Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Today, the topic is Books on My Summer 2023 TBR. I have a bunch of ARCs I plan to read, and there are a few on my bookshelves I’d like to get to as well. Let’s check them out.
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1. The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma
Series: The Ravence Trilogy #1
Page Length: 601
Publication Date: Aug. 31, 2023
Publisher: Orbit
Synopsis: In a kingdom where flames hold magic and the desert hides secrets, an ancient prophecy comes for an assassin, a princess, and a king. But none are ready to face destiny—and the choices they make could burn the world.
“If we carry the burdens of our fathers, we’ll never know what it means to be free.”
For Elena Aadya Ravence, fire is yearning. She longs to feel worthy of her Phoenix god, of her ancestors who transformed the barren dunes of Sayon into a thriving kingdom. But though she knows the ways and wiles of the desert better than she knows her own skin, the secrets of the Eternal Flame elude her. And without them, she’ll never be accepted as queen.
For Leo Malhari Ravence, fire is control. He is not ready to give up his crown—there’s still too much work to be done to ensure his legacy remains untarnished, his family protected. But power comes with a price, and he’ll wage war with the heavens themselves to keep from paying it.
For Yassen Knight, fire is redemption. He dreams of shedding his past as one of Sayon’s most deadly assassins, of laying to rest the ghosts of those he has lost. If joining the court of flame and serving the royal Ravence family—the very people he once swore to eliminate—will earn him that, he’ll do it no matter what they ask of him.
But the Phoenix watches over all and the fire has a will of its own. It will come for all three, will come for Sayon itself….and they must either find a way to withstand the blaze or burn to ash.
2. The Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Publisher: Mira
Synopsis: All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.
The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…
Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock-climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving into Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.
3: Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin
Page Length: 329
Publication Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Synopsis: Tana Fairchild’s fate has never been in question. Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born: she is to marry the governor’s son, Landon, and secure an unprecedented alliance between the witches of her island home and the mainlanders who see her very existence as a threat.
Tana’s coven has appeased those who fear their power for years by releasing most of their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But when Tana misses the midnight ritual—a fatal mistake—there is no one she can turn to for help…until she meets Wolfe.
Wolfe claims he is from a coven that practices dark magic, making him one of the only people who can help her. But he refuses to let Tana’s power rush into the sea, and instead teaches her his forbidden magic. A magic that makes her feel powerful. Alive.
As the sea grows more violent, her coven loses control of the currents, a danger that could destroy the alliance as well as her island. Tana will have to choose between love and duty, between loyalty to her people and loyalty to her heart. Marrying Landon would secure peace for her coven but losing Wolfe and his wild magic could cost her everything else.
4. The Prince and the Apocalypse by Kara McDowell
Page Length: 320
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Synopsis: Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There’s only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.
The restaurant is closed for renovations—of course—but there’s a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it—until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.
Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?
5. Change of Plans by Dylan Newton
Page Length: 368
Publication Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Publisher: Forever
Synopsis: When disaster strikes and chef Bryce Weatherford is given guardianship of her three young nieces, her life goes from cooking with fire…to controlling a dumpster fire. Five‑year‑old Addison refuses to remove her fairy wings, eight‑year‑old Cecily won’t bathe, and tween June is majoring in belligerence. With all this chaos, Bryce jettisons hope for a life outside of managing her family and her new job.
It’s been years since Ryker Matthews had his below‑the‑knee amputation, yet the phantom pain for his lost limb and Marine career haunts him. To cope, he focuses on his vehicle restoration business. He knows he’s lucky to be alive. Yet, “lucky” feels more like “cursed” to his lonely heart.
When Ryker literally sweeps Bryce off her feet in the grocery store’s baby aisle, they both feel sparks. But falling in love would be one more curveball neither is ready to deal with… or is it exactly the change of plans they need?
6. House of Marionne by J. Elle
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: Aug. 29, 2023
Publisher: Razorbill
Synopsis: RICH IS THE BLOOD OF THE CHOSEN.
17 year-old Quell has lived her entire life on the run. She and her mother have fled from city to city, in order to hide the deadly magic that flows through Quell’s veins.
Until someone discovers her dark secret.
To hide from the assassin hunting her, and keep her mother out of harm’s way, Quell reluctantly inducts into a debutante society of magical social elites called the Order that she never knew existed. If she can pass their three rites of membership, mastering their proper form of magic, she’ll be able to secretly bury her forbidden magic forever.
If caught, she will be killed.
But becoming the perfect debutante is a lot harder than Quell imagined, especially when there’s more than tutoring happening with Jordan, her brooding mentor and— assassin in training.
When Quell uncovers the deadly lengths the Order will go to defend its wealth and power, she’s forced to choose: embrace the dark magic she’s been running from her entire life or risk losing everything, and everyone, she’s grown to love.
Still, she fears the most formidable monster she’ll have to face is the one inside.
7. Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons
Page Length: 336
Publication Date: Sept. 12, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Synopsis: Was the greatest ever love story a lie?
The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love.
Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo’s attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.
Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo’s gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realises that it is not only Juliet’s reputation at stake, but her life.
With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?
A subversive, powerful untelling of Shakespeare’s best-known tale, narrated by a fierce, forgotten voice: this is Rosaline’s story.
8. Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton
Series: Sing Me to Sleep #1
Page Length: 432
Publication Date: June 27, 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Synopsis: Saoirse Sorkova survives on lies. As a soldier-in-training at the most prestigious barracks in the kingdom, she lies about being a siren to avoid execution. At night, working as an assassin for a dangerous group of mercenaries, Saoirse lies about her true identity. And to her family, Saoirse tells the biggest lie of all: that she can control her siren powers and doesn’t struggle constantly against an impulse to kill.
As the top trainee in her class, Saoirse would be headed for a bright future if it weren’t for the need to keep her secrets out of the spotlight. But when a mysterious blackmailer threatens her sister, Saoirse takes a dangerous job that will help her investigate: she becomes personal bodyguard to the crown prince.
Saoirse should hate Prince Hayes. After all, his father is the one who enforces the kingdom’s brutal creature segregation laws. But when Hayes turns out to be kind, thoughtful, and charming, Saoirse finds herself increasingly drawn to him-especially when they’re forced to work together to stop a deadly killer who’s plaguing the city. There’s only one problem: Saoirse is that deadly killer.
9. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Series: The Empyrean
Page Length: 512
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Publisher: Entangled
Synopsis: Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
10. The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Series: Crowns of Nyaxia #1
Page Length: 532
Publication Date: Aug. 30, 2022
Synopsis: Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always – always – guard your heart.
The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.
But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.
Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.
But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.
Are any of these on your TBR? What are you reading this summer? Comment below!
I loved Fourth Wing. I listened to it and it was fun. I’m also looking forward to The Roommate Pact. I hope you love these!
Thank you! I want to do The Fourth Wing soon. Everybody’s been raving about it!
I loved Fourth Wing! Most of the rest of these are on my TBR, too. I think I’m most looking forward to The Serpent & the Wings of Night. Hope you love them all!!
Thanks, Ali! And if you want to buddy read The Serpent & the Wings of Night let me know! Do we still have one in the Ember in the Ashes to read?
I’ve recently read and loved Fourth Wing and The Serpent and the Wings of Night, hope you will too! House of Marionne also sounds intriguing.
Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoyed them. 🙂
I’ve read (and loved) number 9, number 10 is also on my TBR.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2023/06/20/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-summer-2023-tbr/
Nice! I hope you get a chance to read it and love it!
I hope you enjoy these! I’m in a thriller mood so I’m hoping to make a dent on the ones in my tbr.
Oooh, nice! I hope you make a good dent in them and enjoy them all!
Thanks!
House of Marionne and The Phoenix King are high on my list!
They both sound great! Hopefully, we both love them.
Fair Rosaline sounds really good! Can’t wait to hear about it. Hope you enjoy your summer books!
Thanks so much, Lisa!
What a great list of books! I missed out on The House of Marionne, but can’t wait to read your review. I also read the indie version of the Phoenix King and I definitely think you’ll love that one, Julie 😀
Nice! I’m really looking forward to it!
The Prince and the apocalypse sounds so fun! I’m adding it to my TBR 😉 great list!
Doesn’t it? And I love the cover!
The Phoenix King looks amazing! I hope you enjoy all of these!
Thanks so much, Yolanda!
Literally all of these are on my TBR except for the romances! I’ve been ordered to read Fourth Wing, but I don’t have a copy yet. Enjoy all of these, and I’ll be looking forward to buddy reading at least one of these with you!
Absolutely! I’m looking forward to it too. 🙂
Great TBR! I can’t believe I haven’t seen Change Of Plans around before… I LOVED How Sweet It Is, so that’s going straight to my wishlist. I hope you will enjoy them all!
Thanks so much, Yvonne! 🙂
As a cover lover, all these attract my eye. I only have one of these on my TBR and hope to get to them before the summer is out, but we shall see. I hope you enjoy them all, Julie.
Thanks, Carla!