Top Ten Tuesday – Books on My UKYA Readathon TBR

Happy Tuesday! Today is a Top Ten Tuesday freebie, originally I was going to share a generic summer 2020 TBR as I missed that prompt a couple of weeks ago but then I spotted this tweet and I thought I’m in! So today’s post instead are the nine books that I’ve picked to meet the prompts plus a bonus UKYA read!

Introducing the #UKYAreadathon – coming August 2020! https://t.co/4ybw6z1J5x

— Nikki / books and lemon squash 🍋 (@nikkireadsbooks) July 11, 2020

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

Books on My UKYA Readathon TBR

Read A Debut – The Last Summer Of Us by Maggie Harcourt

About The Book
Limpet, Steffan and Jared. Three best friends crammed into a clapped-out rust bucket of a car on a whirlwind road trip to forget their troubles and see out the end of the summer. But no matter how far they drive, they can’t escape the hidden secrets and slow-burning romance that could upset the balance of their friendship – perhaps forever.  

This prompt is pretty open, it can be a 2020 debut but doesn’t have to be so I’ve picked The Last Summer Of Us by Maggie Harcourt. I’ve read and loved Unconventional and Theatrical but I’ve never gone back and read her debut despite downloading it to my Kindle when Usborne put it on sale.

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Reread A Favourite – Gilded Cage by Vic James

About The Book

In modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.

This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.

Have a quick ten years. . . .

I figured given the fact I only read Viper for the first time a couple months ago it’s probably a little soon for a re-read so instead I’m going to pick up Gilded Cage. I loved this trilogy although for some reason only ever reviewed the first book on the blog. Maybe I’ll reread the whole trilogy before the year is up…

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Book With A Monarchy – State Of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury

About The Book

Sorrow – for that is all she brings us.

A people laid low by grief and darkness.
A cut-throat race for power and victory.
A girl with everything and nothing to lose…

By day, Sorrow governs the Court of Tears, covering for her grief-maddened father, who has turned their once celebrated land into a living monument for the brother who died before she was born.

By night, she seeks solace in the arms of the boy she’s loved since childhood. But one ghost won’t stop haunting her, and when enemies old and new close ranks against her, Sorrow must decide how far she’s willing to go to win…

Be swept away by the dark and dangerous new world from Melinda Salisbury, bestselling author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter trilogy

This prompt is pretty self explanatory, any UKYA novel featuring a monarchy. Mel is one of the queens of UKYA and I’ve had the Sorrow Duology for a little while now so this is the perfect excuse to dive into this world!

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AOC Read – I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan

About The Book

Fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem, who dreams of being a writer, struggles with controlling parents who only care about her studying to be a doctor. Forced to move to a new school in South London after her best friend is shamed in a scandal, Muzna realizes that the bullies will follow her wherever she goes. But deciding to stand and face them instead of fighting her instinct to disappear is harder than it looks when there’s prejudice everywhere you turn. Until the gorgeous and confident Arif shows an interest in her, encouraging Muzna to explore her freedom.

But Arif is hiding his own secrets and, along with his brother Jameel, he begins to influence Muzna with their extreme view of the world. As her new freedom starts to disappear, Muzna is forced to question everything around her and make a terrible choice – keep quiet and betray herself, or speak out and betray her heart?

A stunning new YA voice which questions how far you’ll go to protect what you believe in.

Muhammad Khan wrote a short story for World Book Day that I really enjoyed, so this is the perfect excuse to pick up one of his YA novels sooner than I had planned.

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LGBT+ Read – The Love Hypothesis by Laura Steven

About The Book

Physics genius Caro Kerber-Murphy knows she’s smart. With straight As and a college scholarship already in the bag, she’s meeting her two dads’ colossal expectations and then some. But there’s one test she’s never quite been able to ace: love. And when, in a particularly desperate moment, Caro discovers a (definitely questionable) scientific breakthrough that promises to make you irresistible to everyone around you, she wonders if this could be the key. What happens next will change everything Caro thought she knew chemistry – in the lab and in love.

Is her long-time crush Haruki with her of his own free will? Are her feelings for her best girl friend some sort of side-effect? Will her dog, Sirius, ever stop humping her leg?

Whether she’s writing for a YA or MG audience, as Laura Kirkpatrick, Laura’s books are always funny. I’ve heard great things about this story, and there seems to be a lot of love for Caro’s dads so I’m really looking forward to reading this one!

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Red, White or Blue Cover – Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

About The Book

The highly-anticipated crime-thriller sequel to the no. 1 debut of 2019, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Pip Fitz-Amobi is not a detective anymore.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.

But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared but the police won’t do anything about it. And if they won’t look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town’s dark secrets along the way… and this time EVERYONE is listening.

But will she find him before it’s too late?

Usually when given a choice of red, white or blue, blue would win every time! I was very tempted by Hideous Beauty, Noah Can’t Even, and Hold Back The Tide. But ultimately it was the bright red of Holly’s follow up to A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder that grabbed me!

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Trip To The Seaside – The Island by M. A. Bennett

About The Book

Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad – however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others . . .

When a school summer trip is offered, Link can think of nothing worse than spending voluntary time with his worst tormentors. But when his parents say he can only leave Osney School – forever – if he goes on the trip, Link decides to endure it for the ultimate prize. But this particular trip will require a very special sort of endurance. The saying goes ‘No man is an island’ – but what if on that island is a group of teenagers, none of whom particularly like each other? When oppressive heat, hunger and thirst start to bite, everyone’s true colours will be revealed. Let the battle commence . . .

A trip to the seaside, but it doesn’t have to be a nice beach setting, anywhere with water counts for this prompt. So I’ve picked M. A. Bennett’s book about a school trip going horribly wrong. I really enjoyed S.T.A.G.S and I’ve the rest of that series to catch up on, but first a little side trip to The Island

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Pick ‘N’ Mix – The Extinction Trials by S. M. Wilson

About The Book

Betrayal. Sacrifice. Survival.
Welcome to the Extinction Trials.

In Stormchaser and Lincoln’s ruined world, the only way to survive is to risk everything. To face a contest more dangerous than anyone can imagine. And they will do anything to win.

But in a land full of monsters – human and reptilian – they can’t afford to trust anyone. Perhaps not even each other…

When it comes to YA I’m far more likely to read things from a wide range of genres than I am when it comes to adult books. I still love a good thriller or mystery but I’m far more likely to pick up a YA contemporary or fantasy than their adult counterparts, so we it came to picking a book from outwith my favourite genre I was a little stumped! So I’ve gone with dinosaurs that’s like science fiction right? I’m not sure I’ve read much of that at all….

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Afternoon Tea – To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

About The Book

I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive.

There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle just to check they’re still there. Buried deep and bloody.

Princess Lira is siren royalty and revered across the sea until she is cursed into humanity by the ruthless Sea Queen. Now Lira must deliver the heart of the infamous siren killer or remain a human forever.

Prince Elian is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world and captain to a deadly crew of siren hunters. When he rescues a drowning woman from the ocean, she promises to help him destroy sirenkind for good. But he has no way of knowing whether he can trust her

For a relatively simple prompt, all I had to do was find a book starting with the letter T, this was a particularly hard one to fill. Really don’t have many books with titles beginning with a T it turns out!

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My Freebie Pick – Midnight’s Twins by Holly Race

About The Book

The first novel in a lyrical, endlessly inventive urban fantasy trilogy from debut author Holly Race.

Fifteen-year-old Londoner Fern is about to uncover a place that she could not have imagined in all her wildest dreams. Annwn is the dream mirror of our world, a place where Dreamers walk in their slumber, their dreams playing out all around them. An enchanted, mysterious place that feeds our own world – as without dreams, without a place where our imaginations and minds can be nourished, what kind of humans would we be?

But Annwn is a place as full of dangers as it is wonders: it is a place where dreams can kill you. Annwn and its Dreamers are protected by an ancient order known as the Knights – and when Fern’s hated twin Ollie is chosen to join their ranks, Fern will have to do whatever she can to prove she is one of them too.

But the world Fern discovers in Annwn, in this dream mirror of her London, is a fragile one, threatened by vicious nightmares. Nightmares that are harder and harder for the Knights to defeat. Something dark is jeopardising the peace and stability of Annwn, something that must be rooted out at all costs. And gradually, Fern realises that the danger lurking inside our sleep is more insidious and terrifying than any nightmare. Because if you can influence someone’s dreams, you can control their thoughts …

The UKYA Readathon has nine prompts, but obviously this is Top Ten Tuesday which means I was one short, so I’ve filled it with a 2020 UKYA debut novel. I read a chapter or so in a sampler last year and really enjoyed it so I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the full book!

If you’d like to take part in the UKYA Readathon you’ll find all the prompts here on Books and Lemon Squash. How did you fill your Freebie slot? Let me know in the comments!