Top Ten Tuesday {25}

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish. They'd love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they will post a new top ten list that one of our bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Ten Books That I Read That Were Outside Of My Comfort Zone (whether you liked them or not):

1. Raw Blue - I've never been a fan of contemps, so this one was for sure out of my comfort zone when I signed up to participate in a tour. I was sold about ten pages in. The writing is phenomenal, the story is rich and real and, frankly, it's an all-time favourite of mine.

2. Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar - I hate vampires. If you're an avid reader of my blog, you'll know it's mainly because I want my vampires to be dark and horrible, not sparkly and frou-frou. Anyhoo, this blends steampunk, action, war and some serious hunky viciousness. It's epic.

3. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - This, too, was one of those contemps that my followers raved about consistently. So, I picked it up, I read it, and I loved it. It was so fun and sweet!

4. Dark Song - I love me some dark and twisty, but dark and twisty contemps have to be done just right to make me truly cringe. This story is brutal, and it's graphic and it is seriously wrong. That's why it pushed the envelope and, in a weird way, I loved it.

5. Boyfriends with Girlfriends - I'll be honest and say I haven't delved too deeply into the realm of LGBTQ fiction, but this one was one of my first attempts. It had a great premise and a solid plot, but I just wasn't completely sold - not the content that did that though...the writing style.

6. I Heart You, You Haunt Me - Verse novels are tricky for me. There's a subtext in the lack of excessive descriptiveness that needs to speak volumes, and this one works flawlessly. I adored how poetic it was.

7. The Long Weekend - I really don't read too much horror, or too many psychological thrillers, but when I was approached to read it, I couldn't help but be sold. The content is horrifying in and of itself. The author also is tremendously talented and paints a terrifying picture without going overboard. It's stunning.

8. Generation Dead - I love zombies in films and a lot of pop culture, but this was one of my first attempts at zombies in YA lit. Unfortunately, it fell horribly flat for me. I could barely get through it.

9. Life As We Knew It - This was one of my first dystopians (perhaps my first, actually), and I was sold on the cover. Colour me petty. It was bleak and dismal, for sure, but there was a trickle of hope that bled through the pages and sold me on the genre.

10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - About five months after it came out, my little sister was reading this, and I teased her mercilessly. I believe I said something about a "hairy potter." Fastforward ten-odd years, and see how obsessed I am now? It convinced me there's more to YA fiction than I might have thought, and it's my favourite series of all time.