Top Ten Tuesday (176)

is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Tuesday's theme is...

I guess that, in a way, the majority of what I read is, in some form or another, recommended to me. Whether it's through raving on Twitter, an eye-grabbing cover, a review, or a lovely picture on Instagram, someone somewhere is telling me to read that book. There are, however, a few occurrences I can recall where someone actually recommended a book to me, and sometimes those recommendations worked out most excellently. And when they do work out, I am very pleased (and would like to tell the Hype Monster to suck it). So here are ten books (mostly) recommended to me and that I am rather fond of.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers, Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
These all came highly recommend by Shae (who's also squealed about their goodness so many times that I went into these books basically taking them as recommendations directly from her), and I should really listen to what books she raves about more often because these weren't just good. They were good. And they're on my list of favorites. (I just still need to read Mortal Heart. Whoops!)

The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
Post-Twilight I wanted to read everything, and I had (and still have) a penchant for vampires. Someone I had gone to school with had a posted a list of her favorite books on her MySpace (!!!) page, and it was through there (and maybe a list or two of vampire books, but mostly her) that I discovered Glass Houses, the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. And now it's one of my most favorite, favorite series in the whole entire universe (so be sure to thank social media every once in a while okay).

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
Like I said, after reading Twilight I was in a craze for more books, all the books, but I think my daze leaned toward the paranormal. But when I went to the library to pick up a hefty stack of books my best friend recognized This Lullaby and said she'd heard it was good. So I picked it up, read it, and now I'm a big fan of Sarah Dessen (and This Lullaby is in a very close second for my favorite Dessen book, following Along for the Ride).

The Wereling by Stephen Cole
Ah, another book/series to stem from the Twilight daze! If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I asked my school librarian for books like Twilight, and she steered me toward Stephen Cole's light and simple (but still, in my opinion, good) werewolf trilogy. And I devoured it. (In fact, I remember staying up late, probably on a school night, reading one of the books, and when I was supposed to be practicing a speech. It may have been one of the first books to keep me up on a school night--I think New Moon was the first to keep me up on the weekend, like four in the morning or something.)

The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong
It was thanks to Love at First Page's Danielle that I really had an interest in a thriller from Kelley Armstrong--and thanks to her letting me borrow her ARC that I actually read it. And thank gosh I did, because this is how you do a thriller. As far as thrillers and suspense and all that, this book did it so damn well and is, like, the bar for other thrillers. It's basically perfection. This is how it's done, people.

Undead by Kirsty McKay
Okay, so Undead wasn't exactly recommended to me--it was part of a reading challenge for my online book club. I picked it up because I was in the mood for a book that wouldn't suck but that was utterly meaningless, and I thought this satirical, more comedic and ridiculous zombie novel would do the trick. I guess you could say it did, but you could also say it didn't because I freaking loved this book. I gobbled it up like a zombie guzzles a fresh, hot, juicy brain. I had so much fun reading it and just enjoyed, and I'm so, so happy I read it.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I don't know that I ever got an outright recommendation for this series, but let's be honest: these books are everywhere. I picked up Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight after the latter's publication and everyone's shit-flipping about it (I wonder why), and it was the latter that made me fall hard for this series and now I'm just a slight bit obsessed. They're not the first fantasy novels I've ever read, either, but I think they're what helped me really get into fantasy--a genre I thought I wasn't a fan of and that's now a total favorite--and I'm super appreciative of that.

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
I had two friends try to push Twilight on me in high school, but I wasn't much of a reader and I didn't think they were my kind of book. But then I finally listened to my friends. And the rest is history.

What book recommendations worked out well for you?