Tag Thursday – The ABC Book Challenge: H

It’s time to move another letter down the alphabet for The ABC Book Challenge!

Every couple of weeks I’ll be sharing at least one memorable book with a title beginning with the letter of the week, and one (or more) books currently on my TBR.

I’ll be ignoring any As etc at the beginning of titles

The ABC Book Challenge – H

A Memorable Book…

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

To be honest any of the seven Harry Potter books could have featured in this position but I’ve gone with the story that started it all, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This was the book that kickstarted my love of all things Harry Potter and to be honest it all happened by accident. Back in the autumn of 1998 I was beginning my final year of primary school, every morning after morning break our class would sit down for fruit time, and our teacher would read to us. At the beginning of the year our teacher tried to read The Hobbit to us but it didn’t go down particularly well. Instead he picked up, what was still a relatively unknown book that had been published a little over a year previously, the class absolutely loved it! To the point people stayed behind on the very last day of school the next July to listen to the ending that we hadn’t quite reached. I’m lead to believe the series became fairly popular…

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A Book On My TBR…

Happy Girl Lucky by Holly Smale

Introducing The Valentines – Happy Girl Lucky, the first book in the hilarious new romantic-comedy series by Holly Smale, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Geek Girl books.

Fame – it runs in the family!

The Valentine sisters – Hope, Faith and Mercy – have everything: fame, success, money and beauty. But what Hope wants most of all is love, and it doesn’t matter how far she has to go to find it.

Except real life isn’t like the movies. Unless of course you’re a Valentine . . .

This one has been sitting on my shelf since the beginning of March and I’ve still not gotten around to reading it… This is the first in a new series by the author behind Geek Girl (which I’ve not read either) so I should probably try and get to it before the next book comes out at some point…

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Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way:

* She’s landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog.
* Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. But Lou’s never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after.
* Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, who’s always been up for anything, suddenly isn’t when it comes to Lou’s quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou’s scheme to get close to Nick.
* And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland–ever–unless she can find a way to stop it from closing.

Jennifer Dugan’s sparkling debut coming-of-age queer romance stars a princess, a pirate, a hot dog, and a carousel operator who find love–and themselves–in unexpected people and unforgettable places.

I bought this one back in April, and much like Happy Girl Lucky it’s still sitting unread on my shelves. I won’t lie I bought this book after that beautiful cover caught my eye, and the premise sounds so cute, I must get around to it in September!

One memorable and two to be read H books! Let me know yours in the comments and be sure to come back on the 5th September to discover my I books!