Top 10 Books I Read in 2018

1.Renegades: Renegades is a book that actually does something that feels new involving superheroes which is something that I really enjoyed. I liked seeing a society that is now ruled by superheroes because they are the ones that brought society out of an age of anarchy and I like that this society is shown to be a flawed one. I liked that Nova our heroine is actually a-lined with the villain side of things which isn't something that female leads often get to do and I liked that Adrian our male lead is with the heroes but still see flaws in their current system. I really loved the world that was created in this series and the characters and the relationships that they developed with each other.
2. Holding Up the Universe: This book is a really good character driven story that follows Libby an overweight teen who is going back to school for the first time in years and is doing her best to not let other people's opinions about her get her down; and Jack a well liked student who is secretly dealing with face blindness which is making his life much more complicated that it has to be and making him feel like he has to do things that he's uncomfortable with in order to appear normal. I really loved Libby and Jack as individual characters and I also loved the relationship that they developed with each other which made this book a great read.
3. This is What Happy Looks Like: This book is about teens Ellie and Graham who start emailing each other accidently and discover that they have a bond with each other despite having very different lives with Ellie being a normal high school student in small town Maine and Graham being an up and coming Hollywood actor. I really loved this book I really loved both of the main characters and I found myself rooting for them to end up together.
4. The Fill-in Boyfriend:  This book was I really sweet and fun romance that involved fake dating with leads that were likable yet flawed which made the book all the more interesting. I also thought that the book a few surprising things with the friendship conflicts in the book which is something that I really enjoyed.
5. Turtles All the Way Down: This book was the first book in 2018 that I read that I actually loved which makes me love this book a little more than I would have otherwise. This book has an interesting main character who is very stuck in her own head because of her fears of germs which affects her life in many ways in that it causes conflict in her friendship and makes her feel that she can't be in a relationship. There was also some interesting going on with her old friend and then briefly boyfriend and his family that added something to the story as well.
6. Vampire Academy: This book was a good introduction to a new type of vampire mythology and had an interesting cast of characters which made this book great fun to read. I really Rose and her relationship with Lissa and I loved that even though it's Rose's job to protect Lissa that the love and protectiveness that they feel for each other is mutual. I also really loved the romance that developed between Lissa and Christian. I thought that this book had a good plot to it despite this book not being too focused on plot.
7. Glass: This book was a good sequel to Crank and it was beautifully written despite being about the very ugly continuing descent that Kristina experiences into meth addiction, it isn't a fun read but I feel like it is a worthwhile read.
8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before: This book was another romance book that involved fake dating that I really enjoyed but I feel like it was a bit less fluff than The Fill-in Boyfriend probably because this book is book one of a series so it's a lot less clear whether or not Lara Jean and Peter will actually end up together. There is an emphasis on Lara Jean's relationships with her sisters that I really enjoyed and I think it added a lot to the book. For as much as I liked the book I must say that I actually love the movie more because it was clear from the start that movie Peter was into Lara Jean and I liked that Josh didn't end up having romantic feelings for Lara Jean in the movie these things just really improved the story for me.
9. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: This book isn't actually as romance centric as one would think it would be based off the title but it is still a good story about a girl coming to terms with her father get married to the woman that he cheated on her mother with and her figuring out if she still wants her father in her life or if he even really wants her to be part of his new life. There is also a sweet romance that starts to develop between our main character and boy she sits by on the plane to her father's wedding which is a relationship that I quite enjoyed even though not a lot of focus was on romance in this story.
10. Frostbite: The second book in the Vampire Academy series has a less focused plot than the first book and less focus on Rose's relationship with Lissa which makes me a bit sad. This book did introduced new aspects to the world and it's characters and to some new characters as well which made the book all the more interesting. I liked this book a whole lot but I found it wasn't as good as the first book in the series.

Book Review: Holding Up the Universe

                                                  Holding Up the Universe Review

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven who also wrote All the Bright Places which was one of my favorite books I read last year and this book is about Libby Stout who was once the fattest teen in America who is returning to school for the first time in years after loosing some of the weight and Jack Masselin who is a fairly popular and he has face blindness which he keeps a secret from everyone in his life. Shortly after Libby goes back to school Jack ends up grabbing her because he feared that one of his friends would do something worse if he didn't and Libby punches him which lands both of them in detention for a few weeks. Jack ends up telling Libby about his face blindness and he tells her he's sorry and the two of them quickly become friends.

After being friends for sometime Libby ends up encouraging Jack to actually go to see a doctor about his face blindness and Jack encourages Libby to make her own choices about whether or not she wants to get tested for the condition that ended up killing her mom. Jack and Libby end up confiding in each other more than they do anyone else and the two of them end up developing romantic feelings for each other which leads to them starting to date. While Libby and Jack enjoy being with each other they find that social pressures and their own insecurities to be something that prevents them from being completely comfortable in their relationship with each other.

Overall I really liked this book it had two great main characters that you felt for and understood where they were coming from even when you didn't like the choices that they made. I really loved the relationship that developed between Jack and Libby and I liked how they were able to be honesty with each other and encourage the other to be braver. I also felt like this book was just as well written as the author's previous book and I can't wait to read her next book once it comes out. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.