My 5 Star Predictions

Hey everyone! I apologize for no post on Friday; time got away from me by the time it got really late and being tired. But I hope everyone is doing well and prepared for Thanksgiving here in the US. If you don’t live in the US, I still hope your days have been great as the holidays approach. For today, I wanted to do a little thing that’s been going around a little bit: predicting your next 5 star books. I’m a critical reader and don’t always love everything. But after seeing Sam from Thoughts on Tomes do her predictions, I thought it would be fun to do it as well. But first, here’s a couple rules I put in place for mine:

• No sequels
• No 2018 releases
• No short story collections

I decided to put these rules in place so I could stretch my thinking a little bit, since my Goodreads TBR has about 445 books right now 0.0 I’ll also link two Booktubers below that have done this so you can see how they did theirs. Let’s jump in! (Not in any order)

1. Scythe #1 by Neal Shusterman

I had never heard of this author before starting to work at my local library and before I saw Connor O’Brien’s Booktube channel. He’s a huge fan of this author, so I’ve been intrigued by this book ever since it came out. Why do I think it’ll be 5 stars? There’s a couple reasons why. First of all, this concept is extremely different from what’s popular right now in YA. This isn’t a love triangle, fluffy contemporary or run of the mill fantasy books. This is set in a world where everything is awesome (no disease, no war, etc.) but people are chosen as “Scythes” to kill people in order to control the population? Also, from Connor’s review, the two MC’s you follow in this book are actually nice people with good moral intentions. I personally like characters that are more merciful and not just a one sided jerk. So due to the concept, good characters, never having read this author and the fact that it was  Printz Honor Book, I think this will be awesome.

2. Even the Darkest Stars #1 by Heather Fawcett

I saw this book on Edelweiss a little bit before it came out. When I found it was a winter fantasy inspired by Mount Everest, I was immediately drawn in. Plus, seeing the author on Twitter talk about her writing process made it even more fascinating. So on release day, I did a rare thing and bought this book at full price. I still have to get to it though. Why do I think it’ll be 5 stars? I think it will be because it’s a coming of age story set in a Mount Everest, mountain like kingdom. I have never read a story like this and many reviews praise the world building, which is a requirement for me to love a fantasy. Plus, it’s also marketed for fans of the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, which is a special series to  me. So if the journey aspect is similar to that series, I think it’ll be on favorites shelf.

3. The Last Namsara #1 by Kristen Ciccarelli

The second 2017 debut novel on this list deals with dragons! I never thought I would be a dragon fantasy reader, but my tastes are changing so they sound more appealing. This tells the story of a girl who becomes a dragon slayer and that’s all I need to know. Why do I think it’ll be a favorite? To be honest, I think I’ll love it because I have barely seen anyone talking about this book. I’m a person where if I know a lot of the good and bad reviews before starting a book, my opinions are hard to form because I have so  many biased thoughts already. But if I go into a book with a pretty blank slate, I have a better time with it. So not only that, I also think I love it due to it being my first major dragon book. The few reviews I looked at praise the kinds of dragons in here, so it’ll be nice to look forward to many varieties 🙂

4. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

This 2013 Newberry Award winner has had me itching to read it ever since I heard about it at work. It’s based on the true story of a gorilla who lived inside a mall for years and the baby elephant it bonds with. I’m a huge animal person, so any animal books I have read have warmed my heart and I’ve been wanting more books ever since. Why 5 stars? Basically, it’s a touching animal book aimed at younger kids and it’s from the gorilla’s perspective. It should be an adorable favorite 🙂

5. Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

I think I believe the hype about this popular historical fiction. It’s set in Missouri 1849 and follows two girls, a Chinese and African-American, who are on the run towards California during the Gold Rush. Why 5 stars? I think I’ll love it because it reminds me of Walk on Earth a Stranger and the great, survival and friendship aspects that I love in Cat Winters’s books (kinda similar). I’ve been liking reading more about different time periods in American history. Plus, almost everyone says it’s easy to fly through and enjoy. Since my reading moods are really weird right now, I’m hoping this book be a favorite and help me not have so many SQUIRREL moments.

6. The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

This book centers around Lucy, who with her mother’s wish, goes to work at a camp for troubled youth instead of her family’s Bible camp. Lucy starts struggling with her faith, since her mother’s cancer has returned a second time. Why 5 stars? This story feels personal to me, since I had a lady who was my second mom die of cancer when I was young and seeing her kids struggle with that. Also, I’m glad to see a MC who is religious in YA. With me being religious, I want to see different religions portrayed in YA not only to learn more, but also to know that teens who are religious don’t feel left out as well. This book also has amazing reviews from trusted Booktubers that I respect, so I think the strong story and great writing could mark it a favorite.

There you have it! This was not easy to do; we all know that we want to enjoy the books we read. But when you try to predict your favorite, it’s kinda weird because you could be wrong or right. I’m going off of my gut instincts for all these books, as well as staying away from a ton of reviews. I plan to read these books within the next 6 months; if I read one of these, I’ll label that it’s a 5 star prediction results type thing in the review. Down below here are two Booktubers that have done this so you can see how they did it:

What books do you think would be 5 stars for you? Are any of these choices 5 stars for you? This isn’t a tag or anything, but it would be fun to see what people would think their favorites would be 🙂