Fans pick 100 books like Liberty's Daughter

I’m a big fan of genre-bending and trope manipulation, and I was completely blown away by this rare creation of a book. It’s a carefully crafted plot of time manipulation, blending science fiction, fantasy, espionage, and romance, told through letters between two rival agents in a style more akin to a war drama.

Those contrasting styles notably elevated the story for me, accenting the cybernetic future by experiencing the naturalistic one and enhancing the love story through the suspense of corporate espionage.

At no point did I feel as if either empire was the “good” or “bad” one, only that I wanted both of the protagonists to succeed, and that made my first read of this book nothing short of a page-turner.

This is Stephen's most straightforward, science-fictiony novel. (Assuming “psionic” powers to be science-fiction—let's not get into why that's so, yet muttering an incantation and waving a wand makes it fantasy. Just 'tis.)

Here, Stephen's at his most gripping, page-turning best. He even has the chutzpah to start with the climax of the novel, fergodsakes! Then, he winds back to how it all began and what led to that. I read it more than 30 years ago, I still remember thinking "Wow, he's really going to do that?! OMG, he's pulling it off!”

Plus, I frikkin’ loved the coda! (Which properly appears at the very end.)

This is not your parents’ steampunk! It’s an oh-so-different take on the genre with an edgy, improbable, and yet somehow entirely believable motley band of revolutionaries. Delightfully,  it was born in a wisecrack! Maurice complained online about the lily-whiteness typical of steampunk mythology (tru dat!) and quipped that he might well have to write “Pimp my Airship” in retaliation. More than one editor told him that if he wrote it, they’d buy it. Well, what’s an author to do? So, he did. 

And yes, there ARE airships, and yes, they ARE tricked out.

Why I loved this book is less important than how much I loved this book. I savored it as I devoured it until I finally reached the conclusion, and the mystery that the protagonist, a cybernetically-embedded reporter, had been chasing was laid to rest. 

Then I did something I’d never done before… nor done since. I immediately turned back to Page 1 and read the book again, now that I could appreciate the full import of all that had transpired in its pages—the complexity of Cameron’s imagined world, the implications of the terrifying technology that underlay it, the intricacies of the reporter’s investigations.

If there’s higher praise than that, I can’t imagine what it would be.

I rarely read YA these days. But the description of a teenage girl searching for her best friend who has gone missing instantly grabbed me. And once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. I had to know what happened to Monday. 

I honestly don’t know if I could have gone through everything Claudia, the main character, did in her search for Monday, which made her such an appealing and sympathetic character. And I felt her anger, frustration, and confusion when no one seemed to care or even notice that Monday was gone. 

This book was an emotional sucker punch that stayed with me long after I was done with it and accurately portrays the reality of how unsafe the world can be for young black girls.

I loved this book for its exploration of shock, grief, and denial on the part of two adult daughters whose mother inexplicably ends her own life by drowning in the sea. At odds for many years, the two very different women slowly mend their relationship as they discover a long-buried secret their mother had been keeping.

I especially related to the healing of their relationship as it was in adulthood that I drew much closer to my own sisters. As children, they associated my arrival with the loss of their mother, which did not make for an easy relationship.

A story that I did not know about, and it shocked me to find out it is based on reality. It is the story of Ozjorks, a Russian town where, in 1957, during a nuclear explosion, enormous amounts of radiation ended up in the air.

It was shocking to read how the inhabitants became like lab rats. And how a scientist arrives to work on research there and has not been told of the risks. I have great respect for how the writer must have researched the story and then mixed it with fantasy to make a book that kept me entranced from beginning to end.  

This book is the first in the Verity Kent series set just after World War I in England.

Verity is a war widow and had worked for the Secret Service during the war. After declining an invitation to attend a party on a secluded island, she changes her mind when she receives a letter intimating that her husband had been a traitor. The partygoers are mostly former soldiers who had served under her husband.

This book has it all—a secluded island, many secrets, a storm, and a huge surprise. And I mean huge. Verity doesn’t know who she can trust but somehow manages to figure it all out. I’m way behind on reading this series but I mean to catch up soon!

This book is so atmospheric; when I read it, I could taste the Scottish sea air and smell the black peat of the island.

It has the pace of a thriller but does not compromise on rich language and complex characters. Like Johnstone’s first book, Mirrorland, the twists are absolutely brilliant and unexpected; I couldn’t put this one down!

This book gives me everything I want in a cozy mystery—Christmas, a snowy Montana village, killer chocolates, a mystery bookstore, and a protagonist with an identical twin sister! What more could you want?

I love the dynamics between twin sisters Hanna and Alex as they juggle duties in Murder and Mayhem, the book and chocolate shop they own together. Romeril delivers humor and the quirkiness of small-town life like a pro. I loved all the twists and turns that kept me guessing to the sweet end!