Jillian's Top Five 5 Coffee Bean Books for 2019

I hope this post finds everyone in good health!

There is a new year about to begin- 2020! Hopefully this year holds the same outlook that 20/20 vision hold. 

This is going to be a quick post but I wanted to highlight the five books that I've read this year that I will happily recommend to anyone who asks!

This says a lot  considering most of the books that I've read this year haven't done anything for me. 

These five books are listed in no particular order...

1. One Day in December by Josie Silver (review here) - This book was the first book that I reviewed this year incidentally and I want to say that I think it was the first book I read that was part of Reese Witherspoon's book club.   Why did I like this book? 
Well.  I liked the story line.  I liked that these two characters felt instantly drawn to one another but that the timing was never right.  It showed that even after all of life's even happen, the universe can still pull two people together.  

2. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (no review posted) - This was book that I did the review for in APRIL but I just realized today that I never posted it! What the heck! With that, I must say that I'm sorry!  This book was really quite awesome.  I'm not for non-fiction books but this one was something that was really VERY interesting!  The events that transpired with Theranos were rather unbelievable.  It was hard to think that someone could dupe everyone for that long and almost nearly get away with it.  I would highly highly recommend this book.

3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (review here) -  This book was one of the most requested books at the library this year by far.  Up until a few months ago, there were easily still 300 people waiting for a copy of it. (And I work in a smaller library system; ideally, the wait time wouldn't that bad because of how copies are available).  The book came out in 2018, which make the hype surrounding it even more crazy.  This book is a mystery with an ending that you might find surprising.  I like that the story took a turn in a way that I didn't think it would.  I've heard from a patron that the audiobook was very very good because of the way it was told.  

4. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros (review here) -  It's not often that a book makes me cry but this book made me cry.  It was that good.  It was a book that was packed with a lot of emotions.  It flips between letters between Chaos and Ella; and then interactions between Ella and Beckett.  It takes time but as a reader, you hope that Beckett doesn't tell Ella that he's Chaos because of amount of distrust that it would cause.  I, personally, was pulling for Beckett the whole time!

5. What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand (review here) -  I feel like this book might have some mixed reviews behind it.  I enjoyed it but I know that Jessica liked it enough but it wasn't her favorite.  I think that my favorite part about this book were the journal entries from Rosie's diaries.  I liked hearing about her times with Russ.  I didn't care for Baker- I thought that he was annoying and selfish but all in all, this is a book that I would recommend.  I know that it's the second book in the series but it's one that can be read without having read the first. 


What were some of your favorite books from the last year? 
Did you find this year to be hard pressed for good books or did you feel that most of what released was great? 

See ya in 2020!

- Jillian

**All book cover photos are from the Amazon.  You can find the images that were copied when you click on the book title in this post**