Top Ten Tuesday – Books On My Summer 2019 TBR

This week on Top Ten Tuesday it’s all about our Summer TBRs. Now for my Winter and Spring TBR posts I focused on upcoming releases that I wanted to read. Out of the twenty books listed across the two posts I’ve read a grand total of two, I do own 13 of them….

As last week’s prompt focuses on our most anticipated books of the second half of the year I thought doing the same thing would be a little repetitive. So instead I’ve gone back through my goodreads and actually tried to pull together a TBR from books I already own.

The TBR is ordered by publication date because that seemed the easiest thing to do!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Books on My Summer TBR

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Publication Date: 9th July 1995

When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. 

The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights…

This is a planned re-read, I read His Dark Materials when I was a teenager and told myself I was going to re-read before La Belle Sauvage came out but I never got around to it. My aim is to re-read the whole trilogy ahead of The Secret Commonwealth coming out. I’m actually heading home in July so I can pick up my childhood copies!

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Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Publication date: 5th June 2014

At Deapdean School for Girls, Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have set up their own detective agency. But they are struggling to find any real crimes to investigate…

(Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t.)

Then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. 

To add to the mystery, when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. 

Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove one happened in the first place.

Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning and intuition they can muster.

But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

My dear friend Amy from Golden Books Girl is a huge fan of this series from Robin Stevens and I’ve been sitting on this first book in the series for a while now so it’s time I took the plunge!

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A Study In Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Publication Date: 1st March 2016

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

I absolutely adore Sherlock Holmes so when I heard about this series I was so excited! I’m not sure it’s published in the UK I ordered it through Amazon as I couldn’t see it in a Waterstones. This first book has sat on my shelf for a little while now so I am quite looking forward to finally getting around to it.

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Noah Can’t Even by Simon James Green

Publication Date: 4th May 2017

Poor Noah Grimes!

His dad disappeared years ago, his mother’s Beyonce tribute act is an unacceptable embarrassment, and his beloved gran isn’t herself anymore. He only has one friend, Harry, and school is…Well, it’s pure HELL. 

Why can’t Noah be normal, like everyone else at school? Maybe if he struck up a romantic relationship with someone – maybe Sophie, who is perfect and lovely – he’d be seen in a different light? 

But Noah’s plans for romance are derailed when Harry kisses him at a party. That’s when things go from bad to worse utter chaos.

I’ve heard many good things about this book and its sequel. It’s been on my shelf for the best part of two years so I really want to finally get around to it.

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No Safe Place by Patricia Gibney

Publication Date: 22nd March 2018

As funeral mourners stand in silence at Ragmullin cemetery, a deafening cry cuts through the air. Lying crumpled at the bottom of an open grave is the bloodied body of a young woman, and Detective Lottie Parker is called in to investigate. 

Knowing the body can’t have been there long, Lottie wonders if it could be Elizabeth Bryne, a young woman who vanished without trace just days earlier. And with a new boss who seems to have it in for her, Lottie is under pressure to solve both cases quickly.

As two more women go missing from Ragmullin, Lottie and her team fear there is a serial killer on the loose. And the disappearances are strikingly similar to a cold case from ten years earlier. Could history be repeating itself? 

As journalists begin to interfere with Lottie’s investigation, she fears the killer is about to strike again. Lottie is in a race against time to find the missing women, but the killer is closer than she thinks. Could Lottie be his next target?

I absolutely flew threw the first three DI Lottie Parker series so I’m not sure why it’s taken so long to get to book four. Another one to rectify this summer

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The Brink of Darkness by Jeff Giles

Publication Date: 10th July 2018

Things have changed for seventeen-year-old Zoe ever since the otherworldly events that brought her together with the mysterious bounty hunter she calls X. In order to save Zoe and her family, X has done the unthinkable – he’s given up his freedom and returned to captivity in the Lowlands.

X is determined to break the lords’ hold on him once and for all, but being stripped of his power pushes him toward a darkness he’s never experienced and a past he’s never known. The secrets that surface could be the key to reuniting X and Zoe… or they could mean the destruction of everything they have been fighting for.

I absolutely adored The Edge Of Everything when I read it in 2017 and I was desperate to get my hands on the sequel. For some reason it’s just sat on my shelf ever since. So this summer is the time for me to finally read it.

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Broken Ground by Val McDermid

Publication Date: 23rd August 2018

When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone’s long-buried inheritance, the victim seems to belong to the distant past – until new evidence suggests otherwise, and Karen is called in to unravel a case where nothing is as it seems.

It’s not long before an overheard conversation draws Karen into the heart of a different case, however – a shocking crime she thought she’d already prevented. As she inches closer to the twisted truths at the centre of these murders, it becomes clear that she’s dealing with a version of justice terrifyingly different to her own . . .

Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid returns with her most breathtakingly atmospheric and exhilarating novel yet.

I actually prefer the Karen Pirie series to the Tony Hill series. I bought this one not long after it came out but as with a lot of hardbacks I own it’s been relegated to the bookcase and overlooked in favour of eBooks and paperbacks which are easier to take on my commute.

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Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Publication Date: 18th September 2018

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

I was so excited when this book’s publication date was announced, it was immediately pre-ordered and I left work early to pick it up on publication day. I started it that night but then it suffered the same fate as the other hardbacks and was left on the shelf. It really isn’t one to carry around – I tried to overcome this by downloading the audiobook but it’s so slow compared to my normal reading speed I feel like I’m going nowhere with it… I think I might take a long weekend and get it finished finally before Charlotte from Charlotte, Somewhere loses patience with me!

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And Then I Turned Into A Mermaid by Laura Kirkpatrick

Publication Date: 30th May 2019

Molly Seabrook’s dull seaside life is turned upside down when she turns 13 and is let in on the family secret: she’s PART-MERMAID! While this does explain why her bonkers Mum is always skinny-dipping, Molly isn’t exactly thrilled. She already has to dress as a haddock to promote the family fish ’n’ chip shop, and now this? Growing up is hard enough without sprouting a fish tail in Double Maths, or disguising your gills from the cute boy at the ice cream kiosk.

Join Molly as she navigates the stormy sea of social awkwardness, best friend fallouts and the World’s Most Embarrassing Family – all while attempting to hide her (Very Weird) new double identity. Will she sink or swim? You’ll have to wait and SEA . . .

We’ve reached 2019! This book only came out last month but I can’t wait to read it. This is Laura Steven of The Exact Opposite Of Okay fame writing her debut middle grade under a different pen name. I loved TEOOO so I have high hopes for this!

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Rumblestar by Abi Elphinstone

Publication Date: 30th May 2019

Eleven-year-old Casper Tock hates risks, is allergic to adventures and shudders at the thought of unpredictable events. So, it comes as a nasty shock to him when he accidentally stumbles into Rumblestar, an Unmapped Kingdom full of magical beasts.

All Casper wants is to find a way home, but Rumblestar is in trouble. An evil harpy called Morg is sending her followers, the Midnights, into the kingdom to wreak havoc and pave the way for her to steal the Unmapped magic for herself. But Casper cannot turn a blind eye because the future of his own world, he discovers, is bound up with that of the Unmapped Kingdoms. 

And so, together with Utterly Thankless, a girl who hates rules and is allergic to behaving, and her miniature dragon, Arlo, Casper embarks upon an adventure full of cloud giants, storm ogres and drizzle hags. Can he, Utterly and Arlo, the unlikeliest of heroes, save the Unmapped Kingdoms and our world from the clutches of Morg and her Midnights?

I recently read and adored Everdark so I’m dying to get stuck into the first full story of the The Unmapped Chronicles series.

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If I make it through these I’ve got some additional past releases I’m planning to get through alongside some summer 2019 releases!

My summer TBR – Have you read any of these? Which should I prioritise? Let me know in the comments!