Top Ten Historical/Futuristic Books We Love

(Images link to Goodreads, Titles link to Amazon)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish in which you make a list of ten to do with a certain topic.  This week we were supposed to come up with a past or future type topic (“Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/ Ten Historical Settings You’d Love To See or Top Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I’d Love To Read in Books — basically this week is all about the past or the future….spin it however you choose!”).  We couldn’t decide between the past and the future, so we decided to do a mix: “Historical/Futuristic Books We Love.”

Curly Carla’s Top Ten:

1. Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson.  This book is free!  This book has stuck in my head years after I read it.  Great look into historical New Zealand.
2. The Gentleman and the Lamplighter by Summer Devon.  This was a great historical M/M romance!
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.  This book was written over 100 years ago which makes this a historical novel IMO.  It’s FANTASTIC!  Hint: this book is free!  At least on my link it is.  I’m not really into literary books but this one is highly recommended.
4. Upon A Midnight Dream by Rachel Van Dyken.  Well, how about that, this book is also free.  And if you can’t tell, I have an affinity for Historical England.
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  I read this one a few times.  Also free.  Great book.  (I’m a fan of free, can you tell?)
6. Broken Skies by Theresa Kay.  I loved this futuristic dystopian world.
7. Love and Decay by Rachel Higginson  Who doesn’t love a strong heroine and zombies?
8. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.  Great book, I would make it mandatory for all teenagers if I could.
9. Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  Another book I would make mandatory if I could.
10. Spark of Light by Alex Tuttle.  This books has lots of action but isn’t for the faint of heart.

Lenoreo’s Top Ten:

I’m not much of a historical reading girl, but I still managed to find a couple of historical books that I really enjoyed (even if one is an erotica).  So I figured my list would be mostly filled with futuristic books, but even then I found it hard to find a lot.  I have a SLEW of dystopian books, but they are often started in present day (ish) and then something happens and things go from there.  So not like super futuristic if that makes sense.  But I still found a few here and there (and again, even another erotica).

1. Finding Grace by Sarah Pawley — Set in the 1920s, I have no idea why I picked this one up (other than it was on a freebies/cheapies newsletter I used to subscribe to, Pixel of Ink), but I’m definitely glad that I did!  It pleasantly surprised me.
2. Unlocked by Courtney Milan — Another book I found a long time ago through Pixel of Ink, and again not sure why I decided to pick this up, but really thoroughly enjoyed it despite its historical setting.
3. The Courage to Love by Samantha Kane — Discovered this during my M/M/F erotica stage (yes, it was a stage) and it thoroughly met my expectations.  😉  Think I read book 2 in the series as well…definitely a series I have on my wishlist.
4. Lamb by Christopher Moore — Read this before my introduction to the Kindle or Goodreads, so I don’t actually have a review for this one.  But I remember being absolutely blown away.  I also remember reading it in an airport and not being able to stop myself from bawling my eyes out in public.  Good times.  Maybe a strange choice for a historical book b/c of the way it’s written, but it’s set in the past so I count it.
5. The Academy by Emmaline Andrews — Reminded me of She’s the Man (or Twelfth Night) set in the future in space.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m a sucker for that base story.
6. Homo Action Love Story! by Ben Monopoli — M/M erotica, and labeled as a tall tale, I had a few issues with the story here and there (cheating), but the way the future was portrayed really amused the hell out of me.
7. Legacy Code by Autumn Kalquist — I managed to snag an advanced copy of this book before it initially came out, but I haven’t yet gotten back to reading the rest of the series and finding out what happens.  But I enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica-ness of humans abandoning Earth and living out in space and all the issues that that brings up.
8. The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn — Another book I was lucky enough to receive an ARC for, but haven’t yet read more in the series.  But this book blew me away, LOVED the future world building and the conflicts that arose in this one.
9. Bright Beyond series by Theresa Kay — LOVE this author, and would have also put her Broken Skies series on this list if I’d had the room.  But this novella serial series has had me hooked right from the prequel novella, Dark Expanse (which is currently free).  LOVED the world building, and LOVE the main characters.  If you’re looking for a great futuristic read, I highly recommend this.
10. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — What can I say, it’s a classic.  This is one of those books that I wasn’t sure if you classified it as futuristic since it sort of starts off in present day.  But whatevs, it’s my list, and I just had to include it.  I remember reading this during one of my summer breaks from University b/c my husband (then boyfriend) was reading it and loving it and I wanted to be in the know.  It was one of those books that was so zany and out there and unlike anything I’d ever read before.