Here are 10 books that The Bound and The Broken fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Bound and The Broken series.
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As a former hockey mom, I was drawn into the story of a small community absorbed into the highs and lows of a local team. The issues of teenage angst and challenges were well-developed through the characters and families impacted by a devasting event.
This was a reread for me, but somehow, I enjoyed it more than the first time through! What an incredible story. I love how Emily Brontë makes use of two characters, both somewhat removed from the central actions of the story, to tell the central story.
Sometimes, when a story changes main characters half-way through, I get lost as a reader, or stop caring so much; but with Wuthering Heights, it's the opposite. Because of the way the first half of the novel plays out, I couldn't help but want to know what happened to the two, new characters—these descendants of the originals. It's heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time.
One of the great novels of the nineteenth century, Emily Bronte's haunting tale of passion and greed remains unsurpassed in its depiction of destructive love. Her tragically short life is brilliantly imagined in the major new movie, Emily, starring Emma Mackey in the title role.
Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition of Wuthering Heights features an afterword by David Pinching.
One wild, snowy night on the Yorkshire moors, a gentleman asks…
Ever since spending a year on a Fulbright teaching grant on the island of Cyprus, where Aphrodite arose from the seafoam, I’ve been enticed by the Greek mythic world, a fascination that began much earlier with reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. Subsequent trips to Greek islands, museums, and archeological sites enhanced those ancient resonances, as did Mother Goddess studies and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Recent writing residencies at Cyprus College of Art and on Evia island immersed me in the Greek atmosphere and mythos as I edited Serpent Visions. My career was spent as a community college teacher, where my courses included ‘World Literature, Homer to Dante,’ and Shakespeare, another keen interest.
The ‘girls’ are the Trojan women, voiceless in Homer’s Iliad except, briefly, Andromache, Cassandra, and Hecuba.
Women drive the plot, from Helen, the Spartan queen abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, who is blamed for starting it, to Briseis, the Trojan captive Agamemnon takes from Achilles, but they say little.
Most of the chapters in Silence of the Girls are first-person in Briseis’ voice, with interspersed third-person chapters focusing on Achilles and Patroclus. We see the war from a broad, realistic perspective, but the tragedy in the center is of the women—as the Greek playwright Euripides recognizes in his play ‘The Trojan Women’ among others.
Pat Barker gives us the full, moving story in this novel and its sequels, The Women of Troy and The Voyage Home.
'Magnificent. You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her powers' Evening Standard
There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan War whose voice has been silent - until now. Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness that history forgot . . .
Briseis was a queen until her city was destroyed. Now she is a slave to the man who butchered her husband and brothers. Trapped in a world defined by men, can she survive…
A long answer would just rehash what everyone says. Bottom line it was my first foray into modern LitRPG (I think I may have read some really early LitRPG from before it being a thing...which I also really like...Quag Keep by Andre Norton back in the 70s maybe?) and turns out as a lifelong gamer (I've been playing RPGs since before DnD had editions) I really enjoy it. I have DCC to thank for turning me onto it.
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.
The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.
Find Layla offers a heartbreakingly fascinating glimpse into the life of a young teenage girl who, at a tender age, must care for both herself and her little brother while enduring her alcoholic mother’s unpredictable temper. She tells her story with remarkable resilience, finding solace in her favorite subject, biology. Through her perspective, we meet a girl with the potential for greatness, navigating hardship with quiet strength.
A neglected girl's chaotic coming-of-age becomes a trending new hashtag in a novel about growing up and getting away by an award-winning author.
Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother.
Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera, she captures it…
Conn Iggulden called it 'a masterpiece' while The Times hailed it 'a gorgeous, rich retelling of the Arthurian tale' . . . ________________
In Britain, Rome's legions are but a distant memory.
And Uther Pendragon is dying.
Enemies stalk the land.
Into this uncertain world a boy is cast - an outsider, plagued by memories of those he's lost.
Under the watchful eye of Merlin, the boy begins his journey to manhood. He meets another outcast, Guinevere - wild, proud and beautiful. And he is dazzled by Arthur - a warrior who carries the hopes of the people like…
The ravaged continent of Genabackis has given birth to a terrifying new empire: the Pannion Domin.
Like a fanatical tide of corrupted blood, it seethes across the land, devouring all who fail to heed the Word of its elusive prophet, the Pannion Seer. In its path stands an uneasy alliance: Dujek Onearm's Host and the Bridgeburners each now outlawed by the Empress alongside their enemies of old including the grim forces of Warlord Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, and his Tiste Andii, and the Rhivi people of the Plains.
Growing up, I commonly read a sci-fi or fantasy novel a day. I craved freshly innovative stories, not megastar copycats. Innovation lacking, I stopped reading. I loved Salvatore’s invention of the Drow and favored groundbreaking stories where authors build on a predecessor’s shoulders rather than writing formulaic remakes for easy sales. Devastatingly, when I began writing, publishers, agents, and literary voices unitedly screamed at authors to “stay in their genre.” Write sci-fi or fantasy, never both. That wasn’t me, so I wrote about what happens when technology clashes with magic. The result? Mosaic Digest recently dubbed me “one of speculative fiction’s most inventive voices.”
Rarely do I find a sequel as good as the first book.
When clever ideas from the first book peter out, sequels lose their freshness and sense of wonder, turning them into stale, unremarkable remakes. Then, my fandom for the author diminishes as well. Despite my enthusiastic admiration of Sanborn’s creative prowess, I couldn’t finish the Mistborn sequel for that very reason.
Words of Radiance worldbuilding is a notable exception. It keeps digging deeper and grows more and more complex. Similarly, the characters continue to evolve.
For me, character growth and worldbuilding drive a story more than any other factors. Thus, the plot resolution to Words of Radiance was surprisingly satisfying precisely because of this strong foundation.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.
Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.
Thoughtful Science Fiction! Ok, this book might get shelved as fantasy, but the fantastical elements are so well constrained by logical systems, and the underlying causes and behaviors of seemingly-magical events explored with such an investigative and scientific vigor, that I must call it science fiction! Woven throughout this adventure story of Tress’s search for her kidnapped love are funny and philosophical insights into the foibles of human nature and society. Tress in Wonderland perhaps? Tress’s Travels?
Better to die sharp in war than rust through a time of peace. A mother struggling to repress her violent past, A son struggling to grasp his violent future, A father blind to the danger that threatens them all. When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades…
