Assembling any kind of ‘best of’ list is daunting and personal, and my big caveat right up front is that Your Mileage May Vary! In fact, I hope you’ll share some of your personal favorite scifi romances in the comments! What amazing reads have I missed?
(Hmmm, I might do a post on that set of reader recommendations in early 2019…please, no self recommending of your own titles though and 2018 releases only!)
I write about scifi romance for both Love in Panels and the Amazing Stories Magazine’s blog, (plus USA Today’s HEA blog, which sadly is ceasing operation as of December 31st). I compiled my very personal ‘best of 2018’ list the other week. I have to STRESS this is a list of SFR novels that fell into tropes I enjoy and is therefore not meant to be taken as a comprehensive “in all of the thousands of SFR books released in 2018 these are the best” list. I don’t have that much ego! And I don’t read all the books LOL. I have my own books to write so my reading time is limited.
I read a lot of fun, good, thought provoking SFR in 2018 but for this list, since by its nature the number of titles selected is supposed to be Top 10 or Top 5 or some equally arbitrary number, I went with the ones I’m still thinking about, even months after reading them.
It was the same list for both blog platforms obviously, although I got to be a bit more lengthy and inclusive over at Amazing, and also added a science fiction title (The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells). In some cases there was a single title by an author that stood out to me and lingered in my memory (and/or got re-read because I love to read a good book more than once!). In other cases people had more than one book in my list of 2018 memorables.
In no certain order, here’s my list of titles and you can hop over to the Amazing post for more details, or the Love in Panels post for many of the buy links. Originally the editor at LIP had also planned to link to my mini reviews of these books that I wrote during the year but ultimately time pressures prevented that. You can browse her site and see my Best Bets mini review posts if you so desire…
The List:
Undying (Valos of Sonhadra Book 7), Claimed by An Alien Warrior, and Jewel of the Sea (The Kraken Book 2) and Heart of the Deep (The Kraken Book 4) – all by Tiffany Roberts
Guardian (Galactic Gladiators Book 9) and Cyborg (Galactic Gladiators Book 10) – both by Anna Hackett
Taking Vengeance (Cyborg Sizzle Book 12) and Dark Strength (Refuge Book 3) – both by Cynthia Sax
Edge of Insanity: The Alliance Book 6 – SE Smith
Barbarian’s Beloved (Ice Planet Barbarians Book 18) – Ruby Dixon
Champion (Prison Planet Book 3) – Emmy Chandler
Breakaway (Verdant String Book 1) – Michelle Diener
Edge of Nowhere – Felicia Davin
Kirk: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides #10 (Intergalactic Dating Agency) – Tasha Black
Ocean Light (Psy-Changeling Trinity Book 2) – Nalini Singh
Cyborg – Miranda Martin
Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7 – Pauline Baird Jones
The Rising Tide (Liminal Sky Book 2) – J. Scott Coatsworth
My thanks to all these authors for their hard work and creativity, and the many happy hours of reading I spent with their books. Kudos to everyone who wrote and released books in 2018 – celebrate the tremendous accomplishment!
Looking forward to 2019!
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Thank you for the lovely shoutout! 🙂
My pleasure – I enjoyed the way the book’s plot becomes more and more complex as it goes, really fun!
A very complete list! One of my goals in the coming year is to start reviewing more books.
Thanks for the comment! I think it’s lovely that you take the time to review – best wishes for the New Year!
Sorry, couldn’t limit it to lead than 8! And again, some series. Some great reads this year
Dragon and Vale of Stars series by Juliette Cross. New author to me in 2017, and loving this world. Allegorical resonance with the state of the world today, and it’s “othering” along with other parallels . And the writing is so lush
Tales of the one by Nora Roberts. Not exactly sci-fi but definitely paranormal, and dystopian. A new direction for Nora but still retains her trademark of family, both born and chosen. Ditto the allegory.
All the Badari Warriors by Veronica Scott. Love the way this is written. Love the descriptions of the cubs
Dark vengeance by Cynthia Sax. Love all these dark gritty books, but especially enjoyed this one
Jordan L Hawk. Everything! Breaker of chains, the finale of Spectre 2. Love Caleb /Gray. One body, two characters. You have to read it to understand. Lol. And the penultimate Widdershins series
Hunted by the cyborg by Cara Bristol. Great ending to the series but I am hoping for more cyborgs
Imperator by Anna Hackett. Loved this tale about Galen meeting more than his match. Binge read Anna Hackett this year as new to me.
Salt magic skin magic by Lee Welch. A historical paranormal and a fantastic debut.
Gill
Great list from you too (I HAVE to try Juliette Cross in 2019)…I liked Anna’s IMPERATOR but somehow her CYBORG just really reached out and grabbed me, and I loved the way she developed a plot for GUARDIAN that really fit her ex-cop character and the world building she’s done on Carthago too.As an author, I especially admired that in the book. I think we all want more cyborgs LOL, such a popular trope. I’m even thinking of maybe trying a series with them, although no one makes them sizzle like Cynthia Sax. And I did enjoy Cara’s cyborg series…thank you SO MUCH for enjoying the Badari! I’m having so much fun writing them and it makes me happy to know readers like them 🙂 HUGS!!!
Yes, I loved Guardian too. I want my own symbiont! Lol
Gill
(Playing FanGirl here) Loved your Badari Warrior series. Hope there are more to come. My other favorites (pubbed 2018):
Embrace the Passion (Pets in Space)
Lea Kirk’s Collision
L.A. Kelley’s Shadow Fleet (Rimriders)
Liza O’Connor’s Destination: Titan
Definitely writing more Badari and thank you for mentioning them! I’m so glad you enjoy the series 🙂 I’m about 30K words into KIERCE at the moment but the holidays slowed me down, not surprisingly. Thanks for giving us some of your other 2018 favorites as well!