Best of the Best 2019

Hope everyone is having an amazing week and is planning on doing something fun tonight to celebrate a new year, a new decade and new beginnings! 

I debated on doing a best of the best this year because I have a tab where I keep track of all my favorite reads for the year but, I decided those amazing books, stories, and authors deserve a shout out so here I am making a post at the last minute.

Blogging has been a challenge for me this year with my life and my families being so much more active, on the go, and just busy and sometimes stressful but, I've stuck with it (sort of) and even though some days I think it would just be better to stop blogging all together, I still do love it and the community and it's mostly thanks to you guys!

Thanks so much for sticking with me and still commenting and visiting. You guys really do make it all worth it!!

Okay, enough mush and on to some of my most favorite reads this year!

I was so nervous when I saw that this author was rebooting this series because let's be honest, most times it just doesn't work but happily I can report not only did this work but I loved it. So excited for more! 

I really do adore this series. It isn't big on romance or even nice supernaturals like most books in this genre are and yet, it is so entertaining, fun, and always a page turner. I love it and I always look forward to each new release. While I love all the towns we have visited in this series continuation so far, this one is my favorite and I hope we get another book set in this town with these characters. 

This series might be labeled as YA but don't let that stop you from picking it up because it is amazing and I adore it! It just keeps getting better. It's hard to explain but it has quickly become my favorite series from this author. So well written and I love all the lore and the setting. Truly amazing.

All of Esteps series are fun but I love love this one! Filled with murder and mayhem and magic, it is so good and if you love fantasy, you need to try it. 

I don't always love retellings even though I love to read them but this one held it's own so nicely. It was dark and mysterious and rich in detail. This was the author's debut novel and it was gorgeous! 

Love love that not only does this author do something we don't see a lot in it's main characters but I always love how diverse the characters are, in almost every way they could be. I loved her book last year and this one was just as good. I can't wait for this author to write more. Her writing is just stunning and I never fail to connect with the characters on levels I didn't even think I could.

Mysteries have always been one of my most favorite genres and there is just something about this quirky town full of even quirkier residents that I adore and can't get enough of. 

I love a good story that will make me think and completely mess with my head and this book did all of that and then some! If you haven't read it, I can't recommend it enough. 

This was a new series for me that I took a chance on. It's self published and I don't always do well with those but this is so well written and so much fun. I've devoured all of them and look forward to the newest book that comes out this week! It is so much fun and again, I can't recommend it enough. 

Cecy always amazes me with her writing in whatever genre she writes in but I really loved this new series. It was different and fun and very addicting. I can't wait for more! This is one author that never lets me down! 

It was so sad saying good bye to this series, this world and these amazing characters but I couldn't of asked for a better conclusion and wrap up. Caine did an amazing job with this whole series. One of my absolute favorites and one that will always be in my top 10. 

I adore this series and I am so glad it is still going strong. I can't wait for the next book and it really is one I look forward to each year, plus her spin off series from this one that coincides with these books, Alpha and Omega, is pretty amazing as well. 

If you love a good dose of humor and romance and a whole lot of feels, this is an author you need to try. Her books never fail to bring out all the emotions in me and I always connect and feel for her characters. She is an amazing writer and knows what she is doing. 

Not going to lie, I went into this expecting noting and came out on the other side not only fascinated but absolutely enthralled with it. It was so good! 

This author writes some of the best historical mysteries I have even read and this series is one of my favorites. It just keeps getting better and better. 

If you love this era as much as I do, then you need to pick this up. So eye opening and heart warming and so well done. 

Such a great story! I don't even know what else to say about it other than READ IT.

I am not one for self help, self discovery types of reads, they just usually aren't for me but this book was definitely an eye opener and I loved all the messages in it about self love and not being judgmental about ourselves or others. It was really good and if I could, I think I would make everyone read it. 

I don't read a lot in this genre anymore but there are a few authors I still make exceptions for and this is one of them! Her writing is so good and her stories are some of the best out there. I loved this and resonated with it a lot for whatever reason.

Plus, this same author wrote and new fantasy series below, that I couldn't get enough of as well so check that one out as well!

My absolute favorite Beauty and the Beast with a twist retelling ever! 

Review: Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Title: Jane Anonymous
Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Contemporary
Published By: Wednesday Books (January 7, 2020)
Source: ARC Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
My Rating: 4 Stars!



Book Description:
Bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz returns with Jane Anonymous, a gripping tale of a seventeen-year-old girl’s kidnapping and her struggle to fit back into her life after she escapes.

Then, “Jane” was just your typical 17-year-old in a typical New England suburb getting ready to start her senior year. She had a part-time job she enjoyed, an awesome best friend, overbearing but loving parents, and a crush on a boy who was taking her to see her favorite band. She never would’ve imagined that in her town where nothing ever happens, a series of small coincidences would lead to a devastating turn of events that would forever change her life.


Now, it’s been three months since “Jane” escaped captivity and returned home. Three months of being that girl who was kidnapped, the girl who was held by a “monster.” Three months of writing down everything she remembered from those seven months locked up in that stark white room. But, what if everything you thought you knew―everything you thought you experienced―turned out to be a lie?

*Amazon*B&N*

Slightly dark, definitely heartbreaking, Jane Anonymous is everything you would expect from this author and the subject matter. 

This is a story that will resonate with you, shake you up and dump out all the pieces again as you struggle and grieve right along with Jane, with her parents, and with her friends as the story slowly unfolds from “then” and “now”.

All the feels! Stolarz takes you on a wild roller coaster of a ride through the ups and downs, the heartache, the triumphs, and the dark dark lows. Emotional, endearing, triumphant, heart wrenching, eye opening, and most of all, a deep connection to this so very broken character that you will be thinking about her long after her story has ended. 

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*

Review: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

Title: Regretting You
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Contemporary
Published By: Montlake Romance (December 10, 2019)
Source: ARC Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
My Rating: 4 Stars!


Book Description:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us comes a poignant novel about family, first love, grief, and betrayal that will touch the hearts of both mothers and daughters.

Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.

Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.

With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.


While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.

*Amazon*B&N*

CoHo never ceases to amaze me with her ability to really have you connect with her characters and to feel all the emotions they feel. To be rooting for them, to care for them, and to love them. Her latest is one of my favorites from her in a long time. Don't get me wrong, everything this woman writes is amazing but her blend of both YA and contemporary together was pure magic. 

I adore these characters, both young and old and felt so very much for them all as they struggled through this thing called life.

The alternating POVs was so fitting to the story and added an extra element to it that wouldn't of been there otherwise and I love both of these strong women and their stories, their growth and their connection as they came together through something that those of us with loved ones, fear on a daily basis.

This was such a heartfelt story and one that I quickly devoured and was sad to see end. 

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*