We have been having fun with Top Ten Tuesday, so we decided we will do one every week. This bookish meme was hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and has been going since June 2010! Since last January Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019. Candyce did this topic last week as well so I tried to pick different releases than she did! This was a lot of fun, but also hard to narrow down to 10 books I REALLY want to read right now haha. Let’s take a look at which books made the list!

1. King of Scars – Leigh Bardugo
January 29th

I think this is truly my number one anticipated release for the first half of 2019, the rest of the list is in no particular order I’m so excited for King of Scars. Six of Crows is one of my favorite series ever and Nikolai is my favorite from the original Grisha series so you might imagine my excitement haha. I ordered the Illumicrate special box and I can’t wait to see all the beautiful items they created for us. And they just released what their special edition hardback will look like under the dustjacket and it’s jawdropping gorgeous.

2. Defy Me – Tahereh Mafi
April 2nd

I was disappointed to see this one doesn’t come out until April! With a March release last year, I was really hoping for it to be released at the beginning of March again haha. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original trilogy but listened to the audiobook last year and really enjoyed it. There were some really cool plot twists and I’m super excited to see this story continue.

3. The Vanishing Stair – Maureen Johnson
January 22nd

Truly Devious was a pleasant surprise last year and I’m very excited to pick the sequel up. I love mystery novels and this one has a wonderful mystery going on. It was nice to get some answers in Truly Devious while still having so much more questions to keep us going. I liked the twist at the end and really enjoyed the back and forth between timelines.

4. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
February 26th

I’m not really a fan of the Bone Season by Samantha Shannon but this sounds like an epic fantasy novel I will highly enjoy. To be honest, I’m a tiny bit scared of the size of this book, 848 pages! But I also want to read some more big books this year and not be intimidated by the size of a book haha The cover of this one is gorgeous and I’m a sucker for those haha. This also has dragons and a Queendom and those are two things I love in my fantasies.

5. The Red Scrolls of Magic – Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu
April 2nd

After reading The Dark Artifices series last month, I’m completely back in the Shadowhunters world and that means I want to continue reading in this world asap! Alec and Magnus are two of my favorite characters in this world so reading about them will be wonderful. Unfortunately I hate this cover haha, I really don’t like the art of the characters and the typography isn’t my favorite either. This cover just doesn’t have the same appeal the other Shadowhunter novels do and I kinda hope the paperback version will fit with my editions better. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

6. Bloodwitch – Susan Dennard
February 12th

Finally! The third Wichlands book <3 To be honest, I only read the first two books about a year ago so I guess I didn’t have to wait that long, but it still feels that way haha. I adore this world and these characters and all the twists I did not see coming. Faecrate is doing a special box and as soon as my bank account is recovered from the King of Scars special, this is the first thing I’ll order haha. I don’t have any merch for this series, so I hope to change that next month 😉

7. Courting Darkness – Robin LaFevers
February 5th

While I still need to read the last book in the original His Fair Assassins trilogy I’m already looking forward to this new duology. I really enjoyed this world and I can’t wait to read more about these characters. One of my goals is to finish this series this year and I guess I will have to do that fast! I can never get enough of lady assassins and want more of them!

8. We Set the Dark on Fire – Tehlor Kay Mejia
February 26th

The premise for this one sounds so cool and also a little scary. It reminds me a little of Only Ever Yours and that was a very special book. And this one has Latina and queer representation which is always cool. This is also a dystopian/fantasy and it has an amazing cover! The first reviews have been very positive so I have high hopes!

9. King of Fools – Amanda Foody
April 30th

After hearing a lot of mixed reviews for Ace of Shades I finally decided to give it a go this summer. And it turned out I actually enjoyed it a lot! I guess my expectations weren’t that high so I was pleasantly surprised. The world was very interesting and especially the ending was wonderful! I’m super excited to find out how this story continues and what more Amanda has in store for us. Until that time I might need to finally pick up Daughter of the Burning City.

10. The Lovely and the Lost – Jennifer Lynn Barnes
May 7th

And last, but most certainly not least is a new release by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is one of my favorite authors ever and I feel like I don’t talk about her enough. So far I’ve enjoyed all the books I read by her and can’t believe we’re so blessed as too receive two new Jennifer Lynn Barnes books this year. The premise for this one sounds really cool, kinda like The Jungle Book with search and rescue dogs and a Barnes mystery in the middle. I didn’t know I wanted it, but now I need it!

These are a couple of my most anticipated releases for the first half of 2019. Are you looking forward to these? Or have you already read some of these as ARC’s? Let me know in the comments so we can fangirl together <3