My Year In Reading

This year has been an amazing year for reading. I’m not just saying that because there have been some releases I’ve been super hyped about - the rest of the year has been full of wonderful reading that I’ve been really enjoying. And, given that I certainly tailed off from my monthly reading posts towards the end of this year, I thought now would be a good time to wrap up my year in reading!

I started off the year re-reading my absolute faves from when I was younger - The Princess Diaries. Frankly, I don’t get why these aren’t still so popular. Yes, social media has moved on, but how have teenagers no longer chosen to read about Mia’s freakouts plus the awesomeness of Michael Moscovitz?!

I also used the start of 2018 to read some books I’d been meaning to for some time: Turtles All The Way Down, which was a pleasant surprise, and A Skinful Of Shadows, which was a classic Frances Hardinge novel that had me full on creeped out. It was brilliant. Then I moved on to read Nevermoor, which is one of my favourite series and whose sequel, Wundersmith, I inhaled last month.

My highlight from February was definitely Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard, closely followed by Things A Bright Girl Can Do. I read and loved A Quiet Kind Of Thunder and Beautiful Broken Things, so it was a no-brainer for me to read Barnard’s latest. Sally Nicholls’ tale of suffrage and war in TABGCD was also a joy: compelling, realistic, and diverse. I’ve been recommending both all year.

March brought along a novel which has since become an absolute favourite, thanks in no small part to how much I loved the film adaptation. Yep - it’s Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda! I very rarely read teen romance, but this book had me hooked from the start. And then we were spoilt with the film, which I may or may not have seen three times in the cinema and watched repeatedly since then…

I read absolutely loads in April! It included reading the much-hyped Children of Blood and Bone, which I really enjoyed. It’s not the best fantasy novel I’ve ever read, but it was certainly a strong effort for a debut novel and frankly a massively popular non-white fantasy novel has been long overdue and it’s only right this made its way on to the bestseller list.

May involved three books I was absolutely hyped to read and they didn’t disappoint: I Was Born For This, by Alice Oseman; Clean, by Juno Dawson; and Leah on the Offbeat, by Becky Albertalli. Alice Oseman is one of my favourite authors and her novels are sublime; Clean was (if you’ll excuse the pun) an absolutely addictive read that I know I will go back and read again; and, while not as good as Simon Vs for me, I still loved Leah’s story - when do we get the film?! I also began my obsession with Renee Ahdieh books this month with The Wrath and the Dawn. They aren’t going to blow your socks off, but they’re good at what they do and they offered some brilliant escapism. it’s an obsession I continued with in to June as I read the sequel, The Rose and the Dagger, and then read the first in her follow-up duology, Flame In The Mist.

How Do You Like Me Now? was another book I couldn’t wait to get my hands on - and it was so good I’ve written a whole separate review here. In June I also finished my re-listening to Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, which is one of my all-time favourite books ever. My excitement for Wayward Son knows absolutely no bounds. Simon x Baz! <3

it’s from this point on that my keeping track of my reading fell somewhat by the wayside, so I’ll just sum up my other absolute faves. Bright We Burn by Kiersten White was the final book in the Conqueror’s Trilogy which, if you haven’t read already, I implore you to add to your TBRs. It’s everything your heart needs, plus quite a lot of stabbing. I adored The Boy At The Back Of The Class, a beautiful MG novel promoting tolerance through the innocence of children who don’t understand why anyone would hate anyone because of where they have come from. I read Vicious by VE Schwab, and Vengeful is staring at me from the bookcase. Every time I think VE Schwab can’t get any better, she does! And finally, I read an ARC of The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which gave me so many feelings I couldn’t possibly fit them all here.

I’ll be uploading my top reads of 2018 tomorrow! What do you think has made the cut from this list…?

Let me know what your reads of 2018 have been! And here’s to another great year of reading in 2019.