2018 Wrap-Up: Best 12 Books

Hello my dear friends! I hope you had an awesome holiday week! Mine was great, quiet and cozy. Just what I needed this year, honestly.

With 2018 almost done, I wanted to do a yearly Wrap-Up, and also share my favorite 12 reads of 2018. Without further ado, let's dive into it!

2018 Wrap-Up: Best 12 Books

1. Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia (my review here) - This is a story about learning how to trust again, both in others and in yourself. Peyton has been through a lot in her short life, and I really enjoyed to see Garcia tackle a subject so delicate. I remember also reading the "Word from the Author" part at the end of the book and getting a deeper understanding of the book itself. I truly enjoyed this book and I can see myself rereading this book.

2. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (my review here) - This book called to my inner child a lot. Growing up, I always wished to have gorier, darker fairy tales, and this book gave me that in spades. I also loved seeing a "behind the scenes" theme throughout the book, with short glimpses into the lives of fairy tale characters being shown here and there. I am very excited for the sequel, an even more excited for the fairy tale book to come out.

3. To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo (my review here) - I fell in love with the writing and the story itself. A dark retelling of The Little Mermaid, this was definitely one of my favorite retellings I've ever read. I am very curious to see what Christo's next project is going to be, and I know I'll be reading it as soon as it comes out.

4. Tess Of The Road by Rachel Hartman (my review here) - I think this is one of the books that not only was among my favorite, but also among the ones that surprised me the most this year. While the pacing was a little too slow at first, I loved discovering what Tess went through, and see her acknowledge and deal with her grief, but also fight to live. There are a lot of really important themes being discussed in this book, and I thought the author did a good job addressing them and developing them throughout the book. TW: rape, underage pregnancy, underage drinking, alcoholism, death of a child.

5. The Last Watchman Of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas (my review here) - I fell in love with this book. It was the perfect historical fiction for me, it not only explored a part of Egyptian history I never knew or learned about before, but it was only an exploration of a family's history. I love reading about where a person comes from, what his or her history is, what their forefathers did, and this book explored that. There's also an exploration of how, for various reasons, one chapter ends, while another one begins. I think I'll reread this book in the future, and I'll definitely try out more of the author's books.

6. It's A Wonderful Night by Jaimie Admans (my review here) - This book was probably my favorite Christmas themed book ever. It was both a story of the tragic reality of a small town that, due to the economy, is slowly losing the charm and the cheer it always had, but also the story of how much you should help someone when you know something you shouldn't. Is it moral to help out someone in need of help, when you can break a ton of privacy rules, or should you keep your distance? Would you forgive yourself if you didn't reach out? It's a story about depression and suicidal thoughts, on a pretty sad background of a Christmas-less town, but a heartwarming story of people willing to help one another and their community as a whole.

7. The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork (my review here) - I really enjoyed this story. It was a charming retelling of the Nutcracker and Pied Piper, and it had that "book inside a book" feel that I absolutely love. I also enjoyed reading about the villain, to be honest. It was one of those perfect holiday stories to read. I also enjoyed the writing style and I'll definitely try out more of this author's work.

8. Sunstone Vol.1 by Stjepan Šejić - It's not a huge surprise I loved Šejić's comic book, to be honest. However, I didn't expect how much I would love it. I was a bit scared to pick this book up at first, because I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I had nothing to worry about. I loved that this book was more an exploration of the emotional relationship between Ally and Lisa, and of BDSM as a way of openly communicate with a partner, than a book about the characters' sexual exploits. I definitely will read the rest of the volumes in the upcoming year.

9. Evidence Of Desire by Lexi Blake - It shouldn't be a surprise that a Lexi Blake book ended up on this list. I've said this many times, that Blake is one of my top 10 authors, and this upcoming release from her is amazing. There are many things that are great about this book, and I am very excited to see what comes next in this series.

10. Into The Darkest Night by Cassandra Giovanni (my review here) - This book was everything I wished for. I am a huge fan of the Arrow tv show and this book took everything that was amazing about that show, and the superhero story genre in general, and made it more. More amazing, bigger, darker, more more more. I am very excited to read the next installment.

11. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - So Spotify has a Christmas Stories playlist and I was browsing through it randomly a few days ago and I saw there was a dramatization of the story made for radio from the 50s I think. I decided to listen to it mostly because I love radio plays, and let me tell you, I adored it. I forgot how much fun it is to listen to old radio plays, but now I want to listen to more of them. I remember watching the Disney adaptation of the story and I loved it, and listening to the play definitely made me love the story even more.

12. 7 Twisted Fairy Tales by Tina Glasneck - This is a flash fiction collection that I adored. It's a really dark take on popular fairy tales, from Cinderella to Three Little Pigs, and I loved it. I definitely liked how dark Glasneck made these stories, and I was left wanting more. Even though these were really short stories, sometimes even just a page long, they were really powerful in my opinion. The one with Hansel and Gretel is probably my favorite retelling, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a full book from the author with her retelling of that particular fairy tale. I'm definitely going to read more books from this author.

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I read 131 books so far in 2018 (can I cram another one before tomorrow ends?) and it's a hard task to pick out a handful of favorites, but I feel like this year I have a lot of different genres, topics and formats in this list. 2018 may not have been my most successful reading year, but it definitely was the most daring one so far. Here's to a similar 2019!

Let's talk. Did you read any of these books? What did you think about them? What are your favorite reads of 2018?