I’ve been an avid reader all my life, and in 2008, I decided to start reviewing books, as well. That’s when I founded my review website, The Hope Chest Reviews. Since becoming a published author, I haven’t stopped writing reviews of the books I read for pleasure, in part, because I’m now more aware than ever just how important reviews can be to a author in helping readers discover them. That’s why I stubbornly insist upon keeping this up indefinitely, despite the extra time it takes.

Ever since I started my review site, I’ve had an annual tradition of posting my Best of the Year list to highlight all the very best books I read the previous year. As in past years, I have an eclectic group of books on it from a wide variety of genres.

Since I’m a romance writer and long-time romance reader, my focus is mostly on romance, but I also have a nice selection other books, including fantasy, YA, historical fiction, memoirs, and non-fiction. I'm a pretty slow reader, so I rarely have time to read books when they're released. That being the case, I compile the list from the books I read during the previous year. This makes for a well-rounded list of brand new books, mixed with older ones, and a little bit of everything in between. I read over seventy books in 2018, and about half of them made it to my keeper shelf, meaning that they earned 4.5 to 5 stars from me. These are the books that make my “Best of …” lists in the individual genres. I've also nominated books in a wide variety of other categories, including best characters, best quotes, and best covers. I hope you'll check out my full list and perhaps find your next great read.

In honor of posting my list, I’m doing a different sort of giveaway. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and it has, thus far, been pretty popular, so I’m making it a new annual tradition on my author blog. In this giveaway, you, the reader, will get the opportunity to choose the book you want to win. It can be any book from my 2018 Best of the Year Reading List. Some of them, I previously nominated as my Book of the Month, so you could have a second chance to win another copy or pick a different book altogether.

You may choose one book from the following:

• Any book written by J. R. Ward/Jessica Bird, my Author of the Year winner.

• Any book written by Lisa Kleypas, my Author of the Year runner-up.