My Year In Books: 2020 Edition

Phew. 2020, am I right?

We can all agree that this year sucked and was terrible, no good, and very bad. But we somehow made it to the end, which is wild in itself because I could’ve sworn that last week was still March.

And while we’ve all, as a collective unit, had a bad year, at least we had many books to comfort us and provide us with beyond necessary escapism. I’m sure a lot of you did better on your Reading Challenge than expected. I know I surpassed my own, but I also did a fair bit of rereading. Hey, reading is reading.

To wrap up this monstrosity of a year, I present to you my year in books. This year has been so long that there are some on this list that I absolutely forgot that I read in 2020, but all read books will be organized into four categories: the best, the good, the mediocre, and the bad. As we know, I don’t give out too many 5 star ratings so expect a lot of good and mediocre than anything.

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The Best

• The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross
• Lightbringer by Claire Legrand
• The Last Magician & The Devil’s Thief by Lisa Maxwell
• The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
• The Poppy War & The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

The Good

• Stalking Jack The Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco
• Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
• Kings of Rittenhouse series by Maya Hughes
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
• The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi
• Full Tilt duet by Emma Scott
• Get a Life, Chloe Brown & Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
• Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
• The Elements series by Brittainy C. Cherry
• Heart of Flames by Nicki Pau Preto
• Rush by Emma Scott
• The Girl in the Love Song by Emma Scott
• Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett
• Where Dreams Descend by Janelle Angeles
• Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
• Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa
• To Love Jason Thorn & To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise
• Transcend by Natalia Jaster
• Well Met by Jen DeLuca
• Dear Enemy by Kristen Callihan
• Binghamton series by Meghan Quinn
• The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
• Sea Witch series by Sarah Henning
• Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer
• Boss Man Bridegroom by Meghan Quinn
• Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
• We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

The Mediocre

• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
• The Brightest Night by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
• The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
• The Trade & The Setup by Meghan Quinn
• Save the Date by Morgan Matson
• Killing November by Adriana Mather
• Wicked series by Piper Lawson
• Dear Ava by Ilsa Madden-Mills
• That Secret Crush & That Swoony Feeling by Meghan Quinn
• Moth to a Flame by Cambria Hebert
• Dirty Charmer by Emma Chase
• Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim
• This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
• Fulton U series by Maya Hughes
• The Modern Gentleman by Meghan Quinn
• Just One Year by Penelope Ward
• The Dare by Elle Kennedy

The BAd

• From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
• The Damned by Renee Ahdieh
• The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
• Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin
• Us, Again by Elle Maxwell
• The Change Up by Meghan Quinn

The Rereads

• The Darkest Minds & Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
• #Selfie & #Poser by Cambria Hebert
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Marriage for One by Ella Maise
• Ladies Man by Katy Evans
• The Risk by Elle Kennedy
• Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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I have no idea what this next year will bring but I am choosing to be cautiously optimistic that we’ll move in a slightly more positive direction. Let’s not get too crazy and put all our expectations on 2021 because we all know how that worked out with 2020.

All I’m hoping for is slightly better books for 2021. I can’t deal with any more bad and mediocre books.