Popular Books I Haven't Read Yet

Book lovers all have skeletons in our closets--namely, those popular books that everyone loves and gushes about that we still haven't read yet (even if they've been sitting on our shelves for years). Today, I'm going to pull out some of the bookish skeletons in my closet and share popular books I have yet to experience.

Any book by Stephanie Perkins

This admission is particularly embarrassing because I actually love the type of books that Stephanie Perkins writes--fun but meaningful contemporary romances. I actually owned Lola and the Boy Next Door a few years ago but ended up giving it to a friend because I lost interest. But now, since the whole trilogy of Stephanie Perkins books is out, I really feel like I need to give her a shot, especially since I do like the genre, as previously noted. I recently bought Anna and the French Kiss from the Strand, so I'm hoping to dig into it soon and banish this particular shame from my life.

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Okay, so I know exactly why I avoided reading these books for so long: I HATED Shiver. I read it twice because people love her and I thought maybe I was missing something, but I still hated it the second time around. Still, people LOVE these books, and they do sound more like Shayna books than the Wolves of Mercy Falls series did. Even though I know about the romance (though not how it ends, so no Raven King spoilers, please and thanks), I still really want to read it and have books one and three sitting eagerly on my shelves.

Any book by Victoria/V. E. Schwab

This is also a little embarrassing because A) she has so many books out and B) I have an eARC of This Savage Song on my Kindle from before it came out, because I am terrible at Edelweiss. I've been vaguely interested in A Darker Shade of Magic as well since it's apparently borderline adult, but for some reason I haven't gotten around to it yet. Fantasy isn't my go-to genre per se, but I do always enjoy fantasy books when I do read them, so I think it's about time I read one of her books.

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

Alright, so I have read the first book in the series, but it used my least favorite trope as the cliffhanger ending, so I didn't know if I'd want to continue it. I did love the rest of the book though, so maybe I'll just binge read these eventually when the mood strikes me.

The Illuminae books by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

To be fair, I have tried to read Illuminae twice, and got farther the second time than I did the first. I thought it would be a total Shayna book because of the quirky formatting, but sci-fi books, especially ones set in space, are a thing I have never liked, and I didn't understand what was happening half the time, so I gave it up. Still, I haven't managed to sell or otherwise get rid of my HC of Illuminae yet, so maybe I'll give it another shot at some point and actually finish it. Or, I'll just wait until all the books are out.

Anything by Leigh Bardugo

I've been meaning to read Shadow and Bone FOREVER because I bought it for Kindle ages ago, but I have a dreadful habit of buying books on my Kindle and forgetting about them completely, which is even worse than my usual habit of buying print books and not reading them because I think they'll always be there for me to read but then I never read them. I really, REALLY need to read these books because everybody loves them and raves about them. Plus, as previously mentioned, I do tend to like fantasy when I do get around to reading it.