Banner_top books and series

I hate when people ask me what my favorite book is because that is utterly impossible to answer! More than that I can’t even come up with a list of favorite books because the order in which I love them changes depending on where I’m at in life, when I last read it, or even what I had for breakfast (well, you get the point). So, with all of that said I did try my best to come up with a few “Top 10” lists for you all and feel free to comment below with some of your own favorites and any suggestions you have for me to read in 2016!

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(These lists are not necessarily in any particular order. They’re just all a part of a stellar group of awesomeness. Honestly you could ask me to write these lists a month later and they’d probably be all different because it’s too hard to choose!)

Top 10 Books Read in 2015

*not including ARCs

six Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

A gang of rough teens crawl out of “the Barrel” in Ketterdam to take on the most dangerous heist of their lives all for the hope of earning the greatest haul any thief could dream to see.

“No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for ‘good luck.'”

Trial by Fire (Worldwalker #1)

by Josephine Angelini

Lily lives in Salem, MA and struggles with an insane amount of severe allergies but then one day when everything goes all wrong she’s stolen from her world and dumped in a parallel universe, a war between magic and science, a land where the Salem witches did not perish, and where the most hated person in the realm is her very own alternate self, Lilian.

“I am a witch and witches burn.”

Shadow & Bone (The Grisha #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

Alina is a poor orphaned soldier in war-torn Ravka until one day she unleashes a secret she didn’t even know she hid. She’s a sun summoner. She’s whisked away immediately by the Darkling to the Little Palace where the Grisha train, masters of the small science. The Darkling wants her to grow to impossible heights of power, Ravka wants her to be a Saint who will see them out of the darkness, and Alina is learning and reaching farther than she ever thought possible.

“The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.”

Goliath (Leviathan #3)

by Scott Westerfeld

The amazing conclusion to the Leviathan trilogy. Set in an alternate (and almost steam-punk) version of World War I where a girl pretends to be a boy so she can serve in the Royal Air Service collides with a boy and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and the two enemies must work together for their own survival as well as the survival of the world in this devastatingly war-torn era.

“You can’t blame a match for a house made of straw.”

Seraphina (Seraphina #1)

by Rachel Hartman

A story of high fantasy where dragons can take on human form but both humans and dragons struggle to keep peace with neither particularly wanting to work side-by-side. The humans are of lesser intelligence to the dragons and the dragons are savage beasts to the humans. But a secret in the castle is Seraphina. A half-dragon half-human with the most beautiful gift for music. She must try to keep her secret while hurrying to establish peace within the kingdom while unwittingly falling for the prince at the same time.

“One cannot fly in two directions at once. I cannot perch among those who think I am broken…Love is not a disease.”

The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

A dangerous game of magicians but not merely trickery nor fun. Real magic, real death, and that inconvenient sneak called love. The stage has been set, the players chosen and trained, now sit back in wonder as one meets the Night Circus in all its glory, darkness, and myth.

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something in any case.”

Translations

by Brian Friel

An Irish play divulging, reflecting, and revealing the English conquest of their land, their traditions, and their language. A play on words (in both meanings of the phrase) as words bound the Irish culture and with each name replaced and Anglicized another history is lost. Poignant and sharp this play is Irish at its heart but its message can be applied most anywhere.

“Yes, it is a rich language, full of the mythologies of fantasy and hope and self-deception – a syntax opulent with tomorrows. It is our response to mud cabins and a diet of potatoes; our only method of replying to…inevitabilities.”

The Scorpion Rules

by Erin Bow

The future arrived, wars were commonplace, and humans were getting further and further out of control. Enter Talis, a sassy AI employed by the United Nations who takes his job a few steps further and implements a system that keeps almost total world peace for 300 years. Sure people get desperate and blow things up every once in a while but not without knowingly sacrificing their children to Talis in payment to do so. Brilliant and ethically challenging this book will have you wondering just whose side you’re on.

“Once upon a time the humans were killing each other so fast that total extinction was looking possible, and it was my job to stop them.”

Dead Ringer

by Jessie Rosen

Being the new kid at school is nerve-wracking enough but she happens to resemble a local girl who died three years previous. Heads turn, eyes widen, and she was freaked the hell out. What begins as a typical but interesting high school story twists into a dark and utterly terrifying psychological thriller.

“The end…for now.”

The Violet Blake Novella Series (1-5)

by Bre Faucheux

Shawn was just an invisible girl existing in high school except that her family holds a secret, they’re healers. Able to heal almost any wound or illness they disguise their abilities through caution and their occupation as doctors but Shawn’s life has been relatively dull until she raises a boy from the dead, a feat no one thought possible not even her. Thrown into a whirlwind of espionage, treason, betrayal, and chaos she runs for her life with a rogue agency snarling at her heels only for the enemy to be 5 steps ahead all along.

“Force it into something else.”

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Top 10 Books Published in 2015

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

A gang of rough teens crawl out of “the Barrel” in Ketterdam to take on the most dangerous heist of their lives all for the hope of earning the greatest haul any thief could dream to see.

“‘You may still die in the dregs.’ ‘I may. But I’ll die on my feet with a knife in my hand.'”

Rose Society

The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2)

by Marie Lu

She wanted to be a hero, she wanted to be loved. She got neither so now she shall be a villain, and she shall be queen. The second book in this fantasy trilogy where the protagonist turns out to be the enemy, where certain youths have strange powers, and where a throne is up for grabs. In this book she battles her old friends, she kills her old allies, she becomes merciless in her pursuit for what she believes to be a better goal.

“Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, so she destroyed them all.”

Red Queen (Red Queen #1)

by Victoria Aveyard

The land is divided by blood. The silvers rule in abundant wealth and comfort wielding great powers while the reds slop a living in the mud. But then comes a lowly red, no one special or significant, but who unleashes powers she didn’t even know she had. A threat to the silvers and their beloved hierarchy of power she is thrown into the life of court as they try to hide her true blood color in fear of it igniting a rebellion. Blood has forever defined their places in life but her anomaly could ruin it all.

“You don’t see us, and so we are everywhere. And we will rise up, red as the dawn.”

Linked (Cage of Lies #2)

by Susanne Valenti

The sequel to a debut author’s dystopian series this book holds you tighter than the first as Maya trains to survive whilst plotting to storm The Wall and free her people from the lies and holds of the faux equality civilization. Lies are uncovered, friends are enemies, and survival is stretched to its breaking point.

“They will pay for concealing the truth.”

Dead Ringer

by Jessie Rosen

“Welcome to Englewood. You look like the town’s most famous dead girl.”

Firewalker

Firewalker (Worldwalker #2)

by Josephine Angelini

Things heat up both literally and figuratively as Lily races to find the myth that just may hold an answer to ending the war between the witches and scientists, and saving the world at the same time.

“Witches do not die quietly.”

the rest of us just live here

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

by Patrick Ness

Vampires, ghosts, gods, aliens, you name it this random obscure mountain town has fought through it but those stories are a dime a dozen. This book tells the stories from the perspective of the other kids, the “normal” and non involved with anything paranormal but just really want to graduate from high school before some crazy event blows up the school again kids. But just because they’re not dating a vampire, the offspring of a god, or rescuing friends from half-alien teachers doesn’t mean these kids don’t have problems of their own.

“Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world.”

Quanta (The Shadow Ravens #2)

by Lola Dodge

A futuristic society is ruled by science and the elite but secretly there is a rebellion brewing fueled by those with strange powers. Quanta can see the future and her powers extend beyond what she knows but she’s captured, used as a treasured lab rat where she is imprisoned and tortured. She has figured out how to survive the tests and mad men but she wasn’t prepared for one of them to catch her eye and steal her heart…although there’s little time for that because she’s seen the future and it screams “escape or die.”

“The Seligo had tried to strip her bare, but at her core, Quanta was still Quanta, and she hadn’t been broken by her past.”

Chained (Cage of Lies #1)

by Susanne Valenti

The world was ravaged and destroyed made uninhabitable to humans except for the lucky random few who won the lottery winning a safe room in The Wall. This was ages ago and no one has left the Wall since. Well, not until Maya is sentenced to the SubWar and things go very strange and very wrong. During the fight to the death a stranger appears and being no worse an option than SubWar she follows him to a world that should not exist, a world outside of the Wall.

“The cage of lies encases them and only the truth can set them free.”

A Thousand Nights

by E.K. Johnston

An interesting and fantastical adaptation of the famous ancient tale (Arabian Nights; 1001 Nights) this book takes Scheherazade’s story back to its roots spinning together a story worthy of embellishment and legend.

“The monster tested her, pulling at her soul and rending her spirit. She clung to life, and in the clinging she might have become a monster too, except she chose the path her story would take…If you listen long enough to the whispers, you will hear the truth.”

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