Top 5 Most Surprising Reads of 2019! // because i read more than just fantasy this year!

Hi friends! I want to start with a quick apology, everything is going to be a little late because the last two weeks have been CRAZY. I haven’t been able to blog-hop, write posts, or even edit a bit. I’m ready to ease back in (hopefully) so please drop some of your recent posts below for me to check out! As for today’s Top 5 Tuesday, it’s hosted by Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm as always!!

Y’all are probably sighing but look: I don’t do contemporaries. Too much teenage angst, not enough swords. I’m already living that teenage life, give me faeries and magic! Anyways, With The Fire On High totally shocked me with how much I adored it! The emphasis on friendship, family, and food was so heartwarming, combined with how the focus wasn’t actually on romance, made me crazy happy. Also, we have a biracial (Puerto-Rican and black) main character!!!!

Manga isn’t something I normally go for, so when I picked this up I was kinda wary*. But then! Then the series shocked me! The cast of characters has grown so much where I am, and the dialogue is everything from funny to inspirational. Also, I freak out over the art style and the sweetness of the author way too much.

*that’s a bit of an understatement…it was more like i gingerly pried open a page and immediately closed it out of sheer confusion and fear as to why this strange red-haired girl was wildly upset

Like manga, I don’t really read poetry. But I bought this* to support an independent bookstore, and ended up binge-reading the entire thing. Amanda Lovelace’s story of heartbreak and healing, loss and love, sacrifice and self, comes across so uniquely.

*well actually my mom bought it for me cuz she’s nice and i’m broke

WOW I’M GOING TO SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD I-

okay. so. I don’t actually read many thrillers* because they’re hard for me to actually get around to picking up. But THIS one. It was the opposite of what I expected a thriller to be, because it was so…quiet. But I gasped in shock multiple times and well, my review is written. You’ll see why this is on the list when that comes out haha!

*so in conclusion i don’t read contemporaries, manga, poetry, or thrillers much. who am i.

I was taken by surprise when I realized just how much I enjoyed this! It’s dark and mysterious and Gothic. The romance is, to be fair, problematic in some ways but in others, it’s a story of two broken souls finding each other in the midst of great hardship. Sure, there are some slow parts but generally I really, really enjoyed this one!

So that’s it! Tell me: what is one of YOUR most surprising reads of 2019? Is there a favorite pos you’ve written that I need to catch up on?