De Engelse boeken favorieten van de redactie 2020

In 2020 hebben we weer heel wat mooie, grappige, spannende en fantasievolle Engelse boeken gelezen! We lezen deze Engelse boeken zodat we weten welke boeken populair zijn in het binnen- en buitenland en welke boeken er op de bestsellerlijsten staan. Deze Engelse boeken zijn helaas nog niet vertaald, maar we hopen natuurlijk dat dat nog wel gaat gebeuren zodat iedereen van deze geweldige boeken kan genieten! Wij hebben voor jullie de favoriete Engelse boeken van de redactie van 2020 onder elkaar gezet.

Sorcery of Thorns - Margaret Rogerson

Een magische verhaal over een leerling in een magische bibliotheek die het moet opnemen tegen een machtige tovenaar om haar koninkrijk te redden. Naast dat het een stand-alone is leest Sorcery of Thorns heerlijk weg en zit het vol met fantasy en wonder. Een geweldig fantasy boek geschikt voor volwassen en young adult lezers. En met een boek over boeken kan je niet snel misgaan!

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeers Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery-magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. then an act of sabotage releases the librarys most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything shes been taught-about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig

De Goodreads Choice award winnaar voor het beste fictie boek. En wat een prachtig boek! Een boek dat je laat nadenken over de keuzes in je leven en hoe mooi maar ook verdrietig het leven kan zijn. The Midnight Library is een roman maar met een hint van fantasy. Een aanrader voor iedereen die van een mooi filosofisch boek houdt.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

The Aurora Cycle - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Het eerste boek in de trilogie is Aurora Rising en het vervolg Aurora Burning is in 2020 uitgekomen. Het is een geweldige scifi-serie van de hand van twee indrukwekkende auteurs. Ze hebben ook samengewerkt aan de bestseller serie The Illuminae Files, een echte aanrader ook! En de meeste fantasy liefhebbers zullen Jay Kristoff ook kennen van zijn Nevernight-serie. The Aurora Cycle is geschikt voor young adult en volwassen lezers en zal zelfs degene die niet zo houden van scifi kunnen bekoren. De karakters zijn ronduit geweldig en het verhaal zal je hardop laten lachen en je de nodige spanning geven. Maar wat eigenlijk het boek perfect beschrijft is de recensie van Jay Kristoff zelf op Goodreads! "Breakfast Clubs meets Guardian of the Galaxy meets a goldenboy of an interstellar military academy with a bunch of angry space elves and a huge evil." Maar lees het met de gifjes! Erg grappig en accuraat.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

Een epic fantasy stand-alone en een echte aanrader! Het boek is al veel geprezen in de buitenlandse media en je hebt het als je een fantasy fan bent vast al eens langs zien komen. Maar dit boek is dan ook echt erg goed. Soms wordt een boek zoveel aangeraden dat het bijna alleen maar kan tegenvallen dat zal je niet snel hebben met The Priory of the Orange Tree. Samantha Shannon heeft zelfs al aangegeven dat ze graag meer verhalen in deze wereld wil schrijven.

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

Een prachtig en vernieuwend boek over een transgender jongen die zich wil bewijzen aan zijn strenge latinx familie. Cemetery Boys is anders dan de meeste young adult boeken en bespreekt een belangrijk onderwerp op een intrigerende en mooie manier. En dat allemaal met een vleugje magie. Yadriel en Julian zullen je nog lang bijblijven.

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can't get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Fable - Adrienne Young

Fable is een spannend boek over piraten en de hoofdpersoon Fable die zeker haar mannetje staat! Door wat ze allemaal in haar jonge leven heeft meegemaakt heeft ze snel moeten opgroeien en is ze een echte powervrouw. Als je Sky in the deep (oftewel De hemel in het ijs leuk vond) dan ga je ook zeker van dit boek van Adrienne Young genieten!

For seventeen-year-old Fable, the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home she has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one, and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father, and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.

But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him, and Fable soon finds that West isn't who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they're going to stay alive.

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

Deze aangrijpende roman is het debuut van Douglas Stuart en heeft de prestigieuze Booker Prize 2020 gewonnen. In dit boek wordt de meedogenloosheid van armoede en de grenzen van liefde blootgelegd. Een aanrader voor de romanliefhebbers! En er is goed nieuws, want het boek wordt in 2021 vertaald naar het Nederlands!

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.

The Daevabad Trilogy - S.A. Chakraborty

Een prachtig fantasy boek voor volwassenen dat je naar de wereld van 1001 nachten zal brengen. Het eerste boek is The City of Brass en het boek geeft je een geweldige leeservaring, met spanning, verwondering maar ook ontzetting is dit een boek dat je minder snel tegenkomt. Het boek speelt zich af rond Egypte en het geeft je een sterk en bewonderenswaardig vrouwelijk hoofdpersonage. Een verhaal dat zich afspeelt in Arabië was een mooie setting voor een magisch verhaal.

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...

From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Romantiek? Check! Fantasy? Check! Geweldig geschreven? Check! Mooie karakters? Check! Aanrader? Jazeker!

A Maiden…
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…
The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…
Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

Boyfriend Material - Alexis Hall

Boyfriend material zal in 2021 worden vertaald naar het Nederlands! Dit is ontzettend leuk nieuws want dit heerlijke romantische boek, waarin 2 jongens voor het nep met elkaar daten, is om bij weg te zwijmelen! Voor de fans van Rood, wit & koningsblauw en Elle & Darcy.

Wanted:
One (fake) boyfriend
Practically perfect in every way

Luc O'Donnell is tangentially--and reluctantly--famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad's making a comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.

To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship...and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He's a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he's never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.

But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that's when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don't ever want to let them go.

Regretting You - Colleen Hoover

De boeken van Colleen Hoover zijn al jarenlang erg populair. Ze schrijft aangrijpende New Adult boeken en ook Regretting You is een pareltje. In dit boek ligt de focus op de moeder-dochterrelatie van Morgan en Clara. In mei 2021 zal dit prachtige boek in het Nederlands worden uitgebracht onder de naam Spijt van jou.

Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.

Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.

With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.

While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab

Dit boek zal in 2021 ook uitkomen hier in Nederland. En gelukkig maar! Victoria Schwab heeft weer een geweldig boek neergezet! Lees ook ons interview met V.E. Schwab waarin ze vertelt over dit boek!

Frankrijk, 1714. Als Adeline LaRue wordt uitgehuwelijkt, smeekt ze om meer tijd en een leven in vrijheid. Haar wens gaat in vervulling, maar tegen een vreselijke prijs. Addie zal eeuwig leven, en is gedoemd te worden vergeten door iedereen die ze ontmoet. Zelfs haar ouders vergeten hun dochter op slag en jagen haar hun huis uit.

Ontheemd en alleen begint Addie aan een betoverend avontuur dat eeuwen en continenten omspant. Van de achttiende-eeuwse salons van Parijs tot de straten van het moderne New York: Addie leert overal overleven. Maar terwijl haar tijdgenoten de geschiedenisboeken in gaan, blijft Addie onopgemerkt bestaan. Dag na dag, jaar na jaar.

Tot ze op een dag een boekhandel in stapt en iemand haar voor het eerst in driehonderd jaar herkent…

One to Watch - Kate Stayman-London

One to watch is een heerlijke romcom! Als je van feelgoodverhalen houdt, dan zul je zeker van dit boek kunnen genieten. Bea is namelijk een heel herkenbaar hoofdpersonage en het boek is niet alleen romantisch en grappig, het stelt ook nog eens belangrijke onderwerpen aan de kaak zoals body positivity. Je hoeft namelijk zeker geen maatje 34 te hebben om de liefde te vinden.

Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers--and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition--under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She's in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful anti-fat beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That's it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She's in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale.

The Jane Austen Society - Natalie Jenner

The Jane Austen Society gaat over een groep mensen die ondanks hun verschillen samenkomen vanwege hun liefde voor Jane Austen. Do we need to say more?!

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people, a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others, could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.