Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2026 TBR

Hello! Happy Spring! I actually did the Saint Patrick’s day list last week, but I was sick and didn’t end up posting it. So I guess it will be a bonus at some point. But today we’re talking about the books we want to read over the next season. I guess I should go over the books I had on my winter TBR first and see how I did:

• Eclipse – Stephanie Meyer: yes
• Carve the Mark—Veronica Roth: yes
• Realm Breaker—Victoria Aveyard: yes
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone—Laini Taylor: no
• Scythe—Neal Schusterman: no
• Opal—Jennifer L. Armentrout: yes
• Midnight in the Snow—Karen Swan: yes
• The Queen’s Assassin—Melissa de la Cruz: no
• Snowed in at the Cat Café—Rachel Rowlands: yes
• Into Thin Air—Jon Krakauer: yes

So… 7/10 isn’t too bad. The ones I didn’t read will be added to this season’s TBR. I have one book on pre-order that will be added, so that leaves 6 spots for the TBR lottery. Let’s see what books I’m reading!

1. Seek the Traitor’s Son—Veronica Roth. I haven’t quite finished Ms. Roth’s novellas that she released in the last couple of years (although I have them), but I’m really looking forward to this one. She’s said that it was for people that like both Divergent and Carve the Mark. Sign me up! I loved those books. Hello! I reread Carve the Mark late last year. This book was automatically added to the list.

This book is coming out May 12, so I won’t be able to read it for a couple of months. But I hope to start reading it at or close to release day!

2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone—Laini Taylor. Since I didn’t finish this in the winter, it rolled over to the spring. Fortunately, it’s not a seasonal kind of book. We do live in Colorado so even though it’s getting close to the 80s right now, next week we could have a foot and a half of snow. You never know what you’re going to get this time of year, but I prefer to read winter books in the winter.

3. Scythe—Neal Schusterman. Another book I didn’t read in the winter. Our library doesn’t have it in audiobook, so I’ll either need to get it through Audible or read a physical (or ebook) copy. This book is about a world that on the surface seems like a utopia—there’s no hunger, war, or disease. But they have to keep the population down somehow, which is where the scythes come in. The two protagonists have been chosen to become scythes, but neither want that job.

4. The Queen’s Assassin—Melissa de la Cruz. This will probably be the next physical book I read. I’m currently reading Cake Off at the Cat Café (the sequel to Snowed in at the Cat Café that I read in the winter) during my break at work—my library doesn’t have it, but it was only $2.99 on the Kindle, so I figured I’d buy it instead of waiting for the library to get around to getting it. Anyway, I have a signed copy of The Queen’s Assassin (I got to meet her right before everything shut down for Covid) and I just got it out to read.

5. The Libyan Diversion—Joel C. Rosenberg. I read the first four books of this series already. Joel C. Rosenberg writes political thrillers that I tend to like. This will make a good book to read via audiobook while I’m washing dishes at work. I guess it’s somewhat timely, with us going to war in the Middle East and all.

Oddly enough, I had The Beirut Protocol, the book before this, on my TBR lottery list, but then I discovered that I read it last year and evidently didn’t mark it off. So I’ll just read the next book in the series.

6. Lightbringer—Claire Legrand. It’s been several years since I read the first two books in the Empirium series, so hopefully it won’t be too confusing to get up to speed. I remember reading the earlier books in audiobook format, and there was a split timeline, which was kind of confusing in audiobook format. So I will definitely want to read this in paper format, not even Kindle. It would make it easier to keep the two timelines apart that way.

7. A Heart so Fierce and Broken—Brigid Kemmerer. It’s been a while since I read the first book in this series as well. For some reason, all my rolls came up fairly low, so I ended up choosing mostly older books this season. The first book was a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I’ve mostly forgotten what it was about, so hopefully it will be easy for me to get up to speed.

8. The Unhoneymooners—Christina Lauren. This book was number 5 on my TBR lottery list, the lowest roll of the season, which means it’s been on the TBR lottery for quite some time (there were 60 books on my list this time). This will probably be a good book to read later in the season when it gets closer to summer. The main character in this book gets a free vacation to Hawaii—with her sworn enemy. This book will probably be great in any format. My library does have a copy of the audiobook, so I’ll probably read this one at work. I don’t quite want to read it yet, but since there’s a wait for this book, I can put it on hold and suspend the hold when it gets closer to summer, then I’ll be able to read it when I’m ready for it.

9. Frostbite—Richelle Mead. Initially, I was planning on reading The Libyan Diversion next at work, but this book, the second in the Vampire Academy series, takes place over winter break. So I want to read this before it starts getting consistently warm around here, and fortunately, my library has a copy on audiobook that I don’t have to wait for, so this will be the next book I’ll read at work. I read the first book in this series five years ago (another one I’ll have to catch up on).

10. Iron Garland—Jeff Wheeler. This is the third in the Harbinger series. Again, this is a book where I read the first part of the series quite a while ago (that seems to be a theme in this season’s TBR). This is a story of a world where the wealthy people live in the lands that float above, and the poor live on the ground. Cettie was an orphan from below who is unofficially adopted by someone from above.

So these are some of the books I hope to read this spring. Some of these will be perfect for the early days of spring, while the weather is still normally cold (it’s supposed to get down to freezing this weekend, although it was warm today), and some of these books will be great during the later spring, when it’s starting to warm up (hello Hawaii!). Plus there’s a new release by Veronica Roth to look forward to.

What are you looking forward to reading?