Hello, lovelies. I read a lot of amazing books last year and have decided to share some of them with you. I didn’t want to only talk about books from one similar genre, so I mixed it up a bit to make sure I chose a few from different types of genres I read this year. I hope you enjoy.
10.//Cinder by Marissa Meyer
CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She’s reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she finds herself at the center of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen – and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth’s future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.
My Thoughts
I’ve been meaning to read this book for years but never got to it. I don’t know why because it combines two of my favorite genres: science fiction and fairytale retellings. This was the last book I read in 2018 and I absolutely loved it. I doubt I would’ve read it if the audiobook hadn’t arrived in my Overdrive account. I listened to that audiobook the entire road trip home and I was completely hooked. The premise makes it seem predictable, but there were plenty of twists and turns throughout the novel. I loved the main character Cinder, which surprised me because from what I hear, she’s most people’s least favorite protagonist in the series. That makes me excited about the next three books because apparently, it gets better and better. (I’ve already gotten the second book from the library, which is a red riding hood retelling.)
I rated this 4.5 stars because of the ending. This would’ve 100% been a five-star book if I hadn’t predicted the big reveal so early on in the story. You can always find common threads when reading retellings, so it wasn’t that it followed a similar storyline to Cinderella. I expected that and it’s one of the things I like about retellings. The big reveal was something relevant to the sci-fi aspect of the book, which is something I really enjoyed. If they had hidden it well, it would have made a world of difference.
Despite that, I’m very excited to continue on with the series. I didn’t read many series this year. Almost all the new books I read were stand-alone novels, which is one of the reasons this book made it to this list.
9.//So Much I Want To Tell You: Letters To My Little Sister by Anna Akana
Goodreads Summary
From Internet sensation, Anna Akana comes a candid and poignant collection of essays about love, loss, and chasing adulthood.
In 2007, Anna Akana lost her teen sister, Kristina, to suicide. In the months that followed, she realized that the one thing helping her process her grief and begin to heal was comedy. So she began making YouTube videos as a form of creative expression and as a way to connect with others. Ten years later, Anna has more than a million subscribers who watch her smart, honest vlogs on her YouTube channel. Her most popular videos, including “How to Put On Your Face” and “Why Girls Should Ask Guys Out,” are comical and provocative, but they all share a deeper message: Your worth is determined by you and you alone. You must learn to love yourself.
In So Much I Want to Tell You, Anna opens up about her own struggles with poor self-esteem and reveals both the highs and lows of coming-of-age. She offers fresh, funny, hard-won advice for young women on everything from self-care to money to sex, and she is refreshingly straightforward about the realities of dating, female friendship, and the hustle required to make your dreams come true. This is Anna’s story, but, as she says, it belongs just as much to Kristina and to every other girl who must learn that growing up can be hard to do. Witty and real, Anna breaks things down in a way only a big sister can.
My Thoughts
I read a few memoirs this year, which is not a genre I typically read. While Born A Crime by Trevor Noah is a very popular and super interesting memoir, I decided to put Anna Akana’s memoir in this list. Anna Akana is a very popular YouTuber and actress. I fell in love with her YouTube channel at the beginning of the year and found out she wrote a book. It looked like a memoir I would enjoy, so I ordered it from the library.
I finished this book within two days. It was really enjoyable. Each chapter is named after the different types of advice she gives (finance, business, friendships, etc.). She wrote about what it’s like being an Asian actress in Hollywood, her advice on starting a creative business, being in toxic relationships, etc. She writes in a very relatable way and her advice is very useful.
Here’s one of my favorite videos by her. (I also love the Daniel Radcliffe one)
8.//Anne Of The Island by L.M Montgomery
New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and her frivolous new friend Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises . . . including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson. But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornery black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide whether she’s ready for love.
My Thoughts
Rereading the Anne of Green Gables series reminded me about how much I love classic books. It motivated me on one of my 2019 goals to read 12 new classic books this year. The third one in the series is my absolute favorite. It follows Anne through her four years in college and it was so interesting to read about what it was like for women attending university at that time. There were so many aspects of the story I couldn’t really appreciate when I first read this book in middle school, like when Anne was getting courted by multiple men even though she didn’t want to get married to them. Things like that.
I rate this book five stars. It’s very well paced for a classic book and I was never bored. Normally, I need to be doing something while listening to audiobooks, like driving or cleaning, but I found myself just lying in bed and listening to this book for hours at a time. I loved it so much.
7.//Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood by Mari Andrew
Adulting meets Hyperbole and a Half in this witty, starkly honest, and absolutely on-point book of essays and illustrations on the realities of growing up and finding yourself.
Mari Andrew started doodling when she worked at a bakery–she took some license with the display case labels. When customers noticed and began telling her the drawings brightened their days, Mari realized she could use that hobby to connect with people. She hit a professional rough patch in her late 20s and began to chronicle her work on Instagram. Nearly overnight, she became a sensation. Now when Mari Andrew posts something new, the Internet rejoices.
This book is organized by universal themes of becoming an adult–for example, loss, adventure, ambition. Within each chapter, Mari shares her personal experiences in never-before-seen essays, accompanied by spreads of her signature illustrations, 90 percent of which are brand new. Readers are bound to see some of themselves in this book, whether seeking advice on how to handle growing up, or just looking for a friend who can commiserate.
My Thoughts
This is a book by a popular Instagram artist I follow. I pre-ordered this book on Amazon because I knew that it was a book I would go back to and reread over and over again. I thought my favorite parts would be the drawings and their descriptions (like the ones on her Instagram), but the essays ended up being my favorite part.
She wrote essays about her solo travels, living on her own, learning to dance again after being paralyzed….things like that. There was never a shortage of things to enjoy in this book. The artwork was unique and described the quarter-life crisis perfectly. I highly recommend this book and her Instagram feed.
6.//Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
My Thoughts
I can objectively say that this book wasn’t that good, but I loved it so much. I think the reason I loved it is that I read it with the mindset of a young person. This book obviously wasn’t for adults. I would classify it as a middle-grade novel if it weren’t for some of the more mature scenes. I think the reason I loved this book is that it surprised me. It wasn’t predictable at all. I was enthralled and shocked up until the very end.
I also love that all the characters were flawed, but you understood their reasons for doing everything. No one was evil for the sake of being evil. Even the worldbuilding aspects of the realm made sense, despite what little time was put into developing it.
I loved Nyx. She was such a self-aware main character. She didn’t even pretend to be a righteous hero. She accepted the worst parts of herself. This book also made me laugh. There was a part where she tried to stab the demon when she thought he was going to try to sleep with her, but when she’s caught, she tears open her corset as a survival instinct to try to seduce him (so that he doesn’t murder her). This happens in the beginning, so it’s not a big spoiler.
I gave this book five stars. It was such a fun ride, but take my recommendation with a grain of salt because this feels like a book written for a younger audience, which is why I didn’t take it so seriously. I love that there isn’t a moral point at the end. Most Beauty & The Beast retellings have a redemption arc, but there isn’t one in this book. The characters still have the same flaws by the end of the story, and that’s fine! This book surprised me and it changed all the tropes that would’ve been in this potentially cliche book.
5.//5 To 1 by Holly Bodger
In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.
Sudasa doesn’t want to be a wife, and Contestant Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Five’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.
Told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Contestant Five’s in prose—allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.
My Thoughts
You can honestly interchange the next three books in this ranking because I loved all of them! This book, in particular, took me by surprise. When I started reading, I assumed that this would be a three or four-star book, but it was five stars by the end of the story. The worldbuilding in this story is phenomenal considering the way it was written. It read like a short story I would read in literature class. It was a very quick read. I liked that this book isn’t a dystopian romance, as it easily could’ve been. I like that the male character didn’t have a name. He was just referred to as contestant five to show what little value males were to society. It was also interesting to read a dystopian book that doesn’t take place in North America because there were so many cultural aspects added to this dystopian society that aren’t seen in dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games or The Handmaid’s Tale. It added an interesting spin on a very saturated genre.
4.//Words Deep In Blue by Cath Crowly
Book Summary
Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited, but Henry never came.
Now Rachel has returned to the city–and the bookshop– to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future.
Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.
As Henry and Rachel work side by side–surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages–they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.
My Thoughts
The Goodreads summary for this book sucked, which is why I typed out the blurb from my copy of the book. This is one of my favorite contemporary romances read this year. The story itself was very character driven. I loved that it wasn’t just a romance. It was very much a story about friendship and grief. Rachel is completely over Henry by the time she goes back to her hometown after her brother dies, so it isn’t a book where the girl is pining after the boy. Throughout the book, you see them become friends again and slowly fall in love. It doesn’t all happen in just one fell swoop. The romance is kind of on the backburner throughout the story. A lot of it is about Rachel processing her grief and Henry deciding whether or not they should sell the family bookstore.
It’s heartbreaking and sweet, and emotional. It’s a book I definitely recommend if you are in the mood for a romantic contemporary.
3.//Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever.
Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever.
The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem.
My Thoughts
This was the first book I read in 2018 and it still resonates with me eighty books later. I could relate to Ramona’s character so much. The book portrayed her poverty in an amazing way. Poverty isn’t something we see much in books and for the most part, it’s not portrayed very sensitively. Throughout the book, we see Ramona make decisions and make sacrifices for her family time and time again. We see the toll Hurrican Katrina took on her family and how it still affects them over a decade later. They lost so much and were still dealing with the aftermath. I really related to Ramona’s character when it came to her taking care of her family. She was the one keeping everything afloat and her future was suffering because of it.
Then comes the other aspect of the book that I love. Ramona has been out as a lesbian for years. She was very comfortable with and confident in her sexuality. Then she finds herself falling in love with her childhood best friend, who happens to be a boy.
The book follows as their friendship progresses into their relationship. Ramona finds herself having to come out in a new way. She is afraid that people will take her sexuality less seriously, whether she decides to be bi- or pan-. Her mother in particular, who has always considered her attraction to women as a “phase,” is an example of that, but the reaction of her friends in the LGBTQ+ community, as well.
I can’t describe to you how much I empathized with Ramona as she went through the struggles of taking care of her family and questioning her sexuality. This book sparked me to read some of Julie Murphy’s other books, and I’ve learned that she is very good at writing very well developed characters. Something I’ve learned this year is that I love reading about flawed characters and Julie Murphy does an amazing job at writing them.
I highly recommend this book. Five Stars all the way.
2.//The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams
My Thoughts
This book and the next one are interchangeable for the number one slot. I asked my friend to get this book for my birthday because I had to own it. This book was named one of the top ten books written in the 20th century, and it’s well-deserved. I think everyone should read this classic.
I don’t really know how to describe the story. It’s about the journey a shepherd boy takes to uncover his destiny. The book is about making the most out of life despite all the hardships and distractions that come in your way. I loved it so much and I thought the ending was perfect.
1.//More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto is struggling to find happiness after a family tragedy leaves him reeling. He’s slowly remembering what happiness might feel like this summer with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, but it’s his new best friend, Thomas, who really gets Aaron to open up about his past and confront his future.
As Thomas and Aaron get closer, Aaron discovers things about himself that threaten to shatter his newfound contentment. A revolutionary memory-alteration procedure, courtesy of the Leteo Institute, might be the way to straighten himself out. But what if it means forgetting who he truly is?
My Thoughts
My brother is not what most people would call a reader, but he raved about this book for months until I finally picked it up. And I have to say that he was right. I read all four Adam Silvera books in the last year (I’m in the middle of History Is All You’ve Left Me right now) and More Happy Than Not was by far my favorite.
The characters were likable, the atmosphere of the neighborhood they lived in was well developed, and there were twists that I didn’t see coming. The ending is heartbreaking. It was more or less worse than death in my opinion. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up another book for a week or two after reading this because I was just ruminating on that ending. I happened to be listening to the song Happier on repeat at the time I was reading the book, and whenever that song came on the radio, I would feel sad, even though the lyrics don’t relate to the story at all.
Five stars all around. I cannot think of a single flaw when it comes to this book. This is a new all-time favorite.
Those are my top 10 books I read last year. I read a lot of good books in similar genres like I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican American Daughter and They Both Died In The End, but I didn’t want to saturate this post with all the same genres. Also, I updated my Goodreads account, so if you’re interested in following the books I read, here’s the link.
It was an amazing reading year and I’m excited to see what this year holds. I’ll see you next time!
I’d Appreciate Your Support Of This Blog By Following Me On:
What were some of the best books you read in 2018? Can you recommend any books for me to read in 2019? Thanks!