From Pemberley to Milton’s 2018 Favourite Books

Good Afternoon everyone

It’s the last day of the year which means I get to publish one of the posts I most enjoy writing: the year on review and my list of favourite books 🙂

I love to analyse figures and see exactly how my reading habits are evolving so I keep wanting to create some stats to share with you, but unfortunately I was once more unable to do something very complex, so I hope you like this simple take on how my 2018 was. I promise that next year I will finally built something worth seeing 🙂

 

 

Last year I had read 38 books which at the time seemed a lot to me! I know some of my readers read many more books per year, but to me it is really hard to get to that number with my full-time job and all the other activities I love to do, so this year I had established 35 as my goal. When I got to the end of the year and saw how may books I had read, I could not have been more surprised! 2018 was truly one of the worst years of my life, if not the worse, and I didn’t have much time to read, so I could not understand how I could get to 51. Then I figured out that my long, long commutes to work started paying off. Out of these 51, 15 were audiobooks and many of them were novellas, so that explains how I was able to get to this high number.

 

I read a total of 11 800 pages which is 1570 more than last year, but my average of pages read per book is smaller than the 276 from 2017, it was only 234. The shortest book I read this year was a novella I tried just for fun a couple of days ago and that is free on Amazon, but I ended up disliking it very much, it is called Mr. Darcy’s Passion and it is an erotic story without much content apart from the infamous encounters between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. The longest book I read this year, The Whisky Wedding, is much smaller than These Dreams which was the longest book I read in 2017, but it still had a considerable length of 514 pages.

 Just like last year I didn’t read anything online, so the 51 books are only referring to published works.

From the 51 books I read this year some are more famous than others and the most famous one was not JAFF, it was Thirteen Reasons Why from Jay Asher and if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. It is innovative, poignant, daring and a wake up call for all of us. If you have seen the Netflix show which is also available at Amazon Prime you may want to bear in the mind the book has some differences, it is not meant to be a blockbuster so it is more real and less shocking. Now, the least popular book I read is indeed JAFF, but I also recommend it, it was Captain Wentworth’s Christmas Wish which I have recently reviewed and it is a nice variation of Persuasion that takes place during Christmas time.

The highest rated book on Goodreads that I have read was Yuletide, which was also the last  review I posted this year 🙂 If you read it, you know that I am on the same page with the Goodreads average rating, if you haven’t, you can still find it here.

Not all the books I read in 2018 were published in the current year, in fact, most of them were published in earlier years, so my 2018 favourite books list does not include the best books published in 2018, but my favourite books which were read in 2018. I’m sure there are amazing books published this year that I haven’t read yet and that could have made this list if I had, but I am trying to read the old titles that are still in my TBR pile 🙂

 I’m including both Jane Austen Fan Fiction books and North and South Fan Fiction books and excluding all other fiction novels. The ones I chose this year were the ones that left a bigger impression in me, the ones that for some reason I still recall vividly in the end of the year. I’ve read many great books this year but if I didn’t quite remembered them when I sat down to do this list they were not included because, can they really be my favourites if I didn’t remember them after a few months of reading them?

Even though this was the year I read more books since starting this blog, it wasn’t very difficult to choose my favourites, I think I’m getting used it 🙂 During my first years it was really hard to compile this list, but I always tried to be fair and honest even if it meant leaving some really great books behind. If you are curious about my 2015, 2016 and 2017 lists, just click on the links and you’ll be re-directed there (I’m working on a more organized way to have these available in the blog….big renovations will have to occur this year).

Now that I’ve explained how I decided to create this list, and without further ado or any particular order, my favourite books read in 2018 are:

 

 

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The Events at Branxbourne – Caitlin Williams

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 256

Sub genre – Pride & Prejudice Variation

What I loved about it –The writing, the writing and lets not forget about the writing! It may seem I’m overreacting, but Caitlin Williams’ writing in this book is pure perfection, it is gripping, profound, enticing, clever, exciting and heartbreaking all at the same time. The plot was innovative and along with the writing made this book impossible to put down.

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – No

 

 

Nowhere But North – Nicole Clarkston

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 409

Sub Genre – North & South Variation

What I loved about it – The writing, the structure, the character development and depth… This is until this moment my all time favourite North & South variation! Everything about it was perfect and as I mention on my review, this book is a masterpiece that should not be missed by anyone who enjoys good literature.

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – Not yet

 

 

Son of a Preacher Man – Karen M. Cox

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 295

Sub Genre – Pride & Prejudice Different Era

What I loved about it –The character development, the small town feeling and the ability to transport me into a completly different reality. As I mentioned in my review, the character development was impressive and had a magnetic pull to it, the romance was believable, true, inspiring, life changing and passionate, the writing was addictive and the message of hope, forgiveness and love that is transmitted throughout the novel made it one of the best books I’ve read this year.

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – No

Available in Audible – Not yet

 

 

The Deception at Lyme – Carrie Bebris

Publication year – 2011

Number of Pages – 304

Sub Genre – P&P and Persuasion Mash Up; P&P Sequel

What I loved about it – The perfect blend of the characters into the story, the mystery and the uniqueness of it! It took me 7 years to find this book, but it certainly will not take that much time to read another book of this series! This book was my 2018 biggest surprise, let’s see what 2019 will bring 🙂

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – No

Available in Audible – Yes

 

 

Conceit & Concealment – Abigail Reynolds

Publication year – 2017

Number of Pages – 396

Sub Genre – Pride & Prejudice Variation

What I loved about it – The storyline, the characters, the roller coaster of emotions and never knowing what would happen next! I cannot wait to publish my review of this book that hooked me from page one until the end. Along with Mr. Darcy’s Noble Connections this is now my favourite Abigail Reynolds book 🙂

My review (coming soon)      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – No

Available in Audible – Yes

 

 

Being Mrs Bennet – Alexa Adams

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 309

Sub Genre – Pride & Prejudice Time Travel

What I loved about it –The creativity, the audacity, and the ability to make me love a book whose main character is Mrs. Bennet (of sorts)! I found this book bold and compelling and as I said in my review it proves the author’s talent and ability to engage readers in an endearing novel with character development and introspection in the middle of a funny and light narrative

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – Not yet

 

 

A Short Period of Exquisite Felicity – Amy D’Orazio

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 334

Sub Genre – Pride & Prejudice Variation

What I loved about it –The plot, the angst, the love story, the writing, the characters… This book just had all the necessary ingredients for me to love it! As I mentioned in my review this book is  gripping, character driven, intense and it comes as no surprise that it was one of my favourites this year!

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – Not yet

 

 

London Holiday – Nicole Clarkston

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 300

Sub Genre – Pride & Prejudice Variation

What I loved about it – The dialogues, the tenderness of the story, the effortless writing quality and the dreamlike feeling it created in me. This book is light and entertaining but also intense when it comes to characters feelings. The reader can feel exactly what the characters are feeling at each step of the way and is transported into a true London Holiday himself.

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – Yes

 

 

The Darcy Legacy – Joana Starnes

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 422

Sub Genre – Pride and Prejudice Variations

What I loved about it – The humour, the supernatural and the writing as always 🙂 Joana Starnes took a risk by venturing into a completely different style and she was definitely successful making her way into my 2018 favourite books list 🙂

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – Yes

Available in Audible – Yes

 

 

Yuletide – Edited by Christina Boyd

Publication year – 2018

Number of Pages – 192

Sub Genre – Anthology

What I loved about it – It is a Christmas Anthology written by some of my favourite authors, what is there not to like? Plus it has all the necessary diversity to keep the reader engaged and looking forward for the next story 🙂

My review      Amazon.com    Amazon.uk

Available in Kindle Unlimited – No

Available in Audible – Not Yet

 

Do you share any favourites with me? Have you read all that are on my list? You have noticed that most of them are available on Kindle Unlimited and I recently received an email from Amazon with a special deal of 3 months subscription for only 0,99$ which was more then a bargain! I subscribed it and immediately downloaded a few books I have been meaning to read lately but that were a little more pricy then usual, it was a great deal. You may want to check if you also are entitled to this special price in Kindle Unlimited. It may allow you to read many books almost for free 🙂

So, which were your favourite books in 2018? I would love to hear your opinion and maybe get a few suggestions of great books to read this year, the 2019 reading challenge is already starting and all suggestions to fulfill it are welcome, even if this year I will establish different goals 🙂

For 2019 I will establish the same goal in  Goodreads I did this year, 35 books. It’s not much but I want to dedicate more time to the blog itself so I know I won’t have that much time to read. I want to re-organize the blog because with the growing number of books I’ve read it is getting hard to have an easily accessible arquive. I’ll have to work on that and maybe re-think on the number of posts I’m doing per week, the format etc. Do you have any suggestions? Should I post more or less then I’m doing? And should I change the way I’m writing the reviews?

Anyway, one of my 2019 goals will definitely be to re-organize the blog, but when it comes to reading goals, last year I had established as a goal to read more non-autenesque books, namely 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny, I was able to achieve that goal by reading not only these two but also a total of 6 non-autenesque books, so this year I want to continue with that objective but there isn’t any particular book I want to read, I just aim to read at least 5 non-austenesque novels.

In 2017 I also established as a goal to read more books in portuguese and I wasn’t very successful at that with only 3 books read on my native language, so this year I’ll have to work harder because that is still an objective.

But my main goal this year will be to read more paperbacks. I love my kindle, don’t get me wrong, I’m always the one who jumps into its defense when people say it’s not the same thing as reading “an actual” book, but the truth is I do miss turning the pages and I’m starting to feel that with my kindle everything starts to blend in my head and I’m not getting as much enjoyment as I used to when I was reading paperbacks. I have all these beauties lined up on my bookshelf, which ones do you think I should read first?

 

And which goals are you establishing for yourself? I hope you are able to achieve all your goals and that you have a fulfilling 2019 full of health and happiness!!!

Until then, a Happy New Year!!!

 

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