Best Books I’ve Read in 2018 (So Far) – Top Ten Tuesday

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic is Best Books I’ve Read in 2018 (So Far).  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I’ve done an annual list of my favorite books, in various places, for about 10 years now, but I’ve never done a semi-annual list.  I’m going to follow the same rules as my normal annual list, which are:

• Rereads of books I’ve loved previously aren’t eligible
• Any book I finish in the time period counts, regardless of publication date
• Translations of books that I previously read in English aren’t eligible
• If I read multiple books in a series at the same time and they’re all good, they get ranked together

So here’s my list:

10. City of Bones – I was looking through Goodreads for some books to read, and Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness looks like it’s going to be highly anticipated this year… only I’ve never read any of the series.  Although this book has been out for a while, it’s the very first of the series, so I decided to start there.  It just barely makes this top 10 list.  It probably won’t make the end of year list, but I liked this one well enough to request the rest of the Mortal Instruments books at the library (I’m still #7 on the waiting list for the second book though).

9. Ace of Shades – This is another book that I enjoyed that probably won’t make the Top 10 Books of the Year list.  I found this on sale for $1.99 so I couldn’t pass it up.  I thought that the story was fun, and the world, which seems to be based on Las Vegas, was interesting.  The situation that the characters get themselves into also seems to be fairly unique, and the magic system that Amanda Foody comes up with is unlike anything else I’ve seen in the past.  The story ends in a cliff hanger and I definitely wanted to read more.  I’ll be on the lookout for the next book, King of Fools, when it is released next year.

8. My Real Name is Hanna – When I saw that this book, about a Jewish Ukrainian girl who survives during World War II, was available in exchange for an honest review, I just had to read it.  It is a beautiful story.  The characters, although fictional, seem so real, that I almost thought of them as such as I finished the story (they are based on an actual family).  With all of the hatred of the “other” going on in this world right now, it has a good message that other people should read.  This book won’t be released until September 18th (that’s going to be a HUGE book release day).

7. Indianapolis – I haven’t read a lot of nonfiction this year, and so far Indianapolis is the only book that has made my top 10 list.  I have a few must-read nonfiction books on my TBR for later on in the year though that have a good chance of making the annual list.  Indianapolis was an exciting read, and although it is nonfiction, often reads like a fiction book.  It doesn’t come out until July 10th, but I was honored to have the opportunity to read it before its pub date in exchange for an honest review.

6. Echoes – Echoes is different than any other book that I’ve read in a long time.  I had a hard time putting it down.  The book has a puzzle that isn’t quite solved at the end of the book (which ends in something of a cliffhanger), runs in two different timelines that overlap each other, and features an enemies to lovers trope.  Although a sequel to this book isn’t listed on Goodreads, I would love it if this book ends up having one.  This book will be out August 7th; I was fortunate enough to be allowed to read this book ahead of time in exchange for my honest review.

5. Flame in the Mist (series) – When I read Flame in the Mist, I couldn’t put it down.  I was thinking about the characters while I was at work, which interrupted my reading time.  Fortunately, I read this book only a few weeks before Smoke in the Sun was released, because I anxiously awaited the release of the second book of this duology.  The second book wasn’t quite as good as the first (mainly because it doesn’t feature as much of Mariko and Ōkami, which is what I liked most about the first book), but it’s still good enough to be included in the top 10 list.  I did like how the series ended, however.

4. The Fates Divide – This was a book that I spent counting down the days to for a couple of months before it came out.  I read Carve the Mark three times this year as I waited for this book to come out (once in Spanish).  As soon as I could get it out of my mailbox, I spent the entire day reading it.  I absolutely loved it, and even the ending was excellent.  I guess Veronica Roth was trying to make up for chapter 50 of Allegiant.  I’m glad she didn’t end this beautiful series with the bitter taste of disappointment.

3. Strange the Dreamer – with this strange name, I wasn’t initially interested in reading the book, but then I saw some reviews on it that made me change my mind.  It is a beautiful book.  The prose is amazing.  The characters are likeable; they aren’t your cookie-cutter beautiful people, which is a good thing.  The world building is great.  It also has a really good underlying message.  I couldn’t put it down, even though this is a fairly large book.  I’m looking forward to Muse of Nightmares, which will be coming out soon (but not soon enough).

2. An Ember in the Ashes (series) – There was a lot of hype surrounding the release of A Reaper at the Gates, and since I had never read the first book in the series, I wasn’t going to read it, but then Ember became available at my local library.  I was halfway through book 1 before I decided that I needed to read the entire series as soon as possible; I immediately went to go look for the other two books.  Fortunately, A Torch in the Night was also available at the library, so I was able to buy Reaper and read all three books in three consecutive days.

1. The Midnight Star – This book came out in 2016, concluding the Young Elites series.  If you read my blog for very long, you’ll figure out that I love Marie Lu’s books.  In fact, I’ve read all of her books this year (except the Batman one because I’m not into superheroes, although I suppose I’ll have to get around to reading that one at some point anyway) .  It took me until January of this year to read it because I “won” the book in a sweepstakes, and they never sent it to me.  If I hadn’t won the book, I would have pre-ordered it.

I loved this book.  It has some really beautiful scenes in it, and the ending was fitting, if not overly joyful.  It was slightly open-ended, which is why I’m currently working on a fanfic at this point (I’ve currently written 245 pages and I’m about 2/3 of the way through, but it’s going to take a lot of revising and I have 4 works in progress at this point).

It was really hard to pick a favorite among the top books on my list.  They were all so good.  I expect that there will be some stiff competition for the top ten list for the year.