Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a Love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week we are sharing 10  Books on My Summer 2023 to-Read List

Synopsis: Sometimes love stories aren’t all fairytales and roses. Sometimes they’re dark, twisted, and weigh on your morals.

Being a doctor takes a lot of Sophia’s time and dedication. The last thing on her mind is a man. Her family only seem to care about the fact that she’s single. Always pushing her to date and find her Mr. Right, but she puts all her energy into her work instead.

Maxim aka—The Lion—Volkov has the reputation of being a ruthless hunter. He’s a killer, vindictive, cold, and lethal. He’s the youngest Pakhan in the history of the Bratva.

One night their lives collide when the security alarm at the clinic goes off, and Sophia sees him. A man who is into some dark dealings, demanding her help. Her life is flipped upside down when she learns there’s a whole world of underground violence happening right under her nose. She is completely oblivious.

Sophia uses her wits and sass to get out of the mess she’s in. But finding out she might have been born into a life of crime is a tough pill to swallow. Not only that, but the gruff, blond haired, blue eyed man who’s dictating her every move might just be her undoing. He caught her scent. He’ll never let her go.

Synopsis

Charlotte
I shouldn’t have witnessed the murders.
But I did.
And now I can’t escape the men who want nothing more than to make me pay for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kronos, Hypnos, and Ayres hold my life in their hands. And they just so happen to live by the motto of Leave No Witnesses.
They are psychos who love nothing more than death and destruction, but for some reason I’ve intrigued them enough to be kept as their pet.
They want my submission but I’ll do anything to get my freedom.

Synopsis: Today would go down in history, but not in the way I had hoped.
After becoming the first female e-gamer to lead her team to victory, I was sucked into a world that couldn’t be real.

Now I’m stuck in this strange jungle with nothing but my phone, hoping to find a way back home.
When I’m rescued from a dangerous creature by a plantman, I realize I’m not alone.

He teaches me how to survive as a native of this primitive world.
The more time we spend together, the more desire I have for my savior.

Now I find myself feeling like scattered petals in the wind.

Should I continue to search for a way back to my planet—my home?
Or should I ground myself with the one who makes my heart bloom?

Synopsis: Scoring on the ice? Piece of cake.
Scoring off it? Well, there’s a reason I’m still a virgin.

I’m not entirely clueless with women, though I do tend to put my foot in my mouth around them far too often.

Like I did with Scout, the donut maker I stupidly introduced myself to despite visiting her truck for years.

Maybe my teammates have a reason to call me the dumb one, but I’m determined to prove them all wrong—Scout included.

I want to be her friend. Want her to see the real me.

What I’m not expecting is to like her so much when we start spending time together…or want to kiss her so badly.

I’m the jock, and she’s the bookworm.
On paper, we make no sense together.

But maybe I have a scoring chance with her after all.

Synopsis: As a struggling single mom with a babysitter emergency, I’m relieved when Finn Cauley—Irish heartthrob, my boss, and my work-friend-who-I-keep-at-a-distance—takes me by the shoulders and says the four most beautiful words a stressed-out woman can ever hear:

I will fix this.

Finn proceeds to literally drag a free babysitter into our house, for which I’m super grateful, really.

I just have just one teeny, tiny concern.

Our new nanny is a *werewolf.*

Synopsis: They took her from me.

Now I’ll take everything from them.

I was never meant to fall in love with her.

We were children when they betrothed us—an obligation I didn’t want.

Before long, her amber eyes had pierced right through me,

transforming my indifference into gentle devotion.

Then, they stole her from me—banished me from my home and robbed her of my protection.

They damaged her in my absence, and the girl I cared for hardened into a woman I cannot resist.

I’ve bided my time, amassing my strength; now none who stand in my way will survive.

The time has come to take back my kingdom.

The time has come to make Thalia mine.

Synopsis: Dexter meets This Savage Song in this dark fantasy about a girl who sells magical body parts on the black market — until she’s betrayed.

Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet—her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they’ve been “acquired.” But when her mom brings home a live specimen, Nita decides she wants out — dissecting living people is a step too far.

But when she tries to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold on the black market in his place — because Nita herself is a supernatural being. Now Nita is on the other side of the bars, and there is no line she won’t cross to escape and make sure no one can ever capture her again.

Nita did a good deed, and it cost her everything. Now she’s going to do a lot of bad deeds to get it all back.

Synopsis: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞?

August 1955,

When Miss Darcy O’Sullivan, an orphaned English teacher from Boston, receives a letter that her biological father passed away, she is surprised to find herself included in his will.
There is only one condition.
She must travel to Fairydale to attend his funeral.
With the promise of a sizable inheritance, Darcy decides to journey to the small coastal town that holds the secrets of her birth. But the moment she steps foot into Fairydale, things start to go amiss.
Odd residents. Odd rumors. Odd…deaths.
Everything about Fairydale is odd.
Including brooding Caleb Hale—part of the infamous Hale family.
During the day, she falls deeper and deeper under his spell as he forces her to step out of her comfort zone and embrace her inner sensuality.
But at night it’s another man who haunts her dreams—Amon d’Artan, a nobleman who lived two centuries ago.
Amon is sweet and suave where Caleb is intense and dangerous, and Darcy feels more torn than ever. Soon, she finds herself embroiled in a web of lies, deceit, and inexplicable events that make her question her sanity.

When an ancient evil threatens the town and everything Darcy holds dear, she must make the ultimate choice.

But will she survive it?

Synopsis: How does a life spiral out of control in twenty-four hours?

One day, I’m living a simple solitary life as a hacker who blackmails creeps. The next, I’m running for my life from the Russian mafia. Now, I’m being hauled out of a Vegas casino by another group of intimidating men. They claim to be casino security, but their lies don’t fool me. I almost break free from them when their car door suddenly opens and ‘ America’s Most Wanted ’ steps out. One glance at his scarred, tatted body, and I know there’s no turning back.

These men insist they’re holding me captive for my protection, but their actions leave me questioning their true motives. They believe they’re saving me, when I might be the only one who can save them 

Synopsis: From bestselling indie author Laura Thalassa comes the newly revised and edited first book in her smash-hit dark fantasy romance between a siren and the “bargainer” she owes countless favors to. Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years Callie has been wearing a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she once received. Only death or repayment will fulfill her obligations. Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He’s a man who can get you anything you want … at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects. But for Callie, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now.  When Callie finds the Bargainer in her room, a grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, she knows things are about to change. At first it’s admitting a truth—a single bead’s worth—acknowledging the attraction between them. But the Bargainer is after more than just rekindling their connection. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one, and only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to her breast.  For the Bargainer to save his people, he’ll need the help of the siren he spurned long ago. If she can forgive him.

I don’t do a lot of TBRs anymore because I am such a mood reader. So I picked 10 books on my TBR that at this time sound like something I really want to read sometimes soon. I’m hoping that I actually get through quite a few of these this summer.
What do you have on your summer TBR recently? I would love to know!