Floralcars' 2018 Book Awards

People are writing posts summing up their 2018 - about their successes and failures, their favourite make-up products, which nail varnish they loved the most - note to self, write idea down for 2019. I already rounded up all my road trip adventures in a separate post. Thus, it only feels right that I'd do the same with the books I read in 2018.

2018 Reading Stats 

In 2018 I read 38 books, which amounts to 11,115 digital and printed pages. The average length of my books is 303 pages, and I rated them with an average of 3,8 stars. Yikes, this makes it sound like a pretty average year or I am a hard judge. I also had one DNF!

According to Goodreads, the most popular book I had read was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The undeserving title least popular book goes to A Haunting in Edinburgh by Spring Horton.

The longest book I read was Heart of Mist by Helen Scheuerer. Meanwhile, the shortest page count had Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Promise.

The most read genre had been Young Adult. I also read my first ever poetry/verse genre with One Too Many Lies by L.A. Bowen, and dipped my feet into the cartoon genre.

And for my blogger milestone, out of 38 books I had been given 12 books in an exchange of an honest review. This is 11 more than I had expected to get.

After this quick overview let's get right into the award ceremony with ...

The Award for Top Reads

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: The thrilling, twisted and fucked up debut novel of Flynn. Definitely worth a read if you want a page turner that keeps you on your toes.

Reigen of Mist by Helen Scheuerer: The second part of the "The Oremere Chronicles" and promises everything and much more than the first part did.

Loving A Warrior by Melanie Hansen: The best love story that you could dream of. It gets you hooked to the relationship forming between Matt and Shane.


On the other end of the scale we have...

The Award For The Biggest Disappointment 

Save Me by Mona Kasten: A typical love story between a Popular Boy and an Unpopular Pure Girl. The writing style is good, however, the book romanticizes toxic and almost abusive tropes which turned me off.

Without Merit by Colleen Hoover: Similar to "Save Me" toxic and annoying stereotypes and tropes turned me off this one. However, unlike "Save Me" the writing is not as good, and "Beautiful Broken Things" by Sara Bernard, has the same main topic of depression and suicide and depicts it much better.

Blackhole Heartbeat by Andrew Henley: A Hot Mess of a book - one-dimensional characters, no plot as I noticed, unnecessary side plots which only show how great the main characters is, and horrible formatting. Also the only book I DNFed this year, and the second book I DNFed in my whole life.

Side Note: The first book I ever DNFed had been Shades of Grey.

Award for The Book I Was Excited About And Thought I Was Going To Love But Did Not

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera ...could not live up to the hype built around it. In the end, I felt that instead of being a sweet and great queer romance it was a flat, awkward and no-chemistry romance instead.

Award for The Best Book Series I Started

"The Oremere Chronicles" by Helen Scheuerer: A trilogy that starts with "Heart of Mist" and continues with "Reign of Mist." The third book is to be published in 2019.

The series is about Blake and her ability as an Ashai, it also includes inner political situations and power plays. The writing is excellent, along with character development that is on point and a plot that is going to keep you on your toes.

In short, it is your "Game of Thrones" but without the rape and three page long descriptions of a button.

Award for My Favourite Cover

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim has a simple but a beautiful cover. It is oddly soothing while at the same time portrays a certain kind of pain through the flames licking the edge of the cover. It is the type I could stare at for quite some time trying to work it out

Award for Best Passage Or Quote 

"If I could tell you only one thing,
My message would be this:
The world would be a lonely place
If you did not exist."

... is written at the beginning of "Beautiful Broken Things" - a book which has suicidal thoughts and depression as the main topic. The quote has not left me ever since, not only because it is extremely soft but, especially in the context of the book, says that everyone is important and plays a part in someone's life even if they don't think so in certain moments. Furthermore, it tells it in the most empathetic way possible - it is not that a certain person needs "you" but that without you it would make the whole world a little less happier.

The original quote is from Erin Hanson and I discovered that she has written whole volumes filled with poetry so that goes onto my list for 2019

Looking Forward To 2019 

The one book I had missed to read in 2018 but really wanted to had been "Lies Sleeping" by Ben Aaronovitch and I am on it in this very moment. Then I am highly anticipating the third and last part of "The Oremere Chronicles", and I really hope to get a chance to be part of the reviewing crowd as well.

From a book blogging point of view, I want to reach out to publishers directly and get more reviews going on NetGalley. From the reading point of view, I want to read more LGBT+ fiction and travel books.

Furthermore, to expand my knowledge of books, a couple of friends and I created the "Book Club For Lazy, Slow, And Stressed Readers" in which we are going to read the a book every three month or sooner if we manage to finish earlier and find the time - unlikely.

The release I most look forward to in 2019, is Angie Kim's "Miracle Creek." I had been blessed with an advance review copy and let me tell you, I felt not worthy being given it.

Now the question of questions, if you could give these awards to your 2018 reading, what would it look like? Let me know below!