Welcome back to another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is actually: underrated books/hidden gems.

The prompt this week is pretty straightforward so I don’t really have much to say to introduce the topic. While it’d be easier to share underrated books that I’ve already read, I thought it’d be interesting to do an underrated books list for five on my TBR. I took to Goodreads to help me come up with a random list. These are books that I’ve heard good things about but I haven’t seen a lot of hype for (or at least not to my knowledge). I’m quite excited to read it Without further ado, let’s get to it!

(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)

The Paper Magician

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

Okay, I’m cheating a little because I have actually read this book before but it was so long ago that I don’t actually remember much (okay, any) of it. I do remember enjoying it though and wishing that the next book’s release would be sooner! I’m looking forward to re-reading it so I can finish the series.

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More happy than not

In his twisty, gritty, profoundly moving New York Times bestselling-debut,Adam Silvera brings to life a charged, dangerous near-future summer in the Bronx.

In the months after his father’s suicide, it’s been tough for sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness but with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, he’s slowly remembering what that might feel like. When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron starts hanging out with a new guy, Thomas. Aaron’s friends notices, and they’re not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can’t deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself.

Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is… 

I think I’ve read three of Silvera’s books but I’ve heard a lot of people say that this is their favourite of his books. Despite hearing lots of great things, I don’t think there’s much hype around it (as far as I know).

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Asking For It

It’s the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O’Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there’s a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma.

The next morning, she wakes on the front porch of her house. She can’t remember what happened, she doesn’t know how she got there. She doesn’t know why she’s in pain. But everyone else does.

Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But sometimes people don’t want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town’s heroes…

I feel as if all of Louise O’Neill’s books are underrated because I have heard sooo many good things about her books from some book friends but I don’t think they’re very hyped. Or am I missing it all? If you want to see great reviews for her books, Emer’s page is where it’s at 😉

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The knife of never letting go

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is. 

I don’t even remember when I first came across this series but I know it was before the adaptation was announced last year (or was it two years ago now)? I honestly haven’t heard much about Patrick Ness’ books, especially this series, but what I have heard has been largely positive!

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POison study

Choose: A quick death… or slow poison…

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren’t so clear..

This series has been on my TBR for a while and I have heard some good things about it but for how good I’ve heard it is, I feel like it’s quite underrated. It sounds so so good and I’m looking forward to giving it a try!

August Schedule:

• 01 August 2020: Enemies to Lovers
• 08 August 2020: Underrated Books/Hidden Gems
• 15 August 2020: Recommended Reads
• 22 August 2020: Young Adult Books
• 29 August 2020: Detective Book

What are some underrated books or hidden gems that you’ve read or are on your TBR? Would you choose any of these?