Checking In On My Most Anticipated Books of 2018- How Did I Do?

Posted December 27, 2018 by Cristina (Girl in the Pages) in Features / 12 Comments

As everyone is compiling their lists of book they are most excited for in 2019 and looking to the year ahead, I decided I wanted to go back to the books that I put on a similar list last year for 2018 to see how I did (if I actually READ them, lol, and if so, how I felt about them!) I recently saw the fabulous Cait over at Paper Fury also do something similar (where she did a breakdown of her top ten most anticipated reads of the year and went over the expectation vs. reality- it’s hilarious, go check out her post!) and I thought it would be fun to do a pulse check on how I felt about the books I had on my most anticipated list, and if my instincts were right or not!

The List:

How Many Did I Read?

I actually managed to read 8 out of 10 of these, which is not bad!! The two I didn’t get to were Sam & Ilsa’s Last Hurrah and To Be Honest. Would I still keep these on my TBR? Yes and No. I’m still interested in reading To Be Honest, but I’ll admit the only thing that really attracted me to Sam & Ilsa was the cover (sooo pretty) and it’s honestly probably not really a book I’d even enjoy and it has a SUPER low rating on Goodreads (I am enjoying high school shenanigans books less and less these days).

Books That Exceeded Expectations

Of course I anticipated really liking all of the books on this list, but there were a few that I ADORED even more than I thought I would. Catwoman by Sarah J Maas was one of those- I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about a DC icons novel along with Maas writing outside of her fantasy wheelhouse, but it was great!! (SJM writes PHENOMENAL female villains). Love & Luck was so charming and had breathtaking descriptions of Ireland and I got a lot more invested than I usually would in a YA contemporary romance. And Stay Sweet of course was everything I hoped it would be and more (even if I could have done without the romance sub plot).

*Funnily enough I didn’t rate any of these books 5 stars (they were all 4-4.5 stars) but they still exceeded my expectations because I enjoyed them even more than I had initially anticipated! Likewise there are reads with higher ratings in the below “Met Expectations” section that gained higher ratings from me but that I was expecting to immensely enjoy so that didn’t “exceed” my expectations for the purposes of this post!

Books That Met Expectations

A Court of Frost and Starlight was exactly the fluffy piece of fan service I was expecting and I adored it (more Nesta + Cassian PLZ). The Cheerleaders ended up being a pretty solid thriller and Puddin’ was charming and empowering, just as expected.

Books that Fell Short of Expectations

Unfortunately a couple of my selections ended up making me feel more “meh” than anything else. The Way You Make Me Feel had a really fun food truck premise, but the protagonist was annoying at best and straight up unlikeable at worst. I was really let down by Truly Devious considering how much I’ve enjoyed the author’s previous works and how on trend the true crime premise is. I don’t even know if I’ll be picking up the sequel.

Final Thoughts

Out of my 10 most anticipated reads for 2018, I really enjoyed 6 (and have a feeling I would have enjoyed To Be Honest had I gotten to it, which would have put me at 7). 7/10 isn’t too shabby, and in 2019 I think I’ll just have to be a tiny bit less drawn in by beautiful covers or trendy topics. I’m splitting my “most anticipated” list into a few separate posts for 2019, so it will be interesting to see how many end up working out for me since I have many more than just 10 on my list!

How did your most anticipated releases of 2018 pan out? Did you read all of them or are some of them still on your TBR for 2019? Let me know in the comments!

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12 responses to “Checking In On My Most Anticipated Books of 2018- How Did I Do?

  1. I like seeing how many of my anticipated releases I read too. 8/10 is really good. Like you, I adored Stay Sweet and Love & Luck, and was a little disappointed with The Way You Make Me Feel, though the father-daughter relationship was on point. I was really let down by Sam & Ilsa. It was missing the fun I love in a Cohn-Levithan book, but I really enjoyed To Be Honest. Savannah was great character.

    Sam@wlabb recently posted: #Top10of2018: Captivating Characters
    • Yes, I did love the father-daughter relationship in The Way You Make Me Feel (also loved how it showed a successful single dad!) I have heard so many negative things about Sam & Ilsa that I finally just removed it off of my TBR.

  2. 8 of 10 is pretty good! I still need to read Love and Luck, and I did like Truly devious but it didn’t wow me or anything. I thought The Cheerleaders was pretty decent too.

    • I’ve literally heard only bad things from EVERYONE about Sam & Ilsa, it’s so sad 🙁 Further proof you can’t judge a book by it’s cover (I do LOVE the cover though!) I think you’d really enjoy Catwoman, I hope you get to it this year 🙂

    • Thanks Tasya, it’s so hard to keep up with the books we truly want to read with review obligations, library check outs with expiration dates, etc. This year I want to keep trying to prioritize my highly anticipated reads as it motivates and excites me to read more and prevents me from falling into a reading slump!

  3. I love this time of year. Everyone is reflecting on their reading from the year and excited for the new year. I love this idea and would love to do that this year since I didn’t make a list of my most anticipated books for 2018. Great post, Cristina!

  4. Oh I really love this idea for a post!
    I create a challenge ever year where I read 25 books from the last 5 years that are on my “highly anticipated” list. For my 2014 year picks, I think I gave all the books 3 stars or less and opted not to read any of the sequels for the series…not so good. But some of the others were fabulous!

    Lauren @ SERIESous Book Reviews recently posted: Year’s Reads in Review – Top Picks for 2018
    • Oh I love the idea of your challenge to go back and read books from your previous years’ highly anticipated lists that you didn’t get to! I don’t know how long I’ve been tracking my most “highly anticipated” reads each year but now I’m definitely going to do it every year!

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