Thursday, December 26, 2019

The Best of the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards - Fiction

Closing out the year with a few 'best of' lists.  Here are the best of the best from the Goodreads 2019 Choice Awards - the top rated fiction nominees across all categories.

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater - Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. He can pull both curiosities and catastrophes out of his dreams and into his compromised reality. Jordan Hennessy is a thief. The closer she comes to the dream object she is after, the more inextricably she becomes tied to it. Carmen Farooq-Lane is a hunter. Her brother was a dreamer . . . and a killer. She has seen what dreaming can do to a person. And she has seen the damage that dreamers can do. But that is nothing compared to the destruction that is about to be unleashed. Book 1 of the Dreamer Trilogy

A Crystal of Time by Soman Chainani - A false king has seized Camelot's throne, sentencing Tedros, the true king, to death. While Agatha, narrowly escapes the same fate, Sophie is caught in King Rhian's trap. With her wedding to Rhian approaching, she's forced to play a dangerous game as her friends' lives hang in the balance. All the while, King Rhian's dark plans for Camelot are taking shape. Now the students of the School for Good and Evil must find a way to restore Tedros to the throne before their stories--and the future of the Endless Woods--are rewritten ... forever. Book 5 of 6 in the School for Good and Evil series 

Dark Age by Pierce Brown - For a decade Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. But as he leaves death and destruction in his wake, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will another legend rise to take his place? Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury. But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance. On Luna, Mustang, Sovereign of the Republic, campaigns to unite the Republic behind her husband. Beset by political and criminal enemies, can she outwit her opponents in time to save him? Once a Red refugee, young Lyria now stands accused of treason, and her only hope is a desperate escape with unlikely new allies. Abducted by a new threat to the Republic, Pax and Electra, the children of Darrow and Sevro, must trust in Ephraim, a thief, for their salvation--and Ephraim must look to them for his chance at redemption. As alliances shift, break, and re-form--and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed--every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age. Book 5 in the Red Rising Series

Legacy by Shannon Messenger - Sophie Foster wants answers. But after a lifetime of lies, sometimes the truth is the most dangerous discovery. Even the smallest secret comes with terrifying new responsibilities. And Sophie's not the only one with blank spots in her past, or mysteries surrounding her family. She and her friends are part of something much bigger than they imagined--and their roles have already been chosen for them. Every clue drags them deeper into the conspiracy. Every memory forces them to question everything--especially one another. And the harder they fight, the more the lines blur between friend and enemy. Book 8 in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series 

A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie - The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever. On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments. Savine dan Glokta plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control. The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another. Book 1 in the Age of Madness series 

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart - Five years. That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation. It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash. Coyote hasn't been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished---the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box---she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it. Along the way, they'll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there's Gladys... Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all...but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her "once upon a time" into a "happily ever after."

Supernova by Marissa Meyer - All's fair in love and anarchy... Supernova, the epic conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer's thrilling Renegades Trilogy finds Nova and Adrian struggling to keep their secret identities concealed while the battle rages on between their alter egos, their allies, and their greatest fears come to life. Secrets, lies, and betrayals are revealed as anarchy once again threatens to reclaim Gatlon City. Book 3 in the Renegades series 

Tiamat's Wrath by James S. A. Corey - Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper. In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay. At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortazar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrique, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father, the emperor, doesn't guess. And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rearguard action against Duarte's authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia's eternal rule -- and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose -- seems more and more certain. Because, against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough. Book 8 in the Expanse series 

The Wicked King by Holly Black - After learning that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her, even as his fascination with her remains undiminished. Someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves. Now she must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan, in order to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world. Book 2 in the Folk of the Air series 

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden - Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen. Reviewers called Katherine Arden's novels The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower"lyrical,""emotionally stirring," and"utterly bewitching." The Winternight Trilogy introduced an unforgettable heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl determined to forge her own path in a world that would rather lock her away. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse. Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers--and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all. Book 3 in the Winternight trilogy

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