Tuesday 3 December 2019

THE BEST OF ALL THINGS BOOKISH (EDITION 2019)

Hi everyone! Long time no see and I am sorry for that. Those of you who do not follow me on my Goodreads profile, here are my reading ups and downs of 2019.





Average rating: 3.4

In 2019 I read 37 books (out of those 3 were re-reads, 11 new releases and 23 backlist titles). Even though I used to read a double amount of books, I am very content with the number I read this year considering I have one-year-old toddler at home :) Having limited time to read meant that I was very picky about what to read and it shows at my average rating in 2019 which is higher than previous years. So yeah, I had very good reading year. Let's have a look at its highlights. (To read full review click on the picture)


MY TOP FAVORITE READS:
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All four of these were perfect reads and my favorite 5-stars of these year. If I had to pick THE best book I read this year, it would be Dark Age - the fifth installment in Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga. Steven King revived my love of his stories with The Institute and I am grateful for that. Fire & Blood was amazing addition to Westeros history. Same goes for Time's Convert being great addition to my beloved All Souls Universe series. I highly recommend all four books, they are to be treasured :) Click on individual pictures to read more details about these novels.

POSITIVE SURPRISES:

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I went into reading these books with zero expectations and was positively surprised by them since they all ended up to be very good reads. The Rage of Dragons is one hell of a debut and it redefines the meaning of action-packed. It is the most satisfying military fantasy novel I have ever read to the date. This year I also managed to binge read almost whole Mercy Thompson series and fell in love with it. I definitely plan to finish the latest installments next year. Another great surprise was Sword of Kings. Couple of years ago, I would not believe that 12th installment of the series can be as engaging as first books in the series. Bernard Cornwell proved me wrong with his amazing storytelling skills in his 12th book from The Saxon Stories. The biggest surprise, however, was prequel to The Witcher series. It was collection of short stories and I am famous for my hate of short stories. But this collection won me over (I cannot wait for TV show which is based on this prequel!) and hyped up my expectations for whole series. Which leads me to next part...



THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS:

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Prequel aside, full-lenght The Witcher novels were huge disappointments. I got as far as second book and writing style was pure torture. What a shame, world-building and characters truly had a lot of potential. King of Scars was one of my most anticipated releases in 2019 but it turned out to be a failure. Same goes for Cilka's Journey. But my biggest disappointment was 4th installment in Gabriel's Inferno series. I adore original trilogy but this new installment was pointless and as if written by someone completely different.

That's it from me. How was your year reading-wise?     


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Lucia @Reading Is My Breathing

Lucia is 29 years old passionate reader and reviewer who enjoys talking about all bookish things. Currently she lives in Prague, works in business industry and dreams of starting her own publishing company. Her weakness? She can never say no to cake, coffee or good novel.