best books of 2020

today's video is going to be my top 10 books of 2020. i i don't know fully how i feel about my reading this year i think i think in general it was subpar um i think i ended up putting off a lot of books that could potentially end up being favorites this year just because um i never i want i favored comfort reading which never really results in like all-time favorite books because it's usually just kind of like smutty romance which i can most of the time unless it's like exceptional i only rate like three or four stars um and then i put off loads of fantasy books i think i would have loved because i just did not have the patience or concentration this year to truly read a lot of them um but i'm going to rectify that in 2021 that being said i do have a list of 10 books that i absolutely love this year and i reckon they're going to be all-time favorites at least the top three at least i feel like unfortunately i only have two of these with me um physically because covered um and half my books are in london and half my books are here um so uh you're going to have a lot of pictures inserted so let me just move to the side and you're going to get a lot of pictures inserted here because i don't have the books so the first book that's one of my favorites of 2020 was honestly objectively one of the worst books i've ever read in my life but this book the reading experience of this book was the epitome of comfort read for me it was exactly what i needed when i read it it was the kind of nostalgic escapism ridiculousness that i just wanted at the time and it delivered and that is midnight sun by stephanie meyer now this book is the rewriting of twilight from edward's perspective it's basically the whole of twilight that first book from edward's perspective we get every scene that's between edward and bella um from his perspective and some extra scenes that we didn't get to see in the original book because they were from edward's perspective and the original book is from bella's perspective and she can't really narrate things that she's not there for um this book was like 800 pages it was massive i think i read it in like a week um i have a whole reading vlog of me reading this book and if you want to kind of just see me fangirling and just being a 12 year old again and this book was the exact kind of like ridiculous nostalgia that i think i needed this year um objectively i would give this one star it's not a good book it's badly written she took this opportunity where she could have made edward less creepy just to make him more creepy like he did a lot of questionable things in this book um and honestly his whole narrative can be summed up as overthinking horny like if i needed to if i needed to describe edward in two words he's an overthinker and he's horny that's it um and he's kind of clueless about that so um yeah i only recommend this book if you are like a die-hard fan of twilight or you're really just in the need for a laugh like if you just want to have a wild ride like if you want to have a fun time not a good time this book is perfect for you um but honestly not a very good book i still gave it 5 out of 5 stars because it's everything that i wanted and needed from a twilight book in 2020 so yes it's the bottom of the list for a reason but i still just really appreciate the experience i had with this book okay um the next book is one that i at the time of reading this i didn't think it would be a favorite in terms of like i really enjoyed this and i actually think i only gave it four stars but it's one that i just keep thinking about and i really really did love this book um i also do have a vlog a lot of these i read not all of them but quite a few of them i did read for vlogs so i'll be linking the vlogs that i read them if you want to watch my reading experience um actually three of these were from the from the same vlog i just realized that which is amazing um so uh this book i read and i really just adored it it was just it was a fantasy book i haven't read a lot of fantasy books this year and a lot of the ones i did read weren't like all time favorite so just kind of three maybe four star books um this one is definitely like a high four could be five i feel like if i read if i reread it it could be a five star um i definitely want to finish the series because it's only going to be a duology i believe and that is the library of the unwritten by aj hackworth this is such a great book i think this book is i would describe this book as a fantasy for fantasy readers um in terms of that i feel like it's very unique in the genre i've never read anything like it if i'm wrong if you know any books that's similar to this definitely um tell me um the only book that i can think that could kind of be similar is sorcery athons and that's just because they both take place in like a library um but this basically follows a library in hell and the librarian of that library and basically in this library it houses all the books that were never finished so every book that you've ever started and not finished writing any book that just couldn't be finished for whatever reason is in this library in hell and each of the books kind of has a life of their own and it's our main character's job to look after these books make sure they are like well maintained make sure like none of them escape um because they often try and escape and to find their authors and that can have detrimental causes on the author at the beginning of this book um one of the books does come to life in the shape of its hero and he escapes hell goes to our world and finds his author and our main character and her assistant need to go and collect him and find him and the story kind of goes off from there honestly that bit that i just described i thought that would be the whole part but it's actually only like the very first bit and that tiny little bit is kind of rectified um quite early on earlier than i thought it would be but the journey that these characters go on is such a wild ride and i don't want to say anything about it because i feel like you should just go in a little bit surprised this book is so much fun it's it kind of also reminds me of a studio ghibli film i will say i say that with caution because i was like listening to studio ghibli soundtracks and watching some of the films when i was reading this book but that being said i think this book kind of put me in the mood for that because they just had this cast of really dynamic like whimsical characters um who form really great bonds i cannot wait to see in the second book um the emotional journey of the characters especially our main character that she goes on is so good in this book it's just so lovely to watch because she has like a lot of um baggage from this job that she that has like made her very closed off to people um and the adventure's just a lot of fun like it's quite it's a little bit episodic in the sense that like they go to a new place and something new happens um but it didn't feel too episodic like it was too formulaic and it was so much fun they go to different like afterlifes so there's like the main one is like hell um and the antagonists are like angels from heaven but they end up going to like valhalla they go to like ancient um ancient uh afterlives that like they don't know about because if i'm like forgotten societies it's really cool and it's just so imaginative and so much fun um and i would just highly recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy so the next three books are three romance books romance was definitely the genre that got me through 2020 like it just was so much fun um i feel like i went through phases where i ever was just wasn't reading or i was reading just romance and i'm not mad about that because romance is like one of my favorite dramas so the first two i read for the most recent smartathon and they are just now become two of my favorite books of the year um so if you want to see my vlogs for those um these books i'll link that as well um the first one i want to talk about is the initiation this book this book is so good it's basically follows this girl who's part of like high society in america and her dad works for like one of the biggest banks in america in the world and um her sister is like unofficially um like set to marry the son of the owner of the bank and uh however there are like rumors about a certain kind of initiation that happens if you want to marry someone who's on the board of this bank and at the beginning of this book our main character has an encounter with this son and she realizes that her and her son actually have like a lot of chemistry um and i like this attraction to each other um and then a year later when it comes to the time for you know the son and her sister to you know get engaged and start the marriage process her sister actually gets pregnant so she has to take her sister's place because of her family's circumstances and the relationship that her family have with the owner of the bank um so it's about the romance between the the girl the so and the sun and then it's also kind of becomes a love triangle between her the son and the dad which is insane this book is like smutty it's scandalous it's just rich people hat doing rich people things which like is just i find it that to be like a wild ride like kind of gossip girl esquire it's just like rich people having rich people problems um like this book has so many twists and turns it's done something it's like unlike any book that i've ever read so i think it just really brought something new to the table for me and honestly i just really recommend this to anyone who likes smutty books the first book is like free on kindle so if you want to read it i highly recommend and it's like about 200 pages so it's really quick to read um i definitely plan on reading the rest of the series next year i think it's going to be so much fun um and i'm just so excited to see where it goes uh the next book is also one that i read for the smutathon and that is praying for rain this is a i was a pre apocalyptic book so basically this is set in our world but people for like the last year have been having these dreams and um at the end of the dream they always see the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the day april 23rd so basically everyone's come to the conclusion that the world will end on april 23rd so people have essentially given up society has given up um no one is trying people are getting violent people just doing things that you would never expect them to do they're taking drugs having like like orgies and sex like all sorts of stuff that you just would not expect people are more violent people just more crazy and reckless um and our main character is kind of just trying to survive and at the beginning of the book she's literally trying to get a burger from like the equivalent of burger king um and the drugs that she has currently been taking with the pills that she takes falls out of her pocket and so everyone just kind of tries to grab them so she ends up in this massive fight with everyone in this in this burger place um and until a guy shoots a gun in the air to distract everyone takes her and her drugs and kind of like kidnaps her um he doesn't like properly kidnap her but he's just kind of like he's like you're coming with me right now he turns out to be the love interest and then these two just kind of end up forming a bond and trying to survive with each other and it's such like a cute like not cute it's such like a good like angsty like apocalyptic romance it like the smart isn't the highest level smoke that i've ever read but like the actual genuine story was so captivating so much fun um [Music] like i i was hooked um and i just really like genuinely loved it and it was like the way it was written as well was just so good like the writing was really nice um and i just really really loved it so if you like romance and you kind of want something a little bit different in your romance i definitely recommend this as well the next book is also a romance that i read um i think in november i read it and it's called control freak um i haven't actually talked about this book on my channel yet but i just read this on a whim it's on kindle unlimited if you are interested in reading it and i will say tread with caution just because it's very triggering it basically follows this girl who is um struggling with an eating disorder and she is currently on recovery she ends up getting a summer job before her master's um as the assistant to an a museum curator and those two end up entering a bdsm relationship with each other um i and it's also a age gap romance i didn't expect much from this book i just thought oh it's like a nice smarty book i read it whatever but this book like really like pulled up my heartstrings it had me so captivated um i was rooting for these characters so much um and in terms of the rep of eating disorder i don't know i feel like eating his other rep is like some of the touchiest um hardest things to do um but as far as i can tell from my knowledge on that subject it was quite respectful it was somewhat accurate it was it wasn't sensationalized as well what i really loved about this book that it wasn't a romance where the relationship um cured her her illness like in fact it was pretty much the opposite of that like she you know takes these steps to like try and find actually have a relationship and our main character has never had a relationship before and uh that actually ends up kind of triggering her um into like relapsing which is like the main conflict of the book is her trying to um allow herself to enter a romantic relationship for the first time and fall in love um whilst also battling this really hard disease and um struggling with that um and the way this couple dealt with it and like supporting each other um just really touched me and i just really liked it and it's like one of those books that i'm i'm always thinking about it and with my favorite romance books i don't reread them but i always go back to my favorite scenes and considering this is on kindle unlimited as well i'll have to like re-download it every time but there's been multiple times over the last few weeks where i just had to redownload it so i can reread my favorite scenes because they're just so good and so like cute and just just really touching and i just really love this book so yeah if you like romance if this isn't something that's going to trigger you i would highly recommend you eat this one oh the next one is also romance that's also on kindle unlimited i read a lot of romance this year this is my favorite romance of the year it's one that i've been screaming from the rooftops about like it's my go-to recommendation now it's the what it's introduced me to a genre of romance that i just never thought i would it was never really considered before um and that is suffolk bdsm romances i read quite a few bdsm romances this year um i like them i think they're fun um i'm not reading 50 shades but other ones are fine um and that is tangled vowels by anna stone anna stone is now one of my new favorite romance writers i read two of her books this year um i cannot wait to read more of her books i need to read the sequel to this book because it came out in like november and i still haven't picked it up um but this is a marriage of convenience romance um between two women one of which is an escort the other one is a ceo of a major company and they meet in vegas and they get super drunk with each other and they end up getting married and they decide to stay married because the super rich one basically in order to get her inheritance inheritance basically in order to get her inheritance she needs to be married for a year um and it needs to be like a convincing marriage like a true marriage um so they decide to stay married live with each other for a year um and the rich one is gonna like pay the escort to be her wife for um a certain amount of time so she can get her inheritance um and it's about them falling in love having some kinky sex having a grand old time and it's just it's great it's great i just fell in love with this book it was such a surprise for me i did not expect to love it as much as i did i thought it was going to be like a cheesy romance just an average cheesy romance but no it was amazing i absolutely loved it and adored it again this is one that i go back to my favorite scenes and i reread them um and like the relationship was just so cute so healthy so adorable it was like all about communication and i absolutely loved it um and i would highly recommend it if you want to read a good suffolk romance the next favorite on my list is a poetry book and that is little you this is an indie poetry book it literally has like 10 ratings on goodreads so you guys need to pick this one up it's available on amazon i think you can get it on bookshop.org it's so good um it's one of the no it's the best poetry collection i've ever read the best poetry collection is so good um this is a poetry collection by an actress that i met last year i feel like i've said that a billion times in this channel um and it basically is just about her growing up in england um about her being black and experiencing racism it's about her being queer it's about her um growing up dealing with mental health dealing with just life in general and basically everything that i need in a poetry book it's definitely one that i plan on rereading next year i just think it's gonna be one i reread all the time it's so like beautiful and elegant and wise and just so so talented like this author is so talented she's so great and i just highly recommend you guys pick this one up if you like poetry and you're looking to support some indie poets this is the first one you need to pick up because it's so good it's available on amazon you guys can get it just get it it's so good um and i just loved it so much so little you amazing amazing okay so the next one is one that um this book this next book um i say that this book is my new replacement for twilight if i know someone who wants to read something that's kind of like twilight they want the vampire vibes um they want the cheesiness the romance the adventure all of it but they don't want the problematic elements that comes with the twilight saga the beautiful by renee ardier is your book i read this book in april and it is just it came out of nowhere here's the thing because i had read a renee eddie a book i read her debut the wrath of the dawn and i hated it a few years ago it was probably i it's true today is one of the worst books i've read and so i just hadn't had any interest in renee adie but then i just kept hearing good things about this book so i was like you know what i'm gonna get it from the library i'm gonna pick it up and then i was hooked this is a historical fiction following a girl who is from france and she ends up accidentally killing a guy in france he deserved it but she kind of doesn't want to get arrested for murder so she ends up fleeing from france to new orleans and from there she meets um the the society of mysterious people that she just seems drawn to she ends up falling in love with like the head of the society it's great it's so much fun it's got the aesthetics that you need it's got the romance and angst that you need it's got the vampires that you need it's got like a bit of murder mystery in the first book it's so good it's so good if you need a book to read in like 24 hours this book is so good um it's just so much fun it's a duology i think it should be a trilogy in my personal opinion i think there needs to be at least one more book i think i think it could be a full-blown series but i feel like when nayari is always just like stuck to her duologies but i'm just like no um but this book was just so good i can't stop thinking about it i need to buy my own copy because i don't own a copy of it yet i own a copy of the sequel but not this book and i just need it because i need to read this one um so the beautiful absolutely loved it kind of came out of nowhere for me and i don't regret it my next book is definitely just gonna be an all-time favorite i feel like the top two of these books are 100 all-time favorites in a sense that i will be rereading these books for years to come um i just this book in particular i think is just going to be a low-key a manifesto for me i just genuinely love it so much and that is the master's tools will never dismantle the masters house biology lord um this is a part of the penguin classics mini classics um collection and it is a collection of audrey lorde's essays that she did when she was alive and um it kind of talked about intersectional feminism and you know being a woman and just fighting for your rights and just everything that comes with that uh it's 50 pages it's a pound it's so phenomenal like what she talks about is just so phenomenal she just talks about what it is to be a black queer woman in this world and just dealing with the that you've got to deal with and how you should deal with it and how you should you know embrace certain things to live a full life and how you should how like the relationships that we have with other like white women and stuff like that and it's just it's just like such an insightful book um and if you are looking for a a first step into reading non-fiction intersectional feminist literature and this is the my go-to recommendation it's the one that i think everyone should read it's such an easy read it's literally 50 pages like you can read it in a day which is what i did it's 50 pages it packs such a punch she makes so many amazing points and it's just so insightful and so truthful there's not one thing in here that i disagreed with i just loved everything that she wrote um and i just genuinely think this is a book that everyone should read um it's one that again that i will be rereading for the rest of my life because i just think it's always going to be such a great reminder of you know how i want to be navigating the world and i just it just had such a good impact on me and especially at the time when i read it because i was dealing with a lot of white feminism in my life um and it was just kind of getting to me and then i just picked up this book and there's an essay specifically on the relationship between black women and white women that was just so insightful and just exactly what i needed at that point and i think everyone used to read that essay in particular is so amazing so yeah you guys need to read this one especially if you want to read some anti-racist literature um it's amazing and the last book on my list my favorite book of all time i found this this year um i have thank god a video of me reading this book for the first time so my first read of this book will always be documented and that is this is how you lose the time war by mal mota and max gladstone this book again like i just did not see this coming in terms of i just i expected to love this book but i didn't expect it to be like an all-time favorite is my favorite book it's just and i can't explain why it's literally like i try and put into words why this is my favorite book but all i can say is that it just hits the right vibes is it like there's no reason in particular just exactly this is just exactly what i want in a book and i don't understand why but i loved it anyway um this is a sci-fi book um following uh red and blue and red and blue come from alternative futures and their job is to go back in time to different points in history to make sure certain things happen a certain way and these are like tiny things there's literally a scene in this where one of them goes back in time to make sure that like a gust of wind hits like the right bell or something like just to make sure that a certain person hears the right sounds they end up doing a certain amount of things that ensure that their future happens um and basically they end up writing letters to each other and they're quite at the beginning they're quite antagonistic taunting letters being like haha i won this one and you're gonna lose this one and just very like taunting each other but then they start falling in love because they end up realizing that they that they are the closest to each other like their jobs are quite lonely their jobs just uh consisted them my this is where my sis my my mom decides to talk and then i end up just kind of realizing that they love each other and that they are each other's only friend because their jobs are just so lonely their jobs are just them by themselves going to different parts of history not making any other connections apart from with each other and they end up doing what they can to be together and this book is just so beautiful and it's just so well written and it's so unique it's like unlike anything i've ever read in my life and i said i know i've said that about a few of these books but this is truly like i've never read anything like this maybe because i don't read a lot of sci-fi but i really don't think that's the case i think it's just very unique um it's also suffic as well so if you guys are looking for a good suffix sci-fi this is so good i will say this is one of those books that i just recommend to everyone if you're interested in it because i feel like you either get it or you don't there's so many people that have read this book this year that just didn't like it but there's so many people that loved it as well so it's just like one of those books where you either get it or you don't and i'm not mad about that i just feel like it's just i understand why people wouldn't love it but mom yeah so i will say this is a super polarizing book but it's less than 200 pages and if you're interested you should read it i'm fairly sure it's like 99p on kindle right now so if you're looking for a cheap easy read read this one i think i want to reread this um in january or february just because i love it so much um and i just think it's such a great book and i just can't stop thinking about it the writing is genuinely just so beautiful and the story is amazing and i love it i just love it love it like it just oh um it's my favorite book ever like it just is i can't even explain it it just is um so yeah those were my top 10 books of 2020 and i did really love all these books i will say um but they were definitely the exception to the general rule this year like i feel like i read a lot of like meh books um so i'm excited for 2021 because i have a lot of books on my tbr um that i think are gonna blow me away a lot of five star predictions i think i'm gonna prioritize them this next year um and i'm excited to read more because this list i'm going to be honest was kind of easy for me to read because i only had so many like five-star standout books um but i hope that next year i really struggle to make this list because i've read too many amazing books that's what i'm going to say i want to manifest that i want to read so many five stars that i don't know what's my favorite um so yeah that's gonna be it for me for today comment down below what your favorite books of 2020 were um like i said i need recommendations so i can be reading five stars left and right um if you like this video if you liked me if you want to see more of my content like and subscribe yeah that's gonna be it for me for today and i'll see you guys next time bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: mel.theravengirl

Views: 540

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: best books, 2020 favourites, books, booktube, recommendation, reading, midnight sun, romance, smut, vampires, sci-fi, sff

Id: a76_y9hPZLk

Length: 31min 0sec (1860 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020