{book lists} Top 5 reads of 2017!

In no particular order, here are my top reads of 2017! All of these books earned 5 stars from me.

• Tower of Dawn by SJ Maas
  • I couldn’t make a “top reads” list without including an SJ Maas book. I’ll be honest, I really wasn’t looking forward to this book. I’ve never been a Chaol fan and was so annoyed when I learned that we weren’t getting TOG 7 in 2017, but were instead getting a full-length novel about Chaol. I didn’t even read it when it first came out…much to the annoyance of my TOG loving bff. After listening to her go on about how amazing it was, I finally decided to start it…and I absolutely LOVED it! Heir of Fire has always been my favorite TOG book because of the wonderful character development that takes place in it, but I think that Tower of Dawn has now taken over that top spot. I mean, I couldn’t stand Chaol prior to starting the book, yet now I love him! That should tell you enough about how fantastic this book is.

• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
  • Chances are if you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ve heard me talk about this book. Last year, my husband and I started watching Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime and I became hooked on WWII historical fiction. I saw this book pop up on a few noteworthy book lists and decided to check it out for myself…and I am so glad that I did. Salt to the Sea chronicles the story of four teenagers whose lives intersect aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff in the winter of 1945. Never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff? It was a refugee ship that sank in the Baltic Sea, becoming the greatest maritime disaster in history. When I read this book, I was enraged and heartbroken that I’d never heard of this tragedy before…and after asking around, I’ve only met one person (a girl from Germany) who knew of this disaster. This book is a must read!

• The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
  • Again, if you’ve spent longer than 10 minutes in my presence and expressed any interest in reading, you’ve heard me talk about my love for this book. I typically don’t enjoy contemporary reads and much prefer fantasy worlds over the real world, but The Serpent King has my heart. Set in middle Tennessee, TSK centers around the unlikely friendship of three social outcasts: Travis, a cosplaying Dungeons and Dragons fan; Lydia, a successful fashion blogger; and Dill, the son of a snake-handling Pentecostal minister, which doesn’t sit right with Dill. I listened to the audiobook of TSK on a long car ride and enjoyed it so much that my non-reader husband asked to listen to it with me…6 hours later as we arrived at our destination, he asked if we could circle the neighborhood just so we could finish the book. You know you’ve found a great book when even your non-reader husband can’t stop listening to it!

• Refugee by Alan Gratz
  • A divergent from my typical YA readings, this middle-grade novel chronicles the story of 3 children who are forced to flee their homeland and seek refuge elsewhere: Josef, a Jew seeking asylum in Cuba during the 1930s; Isabel, a Cuban girl seeking freedom in America in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 who is forced to flee Syria because of the violence destroying his country. This book was exactly what I needed…for me, it’s easy to hear about things on the news and not really think twice about them. When you hear about thousands of people being forced to leave their homes, it’s easy to feel sad about it for a moment but then continue on with your life. Refugee humanizes the plight of refugees and does so in a sensitive, yet realistic way. Out of all the books on this list, Refugee had the greatest impact on my thoughts and forced me to stop and think about people who are forced to flee for their lives. If I ever teach middle school English again, I am absolutely teaching Refugee.

• The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
  • Y’all…I read the Harry Potter books for the first time this year. SHOCKING I KNOW. What took me so long, you ask? I think it’s because I have this natural aversion to books that are obscenely popular. It took me a while to jump on the Hunger Games and Divergent bandwagons, and even though I ended up loving those books, for some reason I still refused to read Harry Potter. This is going to make me sound ridiculous, but I think I kind of enjoyed being able to say “Oh yeah, I’ve never read Harry Potter.” Silly, right? I know. Thankfully, my dear friend and co-worker consistently encouraged me to give them a shot…and I’m so glad that she did! I love Harry Potter…gosh, JK Rowling can write! I’m officially a Harry Potter fan for life…and because someone will want to know and I’m super happy about it, I’m a Hufflepuff and my patronus is a dolphin.

There you have it, my top 5 reads of 2017! Are any of your favorites on this list? Let me know what you think in the comments or on insta!