Favourite Books Released in the Last Ten Years (one book for each year)

This weeks Top 10 Tuesday is my favourite books released in the last 10 years (one book for each year). This was a lot of fun to come up with, there were some years where I had 3-4 books that were all released together and it was really difficult to just choose one, but I think this list represents my reading tastes well!

2019 – The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (Published Jan 22nd 2019)

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2018The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware (Published May 29th 2018)

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2017Red Sister by Mark Lawrence (Published April 4th 2017)

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2016A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas (Published May 3rd 2016)

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2015Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Published September 29th 2015)

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2014Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Published March 4th 2014)

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2013Inferno by Dan Brown (Published May 13th 2013)

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2012Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (Published August 2nd 2012)

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2011A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Published May 5th 2011)

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2010The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Aug 31st 2010)

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2009The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (Published October 6th 2009)

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5 Books/Series with Queens 👑

I thought I would do a super specific reader recommendation post about 5 books/series that includes a Queen who is integral in the overall plot.

Three Dark Crowns Series by Kendare Blake

This is a super dark, atmospheric young adult fantasy series revolving around 3 queens. These triplets are born every generation and when they come of age they have to fight to the death until one Queen emerges as the victor. Like I said the premise for this book is super dark, yet the characters are really diverse and the magic system is interesting and engaging! There is still one more book coming out this year that I am highly anticipating!

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The Red Queen Series by Victoria Aveyard

This is a really polarising series I find, either people love it or hate it and I really didn’t mind it. This world is divided by blood-red or silver. The reds are the commoners and the silvers are the elite, upper class that each has some form of power. We follow the protagonist Mare who is a Red blood but is discovered to possess her own powers which threaten to destroy the balance of power in the kingdom. I highly enjoyed this series, I was entertained throughout and the arc’s that some of these characters undertake are wonderful to read!

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The Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief Series follows the main protagonist Gen who is a master thief and has boasted that he can steal anything in the world. Someone takes him up on his offer and he finds himself in the middle of an incredible heist to steal a relic off a neighbouring kingdom. This is a very politically charged series that keeps getting grander as the books progress. The characters are each so diverse and distinct and there are so many secrets and schemes that enrich the plotline!

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Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas

I had to put it in! I am kind of trash for this series tbh! If you haven’t heard this series revolves around an assassin named Calaena. She has been imprisoned in a salt mine and the crown prince comes and offers her a deal to enter a tournament to be the King’s champion assassin. There is so much character development and magical elements and crazy plotlines that really kept me invested and entertained throughout this series. I highly enjoyed it and it was a wild ride from the first book to the last!

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This epic fantasy standalone revolves around several strong, brave, female protagonists; one of which happens to be a Queen. This book is very large but don’t let that intimidate you, it reads very quickly and there is a whole lot of action and adventure mixed in! The premise is super unique, the world is richly developed and vast and the storyline had many twists and turns that keep you highly entertained!

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Do you have any books/series involving Queens that you would recommend???

My Favourite Books of 2018

This is going to be the books throughout 2018 that I rated the highest and loved the most. There were sooooo many fantastic books I have read this year and I am so proud of my progress and how many books I managed to get through!

91FZ41RwZzL917AnD4pjfLThe first two books on this list are The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson! I absolutely love everything about The Stormlight Archives. I kind of picked up The Way of Kings on a whim earlier this year as I have heard nothing but good things about this series and of course after getting into them I am hooked! I highly recommend anyone who likes fantasy/high fantasy to give them a read as they are just simply AMAZING! Both ⭐️5/5 stars

978140888797433590260The next books are both by Sarah J Maas and they are Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash the last two books in the Throne of Glass series. I absolutely loved these two books! I thought Tower of Dawn was like a breath of fresh air, the new characters mixed with a few of our old favourites in a completely new setting and having this epic conclusion in Kingdom of Ash that I found to be very befitting and deserving of this long, arduous  journey that Sarah J Maas has taken us on! Both ⭐️5/5 stars absolutely loved them!

35707056The 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

51xXXt6Yw2LA 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

29589074Another 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

51VFrzslYiL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_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

186074The 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

81GINBuWPOLQueen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare was my most highly anticipated release this year and I absolutely loved it! The plot was expansive and adventurous and the characters are complex and diverse. I loved that Cassandra Clare gives us so much representation in this series and incorporates them genuinely into the storyline. This book epitomises everything that I love about the fantasy genre. It ticked all my boxes and if you liked her previous work but haven’t picked up the Dark Artifices series yet I HIGHLY recommend that you do! ⭐️5/5 stars

My Least Favourite Books of 2018

I feel like I had a pretty good reading year. I haven’t rated anything under a 3/5 stars which I think is pretty solid. This is kind of like a part 2 because I did my 10 Lowest Rated Books of 2018 so far a few months back so I’ll try not to double up on those books but feel free to check that one out as well as my feeling haven’t changed on those books either.

So with that being said my lowest rated/least favourite books of 2018 are:

31076583A 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

The first three books in the Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi – I had pretty high PicMonkey Collagehopes 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. Shatter Me ⭐️3/5, Unravel Me ⭐️3/5 and Ignite Me ⭐️3/5

darkest-minds-giveaway-featureThe 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 Darkest Minds ⭐️4/5, Never Fade ⭐️3/5 and In the Afterlight ⭐️3/5

1966969Fire Study by Maria V Snyder – I loved the first two books in the Study Series soo much that I went into Fire Study with those same expectations and unfortunately it didn’t work out for me. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this book it just was really hard to finish. There was everything there that would otherwise keep me entertained but the pace of the book was a little slow and I had to kind of force myself to finish it which kind of spoiled the book for me. ⭐️3/5 stars

81SuJQI8uNLEdgedancer by Brandon Sanderson – I liked Lift as a character but after the immensely intricate, convoluted and expansive world of the previous books in the Stormlight Archives I found Edgedancer to be a little too confined and slow paced. I am an epic fantasy lover so I relished reading The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance and I wasn’t as equally thrilled at the end of Edgedancer as I was with those book. ⭐️3/5 stars

November Wrap Up

I had a pretty good reading month for November. I completed nearly all the books on my TBR so I am happy about that! I had a little bit of an up and down month though, there were a few books that I really loved and a few that I really struggled to finish. I had to kind of push myself to read which makes me want to not read at all, so it was a bit of a pain. I have reviews on all the books I read in the month of November so feel free to click on the titles to check them out!

Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab – ⭐️4/5 stars

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken – ⭐️4/5 stars

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas – ⭐️5/5 stars

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi – ⭐️3/5 stars

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi – ⭐️3.5/5 stars

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken – ⭐️3/5 stars

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera – ⭐️4.5/5 stars

In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken – ⭐️3.5/5 stars

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi – ⭐️3/5 stars

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake – ⭐️4/5 stars

Happy Reading📚

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