#Blogmas2019 Day 31: Goodreads Challenge

Welcome to Blogmas 2019! 

Blogmas is the creation of Sophie @ Beware of the Reader. This is her third year (I think) doing Blogmas and my second year participating. Sophie has provided some great prompts for this month and I'm excited to participate as often as possible. I'll probably be combining days fairly often, like today. If you'd like to participate, be sure to use the hashtags #Blogmas2019 and #BestBooksof2019.

It's been a great month of looking at the best books I've read this year. Thanks so much to Sophie for creating/hosting Blogmas! For the final day of the year - and the decade! - I'm turning to Goodreads for an overview of the year. 

I read a total of 99 books in 2019 (did anyone else just start singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall..."?). I purposely set my goal fairly low so I could meet it and then carry on. No struggling to read X number of books or force myself to reach some lofty goal. I read however many I read. :)

My average rating for the year was 3.9.

The most popular book I read was Daisy Jones & The Six, which comes as no surprise. It felt like everyone was reading Daisy Jones this year! Apparently the least popular was Trusting Winter and I've gotta tell you... that kinda breaks my heart. You all know that I adore Lora Richardson and I sing her praises every chance I get. Her books are such a gift and deserve so much more attention.

That being said, I'm not too sad because the highest rated book I read was also by the wonderful Lora Richardson! How's that for perfect symmetry? ♥ An average rating of 4.54 is phenomenal and Awakening Autumn totally deserves it! 

The breakdown by genre is:

And now for all the pretty covers... :)

DID YOU MEET YOUR READING GOAL THIS YEAR?

#Blogmas2019 Days 28, 29 and 30: Best Book to Make a Movie, Best Swoony Book, The Best of the Best #BestBooksOf2019

Welcome to Blogmas 2019! 

Blogmas is the creation of Sophie @ Beware of the Reader. This is her third year (I think) doing Blogmas and my second year participating. Sophie has provided some great prompts for this month and I'm excited to participate as often as possible. I'll probably be combining days fairly often, like today. If you'd like to participate, be sure to use the hashtags #Blogmas2019 and #BestBooksof2019.

DAY 28: BEST BOOK TO MAKE A MOVIE

   

JOSH & HAZEL'S GUIDE TO NOT DATING

  WATCHING YOU | WILD COUNTRY

Josh & Hazel would make the perfect rom-com movie. I'd go see it! I can imagine Lisa Jewell's Watching You as a kind of quiet, atmospheric thriller. And I've always thought The Others series would translate well to the screen. With the CGI and special effects available now, Wild Country would be epic on the big screen!

DAY 29: BEST SWOONY BOOK

    

SAY YOU STILL LOVE ME | SALVAGED | I WANT YOU BACK

I loved the dual timeline in Say You Still Love Me. Getting to experience Piper and Kyle's first love as teenagers and then reconnecting as adults gave me all the feels. Jay Crownover writes heroes that will do anything for their heroine and Salvaged was no exception. The way Hudson treated Poppy was seriously swoony. And I Want You Back featured one of my favorite tropes (second-chance romance) and seeing Jaxson fight to get his family back was all kinds of swoony goodness.

DAY 30: THE BEST OF THE BEST

    

   

DAISY JONES & THE SIX | THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW

MRS. EVERYTHING | THE RECKLESS OATH WE MADE | LONG SHOT

I give out 5-star rating very rarely. Those five stars aren't just for every book I really enjoyed. Five stars are very those very, very special books. The ones that become instant favorites. The ones that move me in a way unlike anything else. A book that is head and shoulders above the rest. So I was super surprised to find that I had five 5-star reads in 2019! I'm not sure that's ever happened! But all five of these books were remarkable stories and true stand-outs from the year. 

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?

WHAT WAS YOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR?

#Blogmas2019 Days 23-27: Best Plot Twist, Best Male Main Character, Best Female Main Character, Best Friend Recommendation, Best Ugly Cry #BestBooksOf2019

Welcome to Blogmas 2019! 

Blogmas is the creation of Sophie @ Beware of the Reader. This is her third year (I think) doing Blogmas and my second year participating. Sophie has provided some great prompts for this month and I'm excited to participate as often as possible. I'll probably be combining days fairly often, like today. If you'd like to participate, be sure to use the hashtags #Blogmas2019 and #BestBooksof2019.

DAY 23: BEST PLOT TWIST

    

VERITY | THE WICKED KING | THE BURNING SHADOW

There were so many twists in Verity that by the time I turned the last page I sat back and wondered what I'd just read. And I still know quite know what I believe really happened. The final twist at the end of The Wicked King floored me. It's easy to forget that while Jude is busy with all her machinations... others are plotting, too. And there several fun/exciting twists and revelations in The Burning Shadow that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could go.

DAY 24: BEST MALE MAIN CHARACTER

    

  

ARCHER HALE | ALEX CLAREMONT-DIAZ

DEAN WALKER | LUC | GENTRY

Each of these characters possessed qualities that made them memorable. Whether it was a pure heart, acerbic wit, willingness to grow and change, or arrogance and humor that hid a softer side, they were all completely unforgettable.

DAY 25: BEST BEST FEMALE MAIN CHARACTER

    

  

DAISY JONES | ANNIKA ROSE | JO

HAZEL BRADFORD | NINA BROWNING

Daisy's impulsiveness, Annika's bravery, Jo's endurance, Hazel's humor, Nina's integrity. These women made me laugh, made me cry, made me cheer, and made me want the very best for them.

DAY 26: BEST FRIEND RECOMMENDATION

LONG SHOT - KENNEDY RYAN

Kennedy Ryan had been on my radar for a while, but it wasn't until Sam and Amber told me I had to read Long Shot that I finally experienced her writing for myself. And what an experience it was.  I remember DM'ing with them as I made my way through the book and then as I sat in the parking lot at the office one morning, finishing it. Long Shot is among my top reads of the year and I'm so glad Sam and Amber recommended it!

DAY 27: BEST UGLY CRY

   

ARCHER'S VOICE | BIRTHDAY

Both Archer's Voice and Birthday had main characters that settled themselves into my heart and had me feeling every painful moment. I wanted to help them, hug them, protect them... and basically make sure nothing and no one ever hurt them again. That kind of connection guaranteed more than one ugly cry.  

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?

WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE MALE/FEMALE CHARACTERS OF THE YEAR?

#Blogmas2019 Days 19, 20, 21 and 22: Best Cover, Most Powerful Writing, Best LGBTQ, Best Audiobook #BestBooksof2019

Welcome to Blogmas 2019! 

Blogmas is the creation of Sophie @ Beware of the Reader. This is her third year (I think) doing Blogmas and my second year participating. Sophie has provided some great prompts for this month and I'm excited to participate as often as possible. I'll probably be combining days fairly often, like today. If you'd like to participate, be sure to use the hashtags #Blogmas2019 and #BestBooksof2019.

DAY 19: BEST COVERS 

    

VERITY | THE WICKED KING | TRUSTING WINTER

The cover of Verity is creepy on its own, but when you've read the book and understand the meaning behind it... well, it's even creepier. Holly Black really won the cover lottery with her Folk of the Air trilogy. The Wicked King cover is just stunning. I don't know if it's the colors (which are beautiful), or the fact that I know what an amazing story is inside, but the cover of Trusting Winter makes me all kinds of happy.

DAY 20: MOST POWERFUL WRITING

    

BIRTHDAY | LONG SHOT | CILKA'S JOURNEY

In less than 300 pages, Meredith Russo was able to create two fully realized characters and impart so much emotion that I was only able to read Birthday in short bits at a time. Kennedy Ryan put a spotlight on domestic abuse in Long Shot and didn't shy away from scenes that were brutal in their depiction. Ryan's writing was powerful enough to relate the horror of domestic violence without ever delving into sensationalism. Morris's writing in Cilka's Journey wasn't poetic or even particularly literary, but that wasn't needed to relate the atrocities committed in the concentration camp and labor camp where Cilka was imprisoned. The matter-of-fact way in which Cilka's experiences were presented somehow made the impact even more powerful.

DAY 21: BEST LGBTQ

    

I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST | RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE

Ben from I Wish You All the Best was simply precious and I wanted to hug him and promise things would get better. My heart broke for him but I loved being witness to his journey. Red, White & Royal Blue was an absolute gem. The match of brilliant, but often remarkably clueless, Alex and the soft and sweet Henry was a joy to experience. Filled with a stellar cast of secondary characters and laugh out loud humor, RW&RB was a true stand-out.

DAY 22: BEST AUDIOBOOK

    

ALL WE EVER WANTED | INTERCEPTED | WELL MET

All We Ever Wanted was my first book from Emily Giffin and it was so, so good. The three narrators brought the main characters to life and had me completely invested in the events taking place. The characters and situations felt so true-to-life and I give a lot of the credit to how well the narrators portrayed the story. Intercepted was a nonstop good time. Narrator January LaVoy voiced Marlee to perfection and I loved every inflection and nuance. It made me an instant fan of Alexa Martin. Well Met was one of my big surprises of the year and the audio version was an absolute delight! Brittany Pressley was a new-to-me narrator and she struck the perfect balance between the story's humor and the more emotional scenes. This is one I'm sure I'll be listening to again.

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE COVER OF THE YEAR?