It's time again for my favorite weekly meme, Top Ten Tuesday.  If you're up for some bookish fun this morning, join in.  Click on over to The Broke and the Bookish for more information, then make your own list, and bop around the blogosphere to get some great reading recommendations.  Easy peasy. 

I feel like I'm always talking about the same beloved authors and genres around here, so I decided to change things up a little for Top Ten Tuesday.  Today's topic is: Top Ten Favorite Books in X Genre.  Not gonna lie—I considered dystopian, British crime lit, family secrets novels, etc.  In the end, though, I decided to talk about a genre that I enjoy but don't actually read that often.  So, here's my list of my Top Ten Favorite Books-in-Verse:

1.  Death Coming Up the Hill by Chris Crowe—This award-winning haiku novel about the Vietnam War is set here in Arizona.  It touched me deeply.

2.  Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson—I'm a big fan of Woodson's YA and MG books, so I was excited to read this memoir-in-verse.  It's a lovely, National Book Award-winning contemplation on race, identity, and discovering one's voice.  

3.  The Watch That Ends the Night by Allan Wolf—This haunting, evocative novel is about the Titanic tragedy, a subject I find endlessly fascinating.

4.  Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill—The Salem Witch Trials are another historical topic that is always interesting to read about.  Hemphill manages to tell a very rich story despite the limits of a verse structure.

5.  Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate—Applegate's novels always seem to hit me right in the feels.  It's been a while since I read this one, but in my review I called it a "quick, touching story."

6.  Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse—I read this impactful, atmospheric novel about the Dust Bowl recently and it has definitely stayed with me.

7.  Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham—This one isn't based on historical or world events, but it is a compelling novel that tells an interesting Soul Surfer-ish story.

8.  Crank; Glass; Fallout; and other novels by Ellen Hopkins—Hopkins' YA novels in verse are so graphic and raw that I have a hard time labeling them "favorites."  Still, they're powerful in their unflinching examination of contemporary issues like illegal drug use, prostitution, sexual abuse, etc.

Okay, I'm going to cheat on the last two (actually, three) and share a couple novels-in-verse that are on my TBR pile mountain mountain chain:

9.  Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling by Lucy Frank—This novel about two very different girls who share an illness and a hospital room sounds intriguing.

10.  Witness by Karen Hesse—After Out of the Dust, I'm definitely up for another Hesse book.  This one is about a small town in Vermont and how it changes when the Ku Klux Klan moves in.  Set in 1924, it's another historical novel-in-verse, a subgenre I usually enjoy.

11.  Sonya Sones—I have several of this author's novels-in-verse on my TBR list.  I'm intrigued by Saving Red; One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies; and Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy.

There you have it.  What do you think of my list?  Have you read any of these?  What are your favorite books-in-verse?  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor.

Happy TTT!  

(Image from Amazon)

Although Diana Snow is an orphan of little consequence, her position as a chaperone to a wealthy young lady ensures she's exposed regularly to the finest of London society.  And there's nothing she abhors more than exposure.  She keeps her real emotions, her true self, concealed behind a polite mask at all times.  No matter how much the fashionable women sneer at her, Diana refuses to let their mockery penetrate her hard shell.  Her only desire is to do her job and do it well.  

While accompanying her charge on a visit to Greece, Diana has a chance encounter with a handsome stranger.  She's shocked at the attention Alexandros Metaxas pays her.  It's almost as if he's ... interested.  The connection she feels to the mysterious stranger makes her uncharacteristically bold.  When she spies Alexandros creeping around Corfu in the dark, she follows him.  Her foolish act has devastating results.  Captured by the most notorious pirates in the Mediterranean, she's flung into a dangerous adventure in a place ruled by conflict and curses.  

As Diana struggles to find her place in her colorful prison, she draws ever closer to handsome Alexandros.  Can their romance bloom in such an unlikely situation?  Will the tentative couple survive long enough to find out?  When push comes to shove, will Diana have the courage to break out of her shell and decide where—and with whom—she truly belongs?

Like Jennifer Moore's other Regency romances, her newest stars a brave heroine finding adventure and love in a foreign land.  Neither Diana nor Alexandros are terribly complex characters, but their journey toward Happily Ever After is entertaining nonetheless.  Both are sympathetic, likable, and brave—it's impossible not to root for their success.  Although the action sags a bit in the middle of A Place for Miss Snow, there's enough going on to keep the reader interested.  The novel is hardly a page turner, but it's a sweet, charming story that's clean and compelling enough.  I've enjoyed all the books I've read by Jennifer Moore; this one is no exception.  If you like romantic Regency love stories infused with interesting historical tidbits, you'll find plenty to love about A Place for Miss Snow.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Jennifer Moore's other novels, including Lady Emma's Campaign; Lady Helen Finds Her Song; and Simply Anna)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of A Place for Miss Snow from the generous folks at Covenant in exchange for my participation in the book's blog tour.  Thank you!

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If you'd like more opinions on A Place for Miss Snow, be sure to check out all the stops on the book's blog tour:

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(Image from Barnes & Noble)

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for sexual innuendo and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a copy of Until Summer Ends from the author in exchange for participating in the book's blog tour.  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

"'I think there's too many of us people and we're too close together and we're turning on each other like rats in the gutter.  We're in the biggest city in the world, Day, and I think it's trying to get rid of us'" (176).

The grimy streets of Victorian London teem with criminal activity, from the petty thefts of starving urchins to the enslavement of desperate women to the vicious unsolved killings of Jack the Ripper.  Considering the always-rising tide of violence that plagues the city, the number of men assigned to combat it is laughable.  Only twelve detectives—The Murder Squad—investigate London's most serious crimes.  Severely overworked and chronically underpaid, their shameful solve rate guarantees they are met with derision everywhere they turn.  Wading through the city's hellish underbelly to flush out murderers and monsters is a job rife with danger, devoid of glamour.  It's not a career to which most people would aspire.  

Detective Inspector Walter Day is not most people.  Having worked as a constable in Devon for the last four years, he has no actual detecting experience.  And yet, the idealistic newbie is working the murder of the Squad's own Inspector Christian Little.  The detective's odd and gruesome murder raises a million questions, few answers.  Is Day up to the task of finding Little's sadistic killer?  As more policemen end up dead, the case grows more complex—and deadly.  Day must solve it before his own dead body ends up stuffed into a steamer trunk.  He has little time to prove himself against a masterful murderer ... can he do it in time to save his colleagues and himself?

The Yard, Alex Grecian's debut novel and the first installment in a gritty crime series, brings 19th Century London to life in all its stinking, sleazy, squalid glory.  The story, naturally, echoes the tone of its setting.  Although Day is a likable and admirable man, the sewage in which he slops every day makes his tale a grim one.  Compelling, yes, but also depressing.  Nevertheless, The Yard is an engrossing, atmospheric mystery from which I had a hard time looking away.  I especially liked the interludes that provided needed backstory without interrupting the forward push of the plot.  Intriguing characters and sharp prose added even more to this surprising, satisfying novel.  I enjoyed it overall and will definitely be grabbing its sequels off the library shelves sometime soon.  

(Readalikes: I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find