Every Book I Read in 2019

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2019 was the first year since 2013 that I didn’t surpass my reading goal. I read 120 books in 2018 and set my reading goal for 2019 as 100 books. Sadly I only read 91 books in 2019, so I was a little bit disappointed, but I know 91 books is still an insane number of books and I had a really busy year!

Sorry if you’re not interested, but I like to publish this list for personal reasons and so that I have a record of what I read. I keep a separate page every year to track my books, so I’ll be updating it shortly for 2020 if you’re interested. In the meantime, here’s everything I read in 2019:

  1. Becoming – Michelle Obama
  2. Nine Perfect Strangers – Liane Moriarty
  3. Keeping Lucy – T. Greenwood
  4. The Tea Dragon Society – Katie O.Neill
  5. Black Enough – Ibi Zoboi
  6. Nice Try, Jane Sinner – Lianne Oelke
  7. The Island of Sea Women – Lisa See
  8. The Demon King (Seven Realms #1) – Cinda Williams Chima
  9. Heidi – Johanna Spyri
  10. The Belles (The Belles #1) – Dhonielle Clayton
  11. Even the Darkest Stars (Even the Darkest Stars #1) – Heather Fawcett
  12. Internment – Samira Ahmed
  13. I’ll be Gone in the Dark – Michelle McNamara
  14. All the Wandering Light (Even the Darkest Stars #2) – Heather Fawcett
  15. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (DNF @ 60%)
  16. The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2) – Cinda Williams Chima
  17. The Gray Wolf Throne (Seven Realms #3) – Cinda Williams Chima
  18. The Crimson Crown (Seven Realms #4) – Cinda Williams Chima
  19. The Everlasting Rose (The Belles #2) – Dhonielle Clayton
  20. Don’t Call Us Dead – Danez Smith
  21. Daisy Jones & The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
  22. A Bend in the Stars – Rachel Barenbaum
  23. New Zealand’s 26 Best Road Trips – Lonely Planet
  24. Etta and Otto and Russell and James – Emma Hooper
  25. Songs of a Sourdough – Robert W. Service
  26. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
  27. When They Call You a Terrorist – Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
  28. What the Wind Knows – Amy Harmon
  29. The Stories You Tell (Roxane Weary #3) – Kristen Lepionka
  30. Queenie – Candice Carty-Williams
  31. With the Fire on High – Elizabeth Acevedo
  32. A Very Large Expanse of Sea – Tahereh Mafi
  33. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin
  34. The Next Great Paulie Fink – Ali Benjamin
  35. The Simple Wild – K.A. Tucker
  36. Next Year in Havana – Chanel Cleeton
  37. Say You Still Love Me – K.A. Tucker
  38. Saving Francesca – Melina Marchetta
  39. The Turn of the Key – Ruth Ware
  40. The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai
  41. Miracle Creek – Angie Kim
  42. The Piper’s Son – Melina Marchetta
  43. Great Small Things – Jodi Picoult
  44. The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings #1) – JRR Tolkien
  45. The Place on Dalhousie – Melina Marchetta
  46. The Great Alone – Kristin Hannah
  47. Rhymes of a Rolling Stone – Robert Service
  48. The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings #2) – J.R.R. Tolkien
  49. No Exit – Taylor Adams
  50. The Grace Year – Kim Liggett
  51. The Blackhouse – Peter May (DNF @ 67%)
  52. Wishtree – Katherine Applegate
  53. Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
  54. Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane
  55. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
  56. Magic for Liars – Sarah Gailey
  57. Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
  58. Searching for Sylvie Lee – Jean Kwok
  59. My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaithe
  60. When All is Said – Anne Griffin
  61. A Practical Wedding – Meg Keane
  62. A Woman is No Man – Etaf Rum
  63. Heads Will Roll – Kate McKinnon
  64. The Witches are Coming – Lindy West
  65. Lands of Lost Borders – Kate Harris
  66. Book Love – Debbie Tung
  67. Chase Darkness With Me – Billy Jensen
  68. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) – Philip Pullman
  69. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) – Philip Pullman
  70. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
  71. Things You Save in a Fire – Katherine Center
  72. If They Come For Us – Fatimah Asghar
  73. Return of the King (Lord of the Rings #3) – J.R.R. Tolkien
  74. Recursion – Blake Crouch
  75. Ember and the Ice Dragons – Heather Fawcett
  76. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
  77. The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) – Philip Pullman
  78. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
  79. Girls of Storm and Shadow (Girls of Paper and Fire #2) – Natasha Ngan
  80. Lord of the Butterflies – Andrea Gibson
  81. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise – Dan Gemeinhart
  82. Educated – Tara Westover
  83. Wild Embers – Nikita Gill
  84. Verity – Colleen Hoover
  85. Grief & Loss & Love & Sex – Lara Margaret Marjerrison
  86. Dear Girls – Ali Wong
  87. Strange Planet – Nathan Pyle
  88. The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) – Neal Shusterman
  89. 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin – Thomas King
  90. The Queen of Nothing (Folk of the Air #3) – Holly Black
  91. The Cellist of Sarajevo – Steven Galloway

Deathcaster

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Genres: Fantasy
Pub. date: Mar. 2019 (read Feb. 2020)
Series: Shattered Realms #4

I’m a bit torn on how to rate this book and I think I’m somewhere between a 3 and a 4. I still flew through it – loving all the different characters and relationships, but I thought the plot could have been a little stronger. I was still really engaged in the story, I just wanted a more!

It was nice to finally see some resolutions between characters and some new relationships forming. As always, I think Chima writes interesting and flawed, but relatable, characters. Lyss and Hal were probably my favourites of the series, but I also really liked Lila and had a bit of a soft spot for Destin. I liked that he was introduced as a bit of a villain in Flamecaster, but turned out to be really nuanced and even though he’d done some questionable things, you still really wanted to root for him.

So the series still gets full points for characterization, but let’s get into where I thought the plot suffered. I have two main complaints – the first is about pacing and the second is about where the importance of the story was placed.

A lot of information was revealed in this book. Chima holds on to a lot of secrets throughout the series. I think it’s a huge bonus when a series has an overarching mystery that continues throughout each book. But I also think it’s important to provide some answers and closure to other mystery elements as the series progresses. I think Chima held on to a bit too much information and as such, the story felt a little overwhelming at the end, with too many things being tied up too quickly.

For example, we have to wait through this whole series to find out who attacked Ash in the first book, what the Darian brothers are, who was behind the attack on Lyss, and who the mole at court is. When everything is finally revealed, the answers just feel a little anti-climactic. The plot elements weren’t necessarily large enough to carry this mystery through 4 books and I was left feeling disappointed by the answers. I think the individual books would have benefited had Chima given up a little more information earlier in the story.

That said, there were some elements where I think it made sense to string along your readers for 4 books, namely with the mystery of Celestine and her relationship to Jenna, Breon, and Evan. Which brings me to my second criticism – how Chima chose to frame the story around these 4 “casters”, but then didn’t really give their story the airtime if deserved.

The books are named for 4 individuals. I’m assuming that Celestine was ‘deathcaster’. Every thing about Celestine and the north islands and her dynasty is shrouded in mystery. We don’t know who she is or what her tie is to any of the other characters. We can tell she is seeking more power and represents a big threat to the realms. But Chima holds out on the significance of these individuals until the very last minute and then throws in a couple of (in my opinion) poorly cobbled together explanations of their relations and then quickly defeats the empress in a chapter. I was left not really understanding who the empress was or why she was so powerful, and then disappointed at how easily she eventually seemed to be defeated. It just left me wondering what bearing she really even had on the story, except providing enough of a threat to the realms to finally mend the relationship between the Fells and Arden. I just wanted SO MUCH MORE.

Like I said, overall I still loved the series. It just felt rushed and I felt we were still left with some unanswered questions. It wasn’t totally clear what happened with Raisa and Han and I would have loved a little more time devoted to Aedion and the healing of this family the reader has grown to love. Still a fan though and I am planning to read Chima’s first series, which I’m pretty sure is now the only one I have left. 3.5 stars overall – disappointed I never got a 5-star book out of this series.

Stormcaster

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Genres: Fantasy
Pub. date: Apr. 2018 (read Feb. 2020)
Series: Shattered Realms #3

Stormcaster is where the characters all finally start to catch up with one another and we get an idea of where the story is really going. I’ve read a lot of reviews from people that think this is the strongest book of the series, but I think I still preferred Shadowcaster over this one.

Stormcaster starts out with yet another character POV, Evan Strangward. We’ve been introduced to Evan in other books, but here we finally get to learn what team he’s actually on and all about his history. Plus we finally get to learn more about Destin Karn! Evan and Destin feature heavily in the first 100-150 pages of the book, which I thought was really strong and exclusively tells Evan’s story, before Chima finally commits to the multi-POV book and starts alternating between all of her characters. We finally get to return to Ash, Hal, Jenna, Lyss, and Lila, but with so many characters constantly changing and with the plot going in so many different directions, I feel like not a whole lot was accomplished in this book. It was a relief to finally get the merging of stories, but in my opinion Stormcaster felt like a bit of a filler book with just enough action to progress the story. I still loved it, but I was left feeling the tiniest bit disappointed.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the plot; the characters continue to be the highlight of the series for me because there is no shortage of complex and interesting characters. I’m excited to see what happens in the final segment – but find it hard to believe so many character arcs and plot threads can be resolved in just one more book!

Shadowcaster

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Genres: Fantasy
Pub. date: Apr. 2017 (read Jan. 2020)
Series: Shattered Realms #2

Okay, this book was awesome! I loved the story and the characters and I’m super into this series, but I thought it was a really interesting choice in execution.

Flamecaster focuses on two characters: Ash and Jenna, with a strong supporting cast. Picking up Shadowcaster is almost like starting a completely new book because suddenly Ash and Jenna are nowhere to be seen and we have new protagonists: Lyss, Hal, and Breon. I really liked both books, though I might give a slight edge to Shadowcaster, but it was a little disorienting to be separated completely from all the characters you spent the first book bonding with and have to build a bunch of new relationships. Especially when the first half of this book completely overlapped with the timeline of the first book. So even though we didn’t know the specifics, we pretty much knew what was going to happen. I kind of wish these two books had been combined to make one big book with many POV’s. Although I can see how a 1000 page book would be daunting to readers, but I could still see it working as 2 books with multiple POVs.

Anyways, that was the main flaw I had with this book. I still thought the storytelling, plot building, and character development were all excellent. I fell just as much in love with the characters in Shadowcaster as I did with the characters in Flamecaster and I excited to see them all together. The first half of the book was on the slow side because we were missing some of the tension because we ultimately knew what was going to happen, but the second half was a thrill!

I love Lyss and Hal! Not necessarily as a couple, but definitely as individuals. I wasn’t really into Ash and Jenna’s relationship in the last book and I while I felt Lyss and Hal’s could still have been drawn out a bit more, there was definitely more tension and less instalove. Though I could do without Hal constantly mooning over how Lyss “isn’t like the other girls”. But I did love Lyss!

Lyss’ story isn’t a story that hasn’t been told before, but I still loved it! She’s bold and brazen, but also caring and respectful. One of my favourite scenes was when she refuses to run off and start a war without first consulting the queen. I was totally expecting her to run off and make mistakes and ultimately be a hero, and it was cool to see her instead acknowledge another woman’s power. Then when she overhears her mother talking to Captain Bryne, again I thought she was going to run off and be reckless in revenge, but instead she just calls her mother out on lying to her. It was very mature and I loved how honest she is throughout the book. I don’t believe for a second she’s only 15 though. I’m not really sure why Chima insists on having all her characters be 15-16 years old. Literally none of these characters act like 15 year olds and I think the story would be a lot more believable if they were all in at least their early 20’s.

Anyways, despite my criticisms, I still loved this book and I’m already 100 pages into Stormcaster. A quick browse through the next book looks like we finally get to return to some of the characters from both books, but the first 100+ pages is still about yet another new character, so I guess Chima might have struggled to structure this series differently. Multiple POV stories definitely have a very different dynamic than 2-3 POV stories and I feel like maybe she was trying to avoid a confusing epic with too many characters and too complex a plot. Structured as is, the plot is still pretty easy to follow because we only focus on a few stories per book.

Flamecaster

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Genres: Fantasy
Pub. date: Apr. 2018 (read Jan. 2020)
Series: Shattered Realms #1

I read the Seven Realms series about a year ago and loved it, but I knew something bad was going to happen at the beginning of this series and I couldn’t face it after becoming so attached to the characters in the first series, so I didn’t jump right in.

After returning from my 5 week vacation, I wasn’t feeling super motivated to read, so I decided it might be easier to return to a world I was already familiar with. It was a great choice because Flamecaster gripped me right from the first chapter! I found the Demon King pretty slow and it took me a while to get into it, so I was expecting a similar experience with Flamecaster, but Chima had lots of action packed into the first few chapters and I was immediately drawn in to the story.

Flamecaster is set in the same world as the Seven Realms, but a generation later. Our protagonist is Adrian sul’Han, or Ash, son of our heroes from the previous series. When something bad happens at home, Ash feels forced to flea and takes up residence at Oden’s Ford, learning to be a healer and wizard. In another part of the realms, Jenna is forced by the Arden Empire to work in the mines in Delphi. Her hatred of the king motivates her to join the rebellion, but a strange magemark on the back of her neck draws the attention of those she’d rather stay away from and she finds herself hunted for it.

I don’t want to say too much else about the plot for those that haven’t read the first series. Everyone warned me that you must read the Seven Realms series before the Shattered Realms series, but I disagree. This book is easy enough to understand without having read the first series, I’m just not sure why you’d want to skip the first series. The Seven Realms series is great, as is this one, so why not read them in order!

I really liked falling back into Chima’s writing. She’s definitely an accomplished writer and I enjoy how smart her plots are. I’ve read some reviews that this is a slow burn book, which in a way it is, but I was never bored and I loved the natural progression of both the plot and the characters. I love how you’re not sure how you’re supposed to feel about some of her characters and that her questionable characters are just as intriguing as her protagonists. Lila was a real favourite for me in this book and I’m dying to learn more about Destin Karn. We get a glimpse at the end that there’s something else going on with him and I can’t wait to learn more.

The only part I didn’t totally love was the romance. There’s not a lot of romance in the book, but I think the romance that is present came on a little too fast. I do enjoy a bit of romance in my fantasy books, but tension is key. I like watching the natural progression of a romance throughout the course of a novel or series, and the anticipation and build up. This book had very little romantic tension and I really struggled to buy into the characters attraction.

But otherwise, this book gave me the perfect amount of resolution and intrigue at the end. Luckily for me I don’t have to wait a year for the next book, but had I read this when it first came out, it would still have been a satisfying ending. Can’t wait to see where Chima takes this in the next book!