My Top Books of 2016
Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review.
I can never really let go of enough favorites to make this list short, like 10 books, so I am going to split up by genre and category. All of the books here were rated 4.5 or 5 stars. The first section just has the best (non-reread) books I read in 2016 – all 5 stars. The other categories below feature my other popular categories, like YA contemporary, other YA genres, and Adult contemporary.
I don’t know what it says about what’s going to happen in 2017, but two books that haven’t even been released yet made it into my five-star list here. I loved all of these books but if I realllly had to pick an all-time favorite or three, I’m leaning toward After I Do, Results May Vary, and The Hating Game. Other reviews and Goodreads pages can be found here: The Score, We Are The Ants, The Lost and Found, The Long Game, History Is All You Left Me, and Caraval. The last two are 2017 releases so those links go to Goodreads.
I loved this selection of YA Contemporary Romance this year! It’s hard to pin down major favorites from this excellent list, but my instincts lead me to Dreamology, Wanderlost, The Sun is Also a Star, and This Adventure Ends. All of these stories were fantastic and I loved them. More reviews: Firsts, The Wrong Side of Right, Winning, True Letters from a Fictional Life, and Tell Me Three Things.
Apparently it was an even better year for non-contemporary reads for me! This actually surprises me a little bit. For fantasy books, I was a huge fan of Reign of Shadows (also considered a retelling), A Court of Mist and Fury, Crown of Midnight, and Queen of Shadows. For mystery/thriller types, I enjoyed The Fixer (and its sequel even more!). For more paranormal-ish reads, I loved Monstrous Beauty and The Raven King. For historical retellings, My Lady Jane was fantastic. The Epidemic was a dystopia and Gemina was sci-fi; both sooo good.
This list is definitely shorter by comparison because (a) I don’t read as much adult or NA fiction as YA and (b) some of the best books I read in this category got 5 stars from me! For adult fiction, I was a huuuge fan of TJR’s latest book, One True Loves. I also read an old backlist title, Second Time Around, on a whim from my library. Really enjoyable! For NA, Dahlia Adler could do no wrong with Right of First Refusal (and the entire Radleigh trilogy, honestly).
So many great books!! After I Do and The Hating Game made my list too. I just bought The Lost & Found so I am excited for that. I honestly loves so many of the others or own them and just need to read them!! Great lists!
Thank you! 😀
After I Do made my list too (although really I could have picked any Taylor Jenkins Reid and I would have been okay with that). I still have to read The Score even though it’s been sitting on my TBR forever. Sigh, hopefully soon. Great List!
Right? TJR is the best!
I looooove seeing Taylor Jenkins Reid among your top reads! She’s one of my all-time favorite authors, and I have loved every single one of her books. Can’t wait for the new one!
Yes I’ve loved ALL of them! I don’t know how she does it. Her new one sounds awesome but I wish the cover matched the other books haha.
Amazing list! I haven’t read many of these myself but I definitely plan on picking up a TJR book next year – hopefully, more than one! And man, I really need to get around to reading a Sarah J Maas book. It’s ridiculous I’ve waited this long. I also have The Hating Game out from the library at the moment because it got soooo popular towards the end of the year so hopefully, I’ll love it as much as everyone else did. Oh, and I enjoyed Gemina a lot as well!
Thank you! She is so amazing. I’ve loved all of her books. SJM isn’t bad. I love ACOTAR but ToG is a little harder for me to get into.
Great list! I just started Illuminae, and I’m enjoying it so far. I love Jennifer Lynn Barnes (just put the new book in the Naturals series on hold at the library), and We Are the Ants is on my list as well. Happy reading new year!
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If I made a post, I’d have to do the same thing. I’m terrible at choosing! The Score and The Hating Game!!! Yesss definitely excellent picks. I’ve heard such great things about Caraval, I’m hoping to read it soon. Loved This Adventure Ends, still need to read Dreamology and Wanderlost. That’ll be part of reading books I own in 2017 I guess 😉 Yaaaayyy MLJ and TRK! Crown of Midnight might be my fave ToG book even though I love the witches in Shadows.
Wow you must read a lot of books in order to have so many top books of the year. I only read about 50 books a year so having just a top ten is a lot for me.
Looks like you had a great reading year though! I loved ACOMAF as well.
Happy New Year!