My Favourite Books of 2019

I read 300 books last year, and I thought I’d share some standouts. Some caveats: This NOT a Best Of list because these are books that *I* read last year, not necessarily ones first published last year. (My hardcover budget is limited and I often wait a year for the paperback.)  I also don’t really believe in Best Of lists—not only is it physically impossible to read all the books published even in one genre in one year, but personal tastes are wildly different. I like SFF and romance, especially books that combine them. I favour pacing and plotting over lyrical writing. I love happy endings.

URBAN FANTASY

Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series dominated my reading this year. Between the two series and various related novellas I read 21 of her books. Awesome action sequences, humour, and plenty of steam.

Otherwise I mostly kept up on the latest book in my favourite series: Mercedes Thompson by Patricia Briggs, InCryptid and October Daye by Seanan McGuire. Soulwood and Jane Yellowrock by Faith Hunter. Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovich, Magicfall by Diana Pharaoh Francis. Elemental Assassin by Jennifer Estep.

EPIC FANTASY

1/ Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series. I reread this massive series before reading the final volume Burning White. Great action. So many secrets and reveals and Moments of Awesome!

 2/  The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons. Very impressed by the layered timelines in this novel. 

3/ The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (Book two is on my ereader!) 

4/ City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty. Excellent world-building + a rogue heroine.

5/ The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie. Such a new and interesting angle to take with the point of view.

SCIENCE FICTION

1/ The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. Caving, alone, in the dark with monsters. Claustrophobic and outstanding. 

2/ Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken. Clever heist by a genetically engineered genius and, dear lord, the Puppets were chilling.

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

1/ Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrew. Greatly anticipated new book in their Hidden Legacy series, switching over from Nevada to Catalina POV. Did NOT disappoint. 

2/ American Witch by Thea Harrison. Grabbed me in the first chapter and did not let go. 

3/ Jeaniene Frost. I glommed large portions of her backlist. My favourite was the Vlad Tepes’ Night Prince series.

SFR (SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE)

1/ Polaris Rising and Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik. Polaris opens with an action scene and the pacing is fabulous. Alpha hero.

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

1/ Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. 

2/ Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas. Enemies to lovers—at least on Phoebe’s side. 

3&4/ Continued gloms of K.J. Charles and Courtney Milan’s backlists. I’m running out of Milan’s ☹, but still have plenty of K.J. Charles left 😊

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

1/ The Kissing Quotient by Helen Hoang. Autistic heroine and a reverse Pretty Woman plot, both steamy and tender. Just wonderful. 

2/ Fatal series by Marie Force. I get such a kick out of Sam. Great banter.

YOUNG ADULT

1/ Maggie Stiefvatar’s The Raven Cycle. I. Love. This. Series. Great characters: doomed rich-boy Gansey with his obsession for ancient kings, public-school Blue who is the only non-psychic in a family of psychics, abused Adam who works so hard to lift himself out of poverty,  and angry, abrasive, grieving Ronan who can create real things out of dreams. Even the villains are fascinating.  (And yesterday I read Call Down the Hawk, first in the sequel series The Dreamer Trilogy, also awesome.)

2/ Smoke & Iron from the Great Library series by Rachel Caine. The plotting and pacing is so good, it's like a master class on writing.

3/ Court of Fives by Kate Elliott. An athlete heroine. 

4/ Purple Hearts by Michael Grant, final book in his alternate-history What-if-girls-were-drafted-in-WWII? series. 

5/ Deathcaster, final book in the Shattered Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima.

MIDDLE GRADE

1/ Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus. All three of my kids have read these, but I didn’t get around to trying them until this year myself. Great pacing and humour to go with the magic.One book still to go.

2/ Django Wexler’s The Forbidden Library. I read this series to my 11-year-old daughter. Alice is a wonderfully competent heroine and I enjoyed the magic system.

What were your favourites? I'd love some recommendations.