This year was a pretty good reading year. Not a great one, but still pretty good. All in all, I read a grand total of 55 books, not quite reaching my goal of 65 and not counting picture books.
First, favorite books! These are books that I loved to the core. I didn't really find any new books that'll make my "top ten of all time" list this year, but I did find a few gems.
3. The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
This book felt so real. The characters were all teens that were so flawed and Sutter and Aimee's love story was adorable and tragic in the way young love always is. The whole experience was made better by the fact that I started watching the movie adaptation within ten minutes of finishing the book. The movie wasn't as good as the book, since I can totally see myself reading this book several times in the future, but I'm still glad I saw it. I also wrote short reviews on the film and book.
2. Cress by Marissa Meyer
I wrote a review praising this novel already, and it is so fantastic. It's a sci-fi fairytale retelling of Rapunzel and a handful of other stories, and I ship all of the romances SO HARD. I'm serious, Cress and Thorne are just the most adorable couple, and I could read a whole series of just the two of them exploring the world together. The story was funny and cute but also exciting and suspenseful. Marissa Meyer is a genious. I still have't read the next book in the series, Winter (which was released this fall), but I'll get to it soon!
1. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Rowell's just so great. This book is so cute and perfect and I love it. I just love it with all my heart. The romance is so adorable and I just can't even put it into words. I just want to re-read it as soon as next year starts.
And now the worst books. I read some pretty bad books, but three were the three that if I threw them into a bonfire, I would have zero regrets. (I'm only counting books I got all the way through, not ones I DNF'd)
Honorary mention to The Last of the Firedrakes, which I could not finish because it was so bad.
3. Mary Hades by Sarah Dalton
"Oh, you, my teenage daughter was affected by the suicide of a young child? Didn't see that one coming! Just showing off my great parenting skills here. I fully endorse you sleeping with that older guy you met an hour ago!" Parenting skills aside, the weak romance that will inevitably break off 4 pages after the book ends didn't help this story either. And strangely enough, the book referred heavily to a novella prequel that I never read. Since I never read the novella, I was left out of a lot of character development, since people are constantly referring to it and recovering from it! Full review here.
2. Ignite by Erica Crouch
This is a paranormal romance jam packed with exposition and instalove. The entire first third of the book is solid exposition, and the characters somehow have the romantic mindsets of preteens and the pretentious vocabularies of old men. It's all much better explained in my review of it.
1. Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall
I only gave one book 1 star this year.
Oh my God I hate this book. I CAN NOT STAND IT. I wrote a whole review for it, which dissolves a little into a rant, but I hate this book so much. The main character's a physic, which does not play into the plot at ALL, and all the antagonists are just super evil with no real characteristics except being assholes. Not to mention the main antagonist's motive boils down to "a girl told me I was bad at sex once so now I hate all women." Not to mention the main character spends the whole book moaning about how much her life sucks, but never once does ANYTHING to try and improve her situation. It's super dark with horrible characters and I just hated it so much. So much.
(In hindsight, I realized all three of my least-favorite books had heavy paranormal aspects. Maybe I should just avoid that genre. . .)
Best covers! We all judge a book by its cover, and many of these covers are actual art. Absolutely no comments on how the books were, but just the want to share their beauty with you.
3. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
You need to have this book in the flesh to truly appreciate its beauty. Although fantasy and sci-fi books usually have the awesome covers I love, you can't beat a cool font and a summer-y picture of a contemporary.
2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
This cover is so creepy and beautiful, and I love the aesthetic so much. If only I had the same sentiments for the story itself...
1. Minders by Michele Jaffe
I bought this book 90% for the cover. The story was great, but I would never dream of getting rid of this book anyway because its cover is so gorgeous.
So all in all, a pretty good year for reading. Hopefully 2016 will be just as good!
What did you guys read last year?
-Claire
-Claire
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