Hello and a very warm welcome to damppebbles. It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post. I’ve decided to take part in That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday meme as often as I humanly can. My original plan was to join in every so often, but when I started, I realised I rather enjoyed coming up with a top ten list every week! So instead of saying ‘occasionally’, which was my original plan and I think implies once in a while, I’m now saying ‘as often as I can’, which I think is a little more realistic. I have taken a little bit of a break over the last month and a half due to my shoulder surgery but I’m well on the road to recovery there and keen to get stuck back in to making those bookish lists!

The meme was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish but has lived with Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl since January 2018. It was created to encompass a love of books, of lists and to bring readers together. If you would also like to take part then you’re very welcome: the more, the merrier. Just make sure you link back to Jana’s post every week. If you don’t have a blog then no problem, just add your list to the comments below.

Back at it and it’s a tough one this week! This week’s topic is: Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About. Now, I feel every single book SHOULD make you feel something. Whether that’s a warm, fluffy feeling (which reading the books I read, I don’t tend to get very often) or something….else. I read a lot of horror so I WANT to feel nervous, apprehensive or anxious for the characters. The book I’m reading at the time of writing this post is intentionally frustrating and I’m LOVING it (that book by the way is We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kleiwer – Eve and her partner have purchased a new house, one day a family turn up on her doorstep asking to look around as the Dad used to live there as a child. But once they’re in, they won’t leave. I realise it would end of the book far too quickly but OH MY GOSH, I want them to leave!! Who are these people? What the heck do they want?). So here’s my list. Ten books I had VERY strong emotions about,

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1. We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
This is my favourite book of all time and made me ugly cry! Snotty, snively, unattractive tears. It absolutely broke my heart in the best way possible and I will love this book forever.

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2. Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
I enjoyed this book but it made me feel strangely uncomfortable about the interest I and others take in true crime. Roach’s fascination with true crime gave me the ick a little.

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3. The Stranger in Her House by John Marrs
Ooooh! This book. It made me angry. It takes the crown for provoking the strongest, most visceral reaction in me, normally a peace-loving pacifist. I wanted to hurt Paul. I REALLY wanted to hurt Paul. Nuff said.

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4. The Escape by Ruth Kelly
This book takes the reader in a direction you don’t expect. It takes a very, very dark turn and I didn’t see it coming at all. Very shocking and done incredibly well.

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5. On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
This is another book which absolutely BROKE me. Haunting and completely devastating. Cue those ugly tears again.

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6. Black Lake Manor by Guy Morpuss
I have read a couple of speculative crime fiction books over the years and always enjoyed them. I was surprised by HOW much I enjoyed Black Lake Manor.

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7. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
This book is so well written and so funny. It’s not often I recommend a book to my husband as I he likes a lot of humour in his books. But I suggested he might like to read this one because it made me laugh out loud. He’s reading it at the moment and really enjoying it.

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8. More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
Books that completely broke me: part three. So emotional, so devastating, so completely and utterly perfect. So many of those pesky emotions.

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9. The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
If you’ve read this book then you’ll KNOW why it’s on my list. If you’re looking for a deeply unsettling, highly unnerving, uncomfortable book then this is it.

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10. Come With Me by Ronald Malfi
And in the final part of ‘Books which completely broke me’ we have Come With Me by Ronald Malfi. This book firmly cemented the author on my radar and I’ve tried to read everything he’s written since.

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I have one final book to mention, which I know takes me to eleven books but I felt physically sick at one point whilst reading it so I think it deserves an honorary spot on the list. The book is Scream Ride by D.I. Russell and at one point, I had to put the book down and walk away!

Have you read any of these books? Do you feel the same way as I do about them or did you have a different experience? Are you taking part in Top Ten Tuesday this week? Let me know in the comments.

So there we have it! If you fancy joining in next week then head on over to That Artsy Reader Girl’s blog to find out what the next topic is!