Happy Friday, friends! For today’s Friday Five topic, I’m sharing my top favorite books of the year from 2015 to 2019. I have always been an avid reader, but once I became a teacher, I got so caught up in my job and it just consumed my life. Sadly reading fell by the wayside. I probably read 10 books in 5 years. I was just so overwhelmed and stressed with everything that teaching is. I decided I needed to find a way to de-stress and unwind from work. In 2015, I read Big Little Lies and that reignited my passion for reading. Since 2015, I’ve read at least 80 books each year and fallen in love with countless stories. Reading has ALWAYS been a passion of mine, but in the last few years, it’s really become a huge part of my life. I love sharing with I’m reading with y’all!
Today’s post is all about my top books of each year. Like I said earlier, I’ve read at least 80 books each year for the past five years, and I always share my top favorites with y’all in my yearly wrap ups. Let’s chat about my number 1 picks from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019!
2015: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies will forever hold a special place in my heart because it was the book that not only helped me love reading again, but it also made me discover adult fiction. Up until this point in my reading life, I had only really read YA (young adult.) I was always intimidated by adult fiction because I had never tried them. This book came out around the same time that The Husband’s Secret did and both had such gorgeous covers that I bought them to sit on my coffee table and look pretty LOL. I knew Reese Witherspoon was going to be producing a show about BLL, but I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to get through the book. Boy was I wrong! I am so grateful to this book.
2016: Cancel the Wedding by Carolyn T. Dingman
I discovered Cancel the Wedding via Shay Shull’s blog. This ended up being her favorite of 2016 as well. I don’t know what makes this book so special and while it’s true that if I had read it in later years, it probably wouldn’t have been my favorite, but I loved it in 2016. I don’t remember much about it, but it was the perfect southern fiction read.
2017: When It’s Real by Erin Watt
Of all my favorite books from the past five years, this is the most shocking. When It’s Real is a YA (or maybe NA, I can’t remember) romance about a girl who befriends a singer in order to help him repair his image. They fake date until they actually fall in love. I just fell in love with this story. It was shocking because the year before I had read Erin Watt’s Paper Princess series and absolutely despised it. It was full of crude language. When It’s Real is just amazing though. If you love celebrity romances (which I didn’t until this book) definitely pick this one up!
2018: The Neighbors by Hannah Mary McKinnon
If you’ve followed me for a while, I’m sure you’ve heard me rave about The Neighbors. When I read this story, I was absolutely floored. To this day I have never found a most shocking ending to a book. It’s about a woman who moves away after her brother dies in a car wreck in which she was driving. She marries a man and then 20 years later her ex boyfriend moves into the house next door…
2019: On the Corner of Love and Hate by Nina Bocci
Last year’s favorite book was a sweet little romance by Nina Bocci called On the Corner of Love and Hate. This is actually the first book in a trilogy, but each can be read as stand alones. 2019 was a hard year for me because that was the year I sold my house, moved in with my mom while my house was being built and then moved into it AND changed grade levels and classrooms. Reading took a hit. This book was a bright spot though. It features one of my all time most favorite swoon worthy male characters ever. I LOVED this one so much!
I’m so excited to see what my favorite book of 2020 will be. I’ll leave y’all with some top contenders right now…which do you think it’ll end up being??
