My Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time
Hey girl! Today I wanted to talk about my top 10 favorite books of all time. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE books. I genuinely feel like my favorite books are a part of who I am - I'm very emotionally attached. So, let's get started, shall we?
Note: I will clump books in a series together since I don't want the whole list to contain of books only from one series.
10. Beach Read by Emily Henry
So cute, so beachy!
9. Happy Place by Emily Henry
I felt like I really resonated with the main character, Harriet's, emotions and character. To be honest, Emily Henry's writing is just the perfect amount of real (in the emotions of the characters) yet so bookish-ly romantic that I can't get enough of them. Her men too are always hot hot hot. I have yet to read Funny Story, but I'm sure it will make the list once I do.
8. Caraval (series) by Stephanie Garber
This series is so magically intriguing. The whole thing has a very light-hearted nature about it even though there are serious matters happening - it really can only be described as magical. All the fashion described, and the games played are just so intriguing. Also, don't get me started on Julian and Dante - chef's kiss!
7. Fourth Wing (series) by Rebecca Yarros
Do you like How to Train Your Dragon? Do you like Divergent? If you said yes to both of these than you'll like this. It's different than a lot of fantasy books I've read because it's not about your typical kings, queens, and all the royalty ball gowns and stuff (don't get me wrong - I LOVE that stuff). It's about a war college that teaches you how to fight and ride dragons; and of course, there's a real hot trainer. I will say this is not a PG series, so if you like to steer clear of books with sex scenes and good amounts of swearing, then you should definitely steer clear of this one.
6. Six of Crows (series) by Leigh Bardugo
Do you like quietly misunderstood schemers who always get their way? Because I do! This book is about a mischievous gang full of only the best in their trade outcasts that follows the lead of Kaz Brekker who always gets his way but does have some trouble showing emotion due to series PTSD (that is revealed after some buildup). This is dual POV so you get to know and love all of the characters, see their (all traumatic) backstories, and see how they got to be who they are today, which is something I really love about this series. I also love that unlike almost all fantasy books these days, romance is not the main plot of this series. There are some romantic relationships formed between characters. However, there are no sex scene and maybe like 1 or 2 kissing scenes, but they are not drug out or described in deep detail. And there is also no swearing (I think someone swears like once in the last book) unlike a lot of books these days we well. All of this PG-ness, however, is due to the fact that this book is meant to be YA (maybe even middle school level); however, it's written so well, and the plot is so interesting that I often found myself forgetting that. The only downside to it being a YA to middle level book is that most of the characters are minors, so technically if you have a crush on Kaz (which I may or may not), you have a crush on a 17 year old...
5. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (series) by Holly Jackson
I typically don't read murder mystery books, but this one is more than a murder mystery in my opinion. It's about a high schooler for 1 and 2 there's definitely elements that I don't think a regular murder mystery would have. It follows along the life of Pip, the main character, and we get attached to her and her life, rather than it just being about solving a mystery. ALSO...her partner in crime just so happens to be the sweetest, most caring boy in all of the book universe, Ravi Singh. You can't not love their cute and loving dynamic as you read this series and as they are there for one another through the best highs and the worst lows. Also, I would say this is not an extremely scary book - there are parts, especially in the last book, that are a little chilling but overall, it's not bad - give it a try for yourself! Do be prepared for some emotional damage in the last book though (I told you it wasn't just a murder mystery).
4. Once Upon a Broken Heart (series) by Stephanie Garber
Technically this series is in the same universe as the Caraval books, but they're separate series. I shamelessly have to say the biggest reason I like this book is the male main character, Jacks. He's so mischievous, he's bad boy turned good, he's Mr. I Don't Love Anyone but You, he's a smooth flirt, he's Mr. I'll Do Anything for You...*ahem* you get the point - Jack's is HOT. I'm not usually into blondes, but this boy has to be blonde - it matches his character so well. Read it yourself to understand what I mean.
I do have to say that both Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart are both PG which is a huge bonus because it's nice to be able to enjoy a fantasy series without obscene sex scenes, especially when you have FMC as hot as Jacks.
3. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
This is THE ultimate summer read, and that's saying a lot because there are a lot out there. I mean it through - the beachiest, vacation-y vibes come from this book. And Alex and Poppy are the perfect couple because once again, Emily Henry is a master writer of all things, but especially bookish couples.
I'm extremely excited to see the movie adaption with Tom Blythe as Alex because that's literally a hottie about to play a hottie and I genuinely think Tom will be great as Alex - girl's get excited!
2. Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Yeah so, I like Emily Henry. Just when I thought Alex was hot, I met this book's FMC, Charlie. Nothing to say except Emily Henry is literally THE PERFECT ROM-COM AUTHOR. In this book, Nora, the FMC, is a workaholic and Charlie's a small-town guy. She comes to his town and well, you know what happens...except you don't because nothing is as hot as this story let me tell you.
Go fall in love with Charlie and Nora!
1. Throne of Glass (series) by Sarah J. Maas
How can I even begin to explain how much I love this series? I literally can't - there are no words. I have seriously deep emotional attachment to this series, and I actually feel like it changed my life - I'm not kidding. The main character is a baddie, and I literally aspire to be her so hard that I feel like I've taken on characteristics of her.
The emotional trauma that comes with this series though, let me tell you, you will never be ready for. If you're like me, you'll sob many times throughout the series and probably never stop thinking about it, then you'll read the series over and over again even though it takes months to finish usually because it has 8 very long books in it.
This whole series and the characters are written so so so well - I can't even imagine dreaming something like this up. All I can say is I'm obsessed and if you ever don't know what to say to me, bring this up and I could talk forever!
Again, though, not a PG book (especially in book 4 and up), so just be mindful. There are sex scenes, a good amount of swearing, some very gory descriptions, war, talk of being forced into prostitution, talk of enslavement, explained torture, some serious emotional ptsd in characters, and other lovely themes lol...just be mindful.
~~~~
I hope these gets you started on some of the greatest pieces of literature to ever exist - thank me later once you've read them 😉
A lot of them have non-PG themes in them as I mentioned in some of the blurbs above (though more than the ones I mentioned have things in them including all of the Emily Henry books) so if you're not sure whether to read them, read my article about consuming non-PG media as a Christian here.
Happy reading!
Yours truly,
Abby Leigh
