It’s that time of the year where I look back on all my reads from the year and try to narrow it down to my top favorites. I read over 400 books this year so to say it was difficult would be an understatement. My list started as 20 then went to 10 then back up to 15 lol somehow I ended up settling on 6 even though my heart wanted to add more.
My Top Reads
(In no particular order)
WolfSong
by TJ Klune
This entire series is amazing but the first is still my favorite (the last release – HeartSong came close to topping it) but Ox stole my heart right from the beginning and never let it go. If you enjoy shifters, family, and destiny than give this series a try.
Synopsis:Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.
Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane.
Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy’s secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega.
Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces.
It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.
Red White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
This is the only book on my list that I didn’t give a solid 5 stars. The reason for that is I had to be honest with the fact that political fiction or anything political at all bores me. I have zero interest in it so there were times in this book that I wanted to skim, but I was told not to by a friend lol Aside from that this book was fantastic and entertaining. An enemies to lovers story that will have you chuckling out loud at Alex’s antics and swooning at Henry’s sweetness. I haven’t stopped thinking of these characters since I finished and that’s why it had a home on my list.
Synopsis : What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?
Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.
Thrown Off The Ice
Taylor Fitzpatrick
I don’t even know where to start with this book because this book was EVERYTHING. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. This story is angst and heartbreak and forever love between two men. One who fights love and one who is ALL in and never gives up on it. You go through all the emotions with this book, frustration every time Mike pushes away , laughter when Liam acts like a ridiculous puppy, and love and anguish as their relationship grows into something beautiful.
It is a love story that I will never be able to forget and I can’t recommend it enough.
Synopsis: Mike knew he was making a mistake when he let the rookie climb into bed with him. He just didn’t know it’d be a mistake that would follow him for the rest of his life.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
This book was a little hard to get into at the beginning but after finishing it I just didn’t feel right giving it less than 5 stars. This is a moving, beautifully written story about a young girl growing up alone in the marsh lands. She becomes one with nature and finds companionship in the wildlife. It’s heartbreaking at times especially when she’s taken advantage of, and she feels so alone. A story about loss, love , trust and perseverance.
Synopsis:For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The Fever King
Victoria Lee
I was obsessed with this book before and after it came out and I still get giddy when I think of it ! A dystopian with magic, diverse characters, angst and action. I am a huge fan of YA dystopian I can’t explain it {shrug} it’s just my thing. This book is full of characters you’ll fall in love with and make your heart and head hurt. I found the story line fascinating and I kept second guessing what I knew and denying what the book was telling me lol yes that doesn’t make a lot of sense but once you read it you’ll understand me. The relationship between Noam and Dara was EVERYTHING and made my heart feel ALL the feelings, gah those boys! The Fever King wrecked me at the end and I ‘m anxious to read the next book.
Synopsis: In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.
The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.
Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.
The Last Letter
Rebecca Yarros
This book was absolutely beautiful and heart shattering. A story of struggles, hope, lose, joy and appreciating all the little things in life. This is a story that will stay with you. There is honestly not one thing I disliked about the novel. Beckett, Ella, Maisie and Colt will burrow their way into your heart and stay there. Warning [if you have a heart] this book will make you cry so keep tissues near by… Just reading the synopsis while compiling this list gave me goosebumps !
Synopsis: Beckett,
If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.
I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.
My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.
And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.
So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.
Please don’t make her go through it alone.
Ryan
OnceUpon_A_BookDream 
I can’t believe you managed to narrow this down to six considering how much you read!! I’ve only read two of these (but FEVER KING is side eyeing me from the bedroom nightstand..) but love your list so much. and yes, I swear, I’ll read the Klune’s in 2020..
LikeLiked by 1 person
There were so many more that I wanted to add but then my list would have been out of control lol It was an argument with myself “if I take off this than I can’t leave this ” type of struggle 😂 and I’m excited for you to get to both of those reads but don’t @ me if you don’t like them 🙈
LikeLike