Top 10 Tuesdays: Character Freebie – New Books Featuring Favourite Characters

I had such a hard time settling on a topic for this week’s post! I think sometimes the freebies give me a little too much freedom in a way. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend toward expanding popular series, bringing out new books that sometimes involve past favourite characters. Some of these are books that have already been released, while others have just been announced. I’m not just referring to straightforward sequels, since you would expect those to follow the stories of the same characters. I was thinking more specifically about series that are returning after some time, to bring back popular characters with a story or even a series of their own. It seems that many of these books are due to public demand for more of these characters, and it is easy to see why!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

1) Vengeful by V.E. Schwab – This one is already out, but I think it is worth mentioning because it took 5 years for this book to be released! I was lucky enough to avoid this wait since I only read Vicious last year, so it didn’t take me long to pick up Vengeful after it. I have also heard that V.E. Schwab might be releasing a third book in this series at some point, but there is no real information about that one yet. Victor and Eli are two of my favourite characters, and I also really liked the new additions in Vengeful, so I’m very excited to see them all again whenever the next one comes out.

2) King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo – I have not read this one yet, but I’m trying to find somewhere to squeeze it into this year’s reading challenges. This book brings back characters from both the Grisha trilogy (finished 5 years ago) and the Six of Crows duology (finished 3 years ago), and I’m very interested to see how they mix. Nikolai was one of my favourites from the Grisha trilogy, and I think it will be very interesting for him to have a series (or duology, at least) of his own. While I really enjoyed the Grisha trilogy, the Six of Crows duology have very quickly become one of my favourite series, and it was those books that really pushed me to consider Leigh Bardugo a favourite author. I’m very excited to try this one.

3) Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell – I read Carry On for the first time this year, and I really enjoyed it! This book comes 4 years after the release of Carry On, and I’ve seen it already on so many people’s most anticipated lists for this year. I think part of the reason it took me some time to get into Carry On is because I couldn’t help comparing it to Harry Potter, but I didn’t love the writing or characters as much as J.K. Rowling’s. Once I started to view this book as its own completely separate world and story, I started to love the characters more, especially Baz. I still don’t think I’m as excited for it as most people, but I’m still looking forward to reading it.

4) Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater – It’s already been three years since The Raven Cycle ended! I only finished it last year myself, so it doesn’t feel like such a long gap for me, but this book is due out late this year, and is the start of a new trilogy that focuses on Ronan. Ronan was a very interesting character in the original Raven Cycle series, so I’m glad to see that he will be brought back for more books. I’m a tiny bit worried about this one because part of what I loved about The Raven Cycle was the dynamics between all the main characters, and that will obviously change here, but I love Maggie Stiefvater’s writing so I’m sure it will be great!

5) A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs – This book came out last October and I already have a copy, although I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. The original Miss Peregrine trilogy ended in 2015, so I’m sure I’ll have to refresh myself a bit on the details before I start this one. This book starts off a new trilogy featuring Jacob Portman as he returns to America with Miss Peregrine and the other peculiars, who are doing their best to fit in, until Jacob learns of yet more secrets that his grandfather had been hiding. I loved the Miss Peregrine series, although I’ll admit that I remember very little of the third book by now. I’m glad to see that there will be more of these characters. The Conference of the Birds, the next book in the series, has already been announced for next year, too.

6) Untitled Panem Novel by Suzanne Collins – I’m so glad to see that this book is due out next year, since I was already planning on re-reading the Hunger Games series for the first time. This book comes a full 10 years after the end of the original series, and it brings us a prequel focusing on events 64 years before Katniss’s story. The Hunger Games is one of my all-time favourite series, and I’m very interested to see more of this world. I’m generally not such a huge fan of prequels or between-the-numbers books, but this one actually seems like it will be worthwhile and add a lot to the story. This is definitely one of my most anticipated books for next year!

7) Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi – I’m quite behind on this series already, even though I apparently finished reading Ignite Me in January 2018. I think that goes to show how much I remember of that book though. I made the mistake of stretching the original series out over three years, so by the time I reached each book, I’d mostly forgotten the previous ones. Restore Me was published 4 years after the end of the first series, to add more to Juliette’s story, and there have also been several between-the-numbers stories that I’ve missed. Although I have the next books down in my plan for this year, I am strongly considering holding off and re-reading the entire series next year instead so I can actually keep track of what happened.

8) The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare – Speaking of series I can’t keep up with, it seems that Cassandra Clare is endlessly putting out new books in the Shadowhunters world. The Mortal Instruments ended in 2014, followed by the Dark Artifices series, which as far as I can tell features completely different characters. The Red Scrolls of Magic, released this April, is the beginning of a new series featuring Magnus Bane, a clear fan-favourite character. I’ve read the first three books of the Mortal Instruments so far, and while I like Magnus as a character, I’m not quite sure I see why so many people are obsessed with him (yet?). Either way, I think it’s interesting that Cassandra Clare would give him a series of his own, although it’s not surprising given his popularity.

9) Untitled by Sarah J. Maas – I wish there was something more to go on for these new additions to the Court of Thorns and Roses series, but so far there really isn’t any information available. Goodreads has three new books in this series listed, and Sarah J. Maas’s website mentions that A Court of Frost and Starlight was meant to bridge the gap between the this series and a new spinoff, set in the same world. There are so many incredible characters in the ACOTAR series that just about any of them could easily have a spin-off series of their own. I’m actually very interested to see which direction she will take. Considering ACOTAR was a series I was a bit hesitant to read in the first place, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it became a fast favourite and I’m really looking forward to reading more set in this world.

10) There Will Be Other Summers by Benjamin Alire Saenz – I need to re-read Aristotle and Dante before I try this one. I liked that book, but definitely didn’t love it as much as everyone else seemed to. Of the two characters, I was a lot more interested in Dante, and I’m curious to see what the storyline for this book will even be. Personally, I found the ending of the first book didn’t quite feel right to me. My impression was that Aristotle had been pushed into things with Dante before he was quite ready for it, but I’ll also admit that I read the book very quickly so it’s highly likely that I missed out a bit on some of the character development. I recently picked up a copy from my library’s book sale, so I’ll see when I’ll be able to fit it in. I don’t see any date for this book yet though, so it looks like I have time.

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