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.
I’ve added a handful of new books to my Bookish Wishes list since the last post. I tend to use this list for the books that really grab my eye and I’m super keen to read, for various reasons. And it also tends to be the list my partner will check when looking for presents for me, so I do try and keep it relatively up to date. Here’s the 10 latest books from that list, and if you’ve read any of them I’d love to hear what you thought about them!
Bookish Wishes
Oxford Blood
Rachael Davis-Featherstone
Genre: Mystery – Dark Academia
Age: Young Adult
Published: 13th January, 2026
Love, Lies, Legacy…High-achieving state-school pupil Eva has one dream – reading English at Oxford. If she gets in, not only will she receive a world-class education at an elite university, but she will be fulfilling the dreams of her mother and gain some independence from her father, the overprotective Inspector Dawkins.
At the same school, Eva’s best-friend George is also hoping to go to Oxford. The attraction between him and Eva is undeniable, but they’ve agreed to put any romance on hold until their places at Oxford are secured. Eva cannot be distracted from her goal – although when they are both invited for interview week, their future together feels oh-so close.
Until George shows up dead.
Punching the Air
Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
Genre: Contemporary – Poetry (Novel in verse)
Age: Young Adult
Published: 1st September, 2020
The story that I thought
was my life
didn’t start on the day
I was born
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.
The story that I think
will be my life
starts today
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.
The Dreaming of Man
Nikoline Kaiser
Genre: Gothic Horror
Age: Adult
Published: 8th July, 2025
After receiving a letter telling him with terrible news, Doctor Lawrence Cooper visits the small harbor-town Osmund in search of answers. Though something is clearly wrong there, Lawrence keeps finding reasons to the sake of a young girl he meets, and to get to the bottom of his one-time lover’s suspicious death.
Kushiel’s Dart
Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age: Adult
Published: 23rd June, 2001
The land of Terre d’Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good… and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.
Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission… and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel’s Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.
Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair… and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.
Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel’s Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.
Son of a Trickster
Eden Robinson
Genre: Magical Realism
Age: Young Adult
Published: 7th February, 2017
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who’s often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he’s also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can’t rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby)–and now she’s dead.
Jared can’t count on his mom to stay sober and stick around to take care of him. He can’t rely on his dad to pay the bills and support his new wife and step-daughter. Jared is only sixteen but feels like he is the one who must stabilize his family’s life, even look out for his elderly neighbours. But he struggles to keep everything afloat…and sometimes he blacks out. And he puzzles over why his maternal grandmother has never liked him, why she says he’s the son of a trickster, that he isn’t human. Mind you, ravens speak to him–even when he’s not stoned.
You think you know Jared, but you don’t.
One Night in Hartswood
Emma Denny
Genre: Historical Romance
Age: Adult
Published: 19th January, 2023
Oxford 1360
When his sister’s betrothed vanishes the night before her politically arranged marriage, Raff Barden must track and return the elusive groom to restore his family’s honour. William de Foucart ― known to his friends as Penn ― had no choice but to abandon his fiancé, and with it his own earldom, when he fled the night before his enforced marriage. But ill-equipped to survive on the run he must trust the kindness of a stranger, Raff, to help him escape. Unaware their fates are already entwined, their unexpected bond deepens into a far more precious relationship, one that will test all that they hold dear. And when secrets are finally revealed, both men must decide what they will risk for the one they love…
Queen of Swords: A Romantasy Puzzle Quest
Sara Sehdev, Gareth Moore
Genre: Fantasy – Puzzle
Age: Adult
Published: 10th February, 2026
She’s crossed the Divide into the magical realm of the Wyldes. Now you need to help her figure out why …
When twenty-year-old Penryn Trickett crosses the Divide from the human town she calls home to the mysterious land of the Wyldes, she soon meets broodingly dark and handsome fae Rafrael. With his lethal strength and enigmatic air, she finds herself as much enthralled as infuriated by the stranger. But Raf is the only one who can guide Pen through this beautiful and deadly world.
Who exactly is Penryn – how did she emerge in the land of fae, centaurs, mermen and high priestesses? Why can she read their language? And most importantly, why does she wear a symbol of a Great House of the Wyldes around her neck, a piece of jewelry gifted to her by her late mother?
Queen of Swords is a thrilling story of romance, fantasy and adventure, interspersed with 30 bewitching puzzles to solve, from navigating mystical mazes to unlocking cryptic codes and more. Join Pen and Raf as they journey across the Wyldes, battling terrifying beasts and navigating the treacherous land, trying to find the answer to the biggest question of all — just who is Penryn Trickett?
The Century Trilogy (Boxset)
Ken Follett
Book 1: Fall of Giants
Genre: Historical
Age: Adult
Published: 1st December, 2005
It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, “Fall Of Giants” moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.
Love Is a War Song
Danica Nava
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age: Adult
Published: 22nd July, 2025
Pop singer Avery Fox has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone in a feather warbonnet. What was meant to be a statement of her success as a Native American singer has turned her into a social pariah and dubbed her a fake. With threats coming from every direction and her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie’s ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery—not only does she have to work in the blazing summer heat to earn her keep, but the man who runs Lottie’s horse ranch despises her and wants her gone.
Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was sixteen years old. He has lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble: 1) preserve the culture, 2) respect the horses, and 3) stick to himself. When he is tasked with picking up Lottie’s granddaughter at the bus station, the last person he expected to see is the Avery Fox. Lucas can’t stand what she represents, but when he’s forced to work with her on the ranch, he can’t get her out of his sight—or his head. He reminds himself to keep to his rules, especially after he finds out the ranch is under threat of being shut down.
It’s clear Avery doesn’t belong here, but they form a tentative truce and make a Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. It’s purely transactional, absolutely no horsing around…but where’s the fun in that?
Dat’s Love
Leonora Brito
Genre: Short Stories
Age: Adult
Published: 16th May, 1995
Dorothy, 59, takes up nude modelling; Dooley Wilson’s funeral in Cardiff; the assassination of J.F.K.; what’s going down at the Blue Bayou; the road that was once a canal; Dido Elizabeth Belle, a slave in England. These are just some of the characters and situations in Leonora Brito’s wide-ranging collection of stories.
From the surreal to the mundane, from shopping at Tesco to dying in a hospice, these are beautifully observed stories, moving, funny, authentic.
Dat’s Love marks the arrival of an exciting new writer whose sharp dialogue, exactness of detail and striking images are hugely appealing.
Do you have a Bookish Wishes or priority books wishlist? Drop the link below!
Unwrapping Words 