9th Annual End Of Year Survey – 2018 edition!!

***2018 READING STATS***

Number of Books You Read: 137–can I make it to 140 by the end of the year?
Number of Re-reads: no idea. I didn’t think to keep track, and Goodreads didn’t spit it out for me. Probably not a ton this year, though I usually re-read a lot!
Genre You Read the Most From: Definitely YA, probably contemporary

1. Best Book You Read in 2018?

I don’t know how a person is supposed to reasonably answer this. I have too many 5-star reads, too many favorites, and too many that I continuously think about long after I read them. In an effort to avoid actually choosing, I’m going with the first book that I gave 5 stars in 2018.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going to Love More But Didn’t?

I was sure I was going to love this one. It’s a total me book, everything about it just screams my name, but I couldn’t get into it. This one ended up being a sad DNF for me.

3. Most Surprising (In a Good or Bad Way) Book You Read? 

I will never get over the twist that happens 2/3’s into this book and how it completely switches genres on you after.

4. Book You “Pushed” the Most People to Read (and they did)?

Pretty sure that I recommended this book to everyone, no matter what genre they typically read.

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best Sequel of 2018? Best Series Ender of 2018?

Loved the start to this new Tristan & Eseult series.

Welcome to my favorite author and her latest offering. I loved this sequel so damn much and watching my girl Molly finally start to get things right.

Obsidio is a close second, but it’s gotta be Kingdom of Ash. This series has gone on for so many years, and it was an epic finish.

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2018?

I scored a manuscript of Erin’s debut at Yallwest last spring and warily read it this fall. I wasn’t convinced I’d like the book, but I was convinced that I liked Erin. I’d been quietly following her on Twitter for awhile, and at the time she was posting a lot of political stuff that really gelled with me. So I picked up her book, and to my surprise (honestly, I was surprised. I hate country music so I thought this might be a DNF), I completely adored it and gushed to Erin endlessly. The gushing probably helped, but Erin is a total sweetheart and we send each other little notes all the time now.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, or horror, or retellings of the classics, but all of these combined with Kiersten White and that cover was damn near perfection.

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Non-stop action from start to finish, a stellar finish to a trilogy, who’s only fault remains the color of that cover.

9. Book You Read In 2018 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

I typically read this book at least once a year, so it’s a good guess.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

Um, again way too many. So I’m going with the first one I shelved as “cover love” for 2018.

11. Most memorable character of 2018?

I was going to pick Sadie, but I think she’s going to already get a lot of love from other readers. So I’m going with Sasha Cade. I can only hope to have as much grace and clarity as Sasha does in her final days and oh god I can’t even talk about it I’m going to start crying again.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018?

“The past doesn’t exactly repeat itself. People said that it did. But to me, the past was wise. It knew how to repackage itself again and again, so each time felt original and familiar.”

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2018?

I’m not one to call a book life-changing lightly, but this one really changed my life. I don’t typically talk about weight or dieting on here because they can be so personal and triggering, but this book really made me rethink my relationship with food and diets. It inspired me to start working on an Intuitive Eating practice, to stop judging food as good or bad, and to try giving myself a break. I very highly recommend this book to anyone with a body.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read? 

I can’t believe I didn’t start this series until this year. Now there are like 11 spin-offs and a hundred books and it’s completely overwhelming, but I still own most of them and wish I had read them all already.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2018?

How is a person supposed to pick just one? More than half of the notes I take while reading are quotes. So instead, I’m giving you every quote I took down from just one book I read in 2018. This book is about many things, but you’ll see what I mainly took from it:

“I want to understand everything I can about myself in a world that often makes no sense.”

“I don’t know who I am without this. That’s the truest thing I could say.”

“Thank God for friends who learn to speak to you in your own language rather than making you learn theirs.”

“You deserve to be here. You deserve to exist. You deserve to take up space in this world of men.”

“I want to shut up the small, nasty voice in my head whispering that maybe they’re right and maybe I am unsuited for this and maybe I am hysterical, because even though I don’t think I am, it’s hard to be raised in a world where you’re taught to always believe what men say without doubting yourself at every step.”

“No one calls a girl spirited or opinionated or intimidating or any of those words you can pretend are complimentary and means it to be. They’re all just different ways of calling her a bitch.”

“You’re trying to play a game designed by men. You’ll never win, because the deck is stacked and marked, and also you’ve been blindfolded and set on fire.”

“I wonder what it’s like to be too beaten down to fight anymore. I hope I never learn.”

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2018?

150 pages

992 pages

17. Book That Shocked You The Most
(Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)

Hi I’m forever on pins and needles until the final book comes out especially after this ending, what even just happened to me.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

Zorie & Lennon

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Caledonia and her sisters

“Never underestimate the girls of this world”

20. Favorite Book You Read In 2018 From an Author You’ve Read Previously

Katie Cotugno is my catnip, I will read anything and everything she ever writes, including an adult romance series she quietly released earlier this year.

21. Best Book You Read In 2018 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else?

I’ve been bullied into reading this for my Traveling Book Group by Patricia and I hate myself every time I open it.

22. Newest Fictional Crush From a Book You Read In 2018?

Look I know Gabe has his issues but 9 Days & 9 Nights really cemented him as a fictional crush for me. This book and it’s relationships are messy as hell, but so real. There is so much hurt and heartbreak from the first book to heal from, and then trying to process everything that’s happened since…it’s tricky. And Gabe doesn’t handle things perfectly. But if you like imperfect boys who fall for imperfect girls, I think you’ll love him too.

23. Best 2018 Debut You Read?

Hmm, this is rough. I read some incredible debuts in 2018, but they don’t actually come out until 2019, so I’m not sure if I should count them…I think no. Okay, so a debut FROM 2018.

This book was insane. It was such a weird and twisty and confusing fantasy. It’s far from my favorite book of 2018, but for a debut it was pretty incredible work.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

This book had not one but TWO excellent settings with some great worldbuilding, particularly on Mount Ruin. It was easy to switch back and forth between there and the palace without getting confused, but I really enjoyed each of them.

25. Book That Was the Most FUN to Read/Put a Smile On Your Face?

This book was a total delight for me. I could not get enough of all the family dynamics, the wedding mishaps, Waffles the beagle. I had a smile from beginning to end, I called in sick to work so I wouldn’t have to stop reading, and now that I’m writing this I’m tempted to drop everything else I have going on and read this all over again right this second.

26. Book That Made You Cry or Nearly Cry in 2018?

I’ve mentioned before that Kingdom of Ash made me cry so much that the husband tried to take the book away, but When My Heart Joins the Thousand was a surprise tearjerker for me. I was a huge fan of it, but it was super emotional!

27. Hidden Gem of the Year?

I hardly ever hear about this one, but I really enjoyed it! It was different, and it landed on my “I Will Go Down With This Ship” shelf for reasons that are not at all obvious.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

This book, about a girl who’s twin brother is accused of rape by her friend and his girlfriend, is so hard to read. Mara knows that Owen would never do that, but she also knows that Hannah would never lie about it. My motto is and always will be “BELIEVE THE GIRLS”, and it was really nice to see a book centered around the idea.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2018? 

The answer to this will never not be The Illuminae Files. There’s not a single page in any of them that’s just plain text without something extra and exciting.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

This is an older one that I just read this year, and it made me mad AND I didn’t like it. I knew before reading it that obviously the couple in question would break up. As I read, I kept wondering what happened because they’re both supposedly heartbroken and so in love. When it was revealed at the end, I thought, OF COURSE YOU BROKE UP WITH THAT TOOL AND WHY ARE WE NOT ALL MORE MAD AT HIM?

Also, the repeated use of the word “gay” as an adjective? Just no.

1. New Favorite Blog/Bookstagram/YouTube Channel You Discovered in 2018?

2018 is the year I met my best bloggy friend, Patricia. We started our blogs around the same time and immediately had a very strong connection and super similar taste in books. We recommend a lot to each other, and sometimes can also tell each other when there’s something the other one can skip which is super helpful.

2. Favorite Post You Wrote In 2018?

I really like one of my first posts, Why Do I Read YA?. I also very much enjoyed sharing the book I wrote when I was four years old, The Bear Is Here at the Store.

3. Favorite Bookish Related Photo You Took in 2018