Top 10 Tuesday – Books With Single Word Titles

Hey booknerds! I’m taking part in another week of Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was created out of a love of lists and books. You can find more information here

I thought that I wouldn’t be able to think of enough books for this post but turns out there is a lot more than I thought!

I’m going to share books that I have read and loved that have single word titles in this post.

1 Viper by Bex Hogan – Pirate assassins! What do you need?!

2 Nocturna by Maya Motayne – Love the magic system and the characters so much and I cannot wait for the second book!

3 Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly – This book actually made me root for the stepsister.

4 Highfire by Eoin Colfer – This book will take you on a wild ride and there’s a vodka drinking, Netflix watching grumpy dragon too!

5 Postscript by Cecelia Ahern – PS. I Love You was one of my favourite books as a teen and this book was just as amazing! Be warned you will sob reading it.

6 Jinxed by Amy McCulloch – Girls in STEM kicking ass. I love it!

7 Otherworld by Jason Segal & Kirsten Miller – This took VR games to a whole new level.

8 Flashfall by Jenny Moyer – I read this book because it was in a FL box and loved it so much!

9 Sanctuary by V.V James – This book is dark and absolutely terrifying at times and I loved it.

10 Spellhacker by M.K. England – Tech combined with magic and a group of misfits. Such a fun book!

Have you read any of these? Tell me some of your favourite books with single word title.

Books I Love By Authors In The UK – Part 1

In this post I want to share some of my favourite books by authors in the UK. I feel like several of these authors deserve more love and that you should all go read their books!

1 The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon – I am impatiently waiting for the next book because I love this series so much!

2 The Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton – I adore this trilogy! And Alwyn has recently announced that she will be releasing a new series set in the same world!

3 The Summoner and Contender series by Taran Matharu – I loved the Summoner books and I recently read the first Contender book and loved it too! It’s also ownvoices! You can read my reviews of The Outcast here and of The Chosen here

4 All the Things we Never Said by Yasmin Rahman – A book dealing with mental health and suicidal thoughts and how important friendship can be. You can read my review here

5 Viper by Bex Hogan – Pirates and Assassins and a bloodthirsty and violent world and I loved it! You can read my review here

6 Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan – A childhood favourite about vampires and I really loved the whole series!

7 Gilded Cage trilogy and Sanctuary by Vic James – A dystopian UK where those who don’t have powers must serve those with powers for 10 years and are effectively slaves for that period. Sanctuary is a dark witchy book and I loved all of her books! You can read my review of Sanctuary here

8 She Wore Red Trainers by Naima B Robert – I really love all the books Naima rights but especially this one as it’s a Muslim love story! You can read my review here

9 You’re Crushing It by Lex Croucher – I really loved reading through this book. It’s about mental health, building your self-esteem and so much more.

10 I Am Thunder and Kick the Moon by Muhammad Khan – Both deal with very relevant issues and I highly recommend reading them! You can read my review of Kick the Moon here

11 A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby – I really loved this book that deals with growing apart from friends, being true to yourself and standing up for what’s right. You can read my review here

12 Jinxed by Amy Alward – This book was one of those books that I came across accidently but I ended up falling in love! It’s a dystopian sci-fi with unapologetically nerdy, smart female characters who excel in STEM areas. You can read my review here

So when I started writing this post I actually realised I knew a lot more UK authors than I thought so there will be a part 2 posted in a couple days!

Sanctuary By V.V. James – ARC Review

Thank you to Gollancz and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the Dark Gifts trilogy so when I heard about this book I so excited to read it! And I really loved this book too!

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The small Connecticut town of Sanctuary is rocked by the death of its star quarterback.
Daniel’s death looked like an accident, but everyone knows his ex-girlfriend Harper is the daughter of a witch – and she was there when he died.

Then the rumours start. When Harper insists Dan was guilty of a terrible act, the town turns on her. So was his death an accident, revenge – or something even darker?

As accusations fly and secrets are revealed, paranoia grips the town, culminating in a trial that the whole world is watching . . .

This book had me hooked from the beginning and on the edge of my seat. I was up reading late into the night because I just needed to read one more chapter. It has a dark and foreboding atmosphere and it only gets darker as the story progresses. By the end it was pretty terrifying. Not in the horror sense but what happens in the story and just how eerily close it was to reality. I could see this happening in real life.

The story focuses on the lives of Sarah and Abigail, whose point of view we read, and their friends and children. We also get the point of view of Maggie who is the detective assigned to the case of Abigail’s son, Daniel, death. Sarah is a witch, in fact the only witch in her town, her daughter Harper, not having inherited her abilities. Abigail is one of Sarah’s closest friends and part of her coven. Yet when they find out about Daniel’s death, friendships are tested and nothing will ever be the same again between them.

Things quickly unravel and escalate and soon it has become a witch hunt and reading how things escalated so quickly was absolutely terrifying yet I couldn’t look away.
As the story progresses we realise that nothing is as black and white as it seems, everyone has secrets and these secrets threaten to turn all their lives upside down. The characters are complex and the more we learn about them the more we see how they aren’t entirely good. How they betray each other to save their own selves and the effect that grief has on each of them and how it changes them.

This book shows what can happen when people fear what they don’t understand. There’s mass hysteria, mob mentality which leads to hate crimes and violence. From Sarah’s point of view we see what it feels like to be different from everyone around you and never truly fit in but that people tolerate your presence as it also benefits them yet when something happens people instantly turn on you. We also see how it affects Harper, Sarah’s daughter, in school and how she resorts to going to a different town to feel safe and be around people who accept her.

Throughout the story we also see the characters teenage children and how their lives all intertwine, through them we see how awful victim blaming is, how when a woman is sexually assaulted it is so traumatic, yet the people who should protect her and support her blame her for what happens. Consent is also discussed and how prejudice and discrimination can affect those subjected to it. The fact that Daniel is a jock and popular means he is blameless and excuses are made for him despite evidence of his crimes being shown to Abigail. She still manages to blame someone else for it. I really loved how all of this was woven into the story, we see the effects of all of this and by the end the result is frightening.

I really loved this book, and if you love dark suspenseful stories then you will love this. The story is captivating and will keep you reading late into the night.