2019 was full of many enjoyable reads but it wasn’t too hard for me to pick out my favorites of the year. In fact, I even managed to reread some of my favorite books of 2019 last year. There are 8 books I’m going to be discussing today and I’ve split them up into two sections, “The Best of the Year” and “Notable Mentions”. When I was trying to place my favorite books into these two sections, I really spent a lot of time thinking about which of these of these books I’d really reread and enjoy the most every reread.
The books in my “Best of the Year” section were all books that are 5 stars. The “Notable Mentions” sections also consisted of books that were 4.5 or 4.75 stars. The only reason these books didn’t make the “Best of the Year” section is because there was some minuscule element to it that docked of maybe a tenth of a point from being a complete 5 stars. While the rating may not be 5 stars, I still consider the books in the “Notable Mentions” section my favorites of the year.
Wow wow wow. This book made me laugh, swoon, cry, and hope all at the same time. Casey McQuiston made me feel all the feelings, sometimes even through just an email. I absolutely loved all the characters in the book. Alex and Henry are my babies. Reading about Alex juggling so many things academically, socially, personally, and politically was so inspiring. Whenever I read about Alex drinking what’s probably expired coffee while going through his notes made me want to pick up a coffee and go through my notes and I hate coffee.
And my gosh, the romance. It sizzled, it burned, it did all the things. The sexual tension was just amazing and I loved, loved, loved how they communicated in this book. I think one of my favorite aspects of the book that made me want to reread it before I even finished the book were the emails they wrote each other. There were so many historical references that I wanted to tab and research on.
This book also had awesome non-romantic relationships. I loved reading about the different kinds of friendships, family ties, and the relationships Alex and Henry had with their respective secret service teams.
I have an entire paper drafted in my journal professing my love about this work of art but I’m planning to reread it this year before I publicly announce in a comprehensible way how obsessed I am with Alex and Henry.
This book changed me. Evelyn Hugo is a character who is inspiring, frustrating, relatable, and lovable. Evelyn Hugo makes you fall in love with her even when everything gets a bit too murky. She’s so multifaceted but so driven. I think you can see a trend in my favorite characters: driven, workaholics, productive, or motivating in one way or another.
As a person of color who goes to class and is mostly always one of two, at times maybe even the only one, woman in an entire male populated class, and that to a colored woman, all the words that Evelyn Hugo revealed about her past seeped into my blood and set it on fire. It made me want to stand taller and run through life with my head held high. The conversations about regrets and being unapologetic hit me so hard. I don’t know how or when it happened, but this book built me up while breaking me at the same time.
There’s so many other things that are amazing and beautiful about this book. The diversity, there’s so much diversity. It’s rich with history. It’s rich with old Hollywood. It’s rich with a time of change. It’s so very beautifully rich.
Again, this is definitely going to be a book I reread to deeply analyze and tab the hell out of.
I read this book in less than forty eight hours and finished it on December 30th, 2019. This is the first book that I read and wanted to pick up right AFTER I finished the last page. Again, this book has diversity and so many wonderful discussions on academic pressure, who a person is, abuse, and friendships, PLATONIC friendships.
I just saw myself in this book so much and it was such a hard book to finish but I’m so glad I did. The last 100 pages, my God. I’m in my last year at uni, and it’s not going as I imagined. The stress of adulthood, my career, my future, my basic foundation of my existence is being thrown around. So while this book is a coming of age story about a high school student and a college freshman trying to figure out their lives, I still found it applicable to me. It still felt real to me.
TWK simply put is a god tier fantasy book. TCP was the first fantasy book I picked up in a while that I got sucked into almost immediately. After finishing the entire trilogy, I’ve got to say that TWK served me the most political drama, sexual tension, familial drama, and betrayal, SO MUCH betrayal.
There isn’t much I can say about this book that doesn’t involve spoilers. I think I love this book the most because TWK is where we get to see Jude really rise to her power and run with it. It’s also where we get to learn more of the inside workings of the politics of the faerie. Together, the politics and character growth made this book pretty hard to beat.
I know this book has its problems and that the writing may not be the best but I love this book with all my heart. I read this in the summer when I was feeling all kinds of low and it made me so happy. It’s the first book I really reread and my opinion on it still didn’t change for me. It was full of all kinds of ridiculous yet fun and swoon worthy scenes, the perfect recipe for a nice, fun fast read. This book also holds a special spot in my heart because it’s the first book that really got me into reading adult romance.
This book was so sweet! I loved Khai and Esme so much. I loved how Hoang explored the topics in this book such as living with autism and immigration. Reading about how it is to leave all semblance of one’s home by moving to a new world for the sake of bettering the lives of their loved ones and their own life was so relatable and made me think of my parents who did the very same thing. The writing was so good and it gripped me right away. I reread this twice and am ready to reread it a third time. You can tell the amount of thought that went into this book and how personal it is to the author. The relationships in this book are some of my favorite, whether it is the brotherly relationship between Quan and Khai or the romantic relationship between Khai and Esme.
This book didn’t shy away from anything and that’s what set it aside from all my other reads this year. That and the audiobook which was a spectacular work of art. If you’re new to audiobooks and want to find a good one to start with, I highly suggest this one. It’s easy to follow and gripping, you won’t be able to stop listening to it.
This book was full of the 1920’s excitement, the dark parts of America that are often overlooked, and of course the paranormal aspect which will make you want to sleep with a light on. This book was just as creepy as it was fun. It has a fun set of characters that are each so different and full of so much depth. After finishing the first book, which is a huge book, we only get to scrap maybe a tiny inch off of who the characters are. There’s so much to learn. I also love the role of the side characters in this book. Every single character plays a role in the plot and the series. This book is so intricately written, you’ll want to keep reading to unwind all these strings that are waiting to be tugged on.
This book was all kinds of fun. This book is like the piece of cake you probably shouldn’t eat but you know you probably are going to. It’s the first Tessa Dare book I’ve read and the first “mass market romance paperback” kind of book. All I can say is that I have no regrets. This book was so fun, so gripping, and oh so good with the romance. It was like the perfect soap opera meets hallmark meets a lifetime movie that I didn’t know I needed and loved.
can’t wait to read evelyn hugo this year!
can’t wait to hear what you think of it, hope you love it as much as I did 🙂