Since I’ve started blogging, less of my recommendations have come from BookTube, but I am extremely grateful for this book community. I consider 2015 the year that I REALLY prioritized reading and BookTube helped me a lot in finding books that I now consider to be my all-time favorites. While I discovered a lot of hyped books through Booktube, like Throne of Glass and The Lunar Chronicles, today I’m going to be mostly focusing on some “smaller”/ the hype is not all over your face titles for May’s Monthly Recommendations topic, Books BookTube Made Me Read.

Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel- Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index was the BookTube-A-Thon pick for their 2017 readathon. I’ve never completed all of the BookTube-A-Thon reading challenges, but I find it really fun to read the one book that everyone’s encouraged to read. I ended up loving Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index (floating around my pool while reading may or may not have influenced my love) and it did make me tear up a bit.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – The Illumiane Files have rightfully taken over Booktube since Illuminae came out in 2015, and I thankfully fell into this hype. I remember seeing everyone’s Illuminae ARCS in their BEA 2015 hauls.

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith- I was inspired to read Windfall thanks to Booksplosion, a monthly book club hosted by polandbananasbooks, katytastic, and jessethereader. I don’t read every Booksplosion book of the month, but I was excited to join in on Windfall last May due to my need for reading contemporaries in the summer and the fact that I never had read a Jennifer E. Smith book. I’m glad I read Windfall because I thought it was a  cute story and it made me even more excited to meet Jennifer E. Smith herself at the  Barnes and Nobles Teen Book Fest last September.

Passenger & Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken- The Passenger duology was another set of books featured through Booksplosion, but they weren’t exactly my favorites. I enjoyed Passenger, but I probably wouldn’t have picked up Wayfarer if it weren’t for the motivation from Booktube. I like both book’s premises, but I had trouble connecting to its characters, and I disliked the plot direction of Wayfarer. A plus? I LOVE both books’ covers and their designs underneath.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins- So some mini backstory on Anna and the French Kiss: this book was haunting me at my local library years before I found polandbananasbooks. And you know why I didn’t pick it up until 2015? ITS ORIGINAL COVERS! I am now forever grateful for Christine’s Noob’s Guide to Contemporary Reads, being that the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy is among my all-time favorite series (and yes, I have the paperbacks with the updated covers).

 The Cruel Prince by Holly Black- Okay, okay I know The Cruel Prince is a VERY HYPED BOOK, and it can be found throughout all the book blogging communities. The Cruel Prince is one of Kristin of Super Space Chick’s all-time favorite books, so her love inspired me to pick it up. Unfortunately, I did not love TCP as much as Kristin, but it was fun to see Holly Black’s take on the Fae.

 I’ve definitely become a bit pickier in my Booktube choices since I’ve been in college.When one has a free moment, one must watch Youtube wisely.  Here are some of my go-to Booktube recommendations:

Cece of ProblemsofaBookNerd

Regan of PeruseProject

Kristin of Super Space Chick

Monthly Recommendations is a group on Goodreads for Booktubers and bloggers alike, where each month we give recommendations based off a specific topic or theme. 

Do you watch Booktube? What are some books that Booktube has made you read?