The Best Books I Read in 2018

Hello readers!

This is the second year that I get to write a Best Books of the Year post, and I’m super excited! I love talking about books (wow, really?) and I got to read so much this year, so I have lots of new loves and lots of recommendations. This has been a brilliant year reading-wise and I am glad to share with you my favorites. I have read almost 200 books (no kidding) and while I will never repeat this feat again, it gave me the opportunity to read lots of different genres! What were your favorites this year? Tell me in the comments, leave the link to your own blog posts, tweets I want to know what you’ve read and loved! 🙂

New Favorite Authors

(only counts if I’ve read more than one book by the author)

Alyssa Cole certainly made a huge difference on how I see the romance genre. Her novels are so brilliant, so addictive and emotional without being cheesy. Gosh, I love them. I need all her books in my life. A Duke by Default is my favorite so far!

I had not read Patrick Ness until this year, but wow, I’m in love with how emotional his books are. I have lots more of his books on my TBR. I was so heartbroken after A Monster Calls, although it was such a short read. Just wow.

But I do think the medal goes to… Elise Kova. I devoured her Alchemists of Loom series and I am so excited to get to her other series. I think Air Awakens is a bit more popular in the YA bookish community, and I look forward to reading it. Although I don’t see how it could be better than this steampunk fantasy world with girls with big guns and deadly half-naked hot guys who are secretly soft in the inside. Just sayin’.

Best Contemporary Fiction

Review: The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Dystopia, Fantasy

Goodreads / Amazon

The Book of M is one of the most talked about books of this year! And still, I was not prepared for it – it was so much more than I expected! It’s a wonderful fantasy world with well-rounded, interesting characters and a thoughtful work about memories and love. Damn, this was such a good book.

The story begins with one boy in India finding out one day that he’s lost his shadow. At first this is seen with much interest from the public, until it becomes apparent that the boy is starting to forget things: at first a few words, and within a few days, his family. When more and more people throughout the world start losing their shadows, the epidemic of memory loss and despair drives the world into apocalypse.

Review: Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Contemporary fiction

Goodreads / Amazon

I had absolutely no idea what this book was about, but once I saw it in the bookstore, I knew I had to have it. I am a fan of Liane Moriarty’s books and this one was a pleasant surprise!

Normally, I’m not too keen of books with several POVs, several main characters and several ARCs, but sometimes it just works, and this is one of those times. This flew by and I read it in two sittings!

Nine Perfect Strangers tells the story of nine people who book ten days at a health resort that promises to change their lives. Some are there for stress relief, others for weight loss, and others aren’t so forthcoming with their reasons (even for themselves). But there is more to this health resort than any of them expected, and something is not quite right with the owner. She couldn’t possibly be dangerous… could she?

Best Books to Come Out in 2018

Hello readers!

I have a post of best books I read this year coming out, but I thought it would also be interesting to list which of the books that were published this year, regardless of when I read them, were the best ones in my opinion. Since I read a lot of eARCs, I thought this would be a list a bit different from the other one and still interesting to read!

Not necessarily all books I put here will be on my “Best Of” post. For example, for the Wintersong duology, I loved both books, but I don’t want to be repetitive, so I added only the first book to that post. I also created this post separately in order to have a master list of books published this year which I liked very much, so I will keep updating this as I read more.

Christmas and Birthday 2018 Book Haul

Hello book lovers!

December 21st was my birthday! That, together with Christmas and my own jolly spirit of splurging on books for myself, resulted in a really nice book haul for this month! Without further ado, here is what I received and will hopefully get to soon!

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A Book-to-Table Classic by Martha Stewart

Bibliophile, an Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

The Truth Pixie, by Matt Haig

Dragonshadow, by Elle Katharine White

The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey

An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine

There There, by Tommy Orange

Milkman, by Anna Burns

The Book of M, by Peng Shepard

Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

Firefly: Big Damn Hero, by Nancy Holder

Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez

A Moveable Feast, by Ernst Hemingway

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

I am very excited to read each one of these, they are all so very beautiful and I’m really thankful to my family (and me hehe) for getting all those gorgeous books ❤ Also the P&P one has actual RECIPES and I’m really looking forward to trying them out!

Mini-Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight, by Sarah J. Maas

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Goodreads / Amazon

In a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision, I bought all three Court books last year and never looked back. I was addicted to those books and flew through the steamy fantasy, so dark and new to me – neither “boring” adult fantasies nor young adult. This was new and different. So when I saw that A Court of Frost and Starlight was published, I immediately went and bought it! Then I saw lots of review saying it was basically a Christmas short story, and I was like, okay! I’ll read this in December to get the best atmosphere to read this book (it came out in May). So I waited and waited.

But the truth is that I saw no plot at all in this book, and a lot of it was just shopping for gifts and opening gifts. Some of the open points from the last ACOTAR book were briefly touched upon and then not really progressed or finished at all. More like a reminder – hey, remember this was going on? – and felt a bit pointless. Also, seeing the ultra-macho culture of the fae now, a year later, I’m cringing to think that I recommended this series both to my sister and my aunt. Gosh. I was rolling my eyes at it all the time during this book – how they say female and male, how characters’ ARCs are basically gratuitously violent pasts being now slowly healed by friendship and so on. The tortured, brooding, sexy male is abound in this series. I felt emotionally detached from all the characters, even Rhys. I’m still going to read the next book of the series, but this book really disappointed me. Was a really unnecessary thing and could’ve been a chapter or two on the last book of ACOTAR instead.

Review: Based on a True Story, by Delphine de Vigan

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Contemporary, Mystery

Goodreads / Amazon

Based on a True Story is the elegant story of the relationship of Delphine (the author) and a woman named only as L. throughout the novel. As Delphine deals with the writer’s block and depression after her last autobiographical book about her mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide, L. becomes very close to her. Little by little, L. starts taking over Delphine’s life, becoming her.

What an interesting book! I wouldn’t call this a thriller, this book is a slow burner, and most of the it is about the relationship of the two women, and discussions about fiction and fact, autobiography and bias.

Review: Jade City, by Fonda Lee

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Fantasy, Urban

Goodreads / Amazon

This book is one of the best fantasy worlds I’ve read in a long time, and I am in awe. Jade City is a story about two clans, No Peak and Mountain, who have soaring tensions growing between them as the leader of the Mountain clan’s ambition and strength threatens the Kaul family, leaders of No Peak for more than two decades. It’s set in the fictional Kekon, a vibrant city of contradictions, full of promise, opportunity, tradition, superstition and, most importantly, jade. From the jade, Green Bones get powers that make them impossibly superhuman abilities. Amidst the threat of clan wars and foreign interest in Kekon’s jade for military purposes, the Kaul family must learn to stay together and survive, if they can.

Anti-TBR #5: Popular books I am not going to read – Released in 2018 Edition

Hello readers!

Welcome to what is probably going to be my most “controversial” anti-TBR yet. And that’s because I don’t add only old, moldy books most people don’t care about anyway. NOPE. This is the 2018 Released Edition, so all books below have been released this year and conquered hearts everywhere. In fact, I may have to go into hiding after this goes public.

Shadow of The Fox by Julie Kagawa
I’m not in the mood for young adult lately, even fantasy. So I am not so hyped for the new and shiny and wonderfully-rated books. I have heard really good things about this book, so maybe I’ll change my mind in the future, but at this point, I don’t want to commit to this book just yet.

Books to Read in One Sitting

Hello readers!

Similarly to my other list of recommendations for a rainy day, I thought it’d be nice to recommend books that you can sit down, grab a warm drink and dive into in one single sitting. It’s cold and dark in the northern hemisphere right now, and some of us might need a bit distraction to deal with the extra gloominess of these months. That, plus the extra time from the end of the year vacations, I think this is a timely post to publish.

So, without further ado, here are the books I recommend…

To Read in One Afternoon

  

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This thriller is absolutely fantastic. It’s the kind of book that stays in your mind, after properly blowing it. It involves multiverses and moral dilemmas, which is honestly one of the best mixes for an exciting sci-fi.
Goodreads / Amazon