It's been a couple weeks since I've participated in my favorite weekly meme, and I've missed it and all of my TTT friends! It's good to be back. 

Although I could probably do a Top 100 post with this week's topic—Top Ten Books I Never Reviewed—I'm going to go back to last week's Love Freebie instead. Since I'm always trying out new-to-me authors, I thought I'd highlight some I'm hoping to LOVE this year.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. Chanel Cleeton—I've been meaning to read Cleeton's Cuba-inspired historical fiction novels for years.

2. Elle Cosimano—I started reading Finlay Donovan Is Killing It very early this morning while waiting for my daughter to arrive home from a weeklong school trip. It's been keeping me royally entertained since the first page. I've got the whole series downloaded on my Kindle—I see some series binge-reading in my near future!

3. Emily Critchley—Both of Critchley's dual-timeline mysteries sound like reads I would enjoy.

4. Veera Hiranandani—Hiranandani's middle-grade novels about kids of Indian descent struggling to find their place in the world sound intriguing to me.

5. Elise Hooper—Hooper's historical novels cover a lot of territory, from Little Women to the 1928 Olympics to Walt Disney's studio in the 1950s. I want to read all of them!

6. Elizabeth Macneal—Macneal's novels are all set in England in the 1800s. They sound unique and compelling.

7. Ginger Reno—Reno writes books based on her Cherokee heritage. She has a couple of picture books coming out soon. Her debut novel, a middle-grade book called Find Her, which is about a missing Indigenous woman and the young daughter who's desperate to find her, is getting lots of positive buzz.

8. Lauren E. Rico—Although her latest novel, a mystery titled After the Ocean, is the one getting all the attention right now, Rico isn't a debut author like I thought. She's written a number of women's fiction and romance books. After the Ocean and Familia are the ones I'm most interested in.

9. Katy Watson—Watson writes "Golden Age crime for modern times," which sounds right up my alley. Her Three Dahlia cozy mystery series features a trio of actresses who work together to catch killers. It sounds really fun.

10. Jane Yang—Yang's debut novel, The Lotus Shoes, came out in January. Set in 1800s China, it tells the story of two very different women who must work together to survive in the wake of a scandal that makes them both outcasts in an unforgiving society.

There you go, ten authors I'm hoping to LOVE this year. Have you read any of them? Which are your favorites? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Whew, January was a long year month! With all the chaos going on in the U.S. and the world, I hope you were able to relax with some good reads, some of which were bookish books. I read three in January, all of which were cozy mysteries:

She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke—This new release is supposed to be a rom-com/cozy mystery mashup. It's too much of the former (and spicy at hat) and too little of the latter. Even though the premise is fun (a bestselling mystery writer and her irritating editor must play nice long enough to solve a mystery at a destination wedding), I was disappointed in this one and found it to be only an average read for me.

Today's TTT prompt is pretty straightforward: Top Ten Books With Destination Names in the Title. I decided to take the topic literally, choosing titles off my TBR list that included the names of real cities around the world. Since I love historical fiction, a genre which lends itself to these types of titles, it was a cinch to create. I've featured some (most?) of these books before, but since they remain unread by me, here they are again! 

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Join the TTT fun by checking out the rules on her blog then creating and sharing your own list. The more the merrier.

1. The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer—It's 1942 and Poland is overrun by Nazi invaders. Their presence is irritating and inconvenient, but Elzbieta Rabinek has been unharmed by them so far. Unlike her neighbors in her city's Jewish ghetto. When Elzbieta befriends a nurse in her apartment building, she is propelled into helping those very neighbors. Her actions put her at great risk, especially since she's hiding secrets that could be deadly for her and her family. Does she dare put her neck out for her Jewish neighbors when it could so easily find its way into a Nazi noose?

2. Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung—Cursed with only daughters, the Ang family lives with the shame of having no male heir to inherit their land and wealth. As civil war rages in China in 1948, the male members of the clan abandon their home, leaving the worthless females behind to fend for themselves. As the eldest, Hai stands trial for her family's crimes. Only barely surviving her beating by the Communist army, she knows she, her sisters, and her mother must make a daring escape. Braving every kind of danger, they set out on a perilous thousand-mile journey to find the family who abandoned them so cruelly.

Based on the author's family history, this novel sounds riveting!

3. The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra—Set in India in the 1920s, this is the first installment in a cozy mystery series starring a husband and wife detecting team. When they attend a party at the Century Club, Kaveri spies a suspicious-looking person lurking in the shadows. Shortly thereafter, a murder occurs. She is concerned when a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime and determines to find the killer.

4. Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin—When the Netherlands is invaded in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to England, but loses her 3-year-old son in the process. Desperate to find her child, she takes a job helping children evacuate to the countryside. Hugh Collingwood is a BBC radio correspondent reporting on the war as well as a series of murders that is plaguing London at the same time. When Aleida begs Hugh for help, the two grow increasingly closer as the world around them becomes more and more deadly.

5. A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd—In this reinvention of a classic play, Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after in lovely Italy and become the parents of seven children. Rosie Montague is the eldest of the brood. Content to remain a spinster, she plays matchmaker with every suitor her parents present, finding the groom-to-be a more willing bride. When Rosie finally meets the man who could very well be her match, their betrothal ball goes awry when a duke is killed at the party. Just about everyone had a reason to want the man dead, but who actually murdered him? Rosie is determined to find out.

6. The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes—American librarian Emmy Clarke is sent by her government to Germany to help the Monuments Men recover literature that was stolen by the Nazis. When she comes across an intriguing note written inside one of the books, it leads her on an intriguing quest to uncover a fascinating story of wartime resistance, betrayal, and courage. 

7. The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore—After a patient dies because of a mistake she made while operating, Dr. Tucia Hatherly no longer practices medicine. Not really. In order to support her disabled son, she is forced to take a position with a traveling medicine show peddling phony miracle cures. Desperate to be free of her obligation to the show's overbearing leader, she prepares to run when the show reaches Texas. It's 1900 and just as she's about to flee Galveston, a devastating hurricane—one so mighty that it will go down in the history books—hits. Tucia must decide whether to save herself and her son or to stay and use her doctoring skills to help the storm's victims.

8. The Haunting of Moscow House by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore—In post-revolutionary Russia, the Goliteva's ancestral mansion in Moscow has been taken over by Bolsheviks. Forced to live in the attic, the family members look for ways to bring light into their grim lives. Sisters Irina and Lili work for the American Relief Administration to help relieve suffering while back in their bleak home, the house whispers to them of long-buried secrets they must uncover. When one of the Bolshevik officials is found dead in their home, another mystery unfolds...

9. A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan—This dual-timeline historical novel features two women from the same family living in Paris during times of war and upheaval. Having thrown her fate in with a handsome revolutionary, Lisette Vigneau casts off her wealthy upbringing to fight for the people. She opens a small bakery to help sustain her fellow Parisians, but her determination falters as the city descends into chaos from famine, violence, and despair. In 1946, 76 years later, 19-year-old Micheline Chartier is mourning the loss of her parents in the war. As the sole guardian of her two younger sisters, she feels trapped and overwhelmed. When a neighbor enrolls her in a baking school, Micheline finds hope and an unexpected connection with her family's past.

10. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton—Another dual-time line story, this one concerns a Cuban American freelance writer who travels to Havana to scatter her grandmother's ashes in the deceased's homeland. While there, she investigates her own family history, where she discovers her grandmother's story of romance, revolution, and resilience in the midst of political chaos in the land of her birth.

There you go, ten historical novels on my TBR list with names of real cities in their titles. What do you think? Have you read any of them? Which hist-fic stories with city names in the titles have you enjoyed? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. I also respond to comments left here (although I'm a week behind at the moment).

With Thanksgiving barely behind us and Christmas looming right ahead, you'd think I'd be able to come up with something festive for today's Top Ten Tuesday. You'd be wrong. Instead, I'm going to take a more summery slant on our prompt du jour—Top Ten Books Set in X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)—and go with the suggested boat/ship setting. Even though I get terrible motion sickness, especially on water vessels, this is a setting I actually quite enjoy in books. Something about the combination of feelings that ensues just appeals to me: the excitement of an impending voyage, the wonder and fear of what lies below in the fathomless depths of the sea, the claustrophobia of being trapped in a floating tin can with a group of strangers you don't know if you can trust, etc. This summer will find me and my husband on our first cruise, traveling to Alaska, and I don't know what to expect. Hopefully, nothing like what happens in the books on my list (most of which are mystery/thriller novels)!

If you're not aware, TTT is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Click on over and give her some love, won't you?

1. Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith—I've talked about this YA fantasy/horror novel before. It's about a group of students who are enrolled in a semester-at-sea program aboard a luxury cruise ship. Liv can't believe it when she's selected to participate. While on board, however, she discovers that she was only chosen for the trip because the girl who was supposed to be there has mysteriously disappeared. When other participants start vanishing and other strange things begin happening on the ship, Liv begins to believe in a supernatural explanation. Just what kinds of monsters lurk under the sea below her? Which type lives above?

2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann—I'm probably the last person in the book blogosphere to read this non-fiction account of the strange tale of the titular ship. The patched-together vessel floated into Brazil in 1742 carrying a crew of starving English sailors who had been shipwrecked and marooned for months. Although the men were hailed as heroes, another vessel arrived in Chile with a few more of The Wager's survivors. These men had a very different tale to tell...

3. Seven Days in May by Kim Izzo—Based on the author's own family history, this historical novel sounds intriguing. It's about two American sisters who board the Lusitania, knowingly risking the perils of traveling during World War I, but never imagining just how perilous their trip will soon become.

4. The Last One by Will Dean—This thriller has been featured on a few of my TTT lists this year. It's about a woman who embarks on a cruise with her new boyfriend. After a whirlwind night on board, she awakes to find Pete missing from their room. When she steps out of her cabin, she discovers that everyone has vanished. She is the only one aboard the ship, which is floating in the middle of the sea with no land in sight. What happened to all the passengers and crew members? How is the last one going to save herself now?

5. Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans—This social history about how women's lives were changed by their journeys aboard luxury liners during the early twentieth century sounds fascinating. It tells the stories of a number of female travelers, from celebrities in first class to immigrants in steerage to stewardesses and other crew members who bustled about the ships making sure everyone was safe and comfortable.

6. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish—This British thriller concerns a group of people who commute to work in London via riverboat. The shared experience has created a community of riders who intermingle while cruising up and down the Thames. When one of them is murdered and another is accused of killing him, the commuters' lives are all upended. Who killed Kit and why?

7. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—The lives of two women collide on the high seas during World War II as they desperately try to save themselves and two children after their ship is torpedoed by Nazi U-boats, leaving them stranded in the last available lifeboat. This harrowing survival story is based on  real events. 

8. A Stranger On Board by Cameron Ward—I've mentioned this murder mystery before as well. It's about an ex-marine who is looking for a new start and finds it working as security on board a luxury superyacht. As they head out to open sea, someone goes missing. It doesn't take long to figure out there's a killer on board. It's up to Sarah to find them before they pick off all the other passengers one by one...

9. The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton—In 1934, two women embark on a round-trip voyage from New York to Cuba. One is posing as a wealthy heiress. The other is dead. At least that's what everyone thinks. In reality, she's very much alive and on board to get revenge on the person who wronged her. As the fates of the two women collide, they will find themselves risking everything to make sure justice is finally served.

10. Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban—Like #1, this is a YA thriller featuring a group of students enrolled in a semester-at-sea program. After being betrayed by her boyfriend and her best friend, Jade is looking forward to getting away from it all and losing herself in foreign lands and adventures. She isn't expecting the couple who ruined her life to be on board as well. As her fury at them builds, a murder occurs on the ship. Then more of the students begin to suffer similar fates. There's a killer on board, but who is it? Jade has to find out before more people end up dead.

There you are, ten books with boat/ship settings that I want to read. How do you feel about boats/ships? Which books have you enjoyed with this theme? Which are on your TBR? What setting did you pick for your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours. I also reply to comments left here, although I am a week behind at the moment.

(While preparing my list, I came across this one with the same theme posted by the lovely bloggers over at Beyond the Bookends. Thanks for the help and recs, ladies!)

Although I have my favorite tried-and-true authors like any other reader, I actually explore quite a few new-to-me writers every year. No matter how many of these I try, though, there are still a ton of popular authors I have just not gotten around to yet. Sure, there are some that I'm unlikely to read, no matter how many people rave about them, simply because they don't write the kinds of books I'm interested in reading. On the other hand, there are a bunch who write in the genres I love that I've been meaning to test drive; I just haven't gotten around to them yet. Today's prompt explores that very concept: Top Ten Mainstream Popular Authors That I Still Have Not Read. I'm going to focus my list today on popular authors who write in my favorite genres whose books I want to read at some point. 

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Hop on over to her blog and give her some love!

1. Beatriz Williams—Although I have read a couple of historical novels that Williams co-wrote with Karen White and Lauren Willig, I've never read any that she penned solo. 

2. Catherine Coulter—Coulter has written regency romances, historical novels, and mystery/thriller books. It's that last genre that interests me. Her long-running FBI thriller series looks especially good.

3. Josephine Tey (1896-1952)—I always see references to Tey's classic mysteries. I need to read them already!

4. Fiona Barton—Barton's mystery/thriller novels sound like ones I would enjoy.

5. Rhys Bowen—I'm a historical mystery fan and Bowen has written a ton of them. I'm past due for checking her books out. 

6. Lucinda Riley—Riley's historical fiction has been recommended to me multiple times. I'm especially interested in her Seven Sisters series. 

7. Val McDermid—I really need to give this prolific Scottish mystery/thriller writer a go soon!

8. Chanel Cleeton—Cleeton's historical novels look like they're right up my reading alley.

9. Tess Gerritsen—This popular mystery/thriller writer is another one I've been meaning to read for a long time now.

10. Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine (1930-2015)—Another prolific mystery/thriller author, Rendell has been on my list of TBR authors for too long. 

There you go, ten popular mainstream authors I can't believe I haven't read yet. I'll get to them one of these days, hopefully! Which have you read? Which of their books should I start with? Which authors are on your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.