Top 5 series of all time

Hello bookworms!! Welcome to Top 5 Tuesday!! This week’s topic is top 5 series of all time. THIS is going to be a “big call” post. Maybe even one where the decisions I make below are going to be ‘die on the hill’ ones. But the real question is… do we agree?

Only joking!! That’s not really important. The important part for this week is… will I be able to stick to just 5, or are we going to see a total blow out like last week?!

If you missed the July-September topics post, please click here, AND I’ve also posted the topics for October-December if you would like to see those as well. Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted here @ Meeghan reads.

top 5 series of all time

I would actually like a precursor to the topic this week. Partly because I would like a way to backslide out of any arguments that may arise from what will invariably become contentious conversations. But also because I desperately want to put series on here that I haven’t finished reading. Some because they aren’t published yet, but some because I have a TBR pile that is longer than the driveway on my mum’s farm. (Spoiler, that driveway is solidly over 100 metres.)

So, while I HAVE kept to a “top 5”, I have also reserved the right to post honourable mentions. (Loopholes are the best!!)

All For the Game — Nora Sakavic

I could not love this series more. And it’s about… sport? But also seriously delves into abuse, self-harm, violence, and more abuse. However, what I genuinely love about this series is the relationships that are formed, and how these kids would go to bat for each other. Literally and figuratively. This story talks about trust and tradition as well. But most importantly, being your true self and the courage it can take to stand up for yourself and what you believe in.

Blurb:

Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He’s short, he’s fast, he’s got a ton of potential — and he’s the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.

Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn’t need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.

But Neil’s not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil’s new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can’t walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he’s finally found someone and something worth fighting for.

The Folk of the Air — Holly Black

I don’t know what it is, but I just highly enjoy Holly Black’s fae series so much. And not even just this trilogy (although it is my favourite). If I could collectively group them,  The Modern Faerie Tales, The Darkest Part of the Forest, Poison Eaters and Other Stories, AND The Folk of the Air, I would be so happy. Not necessarily into one book (wow, can you imagine the size?!), but more of an acknowledgement, like how the Shadowhunters books are all one larger series.

Anyway, I love these books. But mostly I love how the stories get so twisted on themselves that the heroes and the villains often swap sides a few times before the ending!

Blurb:

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him — and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Captive Prince — C. S. Pacat

My beautiful, broken boys. *sobs dramatically* I love this series so much for a fantasy series that doesn’t have magic. The world building and character arcs in this are second to none. There is a LOT of deception and lying among the characters. Which then also means that everyone basically has trust issues. It makes me cry, and then I just fall in love with them even more. ?

Blurb:

With their countries on the brink of war, Damen and his new master, Prince Laurent, must exchange the intrigues of the palace for the sweeping might of the battlefield as they travel to the border to avert a lethal plot.

Forced to hide his identity, Damen finds himself increasingly drawn to the dangerous, charismatic Laurent. But as the fledgling trust between the two men deepens, the truth of secrets from both their pasts is poised to deal them the crowning death blow…

Daughter of Smoke and Bone — Laini Taylor

Karou is the inspiration for why I dyed my hair blue. I also want about half of her tattoos. In fact, can I just become Karou? But in all honesty, I just really love this series. I admit that I do have a thing for angel/demon stories. The Fallen series by Lauren Kate was one of my first true loves, and Laini Taylor followed suit not long after. I also love the aspect of the chimera, and the good vs evil element of this story.

Blurb:

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages — not all of them human — and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

The Raven Cycle — Maggie Stiefvater

IMAGINE me writing a ‘best of’ list, and not including a Maggie Stiefvater book. I know, it’s laughable. And because it’s laughable, here we are. Including The Raven Cycle, which we all knew was going to happen.

This is the series that introduced me to Maggie’s writing and quiet way of telling stories, and I will always love it for that fact alone. However, I love it even more for the story that it is. A tale set here and now, about dead kings and magic. About love and acceptance and fate. A story about the more that we all wish there was.

Blurb:

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them — not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all — family money, good looks, devoted friends — but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

honourable mentions

As I mentioned above, the below are series that may have made my list, except that I genuinely can’t say if they are my favourites because I haven’t read them. Which makes it definitely hard to say one way or the other. Although I’d hazard to take a pretty good guess for some of them!! I have also included two other series that were SO CLOSE to making this list, it felt unfair to leave them off.

• Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend (book 4+ unpublished)
• Grishaverse (all three series) by Leigh Bardugo (not finished reading)
• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (Volume 5 unpublished)
• Iskari by Kristen Ciccarelli
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Please don’t forget to link to one of my posts (not my homepage or a category, as I won’t get the pingback), or comment your link below, and I will link back to all of your posts as soon as I can!!

PARTICIPANTS

Reading At Teatime
The Punk Theory
Jamsu Dreams
A Fictional Bookworm
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Spotlight on Stories
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Reading Buffs
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Becky Bookstore
Mikaela Reads
Kira Jeanette
The Pine-Scented Chronicles
Evelyn Reads
Biblio Nerd Reflections
Hail and Well Read

What are your top 5 series of all time?