Lola’s Ramblings is a feature on my blog Lola’s Reviews where I ramble on about a book related or a non-book related topic. These are discussion type of posts where I talk about a topic and readers can weigh in on the topic in the comments. Usually these posts are everything that doesn’t fall under any standard header, like tours, cover reveals, memes, challenges, recaps or reviews. Lola’s Ramblings posts are discussions of a certain topic and my point of view on them. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.
I read a total of 113 books this year and two of those were re-reads). You can see all the books I read here on Goodreads. Today I want to talk about my favorite reads from this year and it was so hard narrowing it down as it was a great year for reading. I had 4 books that got a 5 star rating and a lot of of awesome 4 star reads too.
Science Fiction
![Overload Flux audio](http://lolasreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Overload-Flux-audiobook.jpg")
It was a great year for Science Fiction books for me. I discovered a new favorite author in Carol Van Natta. I love her whole Central Galactic Concordance series, but for this post I picked my two favorites Overload Flux and Jumper’s Hope. Overload Flux got a rare 5 star rating from me both times I read it, once in e-format and a re-read later in the year as audiobook.
To see the Sun was my first read by Kelly Jensen and I loved the character driven story set on an inhabitable planet. And read more by that author later this year. Fukusha Model Eight is the third book in SJ Pajonas’ Hikoboshi series, which got a 5 star rating. Pajonas is one of my favorite authors and all three of her books she published this year made the cut for this post.
The Cozies
The Daydreamer Detective Returns a Favor and Matsuri and Murder are both from SJ Pajonas’ Miso Cozy Mystery series, which is easily one of my favorite cozie series. I love the mysteries and the characters and am looking forward to each new release.
Cookie Dough, Snow & Wands Aglow is a turning point in this series by Erin Johnson and I love the direction the plot took. The whole series is just fabulous with awesome characters and a good amount of continuity too and if you enjoy paranormal cozy mysteries I can’t recommend it enough. Bethany Blake’s series is one of my favorite cozie mystery series and A Midwinter’s Tail was just all around an awesome read with a great mystery.
Fantasy/ Paranormal
The Horse Mistress series is so good, I ended up picking book 2 for this post as I think it’s my favorite from the series. The whole series has an awesome MMF romance between three character who have so much understanding and know how to communicate and respect each other’s wishes in and out the bedroom. the plot line is great too. Book 2 have them deal with the fallout of revealing some secrets and I enjoyed seeing how they dealt with that.
Don’t Rush Me features a great cast of characters, awesome world building and a good start to multiple slow burn romances. I just don’t get why I haven’t read book 2 yet. I am not sure which of the three Priestess books is my favorite, so I just went with book 1 for this post. It’s one of my favorite reverse harem series, all the males are great and interesting characters and each romance is so well done and the plot is really good too.
Under Fire is part of the Imprint series that I binge read early this year, Under Fire is probably my favorite book in the series with a more personal mystery than the rest, which drew me even further into the plot. the mysteries are great and I love the blend of mystery, romance and paranormal in this awesome paranormal suspense series. Shifter Mate Magic is the first book in Carol Van Natta’s Ice Age Shifters series that I enjoy a lot, it has great realistic characters, shifters and romance.
Contemporary Romance
This was the year I got into MM romances and all three of my favorite contemporary romance reads are MM romances. Building Forever got one of my 5 star ratings as I loved it so much. The characters are likable and realistic and I loved seeing them fall in love. Book 3 in the series was almost just as good, Brian and Mal were such a great couple in Chasing Forever. Pisces Hooks Taurus has this perfect slow burn romance and two characters who are just so good together.
Wow. I’m super honored to have made your list with all three of my releases this year!! ❤️ I’m so glad you enjoyed the books. Thank you! I also see plenty of books here that I remember you raving about and that I added to my own TBR pile. Hopefully I can get to a few of them in 2019.
S. J. Pajonas recently posted…2018 Audiobook Challenge Round-Up + 2019 Audiobook Challenge Goal
I love your books and all three of the books you released this year were awesome. I cna’t wait for next year’s books!
I read a Carol Van Natta book this year too and really liked it.
Mary Kirkland recently posted…Books I Read in 2018
Which of her books did you read? I really like her writing.
Love seeing your Best of list.
Yes!!! Those were my two favorite Carol Van Natta SFRs too. I still need to start her Ice Age shifter series. I have a couple of those Pajonas from her cozy and sci-fi series to read and I also got the first Erin Johnson because I enjoyed your reviews of them.
You definitely read/listened to some good ones. Wishing you more fantastic reads in 2019, Lola!
Sophia Rose recently posted…The Book Report December 2018
I always like making these posts 🙂
Glad to hear those were your favorite Carol van Natta books too. I hope you’ll enjoy her Ice Age Shifters series too. And the Erin Johnson series is so fun, one of my favorite cozie series.
Glad it was such a great reading year for you! I love that we both just happened to read a book twice in the same year and give it 5 stars both times lol. I remember seeing a lot of these reviews and how much you loved the books. It does seem like it was a good SFF year for you! And that’s great that you branched out some with romance and enjoyed the books so much 🙂 These sound like great books!
Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Book Review: The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy Book 2) by S. A. Chakraborty
I rarely re-read books, so it’s a wonder I even re-read two this year, but even better that i gave it a 5 stars both reads. It sure was a good SFF year for me. You can also see that in my stat post next week that Sci-fi and fantasy were the genres I read most this year. And I am really happy I started reading different types of romances this year.
Thanks so much for including Cookie Dough, Snow & Wands Aglow. So happy you enjoyed it! Happy new year! 😀
I really enjoy this series, it’s so much fun and I hope to get caught up with the previous two books soon.