Goodbye 2016: A Baker's Dozen of Favorite Reads!!

Wave bye-bye to 2016!! 

See Paul's face there?  I AM PAUL. I am so ready to turn my back on 2016, slam the door in it's wretched face and start anew. 
 Give us something good, 2017, please.

BUT, 2016 definitely delivered us some incredible reading in the world of YA.  So many stunning debuts, as well as a slew of fantastic stuff from those favorite authors that continue to BRING IT.  In this day and age, and also for those personal challenges that we all go through day to day, the escape into fantastic worlds and characters that we all get from reading means so much.  To all you amazing authors out there that give us that gift---
we salute you!! 

Anyhow, as I always do, I'm recapping my favorites of the year---a sweet "baker's dozen" of them (because only picking 5 or 10 requires way more self control than I can ever muster at the end of the year). These are books I read this year, regardless of their publication date ;)  Shown below in no particular order and  with an excerpt from each of my reviews, I give you my best of 2016! 

So romantic at times, and so danger-filled at others! I definitely think the infamous pirate will finally make his way into a few hearts with this one. I truly enjoyed my trip to Neverland, even if it leaves me with a few night terrors and my idea of Peter Pan will be forever changed! I loved it!  
(read full review)

This book...will tear your ever-loving heart out. But you knew that. You know who the Queen of Hearts is. She's cruel. She's mad. She's...well, she's heartless. This is the story of how she got that way, so you know going in that it's not going to be pretty. But OH was it magical, whimsical, kooky, twisted, very creepy at times---much like Alice in Wonderland. In fact, I adored the wonderful nods to the original stories and characters. It was like seeing new sides to characters I've known my whole life.

(read full review)

Another fun adventure with Jackaby and Abigail! I love that in this installment, Abigail really seems to take center stage, and I love even more that we finally get the story behind of of my favorite characters in these books, Jenny Cavanaugh.  At the end of Beastly Bones, we were definitely left with some burning questions about Jenny and her increasingly erratic behavior, plus I've just loved these stories in general so this read was highly anticipated and did not disappoint!  
(read full review)

This one just took my breath away. With strong themes of family, community, and how our memories, our past, and where we come from make us who we are, The Forgetting dares to show us what humanity might become if we don't have that to learn from. Weave in a romance that is absolutely swoon-worthy, and this is one story not to be missed! 

(read full review)

At it's heart it's a story of a struggle between the classes (shifters vs. non-shifters), a sinister plot to overtake the crown, and of course, the fight to win it back. There are so many great memorable moments, and many a nod to favorite stories that will delight fans of Princess Bride, Tangled, Monty Python, and more. So much fun, guys. Do not miss it.
 (read full review)

What can I even say about this incredible end to one of my favorite series of all time. Wonderful. Heart-stopping. An undeniably satisfying finale. So many amazing things happen that myself and I'm sure the rest of the fandom has been longing for--none of which I can mention without spoiling some of the best plot points! (sorry! :D) But, oh, people, with this final installment, Meyer really brought the GOODS.
(read full review)

Shadow Magic's beautifully imagined world and it's turned-on-it's-head look at the war between darkness and light, along with clever and fun characters easily makes it a new favorite for me. While this cover was initially what made me excited to get my hands on this book, the story quickly held me enchanted.
(read full review)

The sweeping story twists and shocks---there was no part of this that I was able to predict. Several times I found myself gripping the book, furiously turning pages, unable to decide who I wanted to triumph in the end. This first book, honestly, could have stood solidly and quite wonderfully on it's own, but I can't say I'm disappointed in the slightest that there is more to come! It's a definite must-read!!

(read full review)

Rachel and Samuel's secret stolen moments were as romantic as they could be in the middle of a dirty digging site, hiding from fathers and cocky college boys. I liked the realistic take on their romantic experiences ---it wasn't the "perfect first kiss" and the perfect first..etc. ;) And it was all very kind of bumbling, unsure...real.
 (read full review) 

It’s a super fast read, wildly entertaining, that’s about all the littlest things that make us who we are and what we might be without them. It’s about family and friends and fear and trust and power and when enough is enough. The twist ending is fantastic and hopeful and I left the story thinking this Aspen kid, he’s gonna be alright. Phew. ;)
(read full review)

Henrietta is a character to root for. She has this incredible power, but it's Victorian London, so even when she is brought into the school to train, she is constantly having to prove herself among the men. She is feisty and knew what she needed to do---and I loved that when "their way" with magic doesn't quite work for her, she finds a way of her own to still accomplish the same goal, even when she knows the truth could derail everything. (read full review)

The Star-Touched Queen is a gorgeous story of love and power, deception and forgiveness. It’s artfully written in beautiful prose full of lush description and metaphor. It felt like a blend of Alice in Wonderland (with its bizarre creatures and dream-like atmosphere) and the Persephone myth, both deliciously steeped in the colors and flavors and vibrancy of India.
(read full review)

I adored this book, it charmed the pants off me. The characters were fun, the situation was emotional, the stereotypes of the LA private school were at once hilarious and from tales I've heard first hand from my L.A.-raised niece and nephew, not too far exaggerated. But best of all, this was a story of a girl in a pretty crappy situation finding comfort in a mysterious stranger who has reached out to her. It's so very "You've Got Mail" brought into the now.
 (read full review)

These three below are not runner's up---they are three that I read this year and haven't yet reviewed! BUT I absolutely adored them!! Keep an eye out for my reviews coming soon!

So that's my 2016 baker's dozen of best reads...plus three more as the sprinkles on top ;)  Were any of your own favorites on this list?  Did you do a best-of post of your favorites this year? Please link me up or just tell me in the comments: What were your favorite reads of 2016?? 

Goodbye 2015: A Baker's Dozen of Favorite Reads! :)

Buh-Bye, 2015!! 

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. xD

Another year over, guys. And while I can't say I'm sad to see this one go (it's been a rough one), I'm still pretty flabbergasted just how ridiculously fast it went by.  Personal stuff aside, it was a pretty incredible year in my reading world! I feel like I read sort of off the grid this year, reveled in the glory of some seriously good "quiet YA" as it's now being called. Still, so many really popular books just sort of slid by me this year. Will 2016 be the year I catch them all up?  :D

Anyhow, as I always do, I'm recapping my favorites of the year---a sweet baker's dozen (because I don't know how anyone pares a list down to 5 or 10!! LOL)  These are books I read this year, regardless of their publication date ;)  Shown below in no particular order and  with an excerpt from my review, off we go! 

Each revelation was unexpected to me and spine-chilling, but in the end I just found the whole story beautiful. It's a story about finding comfort in the ugliness of the world and about love and how it can make us see things clearly (and sometimes not so clearly). The inclusion of fantastic playlist of music is one of my favorite things about this story. And as someone who has always loved the incredible jazz music of the 40s,  its the most unique and entirely wonderful depiction of heaven and the afterlife Cat Winters could have given me.
(read full review)

The two characters are developed in a way that makes you care for them and not trust them and so curious about what will happen to them all at once. The story in unrelenting in its intensity, told in line after line of beautifully crafted prose that sear themselves into your mind. There are scenes in this story that I don’t think I will ever forget. And it’s all in the way they are written---the truth seeps out in almost abstract ways that sneak up on you, then suddenly it’s crystal clear and knocking you sideways. 
(read full review)

There is a little bit of a ghostly vibe going on, as Alexis starts to see Ty everywhere, but is it real or is it her mind playing tricks? Cynthia Hand somehow manages to tackle this sensitive and all-too-real subject, while magically not giving us a story that feels all-out depressing.  With that said, I will admit that the last 20 pages, along with the author’s note at the end, had me crying buckets. 
(read full review)

It encompassed issues of race, privilege, sacrifice, and love in all its complicated forms.  I was so wrapped up in these characters that I didn’t want it to end, but when it did, it took my breath away. I don’t cry often at books, but with this touching and beautiful end, there was no escaping it.
 (read full review)

It’s fun to watch Miles and Alex come together and slowly start to understand each other. Alex and Miles melt the ice ( and yes, I do mean ICY) on their relationship slowly and with lots of friction and emotional hesitation and stand-offishness, but their feelings finally show through what is undoubtedly the swooniest game of 20 questions I’ve ever seen!
(read full review)

This world has mesmerized me. Gorgeous writing, at times raw and edgy and even a bit gory, and at others so lyrical that it reads like poetry.  With emotions that are expressed in wild storms, friendships that will absolutely capture your heart, and a slow simmering and dangerous romance,Storm Siren is irresistible.
(read full review)

This was such a fun read!  I was completely surprised by the amount of magical realism here as I admit I was expecting something a little more straight-forward contemporary.  The writing style was a little hard to get used to at first, but once I settled in, I loved the unique and quirky style and found it suited the story and its characters so well. 
(read full review)

Love the worldbuilding in this. What I initially thought was our own world in the 20s turned out to be something  similar but slightly more magical, two lands run by two stubborn kings and torn apart by the a war over fuel.  When Pen and Morgan make an important discovery about the precious substance, Morgan must decide if that discovery is a bargaining chip that could get them all home, or a secret that could bring their whole floating city crashing down.
 (read full review) 

*Sigh* please let there be at least a dozen more Jackaby adventures before we see the end. This is just the kind of series I adore---wonderful characters, great fun plots, and each book has its own story arc that stands on it's own.  In this second story, William Ritter has given us another wild and entertaining mystery to unfold alongside Jackaby and his assistant, Abigail.  With curious creatures, grim killings, and one bafflingly hideous knit hat, this series brings on another tale of fast-paced, laugh out loud fun. (read full review)

I have a pretty good inkling that this book will not be for everyone.  It's a strange premise. It's a bizarre atmosphere that runs through it, it's a completely mixed bag of characters...and for me, it was absolutely perfect. There are two heart-pounding romances, both of which the characters will have to work through their own doubts and hesitations to get to.  There are secrets that blow everything wide open and haunting truths that none of them will be able to hide again. (read full review)

From the very first page, we’re taken into Kymera’s world.  The storytelling feels like reading her daily journal, starting with the day she wakes up from the dead and going day by day as she rediscovers the world around her.  She’s been reanimated by her father from her own head and bits and pieces of other dead girls, along with a long barbed tail, inky black wings, and the eyes of a cat---all things she will need to carry out the mission he has intended her for.
(read full review)

I haven't reviewed these two yet, but they were both absolutely stunning and incredible reads---both easily win a spot on my favorite books that I read in 2015!!

So that wraps it up! My best-of reading for the year.

What were your favorite reads of 2015? Do we have any in common? :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

I WISH YOU ALL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS AND TONS OF 
GOOD READING IN 2016!!

Farewell 2014! YA Favorites of the Year

Another year is on it's way out the door! Wow, I can't believe how fast this one went by.  And while I feel like so many awesome reads got past me unread this year, I read so many great ones, discovered some new favorite authors, fell in love over and over again with so many amazing stories.  

So here, in no particular order, are a baker's dozen (because I can't bear to cut in any shorter!) of my very very absolute favorites of the year. I also included a little excerpt from my review. (These are books I read this year, not necessarily books that published this year) :)

While her new way of seeing things scares her beyond words, Olivia also becomes an even stronger woman because of it.  I loved the part she played in the suffrage movement, I loved the twisting and unpredictable, not-so-much love story, but attraction and fascination that Henrie and Olivia had toward each other.  And I love that at the end, she is standing strong, following no one’s influence but her own. (read full review)

 I quickly found myself immersed in the haunting atmosphere and eerie occurrences of The Fall. Griffin’s writing is full of beautiful descriptions and hypnotic prose, and from the first chapter, it successfully makes the reader’s blood run cold with her absolutely phobia-triggering description of being buried alive.  The story builds in intensity in a way that feels like the tightening of a screw, with each brief chapter flipping back and forth in time and giving us another small glimpse at the whole picture. (read full review)

There is madness, elemental witches, long-buried secrets, and the walking dead.  The Glass Casket sparkles with magic and wonder while still delivering a gut-churning dose of horror and gore.   With all manner of vivid imagery, from mountains and thick forest,  the shadows lurking in the washroom, and the body lying with its throat torn out---the author's carefully chosen words play it all out on the page in a way that pulls the reader in and holds them captive in this eerie, dangerous world.(read full review)

With Infinite, Jodi Meadows' epic Newsoul trilogy comes to an end...and also earns it's spot on my shelf of absolute favorite series. It's a rare thing that I can proclaim that a series kept the same level of excellence through it's entire run, maybe even getting better and better with each new installment.  This series did exactly that. (read full review)

I do hope this will be the start of a series of adventures, because this one was pure fun and danger and excitement.  Abigail and Jackaby have a great and humorous rapport between them (and completely non-romantic, I might add!), as she gets swept along in his madcap manner of solving supernatural crimes but also holds her own in being clever and observant in ways that he tends to miss.(read full review)

Oh, Mary Pearson.  You clever author.  Kiss of Deception fully and completely captured me from beginning to end.  I found myself mesmerized by the extraordinary writing, engaged in this gutsy heroine who fled a world she felt entrapped in, and blindsided by a plot that somehow completely pulled the rug from under my feet. (read full review)

As much as I loved Cynthia Hand’s debut paranormal series, and as much as I am not a contemporary fiction reader, I think that this is my favorite book of her so far. So beautifully done but in a way that feels like a snapshot out of the life or a normal teen.  It’s incredibly touching story that sends us reeling through a girl’s journey of grief, guilt, and trying to move on.(full review to come)

I adored the first book in this series, and this installment had no problem living up to it.  The story is outstanding all the way through.  The writing exudes the feel of a classic fairy tale adventure. Brilliant plotting makes it so that every twist and turn is a complete surprise.  Both sisters, and now Andrei, are all incredibly dimensional characters with a full gamut of reasons and purposes and emotions that drive them and bring them to life. (read full review)

This story takes mythology, assassins, tiaras, southern manners, head-butting, cotillions, and romance and mashes it up into one big fun, action-packed, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartfelt read. I can’t recommend it, or any other of Rachel Hawkins’ books, enough! (read full review)

This Shattered World takes place in the stark, swampy world of Avon, where Captain Jubilee “Lee” Chase and colonist Flynn Cormac find themselves at the turning point of a rebellion.  He kidnaps her, convinced that her high position in the military can answer questions he has about a “disappearing” base in the east. As their two opposing worlds coming crashing down around them, they find themselves thrown together working toward the same truth.(read full review)

Trial by Fire is a fantastic start to this series, with one exhilarating scene after the next throwing the story along at an incredibly fast pace.  There are moments of danger and fear and romance… and one scene that had me laughing harder than I have in a long time at a book.  Multiple interesting characters, a well-orchestrated battle between magic and science, and the possibility of endless worlds to come will have me counting down to the next book in this imaginative fantasy.(read full review)

There is really nothing I can pinpoint aside from just good storytelling that made me absolutely love this story. I loved both main characters for their strengths, weaknesses, and loyalties; there are twists and surprises and horrors; there are moments of hopelessness that you just know will have to be overcome or you’ll be devastated for Luke and Rosa.  And, of course, there is the love story: conflicted and forbidden and born out of kindness in the last place that either of them expected to find it. (read full review)

And last but not least, I read this whole series in one shot this year, so I'm counting this as one choice! LOL

 

If you love action, adventure, magic,  steampunk, and can stomach a bit of gore that comes along with the rising dead, this series will thrill you from start to finish. (read full reviews)

Update: Ok, I have to add one more! I didn't exactly forget about this one, but I initially left it out because I thought I'd read it in 2013. But then I realized I read it in January 2014! So here it is, a 14th pick for 2014, but honestly probably my favorite of them all:

For me, there is nothing out there that quite compares to this phenomenal series.  With this third installment, Cress, The Lunar Chronicles only strengthens its spot at the top of my list of favorites. I might even go so far as to say that with Cress, this series has outdone itself. While all three books have received 5 well-earned cupcakes from me, and while each one had me laughing and worried, excited, and hopeful, Cress is the first one to make me break down in actual tears.  Though I come close often, I don’t actually cry very easily at books…and for that I love this one all the more. (read full review)

What a great year in YA books!! What were some of your favorites?