Presenting my top ten most vivid worlds & settings! Brought to you by The Broke & The Bookish. To mix things up a bit, this week we’re going with a countdown.

10. Anna & The French Kiss- Anna was such a great character to see Paris through, she really brought the city alive. I was lucky enough to go to this fantastic city a couple years ago and thought that Anna really captured her essence and added a dash of teenage wonder. Now I just have to find an excuse to go back.

9. The Lost Crown- Ahhh, Russia. The Lost Crown tells the story of the last days of the Romonov family from the perspectives of all four daughters. Each girl manages to bring Russia and the revolution alive in her own way. From a beautiful palace to a barren prison home, each setting is brought to life.

8. Blood Red Road- While I didn’t love this book, the world it created was more in depth than most that you’ll find in modern books. You could practically feel the dust on your skin as you were reading and could hear each character talk in their strange accents.

7. The Empyrean- Okay, so maybe I just reviewed Spark the other day but this world sticks in my head. This world being a spaceship. There is an entire civilization on this ship, with it’s own rules, roles and general spaceshippy things. You feel like the ship really is the character’s home and that brings it alive.

6. The Tri-Cities- Mercy Thompson lives in our world but with a twist. All manner of paranormal creatures are sharing this world with us. What really brings it to life is seeing the evolution of humans and supernaturals as secrets are revealed and politics start to play a part. Everything is clearly laid out from the first book (who can do what, what each characters limitations are) which makes it feel like ‘hmm, maybe my neighbor could be fae’, lots of fun!

5. Middle Earth- It’s hard to have a list of settings and not to include Middle Earth somewhere. Tolkien was the first to truly build a world from the bottom up and include everything from geography to new languages. Granted, the world may have been a little too bogged down in details to let readers stretch their imaginations but this world provided a lot of inspiration for countless future writers.

4. The Universe (or Douglas Adam’s take on it)- Ridiculousness in all its forms comes to life in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the rest of Douglas Adam’s books. There is a great big universe out there so who’s to say anything is impossible.

3. Wonderland- One of my all time favorites! Lewis Carroll was among the first to really give the ridiculous a home. While we only get to see a small portion of Wonderland, there is no question that there is so much more out there and that anything goes.

2. Harry Potter- I’m sure this will be on everybody’s list but for a very good reason. J.K. Rowling created such a whimsical and well thought out world that millions and millions spent a lot of time hoping that maybe their letter from Hogwarts just got lost in the mail. It’s not difficult to imagine that there is a castle tucked away somewhere in England which makes this world really come alive.

1. The Black Jewels Trilogy- For me the number one spot belongs to my all time favorite series. The three dimensions that make up the world of The Black Jewels trilogy are just so dark, beautiful and perfectly crafted that I find myself going back again and again.