Tag: favorite

Favorite Books of 2019

I can’t believe it’s the end of 2019! It’s the end of a decade! We are now on to the 2020s, and I’m pretty excited for what they’ll bring. I’m not going to lie, I read a lot of really good books in 2019. It was really hard to choose the following six (sort of) books as my favorites of 2019. I read some books I liked, a few books I didn’t like, and a lot of books I loved! Without further ado, here are my favorite books of 2019:

The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This book is a love letter to readers everywhere. It tells the story of Daniel, the son of a bookseller. His father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where he finds a mysterious book, that he loves. When he tries to look for more books written by the author, he finds that they are systematically being destroyed. I loved this book. It is poetic, and beautiful and I cried much of the time I was reading it.

The Nevernight Chronicles – Jay Kristoff

I had to cheat and put these all together, because I loved each and every single one of these books! I read these one after another, and I have no idea how anyone could have waited the two years that it took for Darkdawn to be released after Godsgrave. I always think about these books and always want to re-read them.

Into the Drowning Deep-Mira Grant

While I didn’t really LOVE the ending of this book, I loved reading it and it scared me to pieces. This is a book about a scientific crew that navigates to the Mariana trench in search of the mermaids that massacred the previous voyage.

The entirety of this novel had me sitting on the edge of my seat and jumping at every bump in the night. The way these mermaids were written was downright terrifying.

I would highly recommend anyone who is in search of a thrill and as terrified of the great deep blue as I am.

The Poppy War- R.F Kuang

This is the story of Rin, a young orphan who is accepted into the top military academy in the empire of Nikara.

This story was gory and bloody and told the tragedies of war, with magic and shamanism to boot. This is definitely not a story for the faint of heart, as it doesn’t really sugar coat the aspects of war. There are parts that are gory and descriptive, but I think it added to the story.

The characters are morally ambiguous which is another trait I love to read about in a character.

The Fever King- Victoria Lee

I’ve recently read and reviewed this one. I especially love how poignant this story is to the struggles that the United States is going through today, magical diseases withstanding, obviously.

I loved the characters in this story and was blown away by the writing and the plot.

Not to mention that this story also has a webcomic that has gorgeous art. Read it here.

His Majesty’s Dragon

I recently read and reviewed this one as well! (The last few months of 2019 were really good for favorite reads it seems).

This book was about a naval captain, Laurence, who finds a dragon egg. Once this dragon egg hatches, the dragon, Temeraire is bonded to Laurence.

So begins the adventure of these two as they join the King’s Aerial Corps to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. I really loved the bond that Temeraire and Laurence have in this book and the way that it continued to grow.

I also really loved the idea of the alternative history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes alt-history or dragons!

What were your favorite books of 2019? Did we have any that were similar? What are you excited to read in 2020? I hope you have a wonderful rest of your year, and a very happy new year!

Have a wonderful day, year, and as always, keep reading.

~Cam

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Throwback Thursday: Top 5 Favorite Fantasy Novels

Hi there! Happy Thursday my fellow book lovers! I’m so happy that it’s almost Friday and have plans to spend the weekend curled up with a good book. I have a root canal scheduled for Friday (big ow) but once that’s over, I have time to spend curled up reading, with a nice cup of coffee and a pair of cats to keep me company! I also plan on playing some No Man’s Sky! NMS is a video game that allows you to explore a whole procedurally generated universe, so if you love space and you want to explore a universe with a very intriguing story, I’d highly recommend it. What are you doing this weekend?

Now, on to the post! This is something I want to do on a weekly basis where I talk about some of the past books that I’ve read and enjoyed in the past. For starters, I wanted to start sweet and simple and talk about some of my favorite fantasy novels. I’m talking the “I would take these on a trip to a deserted island” type books. These are in no particular order, but they’re some of my favorites. I’m going to try and include all of the information for where to get these and the Goodreads links. Please tell me what your favorite fantasy novels are and if any of yours match up with mine. If you don’t like the ones I mentioned, tell me why. I love to hear differing opinions and like to discuss the why and how of things. Anyway, onward:

Nevernight

Okay, okay, I know that I literally just read this, but it is one of my favorites nonetheless. While the writing style is definitely not for everyone, and I definitely struggled with it at the beginning, I quickly fell in love. I truly cared about the characters and the world was VERY fleshed out. There are details about the world that are elaborated upon in footnotes. This includes things like terms the reader would not be familiar with otherwise, customs and traditions that are important to members of the world and different facets of the religion. While others found that these foot notes distracted them from the flow of the story, I thought that they added insight that was very important to the story and helped me get a better understanding for the world. The characters, while un-likable at many points in the story, I found myself rooting for them and sobbing at certain points when they were in danger. I am currently reading the second book (at the time of this posting) and cannot wait to find out what happens. I recommend this book to anyone who loves grim, dark, fantasy stories, and doesn’t mind a lot of detailed gore.

Amazon(US) || Goodreads

Strange the Dreamer (Duology)

Okay, so I can’t really separate these two because they belong together. The writing is lyrical and poetic. This has some beautiful phrases and is very character driven. You’ll find yourself lost in the city of Weep and falling in love with all the characters, Lazlo, Sarai, Sparrow, Feral and Ruby, even Minya. I found myself lost in this world and feeling a connection to the characters that I had not felt in a very long time. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves character driven, lyrical stories. The ending of the first book broke me, and the second one healed me and then broke me again. Just read it already. Also, I have major cover love for the UK hardbacks and US paperback editions.

Amazon(US) || Goodreads

Six of Crows (Duology)

Okay, this is another duology in which I can’t separate the two books. This is another character driven book.(Do you see a pattern here?) This is a heist novel that follows 6 characters, Kaz, Jesper, Wylan, Matthais, NINA FREAKING ZENIK, and Inej. All of these characters are all very fleshed out and have compelling back stories that give you some background and why they make the choices they do. I love all of the characters, all for different reasons. There is some disabled rep(own voices as well, since the author Leigh Bardugo uses a cane like Kaz Brekker). There is also some LGBT rep. This story melted my heart and I felt connected with the characters. As previous stated, this is character driven, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fully packed with plot and drama. I highly recommend this series to those who love character driven stories chock full of action and drama.

Amazon(US) || Goodreads

Mistborn

I’ll tell you what, Sanderson has a WAY with words. He truly knows how to craft a universe, and what’s more is he knows how to craft a magic system. This isn’t a soft magic system either. It’s a hard magic system that has rules that cannot be broken, which I love. Brandon Sanderson also knows how to craft characters and make you feel something.The characters are all their own people with their own personality. This is a story where the bad guys won and the aftermath of this. The story tells of the rebellion that ensues afterward. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve read this, so the details are a little blurry, but I plan on re-reading this soon.

Amazon(US) || Goodreads

The Lies of Locke Lamora

The tale that Scott Lynch has woven in The Gentleman Bastards series (at least what I’ve read) is amazing. This is such a self contained world and you really get to know the city of Camorr. This book probably has one of the best friendships of all time. The characters are compelling and morally gray. I truly loved reading this and read the entire book on the edge of my seat. Again, this story is very character driven and you focus on the relationships and friendships that are formed. I highly recommend that you pick this one up.

Amazon(US) || Goodreads

There’s my list! What’s yours? Comment below and tell me some of your favorites! I’d love to hear from you.

~Keep reading,
Cam 🙂