2019 was the year I refound reading and fell in love with books. I didn't read too many books last year but I did find 10 of my favorites. I'm going to list them for you, not in any order since how can you choose a favorite book?
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
In 1969 in New York's Lower East Side a woman has arrived. A traveling psychic who claims that she can tell anyone the day of their death. Four children, the Gold's siblings, seek the woman to hear their fortunes.
The woman's word ring with them for the next five decades. The youngest Simon runs off to the West Coast to search for love in 1980's San Francisco. Youngest daughter Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy. Oldest son Daniel craves security and becomes an army doctor post 9/11. Oldest of all the children, Varya obsesses herself with her research, seeing how far she can go between science and immortality.
I read this book with my online book club and it was a perfect book with lots of discussion questions and many things to think about and take into consideration.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck living with his mother's sister and her husband and their horrible child Dudley. His life changes when he receives a letter telling him that he's a wizard, soon after a strange rescuer brings him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He finally feels like he's somewhere he belongs. Then he finds that he's The Boy Who Lived: the only person who has survived the killing curse conducted by the evil Lord Voldemort.
The first year at Hogwarts is the best year of Harry's life, but things take a dark turn for a bit. There's been an object that has gone missing from the Wizard's Bank, Gringotts. Harry believes and take's on the responsibility to keep it from evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he could have ever imagined.
This was my first time reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and I really wish I hadn't have waiting this long to dig into it. This is my favorite Harry Potter movie and I so enjoyed the book. It brought me back to when I first watched the movie. The characters, the first time Harry walks into Hogwarts, and the action that never gets old. If you've never read Harry Potter I strongly suggest you do!
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Scarlett Dragna has never left her island, where she lives with her sister Tella, and her horrible, powerful, and cruel father. Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and she thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval--the faraway, once a year performance where the audience participates in the show--are over.
But this year, Scarlett's long--dreamt--of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailer, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval's mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.
Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic.
Just writing this synopsis makes me want to reread this trilogy. I loved it so much, it completely captivated me!
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill - the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a Faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presences at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
This was my first Fae book and I loved it! Ugh, reminiscing about all these books makes me want to reread all of them!
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Far beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the pages brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this book that is older than he is.
A bee, a key, and a sword emblazoned on the book lead Zachary to two people will will change the course of his life: Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances. These strangers guide Zachary through masquerade party dances and whispered back room stories to the headquarters of a secret society where doorknobs hang from ribbons, and finally through a door conjured from paint to the place he has always yearned for. Amid twisting tunnels filled with books, gilded ballrooms, and wine-dark romance and mystery. But a battle is raging over the fate of this place and though there are those who would willingly sacrifice everything to protect it, there are just as many intent on its destruction. As Zachary, Mirabel, and Dorian venture deeper into the space and its histories and myths, searching for answers and each other, a timeless love story unspools, casting a spell of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a Starless Sea.
This was the most beautiful book that I have ever read. The writing was magical, it just brings you in and you're in the world of the Starless Sea. I was in a reading slump that lasted months and this brought me out so quickly.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It's called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway--a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this a game in which only one can be left standing, and the curcus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love--a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats over head.
After reading the Starless Sea from Erin Morgenstern, I knew that I had to read her other book. It was just as magical as the Starless Sea. I knew after I read both of her novels how so many readers can be entranced in her writing.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries--and she is the only creature who can break it's spell.
My grandmother gave me this series and I'm so happy that she did. I read through all three books in one week and holy moly, they were amazing!
The Turn of The Key by Ruth Ware
When she stumbles across the ad, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss--a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten--but the luxurious "smart" home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.
What she doesn't know is that she's stepping into a nightmare--one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.
Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn't just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the household with booming music, or turned lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn't just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn't even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.
It was everything.
she knows she's made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn't always ideal. She's not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she's not guilty--at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.
I could not stop reading this! It was such a good thriller, and I can't wait to read more of Ruth Ware's work!
The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand
On Christmas Ever five years ago, Holly was visited by three ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she'd become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways.
She didn't.
And then she died.
Now she's stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge--as the latest Ghost of Christmas Past. Every year, they save another miserly grouch. Every year, Holly stays frozen at seventeen while her family and friends gon on living without her. So far, Holly's afterlife has been miserable.
But this year, everything is about to change...
It's funny, I read this book before I read the Christmas Carol. I mean I've watched different versions of it. But this was such an interesting read. Taking the Christmas Carol and making it into a modern version of a normal work day. Loved it!
10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
Sophie wants one thing for Christmas--a little freedom from her overprotective parents. So when they decide to spend Christmas in South Louisiana with her very pregnant older sister, Sophie is looking forward to some much needed private (make-out) time with her long-term boyfriend, Griffin. Except it turns out that Griffin wants a little freedom from their relationship. Cue devastation.
Heartbroken, Sophie flees to her grandparents' house, where the rest of her boisterous extended family is gathered for the holiday. That's when her nonna devises a (not so) brilliant plan: Over the next ten days, Sophie will be set up on ten different blind dates by different family members. Like her sweet cousin Sara, who sets her up with a hot guy at an exclusive underground party. Or her crazy aunt Patrice, who signs Sophie up for a lead role in a living nativity. With a boy who barely reaches her shoulder. And a screaming baby.
When Griffin turns up unexpectedly and begs for a second chance, Sophie feels more confused than ever. Because maybe, just maybe, she's started to have feelings for someone else... Someone who is definitely no available. This is going to be the worst Christmas break ever...or is it?
This was so cute! I tried to read more contemporaries around Christmas and this was definitely the best one. It would be such a cute movie and I would watch it in a heartbeat.
These are my top 10 books of 2019! Were any of these your favorites? Have you read any before? Let me know! I would love to heard what you think!
