Best of 2019 - Book Edition

As the year comes to a close it is once again time to reflect back on the books I read and highlight a few that I particularly enjoyed reading this year.

My reading suffered this year. I did not read nearly as many books as I hoped to. I am resolving to fix this in 2020. I did manage to read some pretty awesome books this year though.

Here are my top ten reads of this year (in no particular order). They each link to my review (where one has been written and posted) if you want to see exactly why I loved them.


1 Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

2 Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

3 Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

4 Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

5 The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

6 Transcend/Epoch by Jewel E Ann

7 Chase Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen

8 The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

9 American Royals by Katharine McGee

10 A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer


This list, obviously, includes books released this year and some that were not. My only criteria was that they had to be books I read this past year.

Do you agree with any of the books on list? Feel there is a book I missed this year that I should make a priority to read in 2019? Let me know in the comments.

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Epoch by Jewel E Ann

Epoch by Jewel E. Ann
Release Date - April 9, 2018
Author Website - Jewel E Ann

Author Media - Twitter
Pages -  283 pages
My Rating - 5/5
**borrowed from a friend**

** Spoilers for Transcend **

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

Some lives end unfinished, and some transcend time.

After a horrific incident, Swayze finds herself trapped between two lives. Patchy memories and fear for her own safety thrust her into a gut-wrenching journey to uncover the truth.

Will she let her dreams slip away to seek retribution and find the missing pieces to a puzzle that existed a lifetime ago?

“I’m not going to watch you self-destruct. I’m not going to watch you fall in love with another man.”

Or will she discover the only truth that matters?

Epoch pushes the boundaries of what we believe and what we know. It redefines fate and proves that the only thing separating the heart and the soul is an infinite timeline.

“I think a part of you will be mine to love in every life.”

Certain love stories sell us the idea that love is eternal. What could be more romantic than two souls gravitating to each other again and again throughout history no matter the circumstances. The Transcend Duet, and Epoch in particular, embraces that epic kind of love story and offers an incredibly romantic, thoughtful look at what it would mean, messiness and all, if we could remember those past lives.

I thought going into Epoch that it was going to be more of mystery. The events at the end of Transcend certainly set it up that way. The book, however, is more interested in the emotions of its characters and the connections being forged, broken, and mended between them. It is not that the events that close out the first book are not important to the events in this one, it is just that the book is much more interested in how those events impact the characters and their actions.

I still stand by my assessment that this is not really a love triangle. I think there are pretty distinct love stories going on that prevent it from being a true triangle. It is one in its own way but definitely not in the typical meaning of the word. It feels more complicated than that label. It was nice that both Griffin and Nate are decent men who truly do care for Swayze in their own ways. They both have their flaws but untimely want what they think is best for her. I also appreciated that there was no way this untypical triangle could end in the typical fashion of most triangles.

The idea of reincarnation, and how much you retain from those past lives (and why you retain it) is very much the heart of this novel. It asks the question of how much of  Swayze is Daisy and what that ultimately means for her life in complex ways that do not have easy answers. It makes the book more thought provoking than I anticipated. I was constantly asking myself if she was Nate's Daisy and what it meant that she both was and wasn't in many ways. I think this would make a good book  club pick for the conversation that could stem just from this plot point.

Many readers will delight in the swooniness of Nate and Griffin. They, as mentioned, are both great characters. It is, however, Swayze that stood out to me. She goes through hell in this novel mentally and shows a strength that is incredibly satisfying. She isn't afraid to be vulnerable and doesn't handle things perfectly but she manages to still be standing in the end and that is impressive. I love that she is this mix of strong and weak. She is a mess but so driven and focused. It is a type of female character I want to see more of.

I found myself ugly sobbing while reading this without really knowing why. There is, obviously, the unfinished love story of Nate and Daisy, everything Swayze finds herself going through, and the impossible situation Griffin finds himself in. It is all of these things and none of them that is the cause of this book emotionally wrecking me. Bittersweet is the word I would use to describe this duet if I had to choose only one and it is that duality of the despair with the joyous that wreaks havoc on your emotions.

If you love your books to be thought provoking, emotionally impacting, and unputdownable, I highly recommend this duology. It has made me excited to pick up other books by this author and certainly has me anticipating whatever she writes next. 

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Transcend by Jewel E. Ann

Transcend by Jewel E. Ann
Release Date - March 2, 2018
Author Website - Jewel E Ann

Author Media - Twitter
Pages -  320 pages
My Rating - 5/5
**borrowed from a friend**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

“In another life, she was my forever.”

An unexpected tragedy leaves Professor Nathaniel Hunt a widower alone with a newborn baby.

He hires a nanny. She’s young, but well-qualified, with a simple life, a crazy name obsession, and a boyfriend she met at the grocery store.

Over time, he discovers she knows things about him—things that happened before she was born—like a hidden scar on his head, his favorite pizza, and how he cheated on a high school Spanish test.

She speaks familiar words and shares haunting memories that take him back to over two decades earlier when he lost his best friend in a tragic accident.

“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when you realize I’m not her.”

Transcend is a sexy, mind-bending journey that uncovers possibilities, challenges beliefs, and begets the age-old question: is there life after death?

Reading Transcend feels a lot like being on a rollercoaster. An emotional one that is. It offers a book that is a perfect mix of emotionally draining and exhilarating. It is the kind of book you feel as you are reading it.

This is also the kind of book I recommend going in as blind as possible about. It's the type of book that is best experienced along with the characters. The emotional impact will be the most felt that way and the story will resonate more.

The writing feels effortless and ensures that you are pulled into the story and that the emotional beats resonate as much as they do. It is one of those books you cannot put down and that is due largely in part to the writing.

I adore all of the characters for different reasons. They all resonated with me in some way. The author gave them all room to be flawed, realistic characters who make decisions the readers are not always going to agree with while ensuring we understood them.  Swayze and Griffen are both still pretty young and Nate is in the midst of grief that just seems to continuously open old hurts and pile them on top of each other. They are all going to make mistakes and flounder a bit, especially as things unravel.

The relationships are the heart of this novel in so many ways  Swayze's relationship with Griffen. Her relationship with Nate. Nate's relationship with Daisy. All of these are swirling and creating this atmosphere where the tension keeps building to the point you are breathlessly waiting for something to break it. You end up caring about all of these characters and that makes this read all the more bittersweet because you know heartbreak is all that is in store.

Those who are not fans of the love triangle will want to beware. Transcend certainly is setting up one of the more complex, conflicting, and discussion worthy triangles that I have ever experienced. It is what I consider a love triangle done right and authors who want to pull off a successful one in their own books should take notes. I have a feeling it is only going to break my heart but I cannot wait to see all of the relationships progress in the next book. Both guys are worthy for different reasons and the supernatural-ish element of the story adds a complication to one of the pairings that, for me, only makes the story more interesting.

The ending offers a cliffhanger that will leave you breathlessly scrambling to pick up the sequel to get the answers to the million questions you'll undoubtedly have. It also sets up the sequel to be just as emotional and dynamic as the first.

It's a sexy, beautifully written, thought provoking read that I entirely fell into. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves intense, romantic reads that, possibly, have a hint of supernatural in them. Just make sure you have the sequel on hand because I am not kidding about that need-to-know-yesterday cliffhanger ending.

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