Hi friends,

Top 5 Tuesday is back and as I’ve already done two long “most awaited books of 2020”, when Shanah @bionicbookworm sent today’s topic as the “Top 5 books I need to read in 2020” I feared it would feel repetitive to go that road!

So you know me, I just thought of a way to twist it and give it a nice spin to that topic.

And I realized that some of the books that I planned to read in 2020 (or had already read this year) were because YOU pushed me to read it!

YOU as in bloggers and bookstagrammers.

Because when I see someone gushing over a book, followed by a second and a third and ….well I am all thinking that that book must be great! That’s option number one in peer pressure: the masses!

Option number two in peer pressure: the friend! Who repeatedly and forcefully tells you to “JUST READ THAT DAMN BOOK!” Rings a bell? Well yes, that’s me! Often! 😆 

Peer pressure number 3: the buddy read or the book club. Kinda the same. Because when you were “undecided but tempted but I don’t know when I’ll have the time to read that book”, a buddy read can be the last kick in the behind that you need to “JUST DO IT” because “YES WE CAN”.

Last kind of peer pressure: the deal! “I’ll read your book if you read mine!” Fair right?

And don’t start me on the “cover power” or “cover lust” also known as “cover junkie addiction”. Right!

So let’s get the ball rolling today and see which book I plan to read in 2020 or have already read because of peer pressure!

1) The Masses made me want to read ….

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Seriously, last year every romance reader was talking about that book!

Synopsis

Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

The last straw to decide me was my “very picky” friend Corina @booktwinsreviews who wrote that review: click HERE.

This one has been one-clicked today as …I was intrigued! This is a romance with over 700 pages!!!! That’s quite unusual in that genre and I kept seeing friends on Instagram just gushing and oohing and aahing about it.

So of course I had to buy Devious Lies by Parker S Huntington.

It will be a total discovery for me as I had never heard of that author before!

Synopsis

From USA Today bestselling author Parker S. Huntington comes an enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romance full of revenge and a dash of fate.

“She could enjoy her pretty, perfect world a little longer. Soon enough, everything she owned would be mine.”

I had a plan to escape the friend zone.
Step one: sneak into Reed’s room.
Step two: sleep with him.

But when the lights turned on, it wasn’t familiar blue eyes I saw.
These were dark, angry, and full of demons.
And they belonged to Reed’s much older brother.

Four years later, Nash Prescott is no longer the help’s angry son.
I’m no longer the town’s prized princess.

At twenty-two, I’m broke, in need of a job.
At thirty-two, he’s a billionaire, in need of revenge.

Who cares if my family ruined his?
Who cares if he looks at me with pure loathing?
Who cares if every task he assigns me is designed to torture?

I need the money.
Simple as that.

I’ll suffer his cruelty in silence, knowing there’s one thing he wants more than revenge…
Me.

Note: This is a 145,000-word standalone in the Cruel Crown world. Welcome to Eastridge. Enter if you dare

2) The friend who sneakily made me want to

Alexandra was sweet talking me for months in 2019 about reading The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty. Well, I relented and now I am hooked! After reading The Kingdom of Copper I now plan to read the sequel:  The Empire of Gold!

Synopsis

“No series since George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has quite captured both palace intrigue and the way that tribal infighting and war hurt the vulnerable the most.” —Paste Magazine

The final chapter in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war.

Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.

Another book that I will read because of Shanah this time is Truel1f3 by Jay Kristoff

She was raving so much about Jay Kristoff this and Jay Kristoff that and …that I just had to read Lifel1k3 . I so loved it that I read Dev1at3 and now can’t wait for Truel1f3

Synopsis

From the bestselling co-author of the Illuminae Files comes the thrilling finale in the LIFEL1K3 trilogy–hailed by Marie Lu as “a breathless, action-packed exploration of what humanity really means.”

Best friends have become enemies. Lovers have become strangers. And deciding whose side you’re on could be the difference between life and death. For Eve and Lemon, discovering the truth about themselves–and each other–was too much for their friendship to take. But with the country on the brink of a new world war–this time between the BioMaas swarm at CityHive and Daedalus’s army at Megopolis, loyalties will be pushed to the brink, unlikely alliances will form and with them, betrayals. But the threat doesn’t stop there, because the lifelikes are determined to access the program that will set every robot free, a task requiring both Eve and Ana, the girl she was created to replace. In the end, violent clashes and heartbreaking choices reveal the true heroes . . . and they may not be who you think they are.

3) The buddy read … The more the merrier

When Jen from @starcrossedbookblog asked me if I was interested in buddy reading Red Winter by Annette Marie with her and Raven  @dreamyaddiction, I agreed and soon, we all had a blast! So much fun that we buddy read the whole trilogy in a few weeks!

Now I want to read The Guild Codex series beginning with Three Mages and a Margarita (already the title is promising 😀  ) .

Synopsis

Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender gig.

It went downhill the moment they asked me to do a trial shift instead of an interview—to see if I’d mesh with their “special” clientele. I think that part went great. Their customers were complete dickheads, and I was an ***hole right back. That’s the definition of fitting in, right?

I expected to get thrown out on my ***. Instead, they… offered me the job?

It turns out this place isn’t a bar. It’s a guild. And the three cocky guys I drenched with a margarita during my trial? Yeah, they were mages. Either I’m exactly the kind of takes-no-*** bartender this guild needs, or there’s a good reason no one else wants to work here.

So what’s a broke girl to do? Take the job, of course—with a pay raise.

The same can be said for when I buddy read The Simple Wild by KA Tucker with Sarah and Tracey!

Now I want to read Wild at Heart by KA Tucker

Synopsis

From the internationally best-selling author of The Simple Wild comes the continuation of a woman’s journey to Alaska and a life she never imagined for herself.

Calla Fletcher returns to Toronto a different person, struggling to find direction and still very much in love with the rugged bush pilot she left behind. When Jonah arrives on her doorstep with a proposition she can’t dismiss, she takes the leap and rushes back to Alaska to begin their exciting future together.

But Calla soon learns that even the best intentions can lead to broken promises, and that compromise comes with a hefty price—a log cabin in interior rural Alaska that feels as isolating as the western tundra.

With Jonah gone more than he’s home, one neighbor who insists on transforming her into a true Alaskan, and another who seems more likely to shoot her than come to her aid, Calla grapples with forging her own path. In a world with roaming wildlife that has her constantly watching over her shoulder and harsh conditions that stretch far beyond the cold, dark, winter months, just stepping outside her front door can be daunting.

This is not the future Calla had in mind, leaving her to fear that perhaps she is doomed to follow in her mother’s fleeing footsteps after all.

4) The deal

And this year I already read a book that I would never have read because it broached addiction to drug and …that’s not my jam! BUT Daisy @thedgbookblog made a hard bargain: she would read Six of Crows if I read Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid!

I published the review last week and you all know that listening to that audiobook was just fantastic!

Synopsis

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six: The band’s album Aurora came to define the rock ‘n’ roll era of the late seventies, and an entire generation of girls wanted to grow up to be Daisy. But no one knows the reason behind the group’s split on the night of their final concert at Chicago Stadium on July 12, 1979 . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ‘n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Now do tell me, what are the top books that you need to read in 2020, peer pressure or not?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie