Blogmas Day 24: Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Hope Santa Brings Me

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.

This will be my last post for Blogmas/Christmas. I usually get a message up for Christmas Day, but this year I’ll finish things off here. I’m writing this on December 23rd, which is way more behind than I usually am at this point, but there’s been a lot going on the last couple of weeks, and some personal/family things to deal with, so I haven’t been pushing myself this year. We’ll see how it goes next year, instead.

But whatever happens – I hope you have the Christmas you need right now. I hope whatever you’re doing over the next few days, you get to spend it with those you care about the most, you get to rest, and you get to really enjoy something – a new book, a new game, quality time with loved ones, good food, etc. Whatever joy means to you, I hope you get it.

This list of books is from my Bookish Wishes list. Due to time, I’m keeping the below to 8 rather than 10!

Top Eight Books I Hope Santa Brings

Twice Hexed by Julia Tuffs

Genre: Contemporary – Fantasy
Age: Young Adult
Published: June 23rd, 2022

Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Sex Education – Jessie Jones has just discovered she’s a witch, but she still has to deal with the patriarchy. A feisty, funny YA series about discovering your place … and your power.

After a summer of surfing, sunbathing and fine-tuning her new witchy skills, Jessie starts Year 11 feeling hopeful. She feels like her life-ducks are finally in a row – and at school, she has her sisterhood of Summer, Libby and Tabitha supporting her. Callum Henderson and his toxic masculinity minions have eased off enough for it the girls to feel like they can breathe again, so this year should be a breeze, right?

Wrong.

New year, new troubles.

Mysterious new girl Sloane has just arrived … and did she mention she’s a witch?

Twice the powers, twice the problems…

The Moon-Eyed People: Folk Tales from Welsh America by Peter Stevenson

Genre: Folklore
Age: Adult
Published: July 8th, 2019

A lone man wanders from swamp to swamp searching for himself, a wolf-girl visits Wales and eats the sheep, a Welsh criminal marries an ‘Indian Princess’, Lakota men re-enact the Wounded Knee Massacre in Cardiff and, all the while, mountain women practise Appalachian hoodoo, native healing and Welsh witchcraft.These stories are a mixture of true tales, tall tales and folk tales, that tell of the lives of migrants who left Wales and settled in America, of the native and enslaved people who had long been living there, and those curious travellers who returned to find their roots in the old country. They were explorers, miners, dreamers, hobos, tourists, farmers, radicals, showmen, sailors, soldiers, witches, warriors, poets, preachers, prospectors, political dissidents, social reformers, and wayfaring strangers. The Cherokee called Moon-Eyed People.’

Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron

Genre: Fantasy
Age: Young Adult
Published: June 25th, 2024

New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation Kalynn Bayron returns to fairytales with a lush, thrilling and original YA Snow White retelling that brings a new and exciting voice to this familiar tale. Perfect for fans of Cinderella Is Dead.

Only the truly desperate – and foolish – seek out the Knight, an ancient monster who twists wishes into curses. Eve knows this first-hand: one of her mothers was cursed by the Knight and trapped in the body of a songbird. With the unique abilities to communicate with animals and conjure weapons from nature, Eve has trained all her life to defeat him.

With more and more villagers harmed by the Knight’s corrupt deals, Eve believes she’s finally ready to face him. But when Queen Regina begins acting strangely – talking to seemingly no one, isolating herself, and lashing out at the slightest provocation – Eve must question if her powers are enough to save her family and her kingdom.

Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Genre: Horror
Age: Adult
Published: March 23rd, 2021

From international bestseller Thomas Olde Heuvelt comes Oracle, a supernatural thriller where an omen from our past threatens the return of ancient forces that will change the world forever.

On a foggy winter morning Luca Wolf and Emma Reich discover an eighteenth-century sailing ship stranded on a barren flower field, its name written on its side: Oracle.

Emma, unable to resist, enters the hatch on the tilted deck. The ship’s bell begins to toll and no one sees her again.

Not much later, eleven people have disappeared, Luca and his mother have been absconded by a clandestine government agency which has questions, no answers, and are determined to uncover the ship’s secrets before a media storm erupts.

But as they force Robert Grim, a retired specialist of the occult with a strange history and a healthy dislike of authority, to unravel the mystery, the Oracle is revealed to be a harbinger of an ancient doom awakened underneath the sea.

What follows is a maelstrom of international intrigue, history, young love, humanity’s relationship with climate and disease, and pure terror as they come face to face with an open doorway to apocalypse.

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

Genre: Fantasy
Age: Young Adult
Published: August 29th, 2023

One sister must fall for the other to rise.

Channi was not born a monster. But when her own father offers her in sacrifice to the Demon Witch, she is forever changed. Cursed with a serpent’s face, Channi is the exact opposite of her beautiful sister, Vanna—the only person in the village who looks at Channi and doesn’t see a monster. The only person she loves and trusts.

Now seventeen, Vanna is to be married off in a vulgar contest that will enrich the coffers of the village leaders. Only Channi, who’s had to rely on her strength and cunning all these years, can defend her sister against the cruelest of the suitors. But in doing so, she becomes the target of his wrath—launching a grisly battle royale, a quest over land and sea, a romance between sworn enemies, and a choice that will strain Channi’s heart to its breaking point.

Weaving together elements of The Selection and Ember in the Ashes with classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Helen of Troy, and Asian folklore, Elizabeth Lim is at the absolute top of her game in this thrilling yet heart-wrenching fantasy that explores the dark side of beauty and the deepest bonds of sisterhood.

Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen by Alison Weir

Genre: Historical
Age: Adult
Published: May 5th, 2016

The lives of Henry VIII’s queens make for dramatic stories and Alison Weir will write a series of novels that offer insights into the real lives of the six wives based on extensive research and new theories.

In all the romancing, has anyone regarded the evidence that Anne Boleyn did not love Henry VIII? Or that Prince Arthur, Katherine of Aragon’s first husband, who is said to have loved her in fact cared so little for her that he willed his personal effects to his sister? Or that Henry VIII, an over-protected child and teenager, was prudish when it came to sex? That Jane Seymour, usually portrayed as Henry’s one true love, had the makings of a matriarch? There is much to reveal …

Alison will write about the wives in the context of their own age and of the court intrigues that surrounded these women and – without exception – wrecked their lives. She will transport readers into a lost and vivid world of splendour and brutality: a world in which love, or the game of it, dominates all.

Sweet Mercy by Ann Tatlock

Genre: Historical Romance
Age: Adult
Published: May 1st, 2013

When Eve Marryat’s father is laid off from the Ford Motor Company in 1931, he is forced to support his family by leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving back to his Ohio roots. Eve’s uncle Cyrus has invited the family to live and work at his Marryat Island Ballroom and Lodge.

St. Paul seemed like a haven for gangsters, and Eve had grown fearful of living there. At seventeen, she considers her family to be “good people.” They aren’t lawbreakers and criminals like so many people in her old neighborhood. Thrilled to be moving to a “safe haven,” Eve is blissfully unaware that her uncle’s lodge is a transfer station for illegal liquor smuggled from Canada.

Eve settles in to work and makes new friends, including an enigmatic but affecting young man. But when the reality of her situation finally becomes clear, Eve is faced with a dilemma. How can she ignore what is happening right under their very noses? Yet can she risk everything by condemning the man whose love and generosity is keeping her and her family from ruin?

My Dear Henry by Kalynn Bayron

Genre: Horror – Historical
Age: Young Adult
Published: March 7th, 2023

In this gothic YA remix of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, a teen boy tries to discover the reason behind his best friend’s disappearance—and the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic stranger—in misty Victorian London.

London, 1885. Gabriel Utterson, a 17-year-old law clerk, has returned to London for the first time since his life— and that of his dearest friend, Henry Jekyll—was derailed by a scandal that led to his and Henry’s expuslion from the London Medical School. Whispers about the true nature of Gabriel and Henry’s relationship have followed the boys for two years, and now Gabriel has a chance to start again.

But Gabriel doesn’t want to move on, not without Henry. His friend has become distant and cold since the disastrous events of the prior spring, and now his letters have stopped altogether. Desperate to discover what’s become of him, Gabriel takes to watching the Jekyll house.

In doing so, Gabriel meets Hyde, a a strangely familiar young man with white hair and a magnetic charisma. He claims to be friends with Henry, and Gabriel can’t help but begin to grow jealous at their apparent closeness, especially as Henry continues to act like Gabriel means nothing to him.

But the secret behind Henry’s apathy is only the first part of a deeper mystery that has begun to coalesce. Monsters of all kinds prowl within the London fog—and not all of them are out for blood…

Are there any particular books you’re hoping to unwrap tomorrow? Anything you’re really hoping to get, or are you just happy to get any book as a present?