End-of-Year Book Survey 2018

It's time for one of my favorite posts of the year - the end-of-year book survey! This was created by Jamie @ Perpetual Page-Turner. This is a really great way for me to look back on my reading year, and to share some of my favorites with you! If you want a more detailed account of the best of the best, I have a post with my favorite books of 2018 coming tomorrow, so stay tuned for that! If you want more of my surveys, you can find my 2017 post here and my 2016 post here.

2018 READING STATS

Number Of Books You Read: I'm just going to go ahead and say that it's 100 - I haven't quite made it there yet, but I have a couple of short books to finish off the year.
Number of Re-Reads: It might just be one - TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE - but I might squeeze in rereading the rest of the series!
Genre You Read The Most From: I don't even have to count for this: comics or YA contemporary. I read so much of each this year!

1. Best book you read in 2018? I read so many amazing books, but first place goes to THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON by Katherine Locke. It made me feel so many things, and it was exactly what I wanted it to be.
2. Book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn't? This isn't a specific book, but this generally fits the question: I got caught up on Kasie West's books this year. That involved reading her four most recent books, and the average rating for those was 3.25 stars. That is shockingly low, considering how I rated all of her books before this. 
3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read? I was absolutely shocked by how much I liked NIMONA. I didn't expect to have that many feelings!
4. Book you pushed the most people to read (and they did)? I really don't know about this one! I definitely pushed a lot of books onto people, but I'm not sure how many they actually read.
5. Best series you started in 2018? Best sequel of 2018? Best series ender of 2018?
Series starter: EVERY HEART A DOORWAY
Sequel: LEAH ON THE OFFBEAT (more of a companion, but I'm counting it)
Series ender: THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON (also more of a companion, but I'm still counting it) 
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2018? I'm not sure if I can count Katherine Locke as an author I discovered in 2018, since I started THE GIRL WITH THE RED BALLOON last year, but if the requirement is no books finished before 2018, the choice is clear. 
7. Best book from a genre you don't typically read/was out of your comfort zone? I guess I don't typically read picture books? And HERE WE ARE: NOTES FOR LIVING ON PLANET EARTH was fantastic.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? I don't think it gets much more action-packed than A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT.
9. Book you read in 2018 that you would be most likely to reread next year? Nothing I read this year really jumps out at me as must-reread-immediately. I know I'll be rereading YOU ASKED FOR PERFECT at some point, though! 
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018? It has to be MOCKINGBIRD, VOL. 2: MY FEMINIST AGENDA. Because just look at it. Goals right there.
11. Most memorable character of 2018? Once again, Rachel Lynn Solomon takes the prize for this. Peter and Sophie from OUR YEAR OF MAYBE are both so wonderful.
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018? EVERY HEART A DOORWAY had such atmospheric writing that stuck with me - really, all of the books in the series do, but this is the one that had to set the whole thing up.
13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2018? Definitely FINAL DRAFT by Riley Redgate. It's strange because I don't even really know what my thoughts based on this book are, but it's the book that made me just sit back for a while after finishing to take everything in.
14. Book you can't believe you waited until 2018 to finally read? Like I said before, I finally caught up on Kasie West's books this year, and even though reading a 2017 release in 2018 isn't unbelievable at all, I'm still a bit surprised that I didn't read any of her releases last year.
15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2018? "Get in losers, we're blowing up Nazis." (THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON, of course)
16. Shortest and longest book you read in 2018?
Shortest: THE CRAYONS' BOOK OF COLORS by Drew Daywalt (literally a board book)
Longest: CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi (only 525 pages, pretty short for a longest book) 
17. Book that shocked you the most? It took me a while to think of something for this, but once I remembered THIS DARKNESS MINE, I realized nothing else could possibly fit. This book was a wild ride from start to finish, and I remember just sitting there after finishing the book because I couldn't wrap my mind around what happened.
18. OTP of the year? Winnie and Dev from MY SO-CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE. I was rooting for them from the start, and it was so satisfying to see their story develop.
19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year? The friendship between Abby and Jax in THE SUMMER OF JORDI PEREZ was so unexpected and so great - it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the book!
20. Favorite book you read in 2018 from an author you've read previously? OUR YEAR OF MAYBE. The funny thing is that I read and loved her 2018 debut last year, so it's not making any appearances on this list (except for this), and then this is her 2019 release. How am I ever going to make it to her next book?
21. Best book you read in 2018 that you read based solely on a recommendation? I definitely read MY SO-CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE because of peer pressure. I just kept hearing about it, and I finally decided to put it on my list - I'm so glad I did.
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2018? I already talked about SJ from DEAR MARTIN in an earlier book tag, so I'm going to take this opportunity to also talk about Bobbi Morse from the Mockingbird comics. My entire review for the first volume was "Bobbi Morse, please marry me."
23. Best 2018 debut you read? MY SO-CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE! I'm realizing that I really didn't read enough debuts this year, or at least not books that I'm sure are debuts.
24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year? Definitely the whole Wayward Children series. So many unique settings, and all of them were so vivid!
25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read? I read a lot of amazing fluffy books this year, so one that I haven't talked much about yet (here): THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL by Maurene Goo! I had high hopes for this after I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE, and it exceeded all my expectations.
26. Book that made you cry in 2018? I was full-out sobbing at a few points in THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON. Other books that made me tear up: DEAR MARTIN, FINAL DRAFT, NO ORDINARY SOUND (which I didn't expect tears from at all), OUR YEAR OF MAYBE, and A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT.
27. Hidden gem of the year? Um, all of my favorites, pretty much! Not including the 2019 releases on my favorites list, I'd say THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON, MY SO-CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE, THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, and THE SUMMER OF JORDI PEREZ all fall in that category!
28. Book that crushed your soul? I didn't actually read that many soul-crushing books this year! There were definitely a couple of soul-crushing moments in OUR YEAR OF MAYBE, though.
29. Most unique book you read in 2018? DEAR DATA, no contest. This is about two women who collect data about a different part of their lives every week and draw data visualizations on postcards that they send to each other. I've never read anything like it, and I doubt I ever will.
30. Book that made you the most mad? I got very mad at A MATTER OF HEART by Amy Fellner Dominy. I don't know why I finished reading this. The message for most of the book (that thankfully gets corrected at the end) is that the main character views her life as less important once her disability starts affecting it. I really didn't need that.

I'm just going to skip this section, because I haven't had much of a blogging life in 2018. Oops!

1. A book you didn't get to in 2018 but will be your number 1 priority in 2019? Don't put too much faith in this question - in 2016, I said it was A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, which still took me months to get to, and last year, I said it was BEFORE THE DEVIL BREAKS YOU, which I still haven't read. But I'm going to go ahead and say BLANCA & ROJA by Anna-Marie McLemore, which I was very highly anticipating for most of this year.
2. Book you are most anticipating for 2019 (non-debut)? Maurene Goo's last two books have been instant favorites, so I'm really looking forward to SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW! I also have to give a shout-out to QUEEN'S SHADOW by E.K. Johnston because I have been hoping for a Padme Amidala book forever, and it's finally happening!
3. 2019 debut you are most anticipating? The whole concept of RED, WHITE, & ROYAL BLUE sounds like everything I've ever wanted. 
4. Series ending/a sequel you are most anticipating in 2019? THE MAP FROM HERE TO THERE by Emery Lord! I didn't expect THE START OF ME AND YOU to get a sequel, but I'm so excited that it's happening!
5. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life in 2019? I want to read more throughout the year. I feel like I would read 3 books in a week and then not read for a month, especially at the beginning of the year.
6. A 2019 release you've already read and recommend to everyone? Two of my favorites are 2019 releases: OUR YEAR OF MAYBE by Rachel Lynn Solomon and YOU ASKED FOR PERFECT by Laura Silverman.

What were some of the highlights of your 2018? Tell me in the comments!