderella is Dead has been on my radar for ages, and I can’t wait to finally get to read it! Queer Black girls taking on the patriarchy of a fairytale kingdom – 200 years after the death of Cinderella? Cinderella is far from my favourite fairytale, but we’re talking about girls who’ve had to live with her legacy, not a retelling of the story, and I’m so excited to see that unpacked and what Bayron does with it!

The Worst of All Possible Worlds wraps up one of the most unique series I’ve ever read, mixing up magic with sci-fi and setting the stakes as high as they can go. Wannabe-gods, queer racecar drivers, spaceships and found-family??? This trilogy ticks boxes I didn’t even know I had, and I’m dying to see how it all ends!

I still, still haven’t managed to complete a review of The Merciless Crow, the first book in this duet – maybe I can reread it and review it in time for the release of Faithless Hawk, because the first book is mindblowingly brilliant, and I have nothing but the highest of hopes for the sequel. This is one of those rare series where the worldbuilding – my usual addiction – is incredible, but actually manages to be overshadowed by the wonderful characters and their story! An intricate caste-system, magic drawn from teeth, dead gods, and a fierce, vicious fight for equality – this is probably one of my most-anticipated releases of the summer.

Letters From Dark Water is the last of the Love Has Claws series by Parker Foye, each of which is a standalone queer story tied together by their connection to the eerie seaside town of Lastings. Book one had a feral selkie and a nonbinary witch; book two had vampires and baking. I’m really sad this series is over, which is why I haven’t started reading this yet, but I’m definitely going to get to this over the summer.

Chain of Gold is yet another 2020 release I haven’t gotten to yet – I wanted to reread the Infernal Devices trilogy, which precedes Gold chronologically, first, but I suspect that’s not going to happen and I should just jump in. I’m especially excited about Anna, a character that’s supposed to be gender-nonconforming/genderqueer, although those terms probably aren’t going to get used in a Victorian setting.

The Princess Who Flew With Dragons is the third book in the Chocolate Heart series, a MG series revolving around a young dragon who (in human form!) works in a chocolate shop, and her friends. This book focuses on the kingdom’s youngest princess, who is definitely overdue a chance to prove herself to her older sister. These books have been smart but sweet comfort-reads, the kind that have as much in them for adults as they do kids, and I’m hoping I can get to this one soon!

Susurrus on Mars is by one of my favourite authors, Hal Duncan. His Book of All Hours duet is a criminally unknown masterpiece, and I’ve been following his career ever since. Susurrus has been waiting on my Kindle for too long now; Duncan doesn’t talk down to his readers, and with all my health problems this year I haven’t been up to putting in the work on this one. Hopefully that’ll all be cleared up soon, and I can get to this novella about ‘the gene-spliced child of the gods Zephyros and Ares flirt[ing] and seduc[ing] fleshlings on a terraformed future Mars.’

Listen, I said he doesn’t write down to the reader!

Storm of Life is the sequel to The Brilliant Death, a fantasy with an Italy-inspired setting about a young witch coming into her power – as a witch, and as a woman, even as she discovers and embraces her own genderfluidity. In Storm of Life, the mc and her (also genderfluid) lover are on a mission to save their fellow witches from the new leader of the country, who’s out to kill all of those who won’t serve him – or who aren’t useful. It’s another one I should have gotten to before now, but hey, that’s what summer holidays are for, right?

The Sunken Mall! This is the free novella written by KD Edwards, set between his books The Last Sun and The Hanged Man. This one I’m waiting to read because I want to reread Last Sun first – read all three in order. If you know anything about me you know I love the Tarot Sequence with all my heart, so I’m ridiculously excited for a brand new installment! I’m probably going to be the last fan to have read it, but I can live with that. I just want to savour it.

What’s on your tbr for the summer?