Top Fifteen 2019 Books I Read Last Year

Posted January 2, 2020 by Amber in Bookish Lists / 414 Comments

First of all, Happy New Year!

It feels like 2019 took forever but that’s basically every year. I’m both excited by the thought of a new year and decade and nervous.

I had the most amazing book reading year ever. Being able to listen to audiobooks at work is my favorite thing since I started. I go through them so much. I discovered I really do like fantasy books and fairytale retellings/folklore books too. I always though they were too complicated and I like the Contemporary Genre because of “Realness” but fantasy is so good. Interestingly enough, as much as I enjoyed them, this list is very Contemporaryish.

When I began compiling this list, it was 25 books long. I had read 38 books that were released in 2019. Shannon told me that it probably wasn’t supposed to work that way, thus came my culling! On to my favorite books of 2019!

~One~

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

What can I even say about this book? It blew away all of my expectations. Normally I don’t even have these list in a specific order, but this one is. At least somewhat. Full Disclosure is my book of the year. It’s about Simone, a musical enthusiast, HIV-positive, bisexual, black teen. I fell completely in love with her. I think about this book all the time.

~Two~

If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegmund-Broka

Whoo. I should have read If I’m Being Honest MONTHS ago when Sierra told me she thought I’d like it. She was right! I loved it a ridiculous amount. The main character is super honest and a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. She’s not the nicest person and she makes mistakes. I could relate a ton to her. It’s kind of ridiculous.

~Three~

Like A Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

I love, love, love Like A Love Story. It takes it’s title from Madonna inspiration of Like A Prayer and Like A Virgin. It’s about three friends as they face the AIDS crisis in 1999. It’s gorgeous and heartbreaking and so, so eye-opening with what gay teenagers and gay men people went through back then with AIDS.

~Four~

Unpregnant by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplin

Give me a friendship road trip book and you pretty much have my heart full force. What I LOVED about Unpregnant is that it reminded me so much of Crossroads.

The main characters are ex best friends, Veronica and Bailey. I pretty much love any character named Veronica. Thank you, Veronica Mars.

The road trip itself would be enough for me BUT it isn’t just any regular road trip. It’s a road trip with ex friends reconnecting as they drive to get Veronica an abortion. There’s a ‘crazy’ boyfriend on their heels as well which leads to antics.

~Five~

Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry

Like Unpregnant, this one deals with a road trip as well, although it’s more of a Thelma and Louise situation. Both girls are dealing with major crap that they shouldn’t have had to live with. It was somewhat super relatable there. I loved seeing their friendship so much. It was dark and humorous and amazing.

~Six~

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

I wondered how Angie Thomas was going to follow up to The Hate U Give. I wasn’t disappointed with On The Come Up at all. On The Come Up is a companion novel and it takes place after the events of The Hate U Give. It was really interesting to see how other characters portray Starr. Bri is a rapper with a deceased father who was also a rapper.

~Seven~

There’s Something About Sweetie (#2) by Sandhya Menon

Okay, I am going to be honest. . . This was my first book by Sandhya Menon. I know, I know, it was a mistake waiting so long!

I will almost always read a book with a fat MC AND Sweetie was POC so I was in love. It was great reading about a POC fat girl who was athletic as well. Sweetie was a great character to follow. I loved the romance and her amazing friend group.

~Eight~

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

The main characters in Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee is about two teens who have a horror-watching show on public access tv. This was something I hadn’t seen before and was really interesting to see the scenes behind it. I loved seeing the girls two perspectives and the issues they were dealing with and how they wanted different things.

~Nine~

Birthday by Meredith Russo

I’m always in love with books with unique formats. Birthday is told in present time and also goes through all of their birthdays. It was a painful read. There was a lot of self-destructive behavior which was also why I liked it a lot. There IS a happy ending so it’s not all sadness.

~Ten~

The Princess and The Fangirl (Once Upon A Con #2) by Ashley Poston

I loved the first book in the Once Upon A Con series. I’ll read anything on conventions and fandoms and throw in a famous actress and I’m in. The characters pull a bit of a switching lives stunt. It reminded me of Model Behavior.

~Honorable Mentions~

I couldn’t make this post without including some honorable mentions. Narrowing them down was super hard but these books below are just as amazing as the ones above.