BookNest.EU

To celebrate the release of The Empire of Ashes (The Draconis Memoria #3) by Anthony Ryan, one of my favorite series and authors respectively, I'm holding an International Deluxe Giveaway in which I offer all of his books (hardcovers) in one lucky winner! That's right, all you have to do is write a simple comment (make sure to include your email so we will be able to contact you) and you could win 6 brand new hardcovers! To make it even better, I'll also select 2 winners to get a 'The Empire of Ashes' hardcover from people who have shared our giveaway on Facebook and retweeted it on Twitter, so make sure you share and retweet for two extra chances to win! 

The lucky winners will be selected and announced on July 2, 2018 (one day before the book's release) and the books will be shipped out the next day!  

When it comes to reading and reviewing, I’m gratified to say that this is the best year of reading I’ve had in my entire life. Getting to know some authors—some even gave me dedicated signed books as thanks for my review!—and bloggers, getting to experience all these creations birthed from different individuals, but most of all, forming friendships with people all around the world who love books as much as I do, have all been amazing bonuses that have further improved my reading experiences. It’s finally the end of the year and it’s only fair for me to close it with some of the best books I’ve read this year.

I need to say a few things first regarding this list. This is my first full year of reading and reviewing novels. This year alone I've read and reviewed 122 books. To me, this is not a small amount. I’ve sacrificed a lot of socializing time in order to achieve this quantity, not to mention that almost all my reviews comprised of 1000-2000 words which required at least one or two hours to write. Suffice to say I don't think I can achieve this amount of reading in a single year again as my life will only get busier with the passage of time. Considering the number of books I've read and reviewed this year, there will be three rules I set in this list in order for me to give appreciation to more authors rather than having only a few authors hoarding this list. The rules are:

- Rereads don’t count

- One book per author

- The book listed here are not exclusively published this year.

All the books listed received a rating of 4.5 or 5 out of 5 stars from me. Without further ado, here we go! (All full reviews of these books can be found on Booknest or on my Goodreads page.)

 

20. Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

19. The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley

18. The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan

17. The Core by Peter V. Brett

16. The Guns of Empire by Django Wexler

15. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

14. Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell

13. The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

12. Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell

11. Heir of Novron by Michael J Sullivan

10. The Mirror's Truth by Michael R. Fletcher

9. The Stone Sky by N.K Jemisin

8. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

7. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

6. Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

5. Golden Son by Pierce Brown

4. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

3. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

2. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

1. Wrath by John Gwynne

I wish I could include more books because there are still plenty more great books I’ve read this year. But it was extremely hard for me to narrow down 122 books to 20 books already. Once again, thank you, everyone, for the experience. I look forward to reading and reviewing more books next year! :)

Rating: 4/5 stars

There’s just something about school stories, be they wizarding schools or battle schools or even schools based in reality, that always just works for me.