2018 Blogging Recap!



Happy New Year's Eve! It's officially the last day of 2018, which means it's time to recap all of the awesome things we did this year, from new features, to bookish events, to friends we made, to milestones we've hit and more! So without further ado, let's get into our highlights from 2018!

JANUARY 2018

  • We started launching our guest review feature, where we featured three bloggers/readers on The Book Bratz every month, giving them a chance to share their love for one of their favorite books. It's been so much fun reading other people's thoughts on some of the stories that we know and love!


FEBRUARY 2018



MARCH 2018

  • We met Tahereh Mafi at the launch for her latest book in the Shatter Me series, RESTORE ME. We did a recap post and had so much fun!
  • We also celebrated 2/3 of our birthdays (Amber & Jessica), finally turning 20!


APRIL 2018

  • We got our first bookish subscription box (Scribbler, a box curated for writers!) and we did our first ever unboxing post, which was tons of fun!


MAY 2018

  • We went to BEA/BookExpo for the very first time! We've gone to BookCon in the past multiple times, but this was the first time that we were ever accepted and granted media passes for BookExpo. It was an absolutely huge milestone for us that we still can hardly believe, and none of it would have been possible without all of you!
  • We also celebrated our 6th birthday here on the blog! How does time fly so quickly?


JUNE 2018

  • We went to BookCon 2018 and met so many amazing bloggers, readers, authors, and fans! We truly had such a wonderful time.
  • Perhaps one of the most special parts of this month (and this year!) was the fact that we met a group of blogger friends who were all super sweet and we spent time together the entire day, surviving the Penguin 2019 ARC Drop Line of Death, and continued to talk to each other every day, both about bookish and non-bookish things, and we formed a bunch of friendships that we are extremely grateful for.
  • We unveiled our new blog design! Amber worked super hard on it, so it was really exciting to finally be able to show you all of her effort and the shiny new blog design that we are absolutely in love with.


JULY 2018

  • We officially launched our Blogging 101 feature, in which we talk about some different topics having to do with starting and running a successful book blog. While we are by no means the cookie-cutter method for being successful (nor would we even really consider ourselves *that* successful!), we still loved sharing some of the tips and tricks that we have learned along the way.
  • We read and reviewed our first-ever graphic novel here on the blog! It was a hilarious love story about a girl who falls in love with a bear, which you can read by clicking here.
  • We also launched our 2018 Summer Blogger Promo Tour, back after a few years of a hiatus due to the stress of #college.


AUGUST 2018

  • We celebrated Emily's 20th birthday!
  • We also reached 350,000 pageviews here on the blog -- a personal milestone for us that blew us out of the water! We still can't believe that so many of you care about the silly things we say. Thank you for supporting us all of this time!


SEPTEMBER 2018

  • We started our junior year of college!
  • We hit 5,000 Twitter followers. That number still blows us away. Thank you all for making that possible!


OCTOBER 2018

  • We launched our 2019 Debut Author event signups! You can still register by clicking here.


NOVEMBER 2018

  • We began hosting a lot more author interviews, and it's been so much fun getting to know all of the incredible writers behind some of our favorite stories!


DECEMBER 2018

  • We ended another great year with so many readers, followers, writers, and friends. We love doing these posts at the end of the year and being able to see how much we've grown together!

What was your favorite thing that we did on the blog this month? What are your recommendations for future posts/reviews? Comment down below and let us know! :-)



It's been such an amazing year with so many new friends, milestones, and achievements here on the blog, and we're so grateful that we got to spend another year with all of you wonderful followers and readers. Here's to a prosperous 2019, and a great year full of amazing achievements for all!

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Our Awards for the Best Books of 2018!


Happy New Year's Eve! If you're unfamiliar with our Best Book Awards, it's a tradition in which we showcase some of our favorite books from the year. It's lots of fun and we want YOU to get involved too -- by commenting down below and telling us what YOU would choose as the winners for certain categories, and what you thought of our choices! There was no voting process on these books and there aren't actually any official awards -- this is just a fun way of celebrating all the books we loved this year! Without further ado, here are our favorite books of 2018! 

**Please note that not all of these books were necessarily published in 2018. Some were books we've had on our TBR for awhile, or 2019 ARCs that we read this year and really stood out to us!**

And the Winners Are...

Our Favorite Fantasy:

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Jessica: The Girl and the Grove by Eric Smith 
Amber: Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Emily: War Storm by Victoria Aveyard 

Our Favorite Sci-Fi:

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Jessica: The Similars Rebecca Hanover 
Amber: Contagion by Erin Bowman
Emily: The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Our Favorite Contemporary:

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Jessica: The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason
Amber: In a Jam by Cindy Dorminy
Emily: The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason

Our Favorite Graphic Novel:

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Jessica: My Boyfriend Is a Bear by Pamela Ribon, Illustrated by Cat Farris

Our Favorite Romance:

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Jessica: Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett
Amber: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi
Emily: All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

Sexiest Books We Loved:

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Jessica: All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
Amber: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi (*Can we not forget that ONE scene please!*)
Emily: Umm, both of these thank you very much!

Series We Loved:

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Jessica: Paper Princess (The Royals, #1) by Erin Watt
Emily: Warcross by Marie Lu

Best Stand-Alone Novels We Loved:

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Jessica: This is Not a Love Letter by Kim Purcell
Amber: Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
Emily: The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason

Our Favorite Love Triangles:

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Jessica: Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia
Amber: Hidden Deep by Amy Patrick
Emily: Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia

Our Favorite Poetry:

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Jessica: No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay
Amber: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Our Favorite Thrillers:

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Jessica: Sadie by Courtney Summers
Amber: Echoes by Alice Reeds

Best World-Building:

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Jessica: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi
Amber: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Emily: War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

Our Favorite Covers:

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Jessica: The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven 
Amber: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
Emily: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi 

Our Favorite Main Characters:

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Jessica: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Amber: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Emily: All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

Our Favorite Mysteries:

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Jessica: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Amber: Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Emily: The Leading Edge of Now by Marci Lyn Curtis

Our Favorite LGBTQIAP+ Stories:

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Jessica: What if it's Us by Adam Silvera & Becky Albertalli 
Amber: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Emily: Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli 


Our Favorite 2019 ARC:

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Jessica: Just For Clicks by Kara McDowell 
Amber: Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith
Emily: The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess

We hope you all enjoyed this year's showcase - now comment down below and let us know what books YOU would choose to win each of these categories! Go forth and enjoy celebrating the coming 2019!

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