[Top Ten Tuesday] Rainy Day Reads

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish but is currently being run by That Artsy Reader Girl. A prompt is given each week, and I hope to do it every week so I always have something going up on Tuesdays. This week I am talking about ten of my favorite rainy day reads! Personally, I think reading while it's raining is the perfect way to read so all books are rainy day reads. However, there are ones in particular  I think are the best to read when it's raining outside and these are ten of the ones I could think of!

Let's jump right into it!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 

J.K. Rowling

Personally, I think that this is the best kind of rainy day read. I love reading atmospheric books when it's raining outside and Harry Potter is one of the best atmospheric books. I suspect this will be on a lot of lists this week, so it's not super original. However, not mentioning it seemed wrong because of how perfect it is. 

Synopsis

Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined. 

The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss

At the beginning of this book the story is set up where our main character is telling his life story in three days at a pub. I read this book for the first time in the middle of the summer on a grey rainy day and it was perfect. It made the reading experience so much better. 

Synopsis

Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

Coraline

Neil Gaiman 

Coraline the book & movie are perfect rainy day entertainment. Between the rainy scene where Coraline wants to go outside to just the overall creepy feel I think it works perfectly. This book is a favorite of mine in general, one I try to read once a year so if you haven't read this book I highly recommend it! But especially on a rainy day.

Synopsis

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning author Neil Gaiman will delight readers with his first novel for all ages.

A Darker Shade Of Magic

V.E. Schwab 

Let's be honest, all of Schwab's books are perfect rainy day reads. Her writing is so perfect for grabbing a big blanket, a warm beverage, and just falling into her stories on a rainy day. I could easily list all of the books I've read by her, but I will limit myself to only two because I have control. 😂

Synopsis

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

 City of Ghosts

Victoria Schwab

This is Schwab's first middle grade book, and I think it's easily comparable to Coraline. It's got a similar vibe to it and I think any young reader who enjoyed one will enjoy the other. All of Schwab's stories have this underlying darkness, some heavier than others depending on genre, but I think that works perfectly with rainy days. 

Synopsis
Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspecters, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.

When The Inspecters head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.

Heartless

Marissa Meyer

This one is actually a little weird for me to say because it's a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and with Alice's story I prefer reading her story on a more sunny day. When I think of Alice I think of blue skies, green grass, flowers, etc. But with Heartless we are seeing the Queen of Heart's story expanded before Alice's story and that is a bit darker so it seems like a good rainy day read.

Synopsis

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author dazzles us with a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Holly Black

Holly Black is an author with a huge fanbase, but I haven't read a lot of her books. However, this is a book I don't think gets the hype it deserves because it's really good!! I read this book while listening along to the audiobook and it genuinely spooked me. There's some spooky music that appears in more intense moments and the whole story kind of pulls you right in. I do want to read Cruel Prince eventually, but if you haven't read this book I recommend it. 

Synopsis

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

Every Heart A Doorway

Seanan McGuire 

This is probably the only short book on this list because I think rainy days call for medium to big sized books to get comfy with. However, I think that with this series it's worth just sitting down and binge reading it if you can. It's filled with dark themes, found family, and a lot of different types of magical worlds that make you want to explore them all. It's such a magical series in general. 

Synopsis

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein 

Kiersten White

This is a re-telling of Frankenstein and I think it's a perfect rainy day read. I think Frankenstein in general reminds me of rainy/stormy nights so it seemed like a really good fit! When I think of this story I think of wet forests and lightning/thunder. I think the atmosphere was honestly my favorite part about this story so if you're in the mood for a Frankenstein retelling you may want to pick this one up!

Synopsis

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

Undead Girl Gang 

Lily Anderson

This was one of my favorite books of 2018 because of it's character and themes. It is such a fun story that reminds me of cemeteries, tattered witchcraft books, crystals, rainy days, etc. This is one I highly recommend no matter when you read it but if you're in the mood for a witchcraft story with a fat Latinx main character who makes it her mission to bring her best friend back from the dead, this is the one for you. 

Synopsis

Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.

Which books do you recommend reading during a rainy day? 

Thanks for reading!