Hey y’all… Day 3! 🎅

I’m linking up with my blogger buddy, Sophie @Beware of the Reader to bring you another round of my BEST READS OF 2020! I’ve done this before and its so much fun! Go check out her blog if you get a chance, she’s fabulous!

OH! And just FYI: these are books that I read THIS year though they may have been PUBLISHED before 2020!

*From Sophie’s blog:

Hi friends,

If you follow me for some years you know that at the end of each year , in December, I give you my best reads of the year.

Daily posts looking back into 2020 and gushing about my favorites.

Well this is happening again!

It’s been launched on Instagram already with other bloggers cohosting with me, some of whom are on WordPress like @sophiesreadingcorner others not like @pavlinamich ; @eliz_white and @utcabookblog .

I will post on Instagram, the blog and facebook.

If you too want to show your favorites this year, I’d be very happy to see you join us.

We’ll used #bestreadsof2020 as hashtag on social media (I confess that I will follow on Instagram with an eagle eye LOL).

Here below are the topics.

And the award for Best Thriller goes to:

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ninth House is the first book in the Alex Stern series. This is actually my very first read from author, Leigh Bardugo…GASP!

*Warning: this book might have triggers for some people, ie. rape, murder, drug use…

Alex Stern is not your average college student. Learning how to live on the streets at a young age, stealing and scraping money together for drugs is all Alex knows. Until one deadly night when she becomes the only person who survives a horrific event. Now, at age 20, she’s thrown into a prestigious university, Yale, in order to “spy” on it’s eight secret societies. Because Alex has a gift…A very peculiar gift that might just keep her alive.

So, I don’t want to get too much into the plot because it’s quite intricate and twisted. I will say that the verbiage used by Ms Bardugo had me pulling out my dictionary more than once! Needless to say, I was kind of distracted by that (Am I the only one who felt like an idiot?!?) It was one reason why I was very tempted to rate this one 4 stars but I figured maybe it was just me? Anyway, in the end, I was totally engrossed in the storyline and I felt overall that this book was deserving of 5 stars.

Now…onto characters! Honestly, in the beginning, I did.not.like.Alex! Gah, that doesn’t happen very often to me but she was so…FLAT. Once the story began unfolding, my poor heart began to bleed for this girl who was so lost and alone yet so very brave and unique. I became invested in her tale! And THAT is what makes me a very happy reader! I love it when an author can make me feel so many things for one person, all wrapped between a few well written pages!

If you noticed, I haven’t mentioned a hero yet which we all know HAS to be in a romance! That’s right, there’s really not much of a hero…yet. We do get introduced to Darlington, who is briefly Alex’s mentor but his part is only a small POV. I’m hoping (crossing my fingers) that there will be a romance eventually because that’s ultimately what I enjoy the most. However, the plot is intriguing, thrilling, suspenseful, freaky and sometimes a bit scary! You’ll find mystery, ghosts, interesting secondary characters plus a strong heroine all wrapped in a captivating world of paranormal.

Regardless of the lack of romance, I’m excited to see what will happen next in Alex’s colorful life. Told from dual POVs (mostly by Alex) with a semi-cliffy. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

View all my reviews

Anyone else read and enjoy this one? Have an awesome day y’all!💜