Authors Who I Want On My Shelf Again | Top 5 Wednesday

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here.

This week’s topic is authors you are waiting on another book from!

These are your favorite authors who you want to write another book but haven’t yet. Or they are writing something, but no title or synopsis has been released and it isn’t coming out until 2018. Try to keep this to authors who haven’t announced anything concrete about a new book, not authors that have a highly anticipated release coming out before the end of 2016.

Because I apparently suck at this topic, I’m going to modify ever so slightly and include authors who may have upcoming release slotted for 2017/2018, but there is very little information about.

1. Libba Bray- I loved Beauty Queens and thoroughly enjoyed The Diviners (which I have to continue), but I would love to read more of her books, and also see her publish some more because I think they get better each book.
2. Marci Lyn Curtis- She wrote The One Thing which I read earlier this year and loved. At the moment, I don’t think she has anymore planned books, so I’d absolutely love to see more of her books.
3. Martha Brockenbrough- Has plenty of books which I’ve yet to read, but she wrote The Game of Love & Death, which is now one of my absolute favorites, and I’d like some more historical fiction from her, because she kills it.
4. Scott Westerfeld- Okay, okay, I’ll admit I haven’t read the Uglies series, and Afterworlds is still on my shelf waiting to be read, but I have read the Leviathan trilogy, and really enjoyed it. Westerfeld did just announce a new series which I might consider picking up, but I miss her steampunk books.
5. Renee Ahdieh- My new favorite fantasy re-tellings author! After flying through both books in The Wrath & The Dawn series, I want to read every book she writes because I adore her writing style.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld | Book Review

I am jumping on the Leviathan train really late but I still wanted to review the book because it was fantastic!

The story is told from two points of view, one being Aleksandar Ferdinand, the prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and our other main character is Deryn Sharp who is a female commoner but disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. Leviathan is a steam punk re-telling of World War I in 1912 and it shows how our two character’s paths unlikely cross.

Alek’s story starts out with his parents being murdered and he has to go on the run with his fencing instructor, Count Volger, and a highly acclaimed mechanic, Klopp. I didn’t think I was going to like Alek’s storyline at first but I ended up liking it a lot better then I thought I would. His storyline is action packed and also deals with political situations and trying to make the best out of the worst times.

Right when we met Deryn, I knew I was going to like her. She’s a kickass character and isn’t afraid to put herself in danger for the greater good. She can be a bit reckless at times and doesn’t always make the best decisions, but she knows what she believes in. I loved her storyline and found it fun to read how she has to struggle to keep up with her fake identity, Dylan. Although, sometimes I felt her actions were more feminine and somebody probably would’ve picked up on it, but nobody did.

At first, I thought it would be hard to grasp the steam punk world but it was explained very well and the writing style was great, so there wasn’t just huge information dumps that made the book anymore confusing then it needed to be. It also has beautiful pictures that help with the image building.

This was a super fun and quick read for me and it was also my first time reading a steam punk novel! I really liked the world that Westerfeld built, it almost felt real for me. I think it is a great novel for someone who maybe doesn’t do a lot of reading or for someone who is very passionate about reading because it had great development and world building, so I highly recommend it!

5/5