2018 in Review | The Best Books of 2018

2018 has been an absolutely incredible year here at Red Rocket Panda. Although I technically set up my blog in April 2017, I didn’t start properly blogging until January 2018 and I cannot believe how much this blog has grown – I’ve made some fantastic friends, read a tonne of brilliant books, and enjoyed bringing you all content throughout the year.

One of the things that surprised me the most is that I managed to not only smash my original reading goal of reading 50 books this year, but I also smashed my second goal of 75. As of today, I have read 81 books which is 55 books more than last year. I wanted to share with you all some of my favourite books as well as new-to-me authors that I’ve read and discovered this year!

Fairyloot Unboxing | November

As of November, I hadn’t purchased another Fairyloot book box since my Whimsical Journeys one for my birthday in April, but when I saw that they were releasing a special science fiction themed one for sci-fi month I knew I needed to grab a box as sci-fi is my favourite genre! The theme for November was ‘Battles and Galaxies’, promising a box of 7 sci-fi goodies inspired by Illuminae, Red Rising and the Lunar Chronicles alongside a fantastic new YA sci-fi book. Let me tell you – it definitely did not disappoint!

Wrap Up | November

The end of the year is almost upon us and I am not ready for it in any shape or form. Things got super intense at uni this month as I had to submit my PhD research proposal to my department for early feedback before the funding deadline in January, so I’ve been working flat out on my proposal all month meaning that both my reading and blog got horribly neglected. I had been planning for November & December to be my catch up months, and the thought of having to squeeze all of the catch up into just December now is making me a bit nervous haha!

I beat my second reading challenge goal of the year! Round 1 saw me smash my goal of 50 books, and now I’ve beaten my stretch goal too!

Book Tag | The End of the Year

It’s not the End of the Year (yet) nor is it Thursday, but I’m going to do the End of the Year book tag anyway because Destiny is a bad influence on me and I’ve missed blogging so much these past few weeks!

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

Usually, I’m quite good at abandoning books halfway through but that has not been the case with my ARC of Defy the Worlds. 2 months later I’ve not picked it back up after putting it down but I really need to finish it before the end of the year!

The Sunday Post | Book Cons & Hauls

Hey friends, welcome to The Sunday Post – a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer to share all the weekly news and feels!

Last week I talked about how excited I was for reading week this week and how much stuff I was going to get done. *Insert canned audience laughter* Of course, that didn’t happen. I didn’t get any work done for my uni course or any life stuff sorted. So, what did I actually do?