2019 Blogging Recap!


Happy New Year's Eve! It's officially the last day of 2019, 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 2019!

JANUARY 2019

  • We started interviewing 2019 debut authors! Every month, we featured some interviews and giveaways from SO many amazing #Class2k19Books members. We read so many great new stories AND made so many amazing new friends!
  • We got to team up with our awesome friend Sadie @ S.B. Book Blog to do a tag-team Q&A...so check out all of her answers to our questions, as well as OUR answers to hers, in this post!
  • We added a new Blogging 101 post to our series talking about different types of post ideas that you can include on your blog other than reviews. You can check it out by clicking here! We also added a post on the Do's and Don'ts of blogging.
  • Amber got real and did an entire post on realistic sex scenes in YA, and their importance to readers. If that sounds like something you want to check out, click here!
  • For the first time EVER (yes, we know, we're horribly behind!), Amber decided that she wanted to dive into some audiobooks this year, and after asking for some recommendations, she came up with this list of audiobooks that she wants to read this year.


FEBRUARY 2019

  • We celebrated Valentine's Day by highlighting some of our favorite swoon-worthy reads, which you can read in this post!


MARCH 2019
  • Two of us (Amber & Jessica) celebrated our birthdays this month, which is always super fun! We both turned 21 this year!


APRIL 2019

  • We got nearly 1,000 people over the age of 18 who wanted to tell us why they still read YA even though they're past the "marketable" age-range for the genre. We had so many amazing responses that we wanted to take the time to share them all with you -- but since there are so many, it turns out that we had to make it a series! For 10 whole weeks, we shared 10 reasons (100 in total!) why "older" YA readers stick with the genre, and why it's important to them. You can check out all of our current installments here.


MAY 2019
  • It's so wild to believe that we hit the 6-year milestone on The Book Bratz this month, and we celebrated accordingly, with a giveaway and also by looking back on some of our amazing milestones! You can check out our celebratory post and giveaway by clicking here.
  • May is always the biggest month in the bookish world, and we lent a hand to the community by sharing our 2019 BookExpo and BookCon guide, which contained tips, tricks, and packing advice for both newcomers and veterans alike. We hope it helped and we would of course love to hear about any tips you may have for next year's guide!


JUNE 2019

  • We had so much fun ending off May and starting June with BookExpo and BookCon this year -- you can check our recap post and pictures by clicking here!

JULY 2019

  • We celebrated the Fourth of July with our favorite red, white, and blue reads! Check that out here!


AUGUST 2019

  • We celebrated Emily's 21st birthday!


SEPTEMBER 2019

  • We started our senior year of college! (*gasp*)
  • We talked about how blogging has changed us as readers! Amber put together a really thoughtful post on this, which you can read here!


OCTOBER 2019

  • We celebrated Halloween with our favorite spooky reads! What are some of your faves? You can check out ours here!


NOVEMBER 2019

  • We took some time to step back this month and focus on our reading and getting posts done while juggling school, so nothing super important happened on the blog this month, but it was really productive for us behind-the-scenes!


DECEMBER 2019

  • 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!
  • We reviewed so many great books this year! You can check them all out in the archive here!

What was your favorite thing that we did on the blog this year? 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 2020. a fantastic new decade, and a great year full of amazing achievements for all!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books I Read In 2019!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!

This week's theme: Favorite Books I Read In 2019!

*Click on the covers to be redirected to Goodreads!*

   
   
 

What are your favorite books for 2019? Leave the links to your top Ten Tuesday below so we can stop back! 

Our Favorite Books of 2019!


Happy (Almost) 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! Here are our favorite books of 2019! 




**Please note that not all of these books were necessarily published in 2019. Some were books we've had on our TBR for awhile, or 2020 ARCs that we read this year and really stood out to us!**






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Jessica: Ink in the Blood by Kim Smejkal
Amber: Crier's War by Nina Valera




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Jessica: World War Z by Max Brooks
Amber: House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A. Craig
Emily: The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring




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Jessica: The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
Amber: Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
Emily: If You're Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser


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Jessica: Defy Me (Shatter Me, #5) by Tahereh Mafi
Amber: Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman
Emily: Defy Me (Shatter Me, #5) by Tahereh Mafi



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Jessica: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Amber: Unpregnant by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan
Emily: Vanishing Summer by Lora Richardson 


 

Jessica: Super Fun Sexy Times by Meredith McClaren
Amber: Super Fun Sexy Times by Meredith McClaren

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Jessica: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Amber: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
Emily:  The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout 


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Jessica: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Amber: Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin


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Jessica: The Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi
Amber:  Iskari by Kristin Ciccarelli
Emily: The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentorut



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Jessica: With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Amber: The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Emily: The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess



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Jessica: Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueline Firkins

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Jessica: The Night Olivia Fell by Christina Lauren
Amber: The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring
Emily: Supermarket by Bobby Hall


The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson 


Jessica: The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious, #2) by Maureen Johnson
Amber: Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon




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Jessica: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Amber: Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon
Emily: The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring




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Jessica: Wild Life by Keena Roberts
Amber: Mia from Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Emily: The Quiet You Carry by Nikki Barthelmess




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Jessica: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Amber: Reverie by Ryan La Sala





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Jessica: Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley
Amber: Together We Caught Fire by Eva V. Gibson


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 2020!

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