It’s my birthday today! I wanted to write a special post to talk about my top 5 favourite reads in no particular order, all rated at least four stars out of five. Some are standalones and some are series because five is a really tiny number considering how many books I’ve read. (Turns out, I’m also listing them in the order that I first read them.)
1. The DragonLance Saga
Beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight and moving forward through well over 200 novels, the DragonLance Saga is enormous. I have not read all of them. I don’t own all of them either. I have about 140 DragonLance novels. I inherited most of them from my dad and after I’d devoured all of them, I began collecting more. I fell in love with the world of Krynn and the Companions that set forth from Solace to save their world from the evil dragon highlords and their goddess, Takisis. This series created a solid definition in my mind for the fantasy genre and I owe most of my reading habits now to how many of these pocket novels I read in second and third grade. These will always be favourites of mine. No question about that.
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses Series
I read A Court of Thorns and Roses for the first time in the summer of 2016, right after I moved to university. The second book followed soon after before I had to stop and wait for the third book to be published. Now, I’ve read the originally trilogy and following novella three times. The fourth book, A Court of Silver Flames, was labelled an adult novel (instead of young adult) and is a great development of the characters. I know these novels get a lot of hate from the bookish communities, but to me they meet my goal when reading fantasy: it’s not reality. Escapism is my main objective and these books have done this for me over and over without fail. I’m looking forward to reading more about the world of Prythian and rereading Silver Flames.
3. Realm Breaker
Realm Breaker is a new release as of this year. I wasn’t sure about putting it on this list at first but thinking about the characters convinced me. I would describe Realm Breaker as DragonLance meets Lord of the Rings. It gave me a more developed and diverse version of the Companions from DragonLance and the Fellowship, while continuing to carry that perfect note of adventure for the greater good of all. The first in a series, Realm Breaker is going to be an epic worthy of its predecessors. It’s already found a special place in my heart, and I hope that the rest of the series keeps it there.
4. Defy the Night
Another 2021 release! I was blown away by this novel. I actually went into Defy the Night thinking that it was a standalone. Once I reached the end, I realized just how wrong that was. With a heart of rebellion and a great love story, Defy the Night quickly became a favourite of mine. I loved the feeling of grown-up nostalgia I felt while reading. It made me think of The Selection or other YA novels about rebellion against kingdoms, but with more thought and development put into the characters and the plot. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
5. The Aurora Cycle
I just finished the final book in the Aurora Rising series (as of writing this post). I am in love. This is another series that made me nostalgic…but this time for Star Trek. The rag-tag crew known as Squad 312 are a perfectly balanced mess. As they fight to save the universe from a strange entity known as Ra’haam. I loved the chemistry between the characters as they navigated being thrown completely unknowingly into a mind-bending and time sensitive mission to find out how the heck they’re going to save the universe. It felt like an impromptu Star Trek mission with more humour and more teenagers. I felt like one of them, riding in the Longbow towards the unknown.
I could talk about so many more, but I’ll leave it there for today. I wanted to make a list of twenty-four facts about myself (since I’m 24 today), but I ran out of time. Twenty-five would be a great number for that list, though.
Thanks for reading! Have a great day.
Lit&Leta 
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