What a difficult decision to make! To make it a little easier I decided to make up a few rules: I didn’t include any police detective series because there were so many really good ones this year. I really liked Ragdoll, Little Girl Lost, The Trophy Taker, Little Bones, Last Breath, and even plenty more.. but if I really have to choose (yep I’m subtly slipping in another top read) than my favorite one is definitely Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson. A novel set in two different countries and a hidden link to WWII, that takes serious skill and she pulled this off brilliantly.
I also decided not to include more than one novel from the same author and to only list first novels of a series or standalones so everyone can pick up any novel from the list without having to read the previous ones. I started out with 16 top novels and I had to make some tough decisions but I finally ended with a list of 10 novels that I think are pretty amazing reads and all have gotten top ratings from me throughout the year:
- The One by John Marrs
- Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
- Final Girls by Riley Sager
- This Love by Dani Atkins
- One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
- The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne
- The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Baker
- Last Seen Alive by Claire Douglas
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
What struck me though is that out of these 10 novels there are no less than 8 that I read as a paperback. I’m not sure what that means and if that makes me enjoy a book more after all…
So any thoughts about my list? Are any of the titles I listed in your top 10 as well?
The Belgian Reviewer 
Excellent choices!
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Thank you lovely!
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The Fourth Monkey is awesome.👌
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It really is, can’t wait for his next one!
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Great list! I haven’t read any but have few on my Goodreads tbr.
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Thank you Nicki! I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did when you get to them!
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Oooo I need to get Six Stories. I only read the teaser for Marsh King but I totally get why you loved it. It’s very intriguing.
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All of these books have great and unexpected twists. Give me that and it’s going to make my fav list. Maybe Marsh King was the one that was the least surprising but it transported me to the great outdoors. It was utterly fascinating and had a very dark side too. I hope you’ll like Six Stories if you read it!! Thank you lovely!
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It’s in my amazon list so I do hope I love it as soon as I get it. ^_^
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The One and Behind Her Eyes! Loved both of these! Great List
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Thank you Holly! I could have added The Good Samaritan too but this was the one that introduced me to this author and made the biggest impact because I wasn’t expecting anything yet.
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I have yet to read that one, but looking forward to it now!
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One of Us is Lying is on my list as well Inge! Fantastic!
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That’s great to hear! Thank you!!
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Great list! I need to make one, but I don’t know where to start 😂 Several of my favorites are on your list…loved The Fourth Monkey, One of Us is Lying, Final Girls, and Eleanor Oliphant! I need to read Behind Her Eyes 😊
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Ah it’s so great to see we share so much book love for the same books! I know it’s so difficult to do, you’ll have to make some tough decisions. You certainly, definitely need to read Behind Her Eyes. It’s a different genre, can’t tell any more, but even I loved it.
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We really do!! I’m going to try and make my list for the end of the week, lol! If I can find the time with the kids out of school! 🤔🙄😁 I just bought Behind Her Eyes with a gift card that I got for Christmas, lol! I can’t wait to read it now!!
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Oh wow, did I make you do that?! That’s so great :-). Now I only hope that you’ll like it as much as I did. Even if you don’t, there’s no book that can throw a bigger suprise twist at you I think. I’m already dying to know what you think!
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Lol! I’ve wanted it for a while, but you nudged me to go ahead and buy it!! 😁 I’m sure I will. I’ve heard great things about it!! I love surprise twists! I hope I can get a chance to read it soon!
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Great list! I have not yet read any of the books that are in your list but have found thanks to it lots of reading inspiration for 2018. So many thanks for that! 🙂
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Thank you Evi! I’m not sure all of them are translated yet but some definitely are, like Eleanor Oliphant (and I even read Behind Her Eyes in Dutch ;-)).
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Final Girls was great ❤ I still need to read One of us is lying!
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Yes! One of Us is Lying was not so much about solving the case for once (at least for me) as it was rooting for the characters. I don’t always like character-based novels but this was a hit for me. I hope you’ll like it too!
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I really want to read One of Us Is Lying. Otherwise, I’m not familiar with any other title in your list – which is still great, because I’m always looking for new awesome books to try out 🙂
Thanks for the recs, Inge!
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You’re very welcome Sophie, I’m happy I can recommend some great books and I really hope you’ll read One of Us Is Lying. From what I see on Twitter she’s a really nice author too :-).
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whooo- I’ve read 3 from the list which is not too bad at all, considering! 🙂 Great list, some titles in there that I definitely have yet to read!
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Yay, The One, Six Stories and The Fourth Monkey if I remember correctly. You know the sort of books I like then and I hope you’ll read a few other titles from my list now too 🙂
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Yay for paperbacks! So many wonderful books on here. Definitely need to read The Marsh King’s Daughter, Final Girls and Behind Her Eyes some day! 😀
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I hope you do read The Marsh King’s Daughter some day! Thank you!
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great list inge! 🙂 i have read “one of us is lying” but i wasn’t the biggest fan of it. i think i expected something else! but i am glad you loved it! 🙂
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Thanks. I understand, it all depends on how invested you get into the characters.. the mystery almost took a backseat for me. I’m sure you still found plenty of other books you loved 🙂
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definitely! 🙂
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I also listed One of Us is Lying as a favorite of 2017, it was just so good!!
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Yay! I know, I can’t wait to read her next novel!
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I didn’t know she was writing a new book 😱 Very excited now haha 😊
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