Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Books to Read (2025 update)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s is a Freebie/Throwback, with the prompt: Come up with a topic you’d like to do or go back and do an old topic you missed or just want to do again! Looking back at earlier TTT topics, I thought I’d go back and provide an update on my freebie topic from spring 2024: Backlist Books To Read.

What you’ll see below is a duplicate of my 2024 list… but with notes on which books I’ve read, which I’m still interested in, and which I’m not planning to pursue. I’ve actually read a decent amount of these… yay, me!

Here’s my 2025 update on my 2024 backlist post:

1. Kristin Hannah – Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I read The Nightingale earlier this year, and loved it! My review is here. I’d still like to get to the other two, and probably more beyond that.

2. TJ Klune: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

(Note: Same book; original cover on the left, new cover for the 2025 reissue on the right)

2025 update: Read it, loved it! My review is here. I do have a few other early books by TJ Klune marked as to-read:

I’m not necessarily rushing to pick these up — but please do let me know if you’ve read them and recommend them!

3. William Kent Krueger: Backlist title (series) identified in 2024:

2025 update: Probably going to pass. I’m not really looking to get involved in even more series at the moment, and mysteries aren’t my go-to genre in any case.

4. Dana Stabenow: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Again, probably not. I do love this author, but I think I’ll hold off on any backlist titles, and will look forward to her upcoming 2026 new release, The Harvey Girl.

5. Abby Jimenez: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! Read them all! I didn’t love this trilogy quite as much as the Part of Your World trilogy… but I still enjoyed all of these (especially the 2nd book) and I’m glad I read them!

6. Rachel Harrison: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! This book was so creepy and disturbing, and I loved it! My review is here. And now, I’m eagerly awaiting her 2025 new release, Play Nice, coming this fall.

7. Kelley Armstrong: Backlist titles identified in 2024 (two different series starters):

2025 update: I read City of the Lost, book #1 in the Rockton series, and I’m eager to continue! In fact, I’m hoping to start the 2nd book this month. As for the Cainsville series, this will remain a “maybe someday” read for me, but I don’t feel any urgency about it.

8. Jenny Colgan: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I did read Where Have All the Boys Gone (review)… and didn’t especially love it. I have a feeling that her earlier books may all feel a bit dated to me at this point, so I don’t think I’ll follow through with any others. (But who knows? Never say never, when it comes to favorite authors…)

9. Eva Ibbotson: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to any of these, but still want to!

10. Katherine Center: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to either of these… but I still intend to! And then I’ll have made it through all of her backlist books.

BONUS PICKS: Because why stop at 10? Here are a few more authors I’m adding to my 2025 list, whose backlists I need to explore:

Victoria Schwab: After loving both The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (review) and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (watch for my review later this week!), I’m feeling like I really should try her YA fiction too. Any favorites? Suggestions on where to start?
Jennifer Weiner: I’ve read lots of her books, but there are plenty more that I’ve missed over the years. The two highest on my priority list are Mrs. Everything and Big Summer.
Colleen Oakley: I’ve read her more recent books, but still need to get to You Were There Too and Before I Go.

Have you read any of my backlist picks? Any you especially recommend?

If you wrote a freebie post this week, what topic did you choose? Please share your link!

17Jun2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for summer 2025

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List.

It’s impossible to keep up with all the books I have my eyes on! Here are the top 10 I most want to make time for… preferably for reading outdoors, in the sun, with warm breezes and a big iced coffee to go with them!

Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
The Last Wizards’ Ball by Charlaine Harris
Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
The Fair Folk by Su Bristow

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your TTT links!

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28Nov2020

Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V. E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Publication date: October 6, 2020
Length: 442 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

At age 23, Adeline is old to be getting married — and really, she doesn’t want to be married at all. She cherishes her freedom and wants so much more out of life, but when the decision is taken out of her hands, she runs away and calls on the gods for help. Her help comes from a god of darkness, who grants her freedom and immortality in exchange for her soul, whenever she’s had enough of life.

Addie accepts this deal, but soon learns that there’s a trick in what she bargained for. She wanted absolute freedom, to belong to no one but herself, and that’s what she’s been given. But in belonging to no one, all connections have been severed, and from that moment onward, it’s as if Addie never existed. Her own parents don’t know her, and her history has been erased. When she encounters someone, whether for the first or 100th time, they forget her as soon as she’s out of sight.

Thus, Addie is doomed to wander alone, never able to make an impression, never to form relationships, never to have a home. She can’t even find a bed for the night without resorting to trickery — she may pay for a room at an inn, but as soon as the door closes, the landlord has forgotten her, and she’s soon kicked out, taken for an intruder.

Meanwhile, over the course of the centuries that pass, her dark god reappears to offer temptation, enticing her to give up her miserable existence and give herself up to him, once and for all.

Addie is determined and stubborn, and despite the many moments of sorrow and despair, there’s also glory. From a village girl destined for a hard life and an early death, she’s morphed into a world traveler, a muse, and a fearless explorer, seeking out all the beauty she can find, pursuing connections with people even while knowing she’ll be starting over again each day.

Until suddenly, it all changes. One day, she meets a young man in a bookstore, and when she goes back, her remembers her. How is this possible? Who is he, and why does he seem to be immune to the curse that follows her wherever she goes?

It wouldn’t be fair to say more, but I will say that this book is beautiful and unexpected, full of sadness and wonder. It’s a moving love story, but even more, a lovely testament to one woman’s courage and determination to live life to its fullest.

I loved Addie as a character — how fierce she is, and how she manages to survive and to find joy despite the curse that’s intended to leaver her always alone and always suffering. She manages to turn her solitude into a life that few would be able to tolerate, but still, she’s not sorry to have had all those years and the experience they bring.

The premise put me in mind of a book I read a few years ago, The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, also about someone whom no one can remember — but while that book ultimately frustrated me, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue swept me up in its fantasy and the gorgeous writing.

This is easily one of my top reads of 2020. Highly recommended!