My top favorite books of 2018

 My goal for the year was to read 130 books. I bypassed that and hit 221. For the last few years or so, I have compiled my top favorite books of the year. With 221, it was difficult to pick my top ones. Most people would try for their top 10, but that just wasn't going to happen. Mine is y going to be the top 20, which was hard enough to do. The books are  in no order of ranking, except in the order I read them for the most part. There are some by my favorite authors, but they are my favorites for a reason, so of course their books are on the list. Most are fiction, but that is what I mostly read. There are a few cases of two books in the same series, and I  coupled those together instead of listing them separately.

  I read a lot of great books. My favorite genre' is Christian suspense, so those show up a lot in my top 20. There are books I liked so well that I re-read the ending a few times and other parts that I liked. There is even one I read twice. And I read a lot of really good ones that are not on my list. These are just the ones that I liked the most, or impacted me the most.

 So here are my top 20 favorite books of 2018:

1) Oath of Honor and Called to Protect  (Blue Justice, #1 & #2) by Lynette Eason

2) Dangerous Illusions and Hidden Peril (Code of Honor Series #1 & #2)  by Irene Hannon

3) View From Rainshadow Bay (Lavender Tides #1)  by Collen Coble

4) Out of the Ashes (Heart of Alaska #2) by Kimberly Woodhouse  and Tracie Peterson

5) The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers

6) Not by Sight, Only by Death, and A Treacherous Mix (The Ozark Trilogy, #1, #2, #3) by Kathy Herman

7) Send Down the Rain by Charles Martin

8) Dead Drift, Chesapeake Valor #4 by Dani Pettrey

9) Thirst of Steel (The Tox Files #3)  by Ronie Kendig

10) The Soldier's Surprise Family by Jolene Navarro

11) A War of Loves by David Bennett

12) In Too Deep (Dive Team Investigations #2)  by Lynn H Blackburn

13) Lonestar Christmas by Jolene Navarro

14) A Bodyguard for Christmas (Murphy #3)  by Carol Post

15) Christmas Hideout (McKade Law #3)  by Susan Sleeman

16) The Christmas Child (Redemption River #4)  by Linda Goodnight

17) A Secret to Die For by Lisa Harris

18) Home to Crossroads Ranch by Linda Goodnight

19) His Surprise Son by Allie Pleiter

20) The Rancher's Secret Child (Bluebonnet Springs #3)  by Brenda Minton

Honorable mentions: The Love Inspired Suspense line has several series of books that are done by different authors, each book by a different author. They feature the same characters, with each book centering on a different character. There is usually one mystery/plot that goes through all the books, and each book having its own mystery that gets solved in that book. These books are not only great suspense novels, but it impresses me that these authors get together and have to all know the characters, in addition to what the other authors did with, and are planning on doing with those characters. There are a few series involving K-9 officers and their dogs, which I found fascinating even though am not a dog lover.  If I listed all of the books in theese series I read this year, that would have taken up my top 20 just on those books, so I am doing an honorable mention:

1) Without A Trace, various authors

2) Capitol K-9, various authors

3) Military K-9 Unit, various authors

4) Texas K-9 Unit, various authors

And one more single novel I overlooked that was just plain awesome. Instead of trying to replace one in my list of top 20, I am putting it here in the honorable mentions, but it was truly awesome.

5) Lonestar Witness (Lonestar Justice #5)  by Margaret Daily