Top 5 Saturday : Books That Cast A Spell On You

This Top 5 Saturday prompt is from Devouring Books, original post here.

10/12/19 — Books that Cast a Spell on You

I’m interpreting this one as spellbinding books. I occasionally look up phrases on Reddit that amount to “What book could you not put down?” So this topic can be very much in that area of interest. Really looking forward to all the blog posts centering this one. Will most likely end up adding even more books to the already out of control TBR pile. Perhaps making an “allegedly unputdownable” tbr shelf on Goodreads would help.

Anyway, without further ado-

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1.) You by Caroline Kepnes
Read this back in January. Gushed about it in a previous post but to reiterate, this is the book that helped cement my commitment to reading a lot in 2019. I was reading various books and liking this or enjoying that but You was powerfully gripping. I was up all night reading and felt like the book’s prose was digging into my brain. Something about second person perspective really works. I think it can be a reading weakness (weakness as in irresistible) for some. Also of note, I was trying to find certain passages of the book to show a friend.. and ended up sitting there and re-reading some large portion of the book as if in a trance. This occurred days after finishing it for the first time.

2.) The Paper Swan by Leylah Attar

Review Here. I’m somewhat picky and random about romance. I like many within the genre and have enjoyed most of what I read- but to have that shaking and crying deep immersion feeling and yelling at the pages? OK that’s all an exaggeration but this book is the closest I’ve come to feeling that sort of way toward romance. I was so into it. Also put me in the good kind of reading slump, the kind where the book’s so good that you DNF every similar-sounding book afterwards because they don’t compare.

3.) The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

Another romance, this time regency-based. This is book two in the Bridgerton series. I’d read The Duke and I (the prequel, also by Julia Quinn) and liked it a lot. But The Viscount Who Loved Me was a pull-an-all-nighter book. Gleeful to read and just a wonderfully entertaining example of enemies-to-lovers. I read perhaps 4-5 other Bridgerton books after it and went back to that placid “liked it” feeling. This reigns book is in a class of its own.

4.) Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Review Here. I think I mentioned this in my review but I’m an anti-fan for domestic drama. This book is 100% wall-to-wall domestic drama and yet I ate it right up and was enthralled by every second, go figure. It’s just a compulsive pageturner that conquered my usual preferences. Still can’t believe how long it was and how fast I zipped through it. Was totally into every second spent and every character. This is a thriller that isn’t even that thrilling- yet remains eminently readable. Liane Moriarty is an author to watch.

5.) The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Review Here. I read this nearly 400 page book in about a day and a half and definitely didn’t feel like I was rushing through. It just flowed. What’s funny is that I wouldn’t call Ware’s writing fast-paced. Of anything, her style lingers on details and there are plentiful descriptive moments or slow moments. The fact that it still flowed like water and I enjoyed every second without any dulling of momentum? That made this a noteworthy reading experience.

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Have you read any of the titles featured above? Or have them on your TBR? Also curious about books that have cast a spell on you, and look forward to reading your thoughts as always. Thanks for checking this post out. ~ Kitty