NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.
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We’re onto the final countdown of our best book reviews as determined by your page views. Thanks to all of you for making this website such a wonderful place to hang out and talk about books. We hope this community keeps growing and getting bigger and better.
See you in 2019! And we hope you enjoy our top five!
5. Against All Odds by Jezz de Silva (January 4)
Review by Elyse
Grade: A
I think that’s why I loved this book so much. It acknowledges that shitty are going to happen, sometimes really shitty things, but that we find out strength and hope amid the shitty things in our love for each other. It’s the pervading message in romance, and it was the note I needed to start the new year on.
4. The Governess Game by Tessa Dare (August 30)
Review by Elyse
Grade: A
I never thought I’d recommend a book because the hero grudgingly performs eulogies at doll funerals, but here we are.
My life is weird sometimes.
The Governess Game by Tessa Dare is so absolutely delightful that this review will consist almost entirely of squee.
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It’s one of the best, if not the best, book I’ve read this year and it was worth all the hours I spent reading that should have been spent sleeping.
3. Pestilence by Laura Thalassa (May 15)
Review by Elyse
Grade: D
This book does have some humor, and it has a hero that I think some readers may really enjoy, even if I couldn’t care about him. The plague thing is a lot to get over, but if you can suspend your disbelief, then it’s a solid paranormal romance.
It was just way too dark and sad for me.
2. Roomies by Christina Lauren (January 3)
Review by Carrie
Grade: Rant
Reading Roomies was a bizarre experience. I had two reactions simultaneously. One was great enjoyment in a lovely romance with great characters and dialogue and a comforting fairy tale atmosphere. The other was of pure, blinding rage brought on by the political and social issues that currently crowd my brain.
1. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (June 7)
Review by Amanda
Grade: A
I truly loved this book. Loved. It made me feel like a champagne bubble – all fizzy and light. Each page brought about a bigger smile and my anticipation grew with each word. When I think of all the magical feelings romance gives its readers, I will forever think of this book. I’m not saying The Kiss Quotient is flawless, but my experience with it was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I want to read it again and I will forever be jealous of those reading it for the first time.
The author, Helen Hoang, officially has a reader for life.
NB: Oddly enough, one book from 2017 and another from 2016 beat out these books, but we wanted to keep it to 2018 reviews. If you’re curious what the books are, they are The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.
And that’s our top five! Were you surprised? Any books you just knew would be on here?
I really thought Jane Doe would be on here, but I’ve come to realize how few reviews I read here (nothing against the quality of the reviews, but most of the time, either I’m going to read the book and don’t want to know anything or nothing could ever persuade me to read the book so I don’t need to know anything), so my perception of what’s buzzy is skewed.
I’m calling shenanigans on the Hello Stranger review not appearing anywhere in the top ten 2018 reviews for page views. (Of course I don’t have access to the site’s analytics and comments ≠ page views, but something seems off here. Was it #11? Was it disqualified?)
Unless I missed it (always a post-Christmas possibility), I was surprised Sarah’s review of Kristan Higgins’s GOOD LUCK WITH THAT was not in the top ten. I remember it generated a lot of comments (both pro and con) about Higgins’s fat-shaming and manipulation of one character’s death from obesity-related causes. Also, I think it’s much harder to write a review for a book you disliked/hated than for one you enjoyed/liked/loved, so Sarah must get kudos for her nuanced and careful review.