2017 : My year in books

It seems pretty wild to me that I'm already writing my second-ever yearly wrap up?! How have I had this blog for that long already, I still feel like a complete newbie but hey here we are.
2017 has been a wonderful bookish year! I went to YALC for the first time (which was so much fun) I doubled my reading challenge from last year - and met it!! Not to mention getting to know a lot more wonderful bloggers and booky people 😄
So a big thank you to everyone who has chatted to me throughout this year, I hope you the new year brings you many blessings and I appreciate you SO much.

Top Five of the Year:

Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt - I cannot put in to words how much I just really loved this book?!? Heck, it was just like the perfect fit? You know like, when a book just comes at the right time for the place that you're in in your life and provides you with a beautiful happy escape? That's what Unconventional did for me! It's not the kind of book I would usually give 5 stars to but I DID and it is so deserving of them!! (Going to stop raving know bc I've already reviewed this properly and I should chill out)

Girlhood by Cat Clarke - This book is deep as heck and I think it dealt with some difficult issues pretty well. It also has a bi main character and a gay supporting character (if I remember correctly) which y'know I am always a fan of 😍

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard - I also read Beautiful Broken Things this year which I also loved by AQKOT wins out because it's just so good!! A well researched insight in to selective mutism and a little bit of deaf culture too I loved it; I'm on the committee for the sign language society at my uni and this book actually encouraged me to go for the position because deaf awareness is really under-represented but also so important so ye! Read it if you haven't already!

The Foxhole Court (and the whole All for the Game series😎) by Nora Sakavic - This was recommended to me by a friend who said it was honestly one of the best/most painful-in-a-good-way series and I was not disappointed! A beautifully broken and annoying yet precious set of characters and lots of diversity! It's a slow burn but I promise you it's worth a try!!

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu - This book was just really really good, it's such an encouraging feminist read!! I related so much to almost all of Viv's experiences in her school and I wish I was a bit more like her tbh! Honestly well worth reading - SO GOOD.

"Oh I'll finally get around to this in 2017!" - a book I meant to read but never did:

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - Has been recommend to me so highly but loads and loads of people and I finally managed to get hold of a copy a month or so ago so I am determined that this year I actually will read it!

A book I didn't like as much as I anticipated:

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon - it's not that I didn't like this book, it's got some really nice diverse main characters and I loved that, I think maybe just because the genre wasn't what I would always go for and it had so much hype that maybe I expected to really love it even though it wasn't really purely my kind of book. I don't know but it's definitely still good (and that cover 😍).

So there you have it, a quick wrap up of the past year; I read 40 books which is twice as many as the year before and I'm super excited to see what reads 2018 will bring!

What was your top book of the year? Any particular books you're really looking forward to next year? Let me know in a comment below; I hope you have a wonderful New Year and thanks so much for reading ❤️

2016 : My year in books

So, here we are at the end of 2016, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster hasn't it! I'm pretending I'm okay with how quickly December 31st has come around!

In April of this year I started this blog and began my adventure into the bookish community. Although I've not posted as much as perhaps I would have liked to, coming into this community and being welcomed and supported by so many amazing people has been wonderful and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who's spoken to me in the last few months. Here's a big internet hug to all of you bookish pals.

So anyway, here's my wrap up for this year, my first year in books!

My five favourite reads this year

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson - Dealing with gender, this has 100% taken my heart and the top spot as my favourite read of this year!! I can't put into to words how much I adored it but it was heart wrenching, educational and just so so beautiful! Please read it!!

When We Collided by Emery Lord - A fab book about loss and mental illness with a beautiful cover. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read with wonderful character's who you'll definitely fall in love with.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall - An honest account about agoraphobia, an illness I knew little about before reading this. This book has an amazing storyline, fabulous characters as well as raising awareness about mental illness which is something (obviously) very close to my heart.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley - Woah f/f relationship in 1950s America between one of the first black girls in a previously all white school and the daughter of a man who is fighting integration!? This book is all I was looking for and more I absolutely adored it! A great book if you're looking for something with diversity.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - If somehow you've managed to miss all of the excitement about this book in the last few months let me tell you right now that you have got read it!! I can't even begin to describe what makes this book so amazing but it is art.

A book that's been on my TBR since January and I still haven't read

Dracula by Bram Stoker - To be quiet honest it's been on my TBR for years now, but hopefully in the new year I'll finally start it! It's a classic and having read so many vamp books when I was about 13 it seems only right that I should read the original!

A book I didn't enjoy as much as everyone else

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella - read my review for more but this book does not do justice to the issues faced by people with anxiety and in case you weren't already aware mental illness is not magically fixed by meeting a boy!!! I'm a bit apprehensive that people may read it and think that anxiety is as simple as that and a super quick fix when it isn't, but hopefully that won't be the case.

A book I wish I'd had chance to read

Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel - The concept of this story (which is about a girl who receives a face transplant) intrigues me and I'm hoping all be able to get around to it quite quickly in the new year.

Books I'm looking forward to the most in 2017

Honestly I think this year is going to be so good for reading! A couple that I'm particularly excited about are It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I'm aiming to read lots and lots of books that are as diverse as possible, and there seem to be more and more being published so I'm really excited for what the next year is going to bring!

So there it is, my year in books! Thank you for reading and to everyone who's made me feel so welcome this year- here's to another great year of reading next year!