My Ten Most Anticipated Books of 2018

Happy new year, fellow book readers! I hope you all had a fun and safe celebration and are excited about this new beginning. This year has a lot in store for us, including tons of new books to add to our TBR lists. I’m sure everyone has started thinking about which books they’re going to read in 2018. For me, it’s a mix of new releases and old ones that I need to catch up on. But here I’m going to scream about share with you which books I am most anticipating this year. As per usual, these are listed in no specific order. Let’s get started!

Meet Cute edited by Jennifer L. Armentrout

2 January 2018 / Goodreads

I’ve heard so many people talking about this book and the concept of “meet cutes”, which I’d never heard of before this book. But I mean, a book full of cute first meetings? Sign me up! Considering the cast of authors listed and seeing the diversity of people on the cover, I can tell this is going to have stories for everyone in it. Plus, the description gives a hint to what each story is about, and I especially cannot wait to read what Sara Shepard, Meredith Russo, and Jennifer Armentrout have written for this. Luckily this comes out today!

Love, Hate, & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

16 January 2018 / Goodreads

Honestly, I’ve been excited about this book since it was announced. It’s an #ownvoices book written about a Muslim-American teenager whose parents want her to stay in Chicago marry the boy that they deem perfect for her. But Maya Aziz wants to study film in New York City. All of their lives get messy when a terrorist attack is committed by someone who happens to have the same last name as her. A book showing the challenges and stigma that Muslim-Americans face is exactly what we need right now, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this one!

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

23 January 2018 / Goodreads

I actually just got an ARC of this book passed on to me, and it’s the very next one on my TBR list. There was a (now semi-infamous) review written about this book claiming that it’s “unrealistic” for the main character, Alice, to have received a happy ending. From, my understanding, the reviewer’s reasoning was because Alice is asexual. To that, I say, “ridiculous!” Asexual people can live happy lives just like allosexual people. I can’t wait to read this book because I can’t wait to see myself represented happily in a story, and I hope that everyone else gets to read good representation of themselves this year as well.

The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis

30 January 2018 / Goodreads

This story sounds like something I would really resonate with. In sum, Evan Panos is the reserved teen that’s trying to find his voice after having avoided being noticed for so long. In grade school, I was awfully quiet and kept my head down until high school when I tried and struggled to find my voice and figure out what I wanted it to sound like. It sounds like Evan is going through the same thing here, and I can’t wait to read a story like that. And queer romance along with it? Yes, please. Luckily, there are only a couple more weeks to wait for this book.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

6 February 2018 / Goodreads

I plan on starting this book within the next week or two since I was lucky enough to be granted an ARC from NetGalley. Recently, it seems that I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary fiction, and I kind of miss reading about fantasy worlds. I have high hopes for this book because the world that Dhonielle Clayton has built for this world sounds suspicious yet intriguing. On top of that, her voice on Twitter has been so powerful, and I expect nothing less from this novel that she wrote or the story he contributed to Meet Cute!

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson

6 February 2018 / Goodreads

For me, Shaun David Hutchinson is one of those authors whose work you know you’ll love before ever having read any of it. And sadly I haven’t gotten the chance to read any of his work yet. (But We Are The Ants sits on my bookshelf, calling my name all day.) Anyway, a girl with unexplained powers trying to stop the apocalypse from happening is right up my alley. Although, I’ve heard from others’ reviews that there are a bunch of nods to his other works in this one so I think I’ll have to go back and read those before picking those up.

Ink, Iron, and Glass by Gwendolyn Clare

20 February 2018 / Goodreads

As I said earlier, I’m planning on reading more fantasy stories this year, and this is one of my top picks for that genre. We all know that people can create new worlds with pen an paper–authors do it every day. However, in Elsa’s world, creating new worlds this was is a science called scriptology, and those written worlds become reality. The idea of this magical science in an alternate history fascinates me, and I can’t wait to see what Gwendolyn Clare has come up with for this concept.

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell

27 February 2018 / Goodreads

This is another anthology I’m excited about. Being advertised as a collection of stories across multiple genres got me interested, but I really love that this is filled with stories about queer teens written by queer authors. The teaser of some of the stories in the description shows that this book will take the reader all through time and space, promising to “[shed] light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.” I’ve even pre-ordered this title, so now I’m not-so-patiently waiting for it to show up at my door in two months.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

6 March 2018 / Goodreads

I used to perform musically quite a bit in middle and high school, so I’ve learned finding your voice onstage is a whole different journey from finding your voice socially. Xiomara Batista does both in The Poet X by joining her school slam poetry club. This gives her space to sort through and speak her feelings about life, family, romance, and religion. These are all such common things to struggle with, but that just shows how much the world needs books like these. After looking up some of Elizabeth Acevedo’s own slam poetry, I was left with chills and a tinge of sadness that I’ll have to wait until March to read her book.

Blanca y Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

9 Oct 2018 / Goodreads

This book’s release is so far away that there isn’t even a book cover image for me to add her, unfortunately! All in all, there’s really not that much information about the book at all yet. But this is Anna-Marie McLemore, one of my favorite authors, we’re talking about, so I have faith that it will be amazing! As the current Goodreads description says, “A magical realist Snow-White & Rose-Red meets Swan Lake, in which two sisters become rivals in a game that will turn the losing girl into a swan,” is nothing less than expected from McLemore, and I will be reading all the other books on this list while I await more details on this book.

These certainly aren’t the only 2018 releases on my TBR list, but these are the most interesting ones in my opinion. Maybe you share some of these? What are your most anticipated books of 2018?

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