Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read On Vacation
I’m an equal-opportunity vacation reader – I’ll pick up anything that looks interesting to me! Vacation time for me often includes spending time with family, including my nephew and niece who are absolute bundles of energy. It doesn’t always lend time to getting a lot of reading done.
But, for today, I’m sharing some great YA titles I’ve read over the past year or so that I’ve really enjoyed that feel like taking a vacation when I’m reading. Which, in all honesty, is the best type of reading to do. Books that allow me to escape reality for even just a few minutes are the best kind. Check out these YA titles that make you feel like you’re on vacation!
Books I Read On Vacation
Anatomy
by Dana Schwartz
Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. Jack Currer is a resurrection man whoâs just trying to survive in a city where itâs too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomistâs Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beechamâs lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, Beecham will allow her to continue her medical career. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her booksâsheâll need corpses to study.
Lucky that sheâs made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets, and the dreaded Roman Fever, which wiped out thousands a few years ago, is back with a vengeance. Nobody important caresâuntil Hazel.
Now, Hazel and Jack must work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow
by Laura Taylor Namey
For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuelaâs role as head baker at their panaderĂa, 2) move in with her best friend after graduation, and 3) live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everythingâincluding Lila herselfâfell apart.
Worried about Lilaâs mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to LilaâŚuntil she meets Orion Maxwell.
A teashop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. From Winchesterâs drama-filled music scene to the sweeping English countryside, it isnât long before Lila is not only charmed by Orion, but England itself. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lilaâs mindâone that would mean leaving everything she ever planned behind.
Dread Nation
by Justina Ireland
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvaniaâderailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.
In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
But there are also opportunitiesâand Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from societyâs expectations.
But thatâs not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesnât pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies.
And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
The Hawthorne Legacy
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questionsâincluding why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.Â
Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that sheâs not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the pictureâby any means necessary.Â
With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, Knives Out-like family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.
The Last Legacy
by Adrienne Young
When a letter from her uncle Henrik arrives on Bryn Roth’s eighteenth birthday, summoning her back to Bastian, Bryn is eager to prove herself and finally take her place in her long-lost family.
Henrik has plans for Bryn, but she must win everyoneâs trust if she wants to hold any power in the delicate architecture of the family. It doesnât take long for her to see that the Roths are entangled in shadows. Despite their growing influence in upscale Bastian, their hands are still in the kind of dirty business that got Brynâs parents killed years ago. With a forbidden romance to contend with and dangerous work ahead, the cost of being accepted into the Roths may be more than Bryn can pay.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took rootâthat desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her fatherâdespite his hard-won citizenshipâLily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Maybe This Time
by Kasie West
One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love? Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year’s Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas. Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew.
Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn’t so bad after all . . .Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.
Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo
Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Foldâa swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.
Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her countryâs magical military eliteâand falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.
As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation. Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.
When You Get the Chance
by Emma Lord
Nothing will get in the way of Millie Priceâs dream of becoming a Broadway star. Not her lovable but super introverted dad, who raised Millie alone since she was a baby. Not her drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not her âMillie Moods,â the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm. Millie needs an ally. And when an accidentally left-open browser brings Millie to her dadâs embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to doâfind her mom.
But how can you find a new part of your life and expect it to fit into your old one without leaving any marks? And why is it that when you go looking for the past, it somehow keeps bringing you back to what youâve had all along?
Where the Rhythm Takes You
by Sarah Dass
Seventeen-year-old Reyna has spent most of her life at the Plumeria, her familyâs gorgeous seaside resort in Tobago. But what once seemed like paradise is starting to feel more like purgatory. Itâs been two years since Reynaâs mother passed away, two years since Aidenâher childhood best friend, first kiss, first love, first everythingâleft the island to pursue his music dreams.
Reynaâs friends are all planning their futures and heading abroad. Even Daddy seems to want to move on, leaving her to try to keep the Plumeria running.
And thatâs when Aiden comes roaring back into her lifeâas a VIP guest at the resort.
Aiden is now one-third of DJ Bacchanalâthe latest, hottest music group on the scene. While Reyna has stayed exactly where he left her, Aiden has returned to Tobago with his Grammy-nominated band and two gorgeous LA socialites. And he may (or may not be) dating one of themâŚ
The Artsy Reader Girl currently hosts Top Ten Tuesday, an original feature created by The Broke and the Bookish.
2 Comments
lydiaschoch
Iâve heard great things about Dread Nation!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-types-of-books-i-read-on-vacation/
Susan
DREAD NATION is a great read! I’m also really enjoying the Hawthorne series. I still need to read the last one.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com