Best Reads of 2021: My Top 5 ✨

Hello there!

Time to jump into a quick time travel trip back to 2021 because I’m (finally) here with my top reads of last year 😊 I read some great books and it was pretty difficult to prune the list into the very best 5, but I managed! First I’ll present to you these lovelies and then jump into why I loved these so much (and a bit about why you should read them too).

A huge thank you to Julie @ Struck by Stories for making available this gorgeous graphic for listing top books 2021! You can check it out here.

Let’s dive in to this list!

All Books I Read in 2019 – Ranked from Best to Worst

Hi all 💕

Today I get to share with you a post that I have been wanting to do for a long time! I’m diving back into 2019 reading for a bit, and I’m going to be going through all of the 85 books I read in 2019, ranked from my favourite to my least favourite!

This post is going to be a massive, delicious list of books without any explanations, ratings or rantings! The list is mainly based on my enjoyment of each book, in comparison to everything else I read in 2019. If you are interested in getting more information and my full thoughts, take a peek at my other end of the year posts:

Best Books of 2019

Worst Books of 2019

You can also find a review of most of these books on my Goodreads page (I’d love to be your friend there too!).

Also keep your eyes peeled for these posts that are coming up soon:

• 2019 Bookish Statistics
• 20 for 2020: A year-long TBR & Reading challenges

I was lucky in 2019 and I mostly enjoyed the books that I read 😊 Even though something is lower on this scale doesn’t mean that I hated the book!

Let’s get into the list 🤩

Top 10 of 2019: Best Books of 2019

Welcome to my Best & Worst of 2019 series! Although 2020 is in full swing now, I’ll traipse down the memory road to reflect on my 2019 reads throughout January and February!

Today I’m here to present 10 best books I read in 2019. The books may have been published whenever, but I happened to read them in 2019. I’ll start from #10 and move towards my top favourite 🤩

You’ll notice that my ratings of these books don’t perfectly correspond with their position in this list; a 4-star book may be ranked higher than a 5-star one. But that’s because I use different ranking scales for giving star-ratings and listing my favourites. Whereas I try to find a balanced star-rating between quality of the book and my enjoyment of it (see more here about my star-ratings), I decide my favourites mostly based on my enjoyment of the novel and how much I thought about the story since I finished reading it. It’s a funky mix of different ratings and rankings and stars and lists and and and

Ah let’s just get started, I can’t wait to show these books to you!

ARC Review: The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G Drews

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G Drews

YA Contemporary

Goodreads page

347 pages

Published on the 7th of April

I received a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley! Receiving a free copy has not affected my opinions in any way.

Can two broken boys find their perfect home?

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

The Priory of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: Review & Aesthetic

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samatha Shannon

Goodreads page

Adult Fantasy

848 pages

Published on 26th Feb 2019

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Favourite Books of 2018: Top 10 with Stats

The year is coming to its end and it’s time to start combing through what I read in 2018! Today I’ll be listing my favourites of the year, and next I’ll add posts on my least favourites and a complete list of everything I read, ranked in order of preference. So stay on the lookout if you want to see those! 👀

Favourites first! This is a list of ten books that I want to read again and again and fall into their mysterious book-page-arms. I’ll swoon over them until the end of times.

PPssst click on the title to visit the Goodreads page for each book

All the books I read in November + Mini-reviews & Stats!

AAAh where did November go?? It just started right? I feel like I must have slipped into a coma on the 12th of November and just woken up. And all of a sudden it’s cold and dark outside and I’m stressing over exams, PhD applications and Christmas presents. EEk.

Dear lord I can see frost, send help

Although November is a complete blur, I still think that I read a good amount! I took part in two different readathons: the November-long Mythothon and Tome Topple which ran from the 16th to the 29th.

ARC review: Not That Bad by Roxane Gay

Not That Bad: Dispatches from rape culture edited by Roxane Gay

Trigger warning: Not That Bad is a short story collection about rape culture. Please make sure that you’re okay with reading about such difficult topics before you pick it up. Also, to review this book I’ll also talk about these things. I want my blog to be a safe space, so please don’t read this review if you feel like it will affect your mental health negatively. Lots of love!

Published on the 1st of May 2018

Goodreads

Weekend Aesthetic: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G Drews

Weekend Aesthetic is a feature that I saw in The Heart of a Book Blogger’s blog and fell in love with! The idea is to make an aesthetic/mood board for a book that you have read or are currently reading. I’m hoping to do Weekend Aesthetics bi-weekly 😊

I love aesthetics because everyone makes them totally different when describing the same book! I think they are an excellent way of giving book recommendations, sometimes I just want to find a book that gives me a certain mood.

This week Jordan @ The Heart of a Book Blogger featured a book called Now a Major Motion Picture in her Weekend Aesthetic, go check it out!

I decided to feature a book I read recently and absolutely loved. I’m talking about A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews (also known as Paperfury in her amazing bookblog, Instagram and Twitter). This book was unputdownable and made me into a big human mess. In a good way of course.

Weekend Aesthetic: Strange the Dreamer

Yay today I have something brand new to share with you: A Weekend Aesthetic!

The wonderful Jordan @ The Heart of a Book Blogger has been doing Weekend Aesthetics for some time now, and I have loved every single one of her posts. I had a go at doing an aesthetic board for a book when I reviewed State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury, and I fell in love with doing them!

Jordan said that she wouldn’t mind if I started doing Weekend Aesthetics as well, so here we are ☺️ See Jordan’s this week’s gorgeous Weekend Aesthetic here!

I’m hoping to do Weekend Aesthetics bi-weekly, and every aesthetic board will feature a book I’m currently reading or a book I have read previously. This week I made an aesthetic board of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.