Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Hey mersquad! Yes, it’s been a hot minute since I did a Top Ten Tuesday, and things have been wild lately. I still need to write up a post about the amazing reading retreat I attended over the weekend. I highly recommend it if you’ve never been on a reading retreat. See if you can either go on one that is hosted by a bookstore or other bookish organization, or you can even make a mini one with you and your reading friends! I can’t wait to share everything that I got to experience soon, but until then, here is my reel on my Bookstagram that I want to show y’all:

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A post shared by Leelynn 🌹 (@sometimesleelynnreads)

Now, on to the prompt. I don’t normally read novellas, but there are books that I feel like you can read in one sitting. I know I did, and I was so immersed in these stories and loved them so much, that I have to recommend them over and over and over. So here are my picks!

[1]- Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland – Oh my gosh this book was absolutely amazing. I actually want to make sure I buy a physical copy for my collection. I was not expecting that TWIST towards the end, and I was just sucked into this book from the moment I started it. Loved it so much.

[2]- Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen – See, for some reason, this book gets mixed reviews but I absolutely adored it. I got through it so quickly I felt like I blinked and it was over. It made me want to listen to the rest of the books immediately, and I can’t wait for the next book from Allen.

[3]- Black Girls Must Be Magic by Jayne Allen – And yep! I got through this one just as quickly. Almost quicker! I’m not normally one that would be invested in a character trying to have a baby, but I had followed Tabitha from her initial journey of battling infertility that I was really rooting for her to have a successful pregnancy. And I think that’s what we get with this one.

[4]- All I’ve Wanted All I’ve Needed by A. E. Valdez – I was actually really happy with this friends to lovers development! Ace and Sunshine are a couple that I plan on rooting for always.

[5]- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – I believe this is the only true novella that I have on my list, and I’ve listened to this maybe a couple times so far. I need to finish the rest of the series but I really liked this one. The worldbuilding was just excellent.

[6]- Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest – I remember reading this for a blog tour back in the day and I could NOT put it down! It was one of the most fun experiences that I had reading a book in a long time. It made me want to go back to New York City and actually explore it on a less stressful trip. Actually take my time and see it through the characters’ eyes.

[7]- A Delicious Dilemma by Sera Taino – This was also another blog tour read that I got to participate in and this one moved so quickly. I loved the premise, I loved the FMC, and the whole story was fun.

[8]- Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo – I want to say that this one moved way quicker for me than the other Goo book that I read, but I really loved both of them. I actually need to finish reading the rest of Goo’s books so that I can say I’ve read them all because they were all amazing.

[9]- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi – This book may have been short but damn it was heavy as hell. I don’t think I ever ended up writing my review for it because I was just too emotional from what I read. I do recommend it though. Just be aware of the content warnings.

[10]- A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo – OH MY GOSH! I remember having to read this one for a blog tour too and I could not put it down. I legit read this in one sitting. I stayed up all night reading it because I just could not get enough. I haven’t read it again recently but I have to go back to it soon. It was amazing, I loved this so much.

This was fun to go through because I went through all of my reading challenges on Goodreads to make sure I covered as many of my books as possible. I want to say the book I read the earliest on this list was actually A Constellation of Roses, which makes me think that I’m due for a reread for it. While a lot of the books I read are between 300 and 500 pages, I don’t always read books less than that, so it’s interesting to see which ones are average length for me, and yet I went through them in one sitting. Very, very interesting to see sometimes.

I’m not pushing the speed of my reading this year though. While my goal is to read 60 books this year, I’m not going to get upset if I don’t end up hitting it. I’m doing okay so far – I just finished my 12th book this year – if I need to take a break, I will.

How about your choices? Let’s talk about it!