9 Best Books I’ve read this 2019

I know, I know. The year haven’t ended yet so why am I making this list now?

Well, first, I no longer intend to read “new-ish” titles for the remaining days of the year. Actually, since the earlier parts of December, I’ve been mostly rereading titles from my shelf. For some reason, I’m just so excited for 2020 that I’ve been setting aside some books on my shelf to be read once the clock strikes 12 and it’s January 1st. (lol) Second, I also wanted to allot the last days of the year into drafting advance posts for this blog. I have several posts that I have to draft so they should be ready to published on the early weeks of January! Yay! And lastly, I wanted to catch-up with some movies and finish some series on Netflix before the year ends.

Originally, I was planning to do a list of the best 19 books instead of 9. But as I start to filter the titles that I’m going to include on my list, I realized that while I loved most of them, there are some that I just loved because it was simply a “fun” read. I wanted to make this list somewhat a challenge for myself thus I decided to narrow it down to just 9 books and let me tell you guys, it was a really tough decision!!

If we are friends on Goodreads you might have also noticed that most of the titles I’ve read this year are back list titles (titles that are released last year or a few years ago). For the past two months, I’ve really been trying to clean out my shelf of  books that I haven’t read yet and I was so happy that I was made a sizable dent on those back list titles that has been sitting on my shelf for years now.  That would explain why most of the titles below are not so new ones.

So, without further adieu here are the 9 Best Books I’ve read this 2019.

Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland

I’ve always been a trash for Vi Keeland x Penelope Ward novels and Dirty Letters just took it up a notch! I really enjoy the whole concept of childhood pen pal, reconnecting and falling in love plot. I just wanted to Griffin and Luca to finally see each other  in person to see if their chemistry also works outside the letters that they have written for each other. Of course, the steamy scenes are still steamy and spot-on as typical of Vi Keeland x Penelope Ward novels. Given that this book really fed my hopeless romantic heart, it deserves a spot on my best book list for this year.

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Furyborn (Empirium #1) by Claire Legrand

This is the first book I’ve read this year and first 5-star rating that I have given as well! I’m off to a good start, right? Since I haven’t written a review about Furyborn, I honestly can’t remember little details about it (lol) but what I do remember is that this is one of the best Fantasy books I’ve read! I really appreciate the unique way how the book tells us two stories in one. I was excited to learn how these stories will merge or how one affects the other.  Overall, a superb fantasy read! I cannot wait to read Kingsbane; hopefully I’ll be able to get a copy early next year so I can finally get to reread Furyborn and continue with Kingsbane.

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His Royal Highness by R.S. Grey

I’ve always been an avid follower of R.S Grey. For some reason, her novels are always a hit for me and His Royal Highness is one of those absolute hit!! I’ve been very vocal that I’m really a hopeless romantic and what more can feed my hopeless romantic heart than a romance story set in a dreamy theme park with a Princess and her Prince Charming. I really love the fresh spin to the Royal Romance Trope that R.S Grey have given on this story. Of course, it was more than just the romance, the story was packed with headstrong and lovable characters who are both struggling with their own life issues. I really enjoy as well the witty banters and engaging dialogues between the characters. (PS. There’s an epilogue and it was the most adorable one!!!)

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Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Finally able to get around and read this book before the year ends! Save The Date was filled with funny wedding disasters after one another! I literally cringe at times because it feels like nothing is ever going into plan. But came in Charlie Grant to save her sister’s day. Charlie is a character that I easily liked. She’s a perfectionist and really loved her family. The whole Grant family dynamic was pretty interesting as well; every character in the family has it’s own edge and flaws. I also enjoy reading snippets from the Grant Central Station comic strip. Can I get more of that please?

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The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia

This is the first book by Kami Garcia that I’ve read and will definitely be not the last! Her writing was smooth and I was easily invested in it. It’s been some time since I’ve read a book with filled with angst, mystery, good girl falling for bad boy trope and I really missed it. To be honest, I really don’t find anything new or different with this book as to others with similar vibes (Beautiful Disaster, Crashing Into You, etc.) but there’s just something about Marco and Frankie’s story that really got me hooked.

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The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

This book surprisingly broke my heart and made me cry! I got this book from a sale; the title and author was familiar and I’ve seen this on Twitter, Goodreads and Blogs, so I thought to myself why not get it, right? At first I thought this was some Fantasy kind of novel but I was mistaken. This book is everything! I cannot grasp the words that would best describe it. But for me, it was heartbreaking, inspiring, hopeful, beautiful, devastating – I just cant explain because I felt everything! I had a pretty rough start but as I get to know the characters, I fell in love with all of them. I love their own whole, sad lonely world and town. I can’t help but to root for all of them to get out of that hell hole because they don’t deserve it. They are a good set of characters that I will surely not forget anytime soon. I’m so looking forward to other novels of this author.

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The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

One of the most fun books I’ve read! Ami and Ethan was thrown together on a pretend honeymoon. Now, who wouldn’t like an all inclusive trip to Hawaii, right? When their siblings (who are getting married to each other) suffered a food poisoning on their wedding, they urge these two to go on their set honeymoon so it won’t go to waste. Ami and Ethan is such a pair – I love their banter, funny scenes and I just love reading about them falling in love with each other on every turn of the page. I’ve always been a huge fan of romantic comedies – movies or books – and Christina Lauren has always been a huge giver of such read.

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The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

I went on a Becky Albtertalli reading marathon last month and find myself loving this book among her other works. Molly is such a fun and relatable character (even with 26+ unrequited crushes). Where is this book when I was 15?? This would’ve helped me a lot especially with my confidence and self esteem then. This book greatly depicts how growing up can feel very very overwhelming and scary at times and how with good support (family, friends) you can get on with it one step at a time. Of course, I wouldn’t have loved it if it wasn’t for Becky’s fantastic writing!

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Underwater by Marisa Reichardt

If I’m not mistaken, this was  the debut novel of Marisa Reichardt and a lot of my friends in Goodreads have given this book high ratings. And after reading it, I come to realize why they loved it. It was interesting, real, raw, heartbreaking but hopeful. Morgan intrigued me and from the get go she already got me interested. Though the romance part happened a bit fast, for me, it still helped Morgan conquer what she is going thru. Also, the whole book has this unique lyrical feel to it.

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Have you read any of the titles I have listed above?

What are your best reads for 2019? Comment and share your links below. 💚