These are four of my most anticipated book releases for the first half of 2019!
The Wicked King by Holly Black – just want to put it out there I did not like The Cruel Prince. I tried very much to like it because everyone absolutely loves it, but I just didn’t gel to the book. I found Jude to be incredibly unlikeable and naïve and the storyline was a little slow paced and all over the place. But because of that ending I do want to continue on with The Wicked King and give this series one more chance. Release date 8th January 2019
The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson – Truly Devious made it to my favourite books of 2018 lists. I was completely taken by surprise by that book as I kind of picked it up on a whim without really knowing too much about it. I was highly entertained throughout the course of the book and plot was woven in such a way that had you second guessing every single character and their motives! Release Date 22nd January 2019
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo – I marathoned the Grisha Series and the Six of Crows duology a few years ago and I was obsessed! I believe this is going to be a new series in the same world as the previous books, which makes me very happy! I love Leigh Bardugo’s characters and her plots are always amazing! Release date 29th January 2019
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi – Children of Blood and Bone was I think one of the most hyped books of 2018 when it was released. So hyped in fact that I had to pick it up immediately and give it a read. I will say that I liked it but I didn’t really love it as much as everyone else does. It was very fast paced with a very unique magic system that kept me invested throughout the story. I can’t wait to see where Tomi Adeyemi will take the storyline next. Release date 5th March 2019
The first two books on this list are The Way of Kings and 
The next books are both by Sarah J Maas and they are 
The next book on my top 10 is Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson. This was unexpectedly great! I did see this book all over my feed on Instagram and on booktube and from what I heard of the premise I was intrigued. Then I picked the book up and gave it a read and fell in love with it! Mila is so feisty and true to herself even though it distinguishes her from the rest of her peers. She is an amazing friend who will literally stop at nothing even death to figure out the mystery of her best friend’s apparent suicide. ⭐️4.5/5 stars
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab I read way back in January and it was the start of this lovely journey into discovering Victoria Schwab’s writing! I hadn’t read any of her books until I picked up the Darker Shade of Magic series and I haven’t looked back since. This magic system was unique and intricately detailed and the plot was highly entertaining and fast paced. Kell was definitely a stand out for me in the series, I loved how endearing he was and the relationship he shared with Rhys was a joy to read! ⭐️4/5 stars
Another book I really loved this year was Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. I don’t get around to reading a lot of mystery thrillers and when I picked up this book I was just in the mood for something different and this really captivated me. I enjoyed the flashbacks from the time of the kidnapping to present day and how we have a new set of crimes occurring in the same setting. It has you second guessing every character and their motives and really had me turning the pages! ⭐️4/5 stars
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of those cases where the books really lives up to the hype! This story was beautifully written, highly engaging, fast paced, gripping, with a twist at the end that you just can’t predict. Evelyn as a character is wonderful. She is sassy, cut-throat, yet still relatable. Highly reccomend you give it a read if you haven’t already! ⭐️4/5 stars
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss was simply amazing! This is an epic fantasy novel following the life story of Kvothe. It jumps from present day time where he is retelling his life story to a chronicler and to his childhood and his many hardships and strife he’s had to endure over the years. The world is huge and the magic system is unique and interesting. I fell headlong into this book when I read it back in March and I still find myself thinking about it every now and then. ⭐️4/5 stars
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas – I think this is mostly my fault, I went into this book thinking it was going be as in depth and plot driven as the other books in the series and being a novella I just didn’t get any of that… It was a little uneventful and there wasn’t as much action or adventure that I was yearning for. So it was a bit average and boring to me. ⭐️3/5 stars
hopes for this series, when Restore Me came out earlier this year everyone was scrambling to pick it up and were hyping the series up but when I read them it wasn’t as good as what I thought. The premise of the books is really intriguing but the execution didn’t surpass my expectations. 
The Darkest Minds Series by Alexandra Bracken – Another series that was super hyped when the movie adaptation came out earlier this year as well as a new paperback set… Again I felt like the premise of the books was super interesting but as I was getting into them I was just bored. I gave the first book a 4/5 as I liked the introduction of the characters and there was a few action sequences that kept my interest piqued but as an overall series it didn’t do it for me. 
The first 3/5 star rating was the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series by Rick Riordan. I felt that Magnus was a little bit too juvenile for me at the start of this series; I didn’t quite gel with him as a character in the first book and most of the second. I took me like 2 weeks to finish the Sword of Summer as I couldn’t get into the plot and Magnus just felt like a second rate version of Percy to me. That being said he did redeem himself in the Hammer of Thor and the plot definitely picked up and was more action packed and that was more entertaining as the series continued.
The next book I gave a 3/5 rating was Everless by Sarah Holland. There wasn’t anything inherently bad about this book. I thought the premise was definitely interesting; the thought of time being a currency that you could trade and ingest was highly original. It had a lot of twists and turns and the magic system was nicely detailed and described. It really only got a 3/5 from me because I wasn’t blown away at the end of the book.
The 3rd book on my list is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The Night Circus was just kind of ok for me. The plot wasn’t action packed enough, it was very slow paced. The setting was beautiful and the prose was lyrical and detailed, it wasn’t capturing my attention whilst I was reading it. The ending as well was a bit underwhelming for me and that really influenced my decision to give it a 3/5 stars.
The next book on my list is The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. The plot was entertaining and fast paced and it was a quick easy read, the only reason I gave it a 3/5 was because I thought Monty to be a bit pretentious. I found him to not be too likeable for me, however, I thought Felicity was quite quirky and enjoyable, Percy also didn’t really leave an impression on me. Although I did enjoy the representation of diversity of characters.
The last series I will be speaking about on my list that I gave all books a 3/5 stars was The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E Pearson. This series includes The Kiss of Deception, The Heart of Betrayal and The Beauty of Darkness. I think at the time I read these books I wasn’t in the mood to read them. I’m the kind of reader where if I start a series and I have all the books in the series in my possession I like to marathon them and get through it as soon as I can. I don’t like to leave them too long because I either end up forgetting half the series or I never get around to finishing. I started the Kiss of Deception and I was like alright not too bad and I pushed through and read the next two books and at the end of them I just didn’t really have any overwhelming feelings. I didn’t really love them, I didn’t really hate them so I averaged my rating out and gave them all a 3/5.
Amy Leigh Reads 