The Best of 2020 - My Favourite Reads of the Year

2020 is definitely a year we won't forget anytime soon. This most strange year was a time of great sadness and worry, of starts and stops and constantly changing plans. It was a tough year, no question.

via GIPHY

However, for me it was also a year in which to take time for myself and re-learn to prioritise my well-being, take stock and re-evaluate my priorities. For the first time in a very long while, I also had (and made) time for things I enjoyed doing but neglected due to my hectic life, like this blog. So, while I'm certainly glad to see the end of 2020, in a way I'm also grateful for the opportunities it gave me.

Of course, as we all know, staying inside is a lot easier when you have great books to keep you company! I didn't read that many new releases this year (although the ones I did were definitely worth it!) and I decided to finally catch up on some older reads that I'd missed out on instead. So, here's a round-up of my favourite reads this year, in no particular order.

ARC Book Review: Renna's Crossing by Geordie Morse

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Published: October 2020

Pages: 292

Summary

Sixteen-year-old Renna Porter has grown out of a painful and uncanny childhood. Her dark dreams are in the past, and she can finally enjoy her life with her three dads and a dozen surrogate siblings. However, a visit from a dapper witch named Job reveals the tragic birthright of her blood. The witch Mab, Job's tutor and grandmother to Renna perished fighting a vengeful demon twelve years prior. Now it has returned to burn the last branch of Renna's family tree.

Job tutors Renna in witchcraft while they race to a fortified rectory deep within the Adirondacks. As the demon draws closer, the bond between teacher and student wears thin, and forgotten family steps out of Renna's past with an offering of dark power. Renna must decide if blood is thicker than water, and which will help her survive against an unstoppable hell-fiend.

ARC Book Review: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Publisher: Penguin

Published: May 2019

Pages: 325

Summary

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman: Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. she was queen of one of Troy's neighbouring kingdoms until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war - the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead - all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives - an dis nothing short of magnificent.

ARC Book Review: Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Published: October 2019

Pages: 432

Summary

The gods were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. For centuries the gods of the Undersea ruled the islands of the Myriad through awe and terror: they were very real, and very dangerous.

Sacrifices were hurled into the waters to appease them, and every boat was painted with pleading eyes to entreat their mercy. They were served, feared and adored. Then, thirty years ago, the gods rose up in madness and tore each other apart. Now, none remain.

The islands have recovered and the people have patched their battered ships and moved on. On one of these islands live Hark and his best friend Jelt. To them, the gods are nothing but a collection of valuable scraps to be scavenged from the ocean and sold.

But now something is pulsing beneath the waves, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it.

ARC Book Review: The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Series: The Ravens #1

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: January 2021

Pages: 400

Summary

From New York Times bestselling authors Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige comes a thrilling, dark contemporary fantasy about a prestigious sorority of witches and two girls caught up in its world of sinister magic and betrayals.

At first glance, the sisters of ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu - the Ravens - seem like typical sorority girls. Ambitious, beautiful, and smart, they're the most powerful girls on Westerly College's Savannah, Georgia, campus.

But the Ravens aren't just regular sorority girls. They're witches.

Scarlett Winter has always known she's a witch, and she's determined to be the sorority's president. But if a painful secret from her past ever comes to light, she could lose absolutely everything...

Vivi Devereaux has no idea she's a witch. So when she gets a coveted bid to pledge the Ravens, she vows to do whatever it takes to be part of the magical sisterhood. The only thing standing in her way is Scarlett, who doesn't think Vivi is Ravens material.

But when a dark power rises on campus, the girls will have to put their rivalry aside to save their fellow sisters. Someone has discovered the Ravens' secret. And that someone will do anything to see these witches burn...