Having been an avid reader since first grade, I started my own book blog around a year ago. On it, I review each and every book I read, from fantasies to contemporaries to dystopian. There’s a book for everybody, be it the Bible or Harry Potter. So without further ado, here are the top five books and series that I’m recommending if you’re looking for something to read.

1. “Throne of Glass” series by Sarah J. Maas: This series stars teenage assassin Celaena Sardothien, who is known as the best assassin in all of Adarlan. After being captured and sent to the salt mines in the far areas of the region, she is now being set free to compete in a tournament of thirteen other assassins to become the King’s Assassin. There’s nothing a reader could want more from this series. Because the series is high fantasy, the world does take some getting used to, but once you adjust, it’ll be a compelling ride. Currently, the series is set to have six books, three of which are published, with an additional prequel.

2. “The Bone Season” by Samantha Shannon: Despite the many times that this novel was recommended to me, I have just recently picked this up, and was pleasantly surprised. “The Bone Season” is set in 2059 London, controlled by a corporation called Scion. The main character is a young woman named Paige Mahoney, who is working in the criminal underworld as a dream walker, a rare type of clairvoyant. She soon learns that there is a seat of power even greater than Scion itself, and that it has a completely different plan in mind for Paige and her abilities. Much of our modern technology doesn’t exist in the novel, and surprisingly, clairvoyants and soothsayers are very much real. Shannon uses the traditional (separate) worlds of magic and criminal society and blends them together seamlessly for an epic read that is sure to be an international best-selling series.

3. “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell: “Fangirl,” a fun and contemporary read, is about Cath, who has just recently gone to college and has a difficult time adjusting. The Internet is her safe haven, where she writes fanfiction about Simon Snow, a fictional parody of the renowned Harry Potter series. Her work gets thousands of hits daily, and her life revolves around her writing. Fangirl is a heartwarming tale of Cath and her adventures in college — dealing with her free-spirited twin,Wren, learning how to deal with illiterate college boys, and most of all, stepping outside her comfort zone and becoming more in touch with the real world.

4. “Uglies” series by Scott Westerfeld: In the not-so-wonderful world of Uglies, children are taught that everyone is born Ugly, and when they turn 16, they undergo a seemingly magical operation that completely reconstructs their face, making them a Pretty. New Pretties live in New Pretty Town, an area where incoming Pretties party and have fun for months on end. Tally Youngblood only has three months before she turns Pretty, and she can’t wait — until she befriends a resistant Ugly named Shay and starts to question the procedure that she has wanted for so long. This series was one of the pioneers of the dystopian genre, way back before “The Hunger Games” was even published, and before “Divergent” had even been written.

5. “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern: “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night.” This is an enigmatic story of a fierce competition between two magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained all their lives for this express purpose. The circus is their battleground, and they duel it out by out-doing one another with mystical tents of indescribable wonder. In a familiar twist, the two become star crossed lovers, oblivious to the fact that only one of them can survive this awe-inspiring competition. Though slow paced, this book does not and cannot be rushed —like a work of art that moves ever so slowly that it takes an eternity before one notices that it’s changed.

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