When I sit down to finally write this post (it’s been sitting in my scheduled posts for quite a while at this point), I have read a total of 28 books already and I figured with June being over it would be the perfect time to look back at all of those books and talk about my favorite books – so far! Because I most definitely hope that I am going to be reading so many more amazing books that I will have a really difficult time deciding on a top 10 – or maybe even top 17, at the end of the year! But, for today let’s talk about the 8 best books I have read so far in 2017!
A List Of Cages by Robin Roe
A List Of Cages was the second book I read this year and it has left such an impression on me that I still think about it! It was a fantastic story about friendship and family and love but also heartbreak and suffering. I have said this before, but I finished this book in one sitting and especially towards the end I just couldn’t stop reading because I had to know how things would play out. If you guys are interested in more of my thoughts, I did review this book on my blog at the beginning of the year! And if you do decide to pick this book up, please be aware that this books talks about and describes child abuse in it!
A Conjuring Of Light by VE Schwab
This year, I finally decided to read a Victoria Schwab book and as soon as I was about halfway through the first book in the Shades Of Magic trilogy I asked myself why I hadn’t picked this series up earlier because it was so good. Seriously! But at the same time, I was really glad that I only read this series this year because book two ended on such a horrible cliffhanger! Out of the three books in this series, A Conjuring Of Light was definitely my favorite and reduced me to a sobbing mess at one point and to regular crying multiple times throughout the rest of the book. Victoria Schwab really has me hooked on her writing and I can’t wait to check out more of her books – This Savage Song is currently on my shelf waiting to be read! If you want to read more of my thoughts on this final book in the trilogy, I did review it on the blog!
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I feel like we will be seeing The Hate U Give on quite a few lists of best books for 2017 and it most definitely made it onto my list for the first half of the year! Getting my hands on this book was quite the struggle but as soon as I hand this copy in my hands, I started reading it. And I couldn’t stop until I had finished it. This is such a powerful and current story that I think everyone needs to read. Angie Thomas managed to really draw me in and get to my emotions with this one! I hope she writes many more books because I definitely need more to read from her! This book didn’t get a full review from me, as I felt like it wasn’t my place but I did share some overall thoughts if you guys are interested!
A Court Of Mist And Fury by Sarah J. Maas
After this year’s re-read of A Court Of Mist And Fury, I am 100% sure that it has earned a place on my all-time favorite books list! I loved it, even more, the second time around and I absolutely enjoyed being reunited with all of the characters that were first introduced in this book! Seeing Feyre develop further as a character in this was also really great and I wish ACOWAR had lived up to my expectations because I really thought it would’ve made its way onto this list. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in it and it really took me quite a bit to understand what exactly I didn’t enjoy about ACOWAR. But I still very much enjoyed this trilogy and actually shared five reasons why you guys should be reading this!
Now I Rise by Kiersten White
Now I Rise is definitely one of my two favorite new books I have read this year so far and I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited that an ARC request of mine had been accepted as I was with this book! I had requested the ARC of this book not having read the first one or really knowing much about either book and then once I finished reading Now I Rise, I was utterly fascinated by the world Kiersten White created here and how she gender swapped a rather prominent person in history and gave us Lada who is just honestly so freaking awesome. I am utterly terrified of her but I also love her very much. I have since made it my mission to get as many people to read this series as possible, which is why I (once again) shared 5 reasons why you guys should be reading this series! Seriously, go read it!
Lord Of Shadows by Cassandra Clare
Hopefully, none of you guys thought that I would get through this list without mentioning a Cassandra Clare book because that is impossible. You guys are also very lucky that I’ve only re-read the first book in The Infernal Devices, otherwise, you would’ve definitely gotten more than just one Cassie book! But, let’s actually talk about Lord Of Shadows which destroyed me and I can’t believe I have to wait two years to find out how the events are going to impact all of our characters and to find out what the heck is happening to some of my other favorites. At least I know I’ll be getting more Shadowhunter Chronicles stories next year so I can look forward to that while I wait (very impatiently) for the final installment in this trilogy. Originally, I only wrote a review for this book to be posted to Goodreads, but then I figured I’d post it on here too and you can read it right here!
The Nearest Faraway Place by Hayley Long
The Nearest Faraway Place is actually one of my most recent reads but I was honestly so impressed with this story, the writing, and use of formatting that I really wanted to include this book on today’s list too! I won’t be going into too much detail though because I have a review going up on Sunday where I will be talking about why I enjoyed this book so much and I want you guys to check that one out. π This book releases tomorrow though, so please check out the Goodreads link above and get this book if you think this might be something you would enjoy!
Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
The final book on today’s list comes as quite the surprise to myself because I didn’t think I would pick up Becky Albertalli’s Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda any time soon after not enjoying her most recent release The Upside Of Unrequited as much as everyone else, but then I got the audiobook of Simon and pretty much listened to it in a single night. Yup. I figured I would just listen to a few hours as I had started rather early but then I just couldn’t stop and just had to find out who Blue was!
I actually finished this book about four hours ago (on the morning that I’m writing this post) and I came out of it suddenly wanting to read all of Becky’s books? I might even give Becky’s recent release a second chance and see if I enjoy it more now that I get the character references too. But maybe Simon was just that great of a book and The Upside just won’t compare. Who knows. All I know is that I’m super excited that I got this audiobook! Can you believe if I would’ve missed out on this jam of a book??? The horror.
Did you guys see any of these books coming when you saw my title for this post? Did you think to yourself ‘Here Swetlana goes. Talking about ACOMAF again. Probably talking about Now I Rise too!’? Have I gotten predictable yet? But I’ve included a couple of new books too, so hopefully, this post was still interesting!
What have been some of your favorite books this year? Did you pick up a book you didn’t expect to love as much as you ended up doing? Or did you pick up something you thought you would love but ended up hating? Have you read and loved any of the books I talked about? Let’s meet in the comments and talk all about the books we’ve read so far this year!
Cool picks! The Hate U Give will definitely be on most people’s lists, yes. It’s such an awesome book. I’ve been hearing such mixed reviews on Now I Rise… I’m so curious about it!
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I’ve only heard good things about Now I Rise! I definitely think you should check it out!
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π Awesome! I think I will. My TBR has gone out of control anyways.
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ACOL, Lord of Shadows, and The Hate U Give are definitely among my favorites of this year, too! And Simon Vs is one of my favorite books of all time, ever. So good. Great list, and happy reading in the second half of the year! β€
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I’ve already had such a good reading year so far that I’m already super looking forward to the rest of the year! And I’m currently in the middle of a really fun one and I JUST the audiobook for Strange The Dreamer which I have HIGH hopes for! π
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OH fantastic picks – I loved A List of Cages, ACOL and Simon vs. , they all were so fantastic π I still need to read The Hate U Give but it sounds so good π
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Thanks! π THUG was definitely really good and a read-in-one-sitting kind of book! I hope you enjoy it whenever you get to it!
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ACOL was SO SO good! I am still damaged by it. β€ I need to read A List of Cages and THUG, but Simon Vs was wonderful!
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Right? I can’t believe ACOL got to me as much as it did! But I’m really happy I finally read a VE Schwab book!
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Amazing books! I love THUG, ACOMAF, Simon and A List of cages, they’re all such good books. I really want to read the Shades of magic trilogy and the And I Darken series π My favorite books so far this year are Homegoing, The Shadow of the Wind, Exit West, The Song of Achilles and THUG!
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I would say go for And I Darken first! I feel like I enjoyed those two books more overall than I did the three Shades Of Magic books!
I haven’t read or heard most of the books you have read – so I need to check those out too! π
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Sooooo many of these are on my TBR! I’ve seen A List of Cages around on Booktube at the beginning of the year and it definitely sounds interesting! AND YAAASSSS ACOMAF! It’s definitely my favourite book out of the three because it still has that aspect of tension and flirting/teasing between Feyre and Rhys β€
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