The time has finally come! After a whole year of reading I have narrowed down my 57 books to my Top 10. To be honest, it wasn’t that hard to choose my top 10. My reading year this year has included a lot of average books so the ones listed below are part of a small number of books which exceeded 3 stars!

These books are in no particular order.

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Thunderhead – I read this book back in March after having read the first book in the series. I loved the first book and didn’t think it could of been topped. I was apprehensive going into this due to how much I loved the first book. I loved the direction it when in with the introduction of the new character Greyson, the exploration into the Thunderhead, the political undercurrent of the world. One of the things that I loved from the first book which continued into this one, was the philosophical look at death and what happens when you put the power to take a live in another persons hands.

The Eye of the World – Earlier in the year, I DNFd the Lord of the Rings trilogy due to the dull pacing and boring writing. I really wanted an epic fantasy in my life so I did my research. After watching a bunch of booktubers I saw Daniel Greene and Merphy Napier’s videos about the Wheel of Time series and it grabbed. So I picked up the first one. I was obsessed with this story. I was invested wholeheartedly into the plot, I was invested in the characters, in the friendships. Jordan did a great job of giving you a lot of information and action where the first book didn’t feel like a set up book for the series but also left a lot hanging in the air for the rest of the series.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – I was not really interested into this book. I saw it pop up numerous times and just never considered it but a friend of mine gave his copy to me so I decided to give it a go. I fell in love. To me, I prefer to watch hard sci-fi where you have varying species and different universal politics on tv or movies. I find that I struggle to read hard sci-fi but with this book where you do have varying species and universal politics it just felt different. I think this was because we focused more on the characters and their relationships rather than building the world they were in. We spent most of the book on the spaceship just watching the characters interact with each other and I loved it. The friendships and the relationships were top dollar.

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Mortal Engines – This book was given to me by a friend and I just fell in love with the cover! What I loved the most about this story was the world. It was so inventive and was fully realised. The characters were very varied which made for an exciting reading experience and the ending was so good that I have to read the next book ASAP!

The Final Empire – This book had been on my TBR for such a long time. Such a long time that going into it I forgot what it was about. My favourite element of this story was the heist plot. Having read a very bad heist book earlier in the year it was refreshing to read this one which was done so well. The magic system was unlike one I had ever read before at times I found it a bit confusing but overall it was really interesting and fun to explore. The characters were really good and enjoyed getting to know every single one. Like Mortal Engines, the ending was so good and changed the course of the story in a way I didn’t expect so I am excited to read the next one.

A House of Ghosts – This story was a supernatural World War 1 mystery. We are met with a character who can talk to ghosts and must attend séance to contact some family friends who are missing during the war. What I loved about this story was the atmosphere created, I felt unease a lot reading this story. The mystery it self was very satisfying, normally with mysteries I can guess pretty early on who is responsible but it was quite hard with this novel. It did a great job of giving you classic mystery tropes but subverting enough where you felt that it wasn’t a book full of clichés.

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Sadie – I read this book for my ONTD reading challenge and had heard quite mixed things. But I loved it! The story flicks between the main characters POV and extracts from a podcast where the host is looking for our main character to went missing. I loved the pacing of this story, the minute you would feel a lull begin the POV changes and you get another burst of energy. The plot itself was quite dark and I found myself very emotional reading it as well as invested in a character like Sadie who I don’t normally tend to like.

The Girl in the Tower – This one made another one of my end of the year lists for most surprising book of the year. I had read the first book in this trilogy and just wasn’t that fussed about it but I had heard such great things about it so I gave it a go. I was blown away! This book made me invested in the main character which I previously couldn’t care less about, the book was way more action-packed so the pacing was improved a lot more and the fantasy elements that I loved from the first book stayed which was great. I can’t wait to finish this trilogy.

Arm of the Sphinx – The second instalment in probably my favourite series of all time. While I preferred the first one by a fraction this book did not disappoint. We had an expansion of the inner workings of the tower, more exceptional world-building, layered and powerful female characters and that ending was shocking!! I can’t wait to read the next book.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – This story was also on my TBR for a long time. While at times I struggled with the pacing I found the story to be very engaging. I loved exploring the life of a guy who lives his life over and over again and the antics he gets up to and how each of his lives change here and there. The over-arching plot was also very intriguing.

The next post in my end of the year wrap up will be an overview of all the books I read! I have been keeping a detailed spreadsheet to help me cultivate these stats as I wasn’t a big fan of the Goodreads Year Wrap-Up!