Hello everyone!

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bionic Bookworm! If you’re interested in participating, check out her wonderful blog to get the details and the prompts for each week!

This week’s Top 5 Tuesday topic is Surprising Reads of 2019! Even though I went into so many blogging/Bookstagram slumps this year, 2019 turned out to be my best reading year since I’ve started keeping track. So far, I’ve read 49 books, and I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to squeeze in a few more before the end of the year. A lot of the books I read this year surprised me and below are 5 surprises that really stood out.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne: I use to be very skeptical about romance genre because I associated it with those books you’d see at the drug store with the half-naked men on the covers. Fortunately, I saw a bunch of people raving about The Hating Game, and I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give the genre a chance, and that was probably the best decision I’ve made this year. I absolutely adored The Hating Game, I’m now officially hooked on romance, especially the rom-com type romance novel, and I can’t stop talking how great this book is. The Hating Game has led me to so many other books that I wouldn’t have picked up before, and I can’t believe it took me this long to give Romance a chance.

Suggested Reading by Dave Connis: I picked up this book because I saw a bunch of people posting about it after one of the Harper Collins preview events. I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with banned books, and I thought the idea behind this book was interesting. I ended up falling in love with this book, and it made me want to hug every book in my room. It was an ode to book lovers and reading and a reminder that books are powerful and that they can change lives.

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman: I’m including Illuminae on this list for two reasons. Firstly, I’m usually not a huge sci-fi fan, and I ended up loving this book. Secondly, this was my first audiobook and it was an amazing experience. I was skeptical about audiobooks because my only exposure to them was the discs my sister-in-law would sometimes rent from the library for road trips, and that wasn’t a great introduction to the format. I’m glad that I decided to give Audible a try because Illuminae opened up a whole new world of reading to me, and it’s given me a reason to go for a walk during my lunch when the weather is nice enough.

Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson: I bought Truly, Devious when it first came out, but I didn’t read it until January of this year. I told myself that the reason why I put it off was that I wanted to wait for the second book, but in reality, it was because I wasn’t too sure I wanted to dive into another YA mystery. I ended up devouring Truly, Devious, and I couldn’t wait for The Vanishing Stair. I am now impatiently waiting for the third book to come out because I need to know what happens next.

Break in Case of Emergency by Brian Francis: This is my most recent read, and I’m including it on this list because of how great the representation in it is. This book deals with mental health, among other things, and I felt like the author did a really good job with it. I’m still trying to process the book because I finished it on Monday, but I think this book can help people who are struggling.