A favorite part of starting the new year for me is looking back at the year past. I love seeing what our top ten books at each store were- how it compared to the year before- how it compares to other 'best of' lists- which books were on both lists and which ones were unique! The following 14 books comprised the 'best of' lists for 2018 at Duck's Cottage & Downtown Books... how many have you read? which ones did you miss? Don't forget we ship for just .99 so you've got no excuse for NOT reading them ALL!! (and it will give you some good winter reading material too!)

The Prayer Box was NUMBER ONE at both of stores for 2018!! The first book in Lisa Wingate's Carolina trilogy has been either our top book or in the top three for the past five years. She shows up again on the Duck's Cottage list with Before We Were Yours .. her latest best seller that spend over 52 weeks on the NYT best-seller list!

Good Night Outer Banks was #6 at Downtown Books and #2 at Duck's Cottage- this July addition to the Good Night series features highlights and attractions from our own Outer Banks! A must have for every child's library.

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#2 at Downtown Books and #3 at Duck's Cottage, we were privileged to host two events with author Andrew Lawler not long after this book on The Lost Colony came out. The best book ever on the Lost Colony, we might add.

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Young-Stone is an Outer Banks resident and her third novel was phenomenal. In fact, she even garnered a mention from O Magazine a month after its release last April! One of our favorite books of the year- and we just love Michele. # 3 at Downtown Books and #4 in Duck.

# 5 in Duck- that Pulitzer sticker always moves a book! And customer reviews were glowing.

This Australian set mystery became a big staff favorite which helped push it onto both lists- #9 in Manteo and #6 in Duck. We also highly recommend the second book in this series- Force of Nature.

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Signed copies from YA legend John Green helped put this at #7 in Duck.

#8 in Duck.. hopefully we helped a lot of anxious people out there by having it on our shelves all summer!

In-house favorite Lisa Wingate hit the Duck list twice, making it to #9. We were so pleased to see Before We Were Yours tear up the lists and stay on the NYT list for over a year.

We had a lot of fun with Mary Kay Andrews on Memorial Day weekend- we sold out of books at her Duck signing which landed her at #10 for Duck!

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We were pleased to arrange some school visits for debut author Jo Watson Hackl... kids loved the book and helped her get to #4 at Downtown Books!

Vivian visited Downtown Books not once but TWICE in 2018.. her fans in this part of the state are countless and boy, did they turn out to meet her and get a signed copy of her award winning cookbook! #5 on the list!

Buffalo City is a fascinating topic around these parts and the most indepth book yet on that 'lost city' came out in May from two very prominent local historians who made it to #8 in Manteo!
The re-release of this book was celebrated with an event at Waverider's that was attended by many descendants of original residents of Nags Head Woods.. one of the oldest communities on the Outer Banks. #7 on the Downtown list.