My Best Friend Picks My TBR, 2020 Edition

Hi everyone! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you might’ve known that last year my best friend Fadwa and I did a little project in which we both picked out a small stack of books the other had to read within the year. If you read either of our wrap-up poststhat we posted recently, you might also know that we loved doing this and that we both found new favorite books through each others recommendations. This is why we decided that we’re going to be doing it again this year, and I’m so incredibly excited about it!

Today I’ll be sharing the books Fadwa picked for me, why she picked these books, and my very excited reaction (or not, who knows, maybe I suddenly hate Fadwa’s reading taste, that’s a thing that could happen. definitely.) to her choices.

Also! If you want to see what books I want Fadwa to read in 2020, you can check out her TBR here.

1) I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest

Fadwa: This book is on here for a completely selfish reason,which is that I want Laura to read it with me. I haven’t read I Wanna Be Where You are either, even though I’ve been dying to do so for MONTHS. Things kept getting in the way. But hopefully buddy-reading it with my best friend will help make it a priority. It has everything I love in a fluffy YA contemporary: a cute romance, a road-trip, a main character with a passion she’d do anything to go after AND the main character is Black and lord knows we need more fluffy books about Black girls.

Laura: We’re staring this off with a buddy read? That automatically means we’re starting off strong because I always love reading books with Fadwa! And I can’t wait to read this one because it sounds so happy and fluffy and I tend to really like road-trip books so, I can’t wait! I might’ve already ordered this one.Okay, I definitely did.

2) The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Fadwa: I read this one last year and it’s quickly become one of my favourite romances of all time and hands down my favourite sapphic romance of all time. Both Laura and I have slowly gotten into historical romance this year and if there’s just *one* I’d want her to read this year it’s The Lady’s Guide. This follows two women, one of which is an astronomer who’s been passing her work off as her father’s and an embroiderer who makes stunning pieces. So this is not only a scientist meets artist trope kind of book but it’s also age gap as one (the embroiderer) is ten years the other one’s elder AND less experimented when it comes to being with a woman. This book delves deep into what it was like being a woman in both arts and sciences back then but it’s also so soft and sweet and shows two women who love each other deeply and support each other unconditionally. I just know Laura will love it.

Laura: Welp, I’ve seen this book around a bit but never really knew what it was about until reading what Fadwa wrote and I now want to pick it up right away. This second. Immediately. This sounds amazing??? I mean, I’m always a sucker for f/f but? Astronomer? Embroiderer? Scientist meets artist trope? Loving each other deeply and supporting each other unconditionally? I know I’m just repeating what Fadwa said but I’m just SO FREAKING EXCITED this all sounds so good???

I just checked and the audiobook comes out the day before my birthday so it’s settled, this is going to be my birthday read!

3) This is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

Fadwa: Oh how the turns have tabled! Laura is the one who made me read this last year and if you saw my wrap-up, I, of course, loved it. So, I obviously jumped on the occasion to make her reread it since I know there are a bunch of books she wants to reread but also she kind of *whispers* lowkey sucks at rereading. She loves this book and I just want her to experience it again in physical form and fall in love with it all over again.

Laura: YESSS like Fadwa said, I absolutely suck at rereading books but I’ve really been wanting to reread more this year, so this is such a great choice. This book is one of my favorite books in the world and I can’t wait to go back to these characters and annotate the heck out of this book!

4) The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

Fadwa: Another all time favourite book of mine I’d give up an arm and a leg to have Laura read. To be fair, this was added to the list last year so it’s a pretty recent one. But it’s so soft and beautiful I just know Laura will love it and it’ll make her cry. At least, it made *me* cry. Not because it’s sad or hard to read but just because of how much it made me feel and how happy and…nostalgic? I felt by the end of it. This whole book is so stunningly written and the characters come to life so easily that you never want to leave it and by the time you reach the last page, it leaves a bitter sweet feeling behind.

Laura: I was kind of hoping this book would be on here because I was planning on getting myself a copy once the paperback releases and reading it this year anyway. Fadwa has hyped this book up so much, and she and everyone else who has recommended this one has said nothing but the absolute best things about this book and how it’s one of their favorites now so I really hope I’ll be one of those people by the end of the year.

5) Untouchable by Talia Hibbert

Fadwa: I mean…I made Laura read the first book last year and she liked it so the natural continuation is to make her read the sequel and hope she loved it too? The first book is A Girl Like Her, and this one follows Ruth’s sister from the first book whose name is Hannah as she gets her own romance when she goes to nanny for this big soft bear of a man who’s very gentle and attentionate. I really loved how every single aspect of the story was handled, especially the power imbalance in their boss/employee dynamic. 

Laura: YESSSS I mean, like Fadwa said I absolutely adored A Girl Like Her and I fell head over heels in love with Talia Hibberts writing, so I truly can’t wait to continue this series. And there’s just something about the way Fadwa describes books that, even if I already wanted to read a book really bad, it just makes me want to read it even more. Like, I’m this close to removing it from my Goodreads TBR and re-adding it, just because.

6) Immoral Code by Lillian Clark

Fadwa: Okay at first, I had picked another book for Laura to read instead of this one, but when I realized that one would be a reread as well, I backtracked and decided to go with this one instead. This is a contemporary heist story about teens who steal from their friend’s absentee dad who’s filthy rich to get her the funds necessary to go to MIT. HOW COOL DOES THAT SOUND? This story is much less action packed than it is character driven. It focuses more in the inner turmoil and personal stakes and journeys of each one of them rather than the heist itself (which still gets its fair share of page space). Every single one of the characters in the crew is super well fleshed out and they all have their motives, ambitions and inner struggles. I also loved how different they were from each other and how they still managed to be super tight knit as a friends’ group.

Laura: This was another book that I really hoped would be on this TBR because I’d already bought this book because of Fadwa’s recommendation and couldn’t wait to get to it, so when I saw the initial list I was a tiny little bit disappointed. So when she send me her finished list and I saw that this was on there I smiled so brightly. Everything about this book sounds incredibly good; I love tight knit friend groups, character explorations and heists, so this book sounds like I should definitely fall in love with it. And I can’t wait for that to happen.

So, those are some of the books I hope to get to in 2020 and I can’t wait to start reading! Have any of you read any of these books? Where do you think I should start? Please let me know!

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