This is the follow up to Beautiful Broken Things, one of my favourite books of 2018, which followed two best friends as a new girl joined their friendship and dealt with the struggles of the new friendship dynamic, as well as the personal struggles of the girl. Fierce Fragile Hearts picks up to years after the events in the first book and once again deals with friendship, specifically how friendships change when everyone goes their separate ways, but also focuses on fresh starts and rebuilding your life. This book covered so many important topics and did so really well, as everything was discussed with sensitivity and respect. The main feature of this book, and the reason I love both of the books so much, is the friendship. It is portrayed in such a genuine and authentic way that makes things all the more relatable, but also makes it feel as though you are part of the friendship and you start to really feel like you know these characters, that you feel their pain. Basically I loved it and I could rave about it forever.
Oh I was so worried this would be ending up on my most disappointing list! This is the sequel to PS I Love You, Cecelia Ahern's first, and probably most successful, novel. I read the book in 2017 but have been loving the movie for years, so the idea of a sequel, written 15 years after the publication of the first book, made me quite nervous. Thankfully, I absolutely adored it. Cecelia Ahern is one of my favourite authors, so I know I should have had faith as she was bound to write something incredibly beautiful. This sequel follows Holly six years after PS I Love You as she is moving on with her life. However, when she is contacted by a group inspired by Gerry's letters, she is taken back into her life of 6/7 years ago as she begins to help them do what Gerry did for her. I'm tearing up just thinking about this book! I really loved being back in this story and with these characters, not only seeing their character development since the first book, but experiencing this new journey with them. I really loved the premise of this, and the fact it was a new story with some great new characters introduced, but it still had the same feel and atmosphere as the first. It was beautifully written, the story was so well told, and just so incredibly heartbreaking. I'm so glad I loved this as much as I did.
This seems to be quite a polarising book, with a lot of people having very strong negative opinions about it. This book takes place over just under an hour, during which a school shooting takes place. You follow the events, almost minute by minute, from the perspective of four different characters. This is obviously a very hard topic to read about and something that is far too prevalent in today's society, making it even more harrowing. It is not an enjoyable book by any means. However, I have read a few books on this topic and, in my opinion, this is one of the best written that I have read. It is very vivid and immersive, making it a pretty scary and all too real read. However, a large portion of this book is flashbacks that give you a bit of a break from the intense situation in the school and let you get to know the characters. This is not a book I would recommend to everyone as I think you need to be very aware of your triggers to read this book without it having a detrimental effect to your mental health. However, I do think it is worth the read if you are wanting and intense, well-written story with more of a focus on characters than you would typically find in such novels.
This is a memoir of a midwife in the NHS and it is one of the best non-fiction books I have read. It follows Leah Hazard from her time as a student, right through to the struggles and rewards of being a qualified midwife. She tells many fun, interesting, heartbreaking and insightful tales of the women she has cared for, balanced perfectly with highlighting the struggles of an understaffed and underfunded NHS. This book is the perfect mix, it had me laughing and crying in the same chapter. I think the reason I loved this book so much, though, was the genuine passion Leah Hazard has for her profession and her patients, despite how unbelievably hard her job is, which just shines through every page. As someone who also works in the NHS, reading this book really reminded me of why I do what I do and why I love my job.
At only 25 pages, I'm not sure this even counts as a book. This is the bonus chapter that was released in celebration of the anniversary of DIMILY being published and follows the characters 10 years after the end of the last book. This may have been crazy short, but I loved it nonetheless. I adore these characters so it was great to get to spend a little bit more time with them and see how things have changed for them in the years since the final book in the series.
I think this might have been my biggest surprise of the year. This follows a girl who designs film sets and is given her brother's apartment for the summer on the condition that something great has to take place there. We then get to go on an adventure with her over this summer as she finds out a secret about a movie legend. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this but I absolutely loved it. There is a really strong friendship between the main character and her best friend who is going on this summer adventure with her, and I loved that this was just a really great, genuine friendship with no unnecessary drama. There is a crazy adorable f/f romance between our main character and the girl she meets through this big secret, which I loved so much. This book also focuses on the film and set design side of things, which I found quite interesting and really enjoyed reading about.
8. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough -
Holy crap, this book! It is about a woman who kisses a man at a bar only to discover the next day that he is her new boss. She then meets a woman who is new to town and in need of a friend, but happens to be the wife of her new boss. I am saying nothing more because I went into this completely blind and I think that is the best way to read this book. I don't want to say too much about it but this is one of the weirdest, craziest but best thrillers I have ever read. I haven't felt the way I felt reading this book since I read Gone Girl. It was so cleverly done and that ending was just insane. So good, definitely recommend picking it up.
9. Becoming by Michelle Obama -
I love this woman! This is Michelle Obama's memoir and it was an absolute joy to read. I listened to the audiobook, which she narrates herself, and it was the best reading experience. This follows her life from childhood to becoming one of the most influential women in the world and it was just great. I loved learning more about her life, as well as more about her as a person. Her personality really shone through while I was listening to it, it almost felt as though she was sitting in my car having a nice chat with me. It was just such an interesting read and I have even more respect for her now.
10. A Quiet Kind Of Thunder by Sara Barnard -
Basically I just love Sara Barnard. She has made it on this list twice this year, as well as once last year, and she absolutely deserves to. This book follows a boy who is deaf and a girl with selective mutism who are thrown together when the boy moves to the school. This was one of the most adorable books I have ever read featuring the kind of characters you just want to protect at all costs. I loved these characters, I love their romance, but more importantly I loved the fact that they were more than just 'deaf' and 'selective mutism'. They were fully rounded characters rather than plot devices. I really enjoyed learning more about hearing impairment and selective mutism, how they impact lives and how people with these things adapt and live their lives, but I really loved that these characters were also just two teenagers falling in love for the first time. It was great and this was the book that fully cemented Sara Barnard as one of my favourite authors.
Those were the ten best books I read in 2019. I loved every one of these books so much and would highly recommend checking them out if any sounded interesting to you.
What was your favourite book of 2019?
Sophie :)
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