Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish list prompt originally hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The theme for this week is:

September 11: Hidden Gems (which books haven’t been talked about as much or haven’t been marketed as strongly that you think deserve some recognition?)

I do love a good hidden gem of a novel. I love reading a book that hasn’t really been talked about in the blogosphere and on BookTube and thinking how amazing it is, and that it should gain so much more recognition! So here we have my top 10 hidden gems!

Disclaimer: these are in no particular order, and people may think that some of these have been marketed strongly in the areas of the blogosphere that THEY see or the areas of BookTube that THEY watch, but from the areas that I’ve read and seen, they haven’t been promoted strongly.

 

Letters to Eloise by Emily Williams

When post-graduate student Flora falls unexpectedly pregnant during her final year studies she hits a huge predicament; continue a recent affair with her handsome but mysterious lecturer who dazzles her with love letters taken from the ancient tale of ‘Abelard and Heloise’, or chase after the past with her estranged first love?
But will either man be there to support her during the turmoil ahead?

Read my review of Letters to Eloise

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Soulmates by Holly Bourne

Every so often, two people are born who are the perfect matches for each other. Soulmates. But while the odds of this happening are about as likely as being struck by lightning, when these people do meet and fall in love…thunderstorms, lightning strikes and lashings of rain are only the beginning of their problems.

Enter Poppy, the 17-year-old cynic with a serious addiction to banana milk, and Noah, the heart-throb guitarist; residents of mediocre Middletown, sometime students, and…soulmates.

After a chance meeting at a local band night, Poppy and Noah find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. But with a secret international agency preparing to separate them, a trail of destruction rumbling in their wake, (and a looming psychology coursework deadline), they are left with an impossible choice between the end of the world, or a life without love…

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones

 

 

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family.

Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas.

But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.

This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

Read my review of All the Truth That’s in Me

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter and European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club)

Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture…a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes.

But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.

Read my review of The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Nemesis and Genesis by Brendan Reichs (Project Nemesis)

He killed me. He killed me not. He killed me.

It’s been happening since Min was eight. Every two years, on her birthday, a strange man finds her and murders her in cold blood. But hours later, she wakes up in a clearing just outside her tiny Idaho hometown—alone, unhurt, and with all evidence of the horrifying crime erased.

Across the valley, Noah just wants to be like everyone else. But he’s not. Nightmares of murder and death plague him, though he does his best to hide the signs. But when the world around him begins to spiral toward panic and destruction, Noah discovers that people have been lying to him his whole life. Everything changes in an eye blink.

For the planet has a bigger problem. The Anvil, an enormous asteroid threatening all life on Earth, leaves little room for two troubled teens. Yet on her sixteenth birthday, as she cowers in her bedroom, hoping not to die for the fifth time, Min has had enough. She vows to discover what is happening in Fire Lake and uncovers a lifetime of lies: a vast conspiracy involving the sixty-four students of her sophomore class, one that may be even more sinister than the murders.

Read my review of Nemesis

Read my review of Genesis

Read my Q&A with Brendan Reichs

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk’s labyrinthine showroom.

Read my review of Horrorstör

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Prisoner of Ice and Snow by Ruth Lauren (Prisoner of Ice and Snow)

When Valor is arrested, she couldn’t be happier. Demidova’s prison for criminal children is exactly where she wants to be. Valor’s sister Sasha is already serving a life sentence for stealing from the royal family and Valor is going to help her escape . . . from the inside.

Never mind that no one has escaped in three hundred years. Valor has a plan and resources most could only dream about. But she didn’t count on having to outsmart both the guards and her fellow prisoners. If Valor’s plan is to succeed, she’ll need to make unlikely allies. And if the plan fails, she and Sasha could end up with fates worse than prison.

Read my review of Prisoner of Ice and Snow

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Godblind and Darksoul by Anna Stephens (Godblind)

The Mireces worship the bloodthirsty Red Gods. Exiled from Rilpor a thousand years ago, and left to suffer a harsh life in the cold mountains, a new Mireces king now plots an invasion of Rilpor’s thriving cities and fertile earth.

Dom Templeson is a Watcher, a civilian warrior guarding Rilpor’s border. He is also the most powerful seer in generations, plagued with visions and prophecies. His people are devoted followers of the god of light and life, but Dom harbours deep secrets, which threaten to be exposed when Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, stumbles broken and bleeding into his village.

Meanwhile, more and more of Rilpor’s most powerful figures are turning to the dark rituals and bloody sacrifices of the Red Gods, including the prince, who plots to wrest the throne from his dying father in the heart of the kingdom. Can Rillirin, with her inside knowledge of the Red Gods and her shocking ties to the Mireces King, help Rilpor win the coming war?

Read my review of Godblind

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield

June’s life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. She is trapped like a butterfly in a net.

But then June meets Blister, a boy in the woods. In him she recognises the tiniest glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away from her home and be free. Because every creature in this world deserves their freedom… But at what price?

Read my review of Paper Butterflies

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble

 

 

Descendants by Rae Else (The Arete Series)

El, a seventeen-year-old has inherited an ancient and deadly power. She loses control of it, causing a horrific accident, and becomes the prey of a secret organisation, known as the Order.

Forced from her family and home, she hides in plain sight amidst the crowds of London, and is thrust into a world she never knew existed; one full of arete: beings with extraordinary powers like hers.

Arete are beings that can trace their lineage and powers from ancient Greece. They do not claim their inheritance comes from the gods, rather legend says they are descended from cursed beings, such as Medusa.

At the heart of their world is the kerykeion, the symbol that protects them from the humans and the humans from them. El is trapped between two factions, one that has built an empire around the kerykeion and another that is determined to bring it down.

As she is drawn deeper into the conflict, the only way to find the truth is to take matters into her own hands, and the line between friend and foe becomes dangerously blurred.

Read my review of Descendants

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble

 

 

So there we have it! There’s a list of my top 10 hidden gems!

Future themes for Top 10 Tuesday are:

September 18: Books On My Fall 2018 TBR
September 25: Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read
October 2: Authors I’d Love to Meet
October 9: Longest Books I’ve Ever Read
October 16: Bookstores/Libraries I’ve Always Wanted to Visit
October 23: Villains (favourite, best, worst, lovable, creepiest, most evil, etc.)
October 30: Halloween/Creepy Freebie

Have you read of any of these books? What do you think about them? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…