Top 10 of 2019: Cover Love (Favorite Covers)

Top 10 of 2019 is hosted once again by Kimberly Faye Reads, and this year she has a co-host Ginger @greadsbooks.   So today's topic is a fun one, but a hard one!  There may be a couple of the numbers on this list that include more than one book, maybe a series, since that is the best way I could do this.

1.

The librarian and book lover in me adored the covers for the Green Valley Library series from the SmartyPants Romance books this fall.  They had the library card background for each of the different faces with different beards/mustaches/hairstyles.  And at least one of the books even had each chapter based on a Dewey Decimal number/category matched to what was happening.

2.

While the story itself didn't blow me away as much as I'd hoped, that cover, wow!  And if you've seen the cover to the second book, they're not backing down on awesomeness!

3.

Now this is one I haven't read, but I loved the cover so much I went ahead and am sharing it.  Because I honestly wasn't sure what it was at first, and it took me awhile, I don't know why, to realize it was a girl's head!

4.

Again with the SmartyPants Romance books, I loved the covers of the Donner Bakery series as well!

5.

So, I love all the covers of the books in the Winston Brothers series, and I've read all but I think one or two of the earlier ones, and one or two of them I've read in past years, but I had to share all of them.  I was lucky enough to get this magnet set at Book Bonanza back in August as well.

Hmm, I'm seeing a trend of beards on my favorite covers this year, did you notice that?

6.

I kind of like the new trend of kind of comic-ish looking covers, and this series definitely had that!

7.

A great story with a great cover!

8.

Again, a great story with a great cover.

9.

Again, this is totally the librarian/bookseller in me adoring this picture!  Plus it totally reminds me of the movie The Mummy.

10.

I just really like the way the basketball is peeking out of a heart-shaped "tear" in the paper/cover of the book.


What do you think of my cover choices?  Would you agree on any?  What covers blew you away this year?


If you're interested in joining in to the Top 10 of 2019, you can go to the links at the top for the hosting blogs.  Here are the other topics you'll see coming up:

Also, while you're here, make sure you go enter into my weekly Cleaning Up My TBR Giveaway HERE.  It's open until this Friday until midnight!

Review: Romanov by Nadine Brandes

Book info:

Title:  Romanov
Author:  Nadine Brandes
Genre:  YA Historical Fantasy Retelling
Release Date:  May 7th, 2019
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source:  ARC received from publisher for review which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

My Review:
Anastasia's story is one I never knew a lot about, but had always heard little things here and there and always have been interested in reading or learning more about.  So when I heard about this book from the author of Fawkes, I was extremely interested in reading it.  Let me tell you what, it did not disappoint!  I was hooked from the moment I picked this one up, and like the other good historical retellings I've read in the past, it made me want to pick up nonfiction books and do research into the actual family and times that this involved.  It is nice that the author put even a little helpful extra in the back with what were the true known facts of this story, and how she added or changed to fit her own telling of the story.  There was a lot of emotion, seeing how the family was treated, yet how they seemed to treat those around them made a lot of what was done to them very uncalled for.  And then, just when things started to seem kind of like they had an ally or two, horrible things happened, things that I had tears myself!  Then there was Zash.  You wanted to love him, but had to be upset with him because of how he seemed to not ever get past his preconceived notions. But then he did, and in the end, well, I won't spoil anything.  But wow!  So much at the end of this when it really evolved into the fantastical bit of the story.  Of course there was magic interspersed throughout the story, but the final part was where it all really came into play.

I loved the way the Russian nesting doll, otherwise known as a matryoshka doll was used in the story.  It made me want to go open up the one my sister brought me back as a souvenir from her trip to Russia a few years ago just to check it out.  I look forward to putting this book in my library at school as well, and sharing it with students as they study Russia and its history.  

Top 10 of 2018: Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2019 with Giveaway

Technically this post is for tomorrow, but since I already have a post planned for tomorrow, I decided to go ahead and do it today.  This is hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, so thanks to her, I have a group to join in with.  Now, here are the top 10 books I'm looking forward to next year, in no particular order:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

No title or cover yet, but still excited for it!


7.

8.

9.

10.

The first three are by the same author, she's on a roll this year!  I have an ARC already of the 4th one. The last one was supposed to be out in 2018, but the author is still working on it, and I'm still eagerly awaiting it!

Below is today's giveaway.  But I've also got 5 giveaways from last week for you to go enter:  Top 10 Favorite Books, Top 10 Favorite Covers, Top 10 New to Me Authors, Top 10 Book Boyfriends, and Top 10 Books I Meant to Read in 2018.  All of these giveaways will run until midnight December 31st, 2018!  That's tomorrow night!

Giveaway:
One winner will get their choice of book from The Book Depository for up to $12.  Second prize will be a $5 gift card to Amazon.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway