Hi dear friends,

Today is the first day of my Blogmas or #BestBooksOf2018 . A whole month of daily posting about the favorite books I’ve read this year!

Don’t forget if you want to join in on the fun here are this month’s prompt!

It is not mandatory to post every day of course as I understand that life can get in the way or you may not be inspired by the topic of the day! If you want to join in just use the #BestBooksof2018 and maybe leave a link at the end of my post as my pingback has been disabled on the blog!

Today is Best Young Adult book read in 2018.

I have to say that these posts will be HARD! I will try to choose only one winner but I may stumble ...from time to time as it is like choosing your favorite kid!

As I have to set an example I succeeded today in choosing only one book *but that’s because I will have other opportunities this month to put my other favorites under the spotlight 😀 *

Young Adult is one of my favorite genres to read. I know that I am way past my teenage years BUT I still feel like a sixteen years old most days so I am allowed to indulge in the genre LOL

To my teenage daughter’s utter horror I clean the house while dancing on some rock or pop music under the bemused stare of my neighbors. But honestly what would they do without me making them laugh right?

So today’s winner is ……

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

I gave this book 6 stars so it seemed fitting choose him as my winner!

What made this book so extraordinary?

1.The writing

It’s real, raw, solid. Descriptive but not flowery. Straight like an arrow. It sucks you in the middle of her story and the character’s lives.

The first scene is in the Mitchell’s backyard :

“Packed full of recent and not-so-recent grads in various stage of decay. The girls leaned against one another, wilted flowers that looked on while the guys got louder, sweatier.

I craned my neck and scanned the crowd for Chris, but my wingman had disappeared.

“Shit”, I muttered.

Like I needed any more confirmation of my loner status.”

In just a few sentences the tone is set.

2.Every character in this book is compelling and felt real.

Josh with his nightmares, his guilt, his doubts but also with his golden heart and deep protective instinct when Skylar suffered. Heather Demetrios did an extraordinary job writing this young wounded soldier. He symbolizes so many young people hurt and changed by the war.

His chapters were really short but impactful

In just a few words we were in his head living his crushed life.

“Why did I make it when so many other guys got wasted? And now it’s like I lost a leg and gained another f@cking eye that’s letting me see everything in a totally new, crappy light and all that sh@t that used to make me me I either can’t do or is so f@cking stupid-God, what’s the point of me? I want to go back man. I want to be on post.”

Skylar Evans is the poor kid leaving in a trailer park but so determined to bust her behind off to do better. She wants out.

Out of this small town. Out of this depressing cage.

Skylar has suffered from abuse by neglect. Yet she loves her mother and lives in fear that she’ll completely “lose it” one day. She had to become adult way before her time.

Sleeping in her car, going without food was her day to day life at that time given her mom’s depression.

“I gripped the steering wheel and squeezed my eyes shut.

God, I’m hungry.

A sob broke out of me, loud and ugly. I rolled up my window, fast, and covered my mouth with my hand. Stop crying Skylar. Stop f@cking crying.”

3. The romance was that good! Slow burning, developping progressively.

Their romance was, like Heather Demetrios said, “messy, complicated-all shades of grey.”

From dancing in a salsa bar to learning to play chess with him they both will slowly gravitate toward each other.  The road will be filled with bumps and hiccups.

Seriously I loved this book so much that I ordered two other of her books as soon as the last page has been turned!

Now it’s your turn! What is your best YA book read in 2018?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie