My Top 10 Favorite Reads of 2018

At first I wasn't going to post anything for the last day of the year, I was just going to enjoy the night and ring in the new year re-reading a book that I will always love for many reasons, but I decided to try to put together a top 10 list for the end of the year. So here is my Top 10 Favorite Books of the year! 

2018 has been a fantastic reading year for me, I finished 122 books and I haven't done that in a very very long time. I honestly think I was able to read so many books mainly because I didn't force myself to read anything. There was no pressure this year for me to read certain books. I'm hoping to bring that into 2019 and have another amazing reading year. Anyway, below is my favorite books of this year. 

Let's get this list starter, book number 10 on my list is Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis  

Now I've read a lot of books by this fantastic author and a few of them are on this list, but I loved this book so much. Gave it a five puppy rating and I can't wait to read more Heartbreaker Bay novels. I need more of these characters so much! 

Book 9 on my list is To the Moon and Back by Karen Kingsbury

This book honestly made me cry all the way through it! It's that fanastic and the writing OMG it's just breathtaking. Like all Karen Kingsbury books this one makes you feel every emotion the characters are going through. This one really touched me due the other topic of the Oklahoma City Boming and it explaing the memorial. I helped raise money for a few of the children's chairs back when the tragic event happened, so this really was a hard story for me to read but one I truely loved! 

Now for book number 8... No One But You by Brenda Novak

Anyone that knows me well knows I love Brenda Novak books and this one has turned out to be one of my all time favorites!  I fell in love with the main characters of this story right away and wanted them to get that happily ever after! 

Book 7 on my list is The Good Luck Sister by Jill Shalvis 

Yep I told you I read a lot of books by her this year. A huge thanks goes out to her publisher for this. Anyway, this was one of my favorites of her's this year. It's actually a short read but one that I fell in love with and couldn't put down. 

Book 6 is Crossing Hope by Kimberly Kincaid

Another favorite author from this year, I read this whole series and loved each and every book that I've read by her. She creates the best book boyfriends...just saying! LOL I love her way of making you fall for her characters and really wanting to them to succeed in everything! 

Book 5 on my list is Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire 

Now I know this series is on a lot of people's favorites! I loved this series, so far, so much. I loved getting to see what it's like for those kids that went through those doors them came back and what their lives are like afterward. I can't wait to read the next book in this series when it is released in 2019.

Books 4 and 3 on my list are  Thunderhead Neal Shusterman and Scythe

I know, I know these are two books from the same series, but they both needed to be mentioned. I love love love both of these books for different reasons. One being the female lead character, I love her way of being and the way she is caring. Now I also love the male lead character for the oppsite reasons I love him because he is straight to the point and well okay he's caring too, but in the second book he's just had enough. 

2. My Commander by Alanea Alder 

Now if I was doing a top 20 of this year, each and every book in this series would be on my list. I love each and every one of them. I love all the characters and these books are so freaking funny. I laughed the whole way through the first book and all the others as well. Let's just say Meryn is my spirit animal and she's not even a shifter!!  If you haven't read these books it's a must. OH and I must say right now, these are majorly adult books! Just a heads up.

And now it's time for my number one pick of the year! I read this early in the year and I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book. I've told everyone I know to read it and I'll probably re-read it at some point in the near future. Are you ready to see which book I'm talking about? 

1. Sky In The Deep by Adrienne Young

YES! I love this book so much. It has fanasty and vikings. Something I never thought I would read about and love, but honestly I couldn't put this book down. I had to know what was going to happen next. Sky in the Deep is so well written and the main character, she's a strong female lead, one that I was screaming with and felt like I was right there in every battle with her. I need more books by this author and can't wait to read each one. I can't say enough amazing things about this book. If you haven't read this one, serioiusly trust me it's worth the read. 

Alright so there you have it, my favorite reads of 2018! I can't believe it's almost over. 

Anyway, is there a book that should have been on my list that you loved this year? Or are any of my favorites on your list. Let me know down below in the comments. 

Happy New Year everyone and 

Cover Reveal and Giveaway: The Winnowing (Stanley & Hazel #2)

Hey everyone, I'm excited to share with you a new cover reveal. This one if for the book The Winnowing, which is the second book in the Stanley & Hazel series. Anyway, below you will find the cover, information about the book and 

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

The Winnowing (Stanley & Hazel #2) by Jo Schaffer with Giveaway

 presented by Month9Books!

Be on the lookout for this upcoming title, and be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

What do you think of the cover?

Darkness descends over St. Louis, a city already rocked by the Great Depression. More and more people are disappearing, and some have turned up dead. A sinister secret society is putting forward their plan known as “The Winnowing,” designed to wipe out those they consider “undesirable.” After Stanley and Hazel foil the diabolical plans of Charles Chouteau, they become instant celebrities. Hazel is thrust into the role of debutante, and risks loses herself in it. Meanwhile, Stanley must deal with the horrific tragedy of his best friend’s death while being threatened by the unseen forces of the Veiled Prophet. With things spiraling out of control, Stanley and Hazel’s relationship is tested, possibly beyond repair. As bodies pile up, people become more desperate. The divide between wealthy and poor grows ever wider, threatening to tear their worlds apart. Now, the two must find a way to work together if there is any hope at all of saving their relationship and their futures.

The Winnowing (Stanley & Hazel #2) by Jo Schaffer Publication Date: February 26, 2019 Publisher: Month9Books

Available for Pre-order: Amazon

Jo Schaffer was born and raised in the California Bay Area in a huge, creative family. She is a YA novelist, speaker and a Taekwondo black belt. She’s a founding member of the nonprofit organization that created Teen Author Boot Camp, one of the nation’s biggest conferences for teens where bestselling authors present writing workshops to nearly a thousand attendees. Jo loves being involved in anything that promotes literacy and family. She is passionate about community, travel, books, music, healthy eating, classic films and martial arts. But her favorite thing is being mom to three strapping sons and a neurotic cat named Hero. They live together in the beautiful mountains of Utah.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

 

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Top 6 New to Me or New Authors for 2018!

If you didn't see yesterday's post I showcased the top 10 books I wished I had read in 2018! Today I'm going to go through my top 10 new to me authors of 2018. If you would like to know more about this challenge, you can CLICK HERE! 

I had a hard time coming up with 10 for this post, mainly because I read a lot of books by authors that I really love this year. But here is my top 6! I guess that counts right? 

Alanea Alder: My Commander Series


I have loved and laughed my way through this series, I have one more to read and I'm hoping she's going to write more for it as well. I can't wait to read the next one. These books are hillarious and such fast reads! I love all the cast of characters and when I say cast I mean a lot of them!

Adrienne Young: Sky in the Deep 

This is my favorite book of this year and I can't wait to read more from this fantastic author. This book/author pulled me into this story from the very first page and didn't let me go till the last word. 

Rachel Hollis: Girl Wash Your Face

This book was so profound to me and it just spoke to me on so many levels. I can't wait to read more of her books. I don't usually enjoy these type of books, but OMG I love her's!

Julia Whelan: My Oxford Year

I really enjoyed this book and getting to read something that was an easy read but had so much substance to it. I had never read a book by this author and can't wait to do so in the future.

Neal Shusterman: Scythe

Yep I'm probably going to be yelled at for this one, but this was the first book I've read by this author. I have a few other's on my shelf that I'll be reading next year, hopefully, but I loved this series so far!

Seanan McGuire: Every Heart A Doorway

Another new to me author, OMG I'm addicted to this series. I love the first two books so much and I'm reading the third right now!

Who was your number one new or new to you author from this year? 

Top 10 of 2018: Top 10 Books I Wish I Had Read This Year

Today is the first day of this great event and if you're like me today's topic is one that I think about every single year at this time. Books that I didn't have time to read but really really wanted to. Yep we are talking about those books today.  If you would like to join in this great event, it's hosted by KimberlyFaye Reads. 

For the rest of 2018, every day I'll be posting about bookish bests from the year. Each day has a new exciting topic and I hope you will join me every day to see what that day's topic is. Anyway, let's get going with today's. 

Like I said above I'm sharing my top 10 books that I really wanted to read this year, but sadly didn't have a chance to do so. This first set are 2018 releases that I didn't get to. These were my anticipated reads and will be some of my first reads of 2019! 

Girl of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

I mean look at this cover, I've been dying to get my hands on it and devour this book, but sadly like I said above I just didn't have time to. Sometimes us booklovers want to grab all the books and just love them all, sadly there isn't enough time to get to all of them. Even though I wish there was. There seriously needs to be built in extra days in the year to just sit and read.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Yep this one's on my list too! I can't believe I didn't get to this one. This is the one book that everyone was talking about and I really really really wanted to get to, but there just wasn't enough time.

 Amber & Dusk by Lyra Selene

This one makes me really sad, because I have an ARC of this one. So many releases and so little time. This one falls under that catagory! 

 The Cruel Prince by Holly Black 

This book is going to be the first book I read in 2019! It's sitting on my TBR cart right now ready for me to pick it up and just jump into it's pages. I've heard so much about it and I can't wait to read it. I'll be honest though, the reason I waited to so long was because of it's hype. There was just too much and I knew I needed to wait or I wouldn't enjoy it. It's happened to me several years in a row, where everyone was talking about a book and I jumped on the bandwagon and ended up hating the book. So I figured I would wait a while, I didn't mean to wait the whole year.  

Witch Born by Nicholas Bowling 

Another one that I was dying to get my hands on, even recieved an ARC but didn't get the chance to read it. This cover is so pretty and the summary sounds amazing. This one will probably be my second read of the year or third, we shall see. 

Everless by Sara Holland 

This was my only pre-purchase of the year. Yep I pre-purchased this book and still didn't have time to read it. Shame on me! Anyway, the summary of this book is one that I'm dying to read. I wish I could just grab all the books and magically be able to read them all! 

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire 

Now I know why I didn't get to this one, I was on a book hangover from the other two in this series and had to take a break. I didn't however mean to wait this long. So many amazing books were released in 2018. Again look at this cover!!

Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne 

I actually won an ARC of this one and it's been staring at me saying "Read me... read me!" No all joking aside, this was another one of those hyped books that I knew I would need to not read right away. Sadly that happens with me often, I see that after writing this post. Maybe I need to make a system of how long I'm willing to wait to read a book. Or somehow ignore the hype, though that's really hard being a book blogger. If anyone knows of a way to do this, let me know!

The last two books on my list are from my backlist! I had every intention of reading both of these this year, but things didn't go as planned. (One of these books is pretty large so that's probably why I didn't even pick it up. I plan to do so next year though. Hopefully!)

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon 

This is the book that's rather large! Though I really should get over my fear of this and just jump into this book. I already have the second book in this series as well, so hopefully in 2019 I'll be able to finish this one!

Snow like Ashes by Sara Raasch

Now I purchased this whole series this year in the hopes to read these books, but again sadly not enough time for them all. I love the covers on this series. The summary sounds amazing as well. Have you read this series? If you have let me know if I should bump these books up in my tbr for 2019!

What books did you have on your must read list for 2018, but sadly didn't get to? Let me know in the comments below! (Or you can link me your post, I would love to see your top 10.) 

Teaser Tuesday #159

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

Harris licked his wrinkled finger and wiped something from her face. "Dinah, look at me. Everything will be fine. I'll be waiting for you out here." 

This is another one that's been on my TBR shelf for awhile. I really wanted to read it right away, but then of course another book came along that I had to read for review and this one got pushed back. Time to get this one read don't you agree?