 Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today with the best books of 2018. So these aren't necessarily releases, like 2018 releases. A lot of them are, but they're just books that I read in 2018 that were my favorites. So I did top 10 which was very very hard to do because there was a lot of good books this year. There was a lot of bad books. There's a lot of really good books that I read this year. So I noted down to my top 10. However, I will have some honorable mentions as well. But yeah, yeah, don't think there's anything else to say about what this video is. These are my favorite books. Do you have to do disclaimers for positive videos? Well, let's do it equal time. Just like with the negative ones, even if you don't like the books that I'm about to talk about, that doesn't mean you're a bad person. It just means we have different tastes. So yeah, these are the books that I liked. And if your favorites are not on my list, then that's fine too. Okay, so I'm gonna do like 10 to 1, like 10th on the list, because I did try to rank them, which was, oh my God, that was even more difficult. Like narrowing it down to 10 was already just like choosing my favorite children. I don't have children, but I imagine it would be like that. And then having to rank them. So these rankings are not like, I'm not married to these rankings. I just kind of like had to do it. So I'm already regretting some of these rankings. So don't take where it is on the list too seriously. I just kind of like had to do it in some order. And this is what I went with. So here we go. First book on my list, therefore number 10 on the list. Is that confusing? Okay, a 10th favorite is The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green. This book is really good. It just, it feels, I mean, it's on my top 10, so I'm clearly not insulting it. But I'm just like, it seems better than 10th on the list. Well, whatever, it's 10th on the list. So I read this right at the beginning of the year. And I'm pretty sure the next book in the series comes out next year. Not totally 100 on that. I really hope it does. This is really, really good YA fantasy that definitely feels more like on the cusp of being adult fantasy in terms of like the complexity of the world building that you expect for adult fantasy versus YA. It's multiple perspectives. It's, it's just, it's really, really good. Although it is slow to start, which is my caution anytime I do recommend this book is that it is quite slow to start. I'm a booktuber, I follow him, I'd seen DNF it actually. So I still was interested. So when it was slow to start, I like wasn't surprised. So like I kept pushing through plus I think I was buddy reading it, was I? Maybe? I don't remember. It's been a long time. So I pushed through anyway, because I had an arc of it too. So I was like, I liked if I have an arc to read it before it's released, because it just feels like the right thing to do. Oh, no. This is kind of my dust check. It's all a bit ruined and fine. Yes, this is also the really nice special edition, because like the American hardcover of this is like literally the most garbage cover I've ever seen. Like I don't think I've ever seen a worse cover than that. Like what even were they thinking? The arc cover was quite nice. And I liked the arc cover. And I was like, oh, I can't wait to get a hardback of that. And then I saw the hardback and I was like, why? Why doesn't it look like the arc one I have? And then I saw this and I was like, okay, prices averted. This one's fine too. That's an aside. But yeah, it's like epic fantasy, multiple perspectives, like lots of politics, lots of interesting characters. It's just I really like it. It's really cool. I really like again, it's slow to start, but I really did like all of the characters. I liked all the perspectives. And I just thoroughly enjoyed it, honestly. And where it's going, I'm excited to see. And it's just, it's well told, well built, interesting people. I just overall good fantasy book. Okay, number nine on my list is The Empress by S. J. Kincaid. This originally wasn't even like gonna be on the list. And then I was looking at my Goodreads of like what I'd read this year. And I was like, I saw it and I was like, maybe that'll be an honorable mention. And then as I was putting my list together, I was like, maybe it should be on the list. Because like the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted to put it on the list. Okay, so for those who don't know, this is the sequel to The Diabolic. And The Diabolic was one of my all time favorite reads last year. I read it twice last year. And I didn't, it was a, The Diabolic was originally meant to be a standalone. So I didn't even know there was going to be a sequel until very shortly before this was released. I read it in like, I think January, very shortly after my reread of The Diabolic. And I really like this book, which is kind of an unpopular opinion, because I saw on Goodreads, like most of the ratings are pretty low and definitely lower than for The Diabolic. A lot of people who liked The Diabolic did not like The Empress. I really liked it. I was shook by it. And I think the reason that a lot of people didn't like it is the reason that I did like it, which is that the author is not kind to the characters and is not kind to the reader. So if you liked The Diabolic and you liked the characters in The Diabolic, obviously you want good things for them or like at least not horrific things for them. So the story she's written in The Empress is, it's kind of brutal, honestly. It's, it kind of really has stuck with me. Every time I bring it up and I like try to explain to somebody like why it's good and why other people don't think it's good like I'm doing right now, I'm kind of like transported back to how like, I can't even explain how I felt after reading it. Like I think I was making like smiling while crying face when I finished it, kind of like this. When I was like, wow, that was, what have you done to me? Like that was really excellent as a book. But also, oh my god, how could you do that to me? So I just, I thought she did a really like, from like a storycraft narrative type deal perspective, I was like, this is most excellent. And from a I have feelings and I care perspective, I was like, so I can't even really put into words because also I don't want to say anything spoilery. Also, I don't know how to explain exactly why this is different because I read a lot of books that are grim dark fantasy or are very, you know, high stakes, death, blah, blah, blah, like main characters going through tragic events, dying, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's not like I read a lot of fluff, like I should be used to that by now. But this was like, Shakespearean level tragedy, honestly, where it's not just that something horrible happened, it's the way that it ended up happening. And just the circumstances surrounding it that are just painful and frustrating. And just, I feel like I'm really incoherent right now, but that should tell you how powerful it is. So it leaves it left me feeling like my soul had been scraped over a cheese grater. So if that sounds good to you, there is going to be another one as far as another way this ends, whereas the diabolic was a standalone originally and ends like one, like it kind of leaves a door open, but in a way that you'd be like, it's just meant to be like leaving you with a couple questions, like it feels concluded. This one definitely feels like it's leading into a next book. So I really hope that that there will be a third book, because this was more negatively received, unfortunately. But I can't wait to see where this goes because she's I trust the author weirdly, which is a weird thing to say given that she kind of wounded me. But what I mean is that I trust her to tell the story. I trust her to not just be doing fan service and just filling pages just to fill pages with like random plot. She's decided on a plot for this story, and it doesn't matter how dark it is. It doesn't matter how negative it might be. She has a story to tell and I am here for it. So I really loved this book. And I did not mean to spend this much time talking about it, but yeah. Oh man, now I kind of want to reread it, but also like, no, I'm not ready. Okay, speaking of authors that like to torture you, the next book on my list is Iron Cold by Pierce Brown. This is the next book in the Red Rising Saga, and this is the Gold Sprout Special Edition. Red Rising Trilogy is over, Red Rising Saga continues on with Iron Gold, and this is the first in a second trilogy in the Red Rising universe. This takes place 10 years after the events of the last book in the Red Rising Trilogy, and it follows some of the characters from Red Rising, but also a whole slew of new characters. And it's difficult to talk about this without being spoilery, because it would be spoilery for the entire Red Rising trilogy. So this book was one of my most anticipated releases. I went to Howler Fest, which was the launch event for it. And I read this in January, and I expected to read Dark Age, which was the next book this year, but it got pushed back, and I've talked about this before, but anyway, I think this is the best book in the Red Rising saga so far. And I know that that also is not an unpopular opinion, but a lot of people did not feel that way. Not quite as brutal as the Empress, but similar to that, like, Pierce Brown has not been kind to his characters and has not been kind to the reader, and has not necessarily done things that you would like. The characters don't do what the reader might want to see them do, but they do what is believable for them based on who they are as people, what's happened to them, and where life has brought them to. I loved it for that reason, because our main characters, even if what they're doing is frustrating and painful to watch, it is so believable for what they've been through that those would be the choices that they would make, and I love how true he was to their characters rather than to what we might like to see. He was letting the plot go where it needed to, where it was telling him it needed to be, and I loved that. He wasn't just painting heroes as heroes because we want them to be heroic because we love them. He was writing the real story at Bravo. Plus, all of the Red Rising trilogy is from Darrow's perspective, a first person, so until now we had never seen Pierce Brown write from the perspective of anyone but Darrow, so for all we know, or for all we knew, Darrow was Pierce, and that's all he knows how to write. In Iron Gold you have four different POV characters, so he proved that he could write from multiple perspectives very, very well, so I cannot wait to see where this saga continues. I can't wait to see. Pierce Brown has said that he's going to write some probably fantasy after he's done with the Red Rising saga. I'm like, oh baby, I cannot wait because the man can write and it just keeps getting better and better and just dancing. Um, so now on to number, no not number three, that was third, so that was eight, so now we're on seven. Is that what's happening? Okay, seven. News of Nightmares by Leni Taylor. This is the second and final book in the Strange the Dreamer duology. I read an arc of this and I loved it. I've talked a lot about it already, I did a full review of it, blah blah blah blah blah. It's really, really beautiful. The Strange the Dreamer, Strange the Dreamer itself was really beautiful. I gave it four out of five stars because of the way that it ended was upsetting to me, I didn't like it, but News of Nightmares, I already knew how Strange the Dreamer had ended, so what was true in Strange the Dreamer continues to be true in News of Nightmares, but I was ready for it and it is an absolutely beautiful conclusion to the duology. It's pure magic. Nobody writes like Leni Taylor. The characters, the world, everything is just pure magic. It is such an emotional, colorful experience to read it. I read it all in one sitting and it's not perfect, but it is just so beautiful. It really, really is and I will probably reread the duology several times in my life and I would like to listen to the audio book because I listened to Strange the Dreamer on audiobook, at least part of the way, and fell in love with Steve West's narration in So Doing and he obviously narrates the sequel so I would like to reread it but have Steve read it to me because he says all of Leni's made up words so beautifully. So now number six on the list, I can do math I swear, is Furyborn by Claire Legrand. Spoiler warning, the next book on the list is also by Claire Legrand. She's become an author by author for me. The first book I've ever read by her is Furyborn. I had an arc of this too which I read like just before this book was released and I loved it so, so much but I've come to love about her writing and it's true about both Furyborn and the other book on this list although they are quite different is how feminist her writing is and it's because both these books that are on the list are really, really, really different from each other and yet that is what sort of remains true or remains consistent in her writing so far from what I've read is how feminist it is but not in like a preachy way. It's just you're reading it and going wow like what's different about this you're like you know what it's there's so many really interesting well-developed female characters here and it's surprisingly unusual to see that and when you see it like that's when you realize how often you don't see it sort of like you don't know what you're missing until you find it and then when you see that it can be done and it can be done well you're like wow why aren't other books like this so I mean it's also it's not just like feminist it's also a really, really good book it's a fantasy story that follows two different girls who are separated by a thousand years and you're following their plot lines sort of parallel but they obviously they live a thousand years apart from each other and there is obviously something connecting their plot lines which you find out as you read this story and I loved both plot lines Rielle and Eliana. Interestingly I think well both for Clare LeGrand as well as for most people that I've talked to that have read this they love both plot lines but their favorite is Rielle who's the one from a thousand years ago. I preferred Eliana again I loved both but I liked Eliana as a character in her plot line better she's the one in the thousand years forward I'm gonna say present day because it's not but it's a fantasy world but yeah it's just it's really well built it's really intriguing it's very suspenseful I loved both female characters very complex very layered very three-dimensional and I mean there were really good male characters in it too it's not just a bunch of women feminist fantasy soap boxing it's a really, really good story it just is unapologetically feminist and it I just love it so much it's so well told and I'm really excited for the next book in the series which does come out next year Kingsbane oh my god if I can get an arc of that that would be amazing but yeah so Clare LeGrand Autobi author this is fantastic fantasy book like it's YA fantasy but again just like with smoke thieves this feels more like it's verging on like adult fantasy and I just love it so much as promised number five on the list is another Clare LeGrand book Salkill Girls by Clare LeGrand this is nothing like Furyborn except that it is also quite feminist this takes place in modern present day although on an island that doesn't exist called Salkill but it's as if it does exist and it follows three perspectives of three young women who are on this island and there's this this is more like a horror story a horror book horror type of thing just said horror three times um so it has fantastical elements but more in the vein of horror which is not something I can actually read maybe I should because I really liked this it more reminded me of sort of Neil Gaiman where there's some like very creepy things going on but in like our real world so these three girls are on the island of Salkill and there's something some kind of a force some kind of something that is um causing girls to disappear on the island of Salkill and nobody on the island really seems to be doing anything about it there's kind of like well that's just how it is so two of the girls who are like main pov characters they're like natives of the island like they're already there have been living there for their whole lives um and then the third girl has just moved there with her mother and her sister so you follow these three girls as from each of their perspectives you kind of start to piece together what is going on on this island and all three girls are in different ways affected by this thing that's going on on the island and it is it's very dark and kind of creepy and very mysterious and it's it's just very atmospheric and also once again very feminist each of the three main girls is very very different very complex very three-dimensional very unique i could see parts of myself in each of them so i could identify i don't feel like i was like any one of them but also i was like all three of them and they were depictions of femininity that i don't see that often if at all so i just oh i left everything about it the story was fantastic the atmosphere was fantastic the creepiness was like spot-on and perfect and so suspenseful and kept to me turning the page and i loved all three of the main characters this is a standalone which is nice because i'm in the middle of like 50 billion series and yeah it's just all around a masterpiece and i cannot recommend it highly enough everyone should read this book we're down to top four up to top four whatever okay number four and this is where it gets really tricky because i'm like the order of especially the top four i'm not sure what order they should really be in but this is the order we went with so here we go that's great by j christoff i've gone on and on about this multiple times i did a full review talked about in a few wrap-up tag type of videos this is the second book in the never night chronicle the third book was those to come out of the air but it didn't and that's fine this ends on a massive cliffhanger which is extremely frustrating and i don't know what can i say about it i mean it's kind of be spoilery for never night if you haven't read it but never night is a very like italian inspired fantasy world is that a cut on my book follows mia corvair who is um in the first book in never night she's gone to like an assassin school it's called the red church and um she's threatening to be an assassin the second book it's much more of sort of like a gladiator inspired setting type of situation and i liked never night but it was kind of slow to get into god's grave i read in one sitting and was left with my jaw hanging open at the end well j christoff just sits there trolling you about how i'm gonna see you but yeah that's really it bye i was like what no i need the next one right now will building is phenomenal snark is on point once again extremely feminist and i realized this year that i hadn't really thought about it before but all of j christoff's books have a female mc which like i don't i don't know he did it on purpose or not but he's also really good at writing badass female main characters again mia corvair fantastic yeah it's i love the world he's built it's very he's he's a really really good world builder it's really thorough the characters in this are very dark and complex and very gray and oh it's just so good i don't have words to describe it the magic system the politics the characters the blood the fighting it's just lush and his his prose is a little on the flowery side but his his stories are not flowery he's very poetically telling you about something horrific which i just love so yeah i recommend him as an author and god's grave is so far the best thing i've read by him and i can't wait for the conclusion to this insane trilogy okay top three here we go number three which at some point this year i've definitely said might be number one and i still don't know like these top three like i don't know in any order really but we're going with this as number three and that's the dark descent of elizabeth frankenstein by christian white this book is a frankenstein retelling which is told from the perspective of elizabeth levenza who is the bride of frankenstein if you will this is a very faithful true to the original retelling while also completely doing its own thing and being very feminist and being very i don't know it's just it's it's again very very dark and it's very very complex and it's so well built and if you i'm i believe you can read it if you haven't read the original frankenstein but i would highly recommend being familiarizing yourself with the original frankenstein by mary shelly because this is very true to and makes constant reference to omage to and is playing on your expectations based on that original work this isn't the universal studios frankenstein with the laboratory and egor this is true to mary shelly's frankenstein i mean the characters that she's written here are again true to to mary shelly's work but also definitely christen white's own creations especially elizabeth who is a very complicated woman and i think she's quite dark and ruthless and how she goes about things but also the kinds of struggles she has are things that i think most women can look at and identify with and that is kind of alarming to read about because elizabeth is she's not a nice girl so it's almost troubling at times to see yourself in her because what she does and what she chooses and what she thinks is not pretty but it's it's well done and then where she takes the story she being christen white it's unexpected and i just oh i think it's a masterpiece it's so good it's very short just like the original work and oh my god it's just so well crafted well done her prose is beautiful and christen white has also become an autobi author for me and i just oh it's on point i don't even have words it's on point down to the last two and they could not be more different these two last books number two on my list of top books of the year is radios by grace draven someday i will stop going on about this book but that day is not this day i read this book three times this year which isn't that impressive because i read it all in one sitting every time because it's quite short it's like under 300 pages i think yeah it's not even 300 pages this is a fantasy romance that i adore i've said it often that if all romances were like this i would be a romance reader for sure i adore the characters i adore their relationship i think it's a really unique story as well like what she's done and i can't i'm just not sick of it i love hanging out with these people i love everything about this story um i've talked about it before so i don't know how much i want to say again because i feel like i'm just repeating myself but it's an interspecies marriage that's an arranged marriage to solidify an alliance between two nations these two people they're literally different species they're not even expected to procreate they're just you know sealing the deal on an alliance so they're just sort of married and expected to go off and live together no one really cares so these two kind of very immediately accept that this is their role and like they don't mind so when they meet each other and realize that they're both well absolutely horrific in terms of their appearance to each other they are kindred spirits because they're both quite reasonable patient intelligent individuals so they immediately connect on that level and immediately realize that living together which is all they were expected to do won't be a problem at all because they get along and so that's really all that they are expecting at each other is to just sort of get along learn about each other sort of have a life together because they have to and when they you know may as well get to know each other and i love that from both perspectives it's told you know he's look she's looking at him as like a monster because he's a different species from her and she's human but we see from his perspective that he's absolutely horrified with her as well i think got there does a really good job making human features really other because it's kind of hard for us to imagine why somebody would find a human repulsive so i think she does a really good job like putting you in the headspace of this other creature who's looking at a human and being grossed out by it and it's it's kind of you know it's it's funny and kind of sweet and charming and very honest and sincere and heartfelt and warm and just an absolute joy to read which is why i keep rereading it because it just makes me happy now before i get to my number one book of the year i'll do my honorable mentions which i'm not going to hold up i'm just going to i'm just going to talk about um and just kind of briefly name them and mention them so some honorable mentions are life like by j christoff that's his ya dystopian sort of mad max Romeo and Juliet robots ai mad max i already said mad max blade runner i don't know it's it's crazy i got an arc of that too and read it like in one sitting and the next one comes out next year deviate and it is also quite an epic adventure i feel like i wish he had written it as adult rather than as ya because they're it kind of at times pulls it pulls its punches a little bit which i mean it's j christoff so for ya it's quite dark because that's how he is but i i wish he'd made it just a little darker because that's how i am and then cruel prince and wicked king um i read both this year because my friend lent me her arc of wicked king cool prince pulled me out of a reading slump so it deserves a mention for that alone and it's uh i think a really creative story and the opposite of radiance and i enjoyed for that reason too because it's unabashedly toxic and it's not romanticizing a toxic relationship it's just playing around with an utterly toxic relationship with some really kind of terrible characters and some really interesting scheming and politicking which i don't feel like i see in ya a lot i think i feel like characters and relationships are often idealized and romanticized i like how cruel prince is just kind of not doing that so i enjoyed that and wicked king is oh man that ending i need the third book a sap then also um bright we burn which is the last book in the conqueror saga by kirsten white the conqueror saga is the female of landi and paler um she once again has written a really badass lady i love that trilogy um and i think the third book might be the strongest one in the trilogy it was a fantastic ending and uh it's absolutely beautiful and spectacular she nailed it so i do recommend that trilogy if you like dark badass historical fiction miss and then also the witcher series by andres up kowski um i've been kind of binging that i read the first one the beginning of this year and then didn't i'm kept maining too and then didn't pick up another book in the series until like very like until like a month or two ago and i've read like four since then so i kind of thought i might finish the whole witcher series this year i haven't and i don't think i will because they're very close to the end of the year but it's very good and i i'm really really enjoying it it's excellent high fantasy and yeah i'm thoroughly enjoying it and last honorable mention is nixia by scott rington rentgen i always mess it up excellent why sci-fi i meant to read the sequel which should come out this year um i didn't because just reasons um i will see i think third one comes out next year too it's um got lots of diversity a really creative sci-fi plot it's very suspenseful filled with action it's a real page turner really keeps you interested and it's it's just overall really really good and it's a debut which is surprising so yeah nixia and the number one best book of the year you should already know what it is because i literally titled my full length video review of this i found it the perfect book the wolf filio caru this book is everything i ever hoped and dreamed it's got norse vibes it's historical fiction fantasy it's very stabby lots of politics it's extremely anthropological in the way that it handles everything it's just perfect for me so if you want to know more than i would recommend watching my full length review because i do kind of go in depth about like what's so special about this book but in short it is historical fiction fantasy kind of thing where he's contemplated a world in which the other human would survive the ice age into the dark ages and so this takes place in the dark ages on our earth world like in britain area but it's not just humans that are around there are other species so the main ones that we follow who are who we spend most of the book with are the anachem who are sort of an advanced highly developed neanderthal people he's done an absolutely phenomenal job of like completely fully fleshing out that whole hypothetical and it's just masterful it feels real it feels like a work of history rather than a work of fiction and the characters in it are complex and interesting the culture he's built is complex and interesting the politicking the the war the battles the relationships the motivations of everyone the humans in it i mean everything about it is just on point amazing and i can't wait for the next book which does come out next year it's called the spider and this is his debut book which is incredible i i love everything about this it's brilliant so i just obviously number one book of like all time ever so that does it for my top books of the year let me know the comments down below what your favorite reads were this year if you read the books that i just listed if you also love them or if you hated them or if you want to read them now or if you're about to read them now if i've convinced you to pick them up or if they sound terrible let me know anything and everything and i'll see you in my next video