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 month, Shanah at Top 5 Tuesday is taking a much-deserved break! That means that there aren’t any prompts this month, which is okay! I did some brainstorming, and this month is going to be a bit of a mid-year check-in. This week I’m going to talk about my favourite reads for the first half of the year. I don’t think any of the books on this list should be surprising, because I’ve been talking about them a lot, but I still wanted to make a list. I listed the books in the order that I read them because ranking them would be impossible.

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson: This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020, and it did not disappoint. As you probably know by now, I love the Truly Devious series, and I thought this book was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy. I loved how both mysteries at Ellingham Academy were wrapped up, and it made the wait for this book worth it. There’s a fourth book coming out next year, featuring the same characters and a new mystery to solve, and I’m impatiently counting down the days until it’s released.

The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham: This was my most surprising five-star read of the year so far because I went into it not knowing anything about it. This book was an emotional rollercoaster that introduced me to a dark period in Canadian history that I didn’t know existed. This book was full of friendship and heartbreak, and I cannot recommend it enough.

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton: This book was a lot of fun, and I loved that it was about smashing the patriarchy. I really liked the characters in this book, and I loved how diverse all of the side characters were. I liked how determined Kit was to be a knight at the restaurant, and how her mission was a small part of a larger battle.

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle: This book introduced me to the lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers trope, which is something I didn’t know I needed in my life. The shenanigans in this book were so much fun, but it was also full of raw moments, that made the characters feel real. Watching the characters become friends and fall in love again brought me so much joy, and I’m glad that I picked up this book.

Promises Forged by Devri Walls: I read this book for a blog tour hosted by The Write Reads, and it was amazing. This is the second book in The Venators series, and I was blown away by the world-building and character development. I loved the action, the politics, and the relationships between the character, and I loved that it kept me on the edge of my seat. I don’t know if the third book is out yet, but I know that I need to get my hands on it at some point because I want more of this universe and the characters.

How about you? What are some of your favourite books that you’ve read in 2020 so far?