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?
