This week’s Top 5 Wednesday, hosted by the Good Reads group, is: 2018 Wishlist – Looking forward into the new year, this is a list of the types of books you’d like to see more of in 2018! Try to avoid actual titles, and discuss themes, genres, or tropes you’d like to see more of in the new year!
1. Books w/in books. What’s better than reading one book? Reading two! This year I’ve read a couple of books that did this really well (Lies She Told by Cate Holahan and The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter) and I would love to read more like them.
2. Realistic Christian characters. Most of the time if a mainstream book includes a “Christian” character it portrays them as some kind of hypocritical psycho. And sure there are lots of people who claim to be Christians who really are hypocritical psychos, but there are many genuine people out there, as well. In 2018 I’d like to see more of the genuine people. I thought Amy Harmon did this really well with Making Faces.
3. Well-written twists and surprises (that actually surprise me). I feel like I can almost always predict the twist in books these days and in 2017 I was pleasantly surprised by several books (such Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton, One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus and The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen – which actually publishes in 2018).
4. Fake Relationships. This is my favorite romance trope and I am always on the look out for a good fake relationship story. This year’s favorite was When It’s Real by Erin Watt.
5. Alternative Formatting. Sometimes this annoys me because I read e-books about 95% of the time and lots of alternative formatting makes things unreadable, but I do love them in physical format. Even though I wasn’t blown away by the actual story, I really loved the formatting for Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman.
Stephanie's Book Reviews 
I like your list! I would say also exotic settings also pull me in. I can travel from my patio! haha
Thanks! Exotic settings is a good one, too!
Oooh these are some good wishes! I’m super intrigued by the “book within a book” concept. I’ve never heard of that before!!
Thanks! I love the book within a book ones! I definitely recommend Lies She Told if you like suspense. It did it really well.
Okay, after seeing fake relationships on here, I have decided you must read The Wall of Winnipeg and Me.
I’m thinking I’m going to break down and buy it. The kindle book looks like a decent price.
I really, really hope I’m not pushing you in the wrong direction. I think you’re going to like it. There’s not a lot of foul language or sex if I’m remembering correctly.
I looked at Good Reads, too, before buying it and pretty much every friend I have that’s read it have also given it 5 stars. So I will either love it or be incredibly disappointed in it lol. But I’m excited to read it!
Yay! I sent you a message about her other book being $1.99 right now. It’s Wait For It. It’s about Vanessa’s friend Diana.
Ok thanks!
The main reason I bought Illuminae was due to its formatting. Haven’t read it yet, but it looks so cool!
The formatting is very cool. Not that impressive of a story, in my opinion, but I think it’s still worth getting in hardcover (especially if you got it on sale, like I did!).
I would love to read more books like Illuminae too! I’m not fan of fake relationship tropes but I do love hate to love relationship tropes.
I do really like the hate to love trope, as well!
This is interesting! I just posted my favorite books of 2017. One of my followers mentioned I have a lot of romances in there. Not true. I have a combination of mystery/drama/literary fiction/historical fiction/spy/women’s fiction/. romantic suspense/ and memoir. But for good reason, there is romance in almost every one of the books I read. Because we all have a touch of romance in our lives, or if we don’t, we want it!
It’s true, there are very few books out there that don’t include at least a little romance in it!
I hadn’t thought much about alternative formatting but since I also read on my Kindle (an old one) I can see how this would be a problem!
I think it might be more possible on my Kindle Paperwhite (but still not great), but there were several books I tried to get the from e-library that wouldn’t even open on my Nook.
Ouuuh, awesome picks! Books within books are quite fascinating indeed. I think every bookworm out there adores those hahah And man, twists that actually surprise you!!! Hopefully 2018 will know a lot of authors who are able to do just that for thrillers!
I hope so, too! I feel like there’s not a lot that surprises me anymore, so I love it when they do.
I think you’ll like Running Barefoot by Amy Harmon. I’ll bring you my copy when I see you next! She has a really good way of incorporating religion into her books without it being overdone and offensive.
Awesome, thanks! That is the thing I like best about her writing. There’s hints of her faith, without browbeating people with it. Which I think is good because it still puts the positive message across to people who would otherwise not read it.
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