Favorites of 2014 Part IV: Favorite Older Books I Read This Year

I read a lot of older books this year thanks to starting my reading through the library project (I'm halfway through the a authors! Go me!) and I finally got to some authors I'd been meaning to get to as well (hey there, Rowell). So, here are some of my favorite older books which were not published in 2014.

Personal Favorite Older Books not published in 2014:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce

The Raven Cycle Book 2: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Heather Wells Book 5: The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot (adult)

Finishing School Book 2: Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Eleanor and Park/Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Various Discworld books by Terry Pratchett (adult) (not reviewed here because it's part of a long series)

The Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovich (adult) (totally caught up and love it, eagerly awaiting Foxglove)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (adult)

Favorites of 2014 List Part III: Favorite New Series

So many series started this year. A bunch of them are awesome and going to keep everyone busy for awhile.

Personal Favorite New Series:

Sekret series by Lindsey Smith

Midnight Thief series by Livia Blackburne

Gates of Thread and Stone series by Lori M. Lee

Lock In series by John Scalzi (adult)

Queen of the Tearling series by Erika Johansen (adult)

Death Sworn series by Leah Cypess

Rebel Belle series by Rachel Hawkins

The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Prisoner of Night and Fog series by Anne Blankman

Illusive series by Emily Lloyd-Jones

The Young Elites series by Marie Lu

Favorites of 2014 List Part II: Favorite Sequels/Continuations/Conclusions

Unlike with debuts, I can say it was a damn good year for sequels. At least in YA. A couple of my favorite trilogies also ended this year, which makes me sad but makes me look forward to whatever the author has in store next.

Personal Favorite Sequels/Continuations/Conclusions

Madman's Daughter Book 2: Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepard

Dark Star Book 2: Burn Bright by Bethany Frennette

Lunar Chronicles 3: Cress by Marissa Meyer

American Fairy Trilogy Book 3: Bad Luck Girl by Sarah Zettel

Strange and Deadly Trilogy Book 3: Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

Cahill Witch Chronicles Trilogy Book 3: Sister's Fate by Jessica Spotswood

Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy Book 3: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Grisha Trilogy Book 3: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Naturals Book 2: Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Lynburn Legacy Book 3: Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan

I had a lot of feels this year...

Favorites of 2014 List Part 1: Favorite Debuts

It was a mixture of good and bad debuts for me this year. Some I was really looking forward too turned out to be ho hum instead (Defy), others were just made of awesome. I'm happy to report I didn't run into outright BAD ones, so I guess it's been a decent year for the debs of 2014. All books are YA unless specified.

Personal favorite debuts in no particular order:

Bird Box by Josh Malerman (adult)

Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper

Illusive Book 1: Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Otherbound by Corrine Duyvis

Queen of the Tearling Book 1 by Erika Johansen (adult, though apparently there's debate about that)

Alienated Book 1: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Prisoner of Night and Fog Book 1 by Anne Blankman

Book Review: The Cure for Dreaming

TITLE: The Cure for Dreaming
AUTHOR: Cat Winters
PUBLISHED: October 14th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Paranormal
PREMISE: A girl living under the thumb of her father gets hypnotized to be obedient, but instead gets visions of what people are really like underneath.
MY REVIEW: I actually think I like this one more then A Shadow of Blackbirds. Not that Shadow of Blackbirds wasn't good, it was. I just liked this one better. It felt more...polished if you will. There was more focus and that helped the story along.
Like Shadow of Blackbirds, the best parts of this are the historical notes. This author nails settings. I can picture everything. I honestly didn't even need the archive photos to help me, but they did enhance it because it showed she wasn't making this stuff up. I tell you, Victorian times were nutty man. There's reason a lot of people write about it.
Thanks to a more focused plot line, I think this was an improvement over Shadow of Blackbirds and once again, am eager to see what Winters cooks up for us next. She has such interesting ideas, I want to read them all.
WHO SHOULD READ: In the Shadow of Blackbirds fans, Gemma Doyle fans, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five hypnotists

Many thanks to the publishers for the Galley. Sorry this is late, I'm behind on my galley reading.

Book Review: Bird Box

TITLE: Bird Box
AUTHOR: Josh Malerman
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Dystopian
PUBLISHED: May 13th, 2014
PREMISE: A woman tries to survive in a world where you can't look up because if you do, there are monsters who will make you violent.
MY REVIEW: I think it's now safe to say that dystopians have caught on to the adult fiction section. So, maybe now we can stop accusing YA of only being dystopians? Sorry, that's just a thing that keeps being said lately that drives me bananas.
This book is your typical set up for a dystopian world where everyone is in danger. In fact, it reminds me an AWFUL lot of The Walking Dead. It's not a knock off though. Instead of zombies, there are beings who cause mass violence. No one actually sees these beings, they just know that if you look up and see them that you'll go homicidal and then kill yourself. The result is a very creepy survival type story.
This one was mostly good for the creep factor. Malerman is excellent at building suspense because it is a major page-turner. Story wise itself....average for dystopian thrillers. But a very well done average at least. This author is one to keep an eye on in the future. King, watch your back.
WHO SHOULD READ: Stephan King fans, Walking Dead fans, dystopian fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five evil birds

Book Review: The Dressmaker

TITLE: The Dressmaker
AUTHOR: Kate Alcott
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PREMISE: A girl gets a job aboard the Titanic as dressmaker for a wealthy client....
MY REVIEW: This week's read through the library find is a book dealing with the Titanic. Sort of. I mean, the Titanic is there. Some of you may recall lots of Titanic books coming out in 2012 due to the bicentennial of it. This was one of those books.
I'll start with the good: the writer is good at nailing the setting. The best stuff in this is when she's describing the Titanic and the sinking of the boat was done pretty well also. Unfortunately...it suffers from being dull. Extremely dull. I'm sorry, other then the fact that she's a Titanic survivor, there's nothing really that interesting about Tess. I did find the aftermath mildly interesting, because not many people go into the legal fallout of what happened on the Titanic. But other then that and the moments they were on the Titanic...this book was rather boring.
It's not bad. It's just boring. The historical stuff is literally the only interesting thing going on in here. So if you're not a major Titanic buff, I would give this one a pass.
WHO SHOULD READ: Titanic buffs
MY RATING: Three out of Five wet dresses

Book Review: Salt and Storm

TITLE: Salt and Storm
AUTHOR: Kendall Kulper
PUBLISHED: September 23rd, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
PREMISE: A young witch tries to embrace her destiny against her mother's wishes.
MY REVIEW: This was such a good debut. In fact, I think it's among my top ten of the year. It helped that the author did historical fantasy. My favorite sub-genre, because there's so much you can do with it.
It also did not follow all the typical YA rules. There's no love triangle, the main character goes through actual development, it doesn't make everything black and white and there's a dark twist at the end that I think took some guts to do, but the author stuck to it and that impressed me. Since it's not the typical YA, I imagine this won't be everyone's favorite and that's why there are such mixed reviews on Goodreads.
But personally, I thought this was a pretty solid and very creative debut. Kulper is one to keep an eye on in the future, if this her debut, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
WHO SHOULD READ: historical fantasy fans, Gemma Doyle Trilogy fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five ships gone to sea

Note to readers: There will be quite a few reviews over the next few days as I'm playing review catch-up till the end of the year. Along with that, I'll be doing my favorites of the year lists from Christmas on until New Years Eve, where I'll finish off with my book goals for 2015. Then it's on to a new book year! Always exciting. I already have a few Galleys waiting to be read on my Kindle.

Book Review: The Walled City

TITLE: The Walled City
AUTHOR: Ryan Graudin
PUBLISHED: November 4rth, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Eh...hard to say.
PREMISE: Three people live in a city of prisoners and try their best to survive.
MY REVIEW: This book will probably not be to everyone's taste. Which probably accounts for the mixed reviews it's gotten on Goodreads. It's violent and doesn't shy away from that fact. The characters aren't exactly your do-good likable protagonists turned anti-heroes either. In short: this book is dark. If that is not your thing, this probably won't appeal to you.
For those wondering why I say hard to say when it comes to the genre. Well, it's complicated. It feels like a dystopian. But the Walled City was an actual place in China and this story takes place there. So it could also be historical fiction. But there's some modernization in it as well. So...I don't know. You could say it's one of those books that defies genre.
Personally, I really liked this one. It may not be the most buzzed about book of the year (that one seems to be We Were Liars in the YA scene, I'm getting to it, I swear), but it definitely is memorable.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those who like dark books, Game of Thrones fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five places you don't want to live at

Many thanks to the publishers for the Net Galley of this book.

Book Review: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

TITLE: Glory O'Brien's History of the Future
AUTHOR: A.S. King
PUBLISHED: October 14th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Magical Realism
PREMISE: A girl starts to get visions of people's past and future.
MY REVIEW: I'll be honest, as a rule, I don't get into magical realism all that much. It's just a very frustrating genre for me. I don't know if it's just that I've read poor examples of the genre (Time Traveler's Wife) or if the genre is just not for me. I do know WHY it frustrates me. They all have these great set-ups and then there's literally no explanation for the set up, all the focus is on boring melodrama. Seriously, you have a guy who time travels through his past/future and you're focusing not on why, but on his dull predictable romance?
Some of that persists here. It is never explained WHY Glory and her friend get these visions. They just do because of the bat stuff they drank. However, at least in this, the characters are interesting enough to make up for the fact that I wanted the story to focus more on the fascinating dystopian that King described. Seriously, she described it beautifully and honestly, it was more thought out then half of the actual dystopian books that I've read. What got me through this book was the interesting future she painted, and the beautiful writing. I LOVE King's prose. I am definitely reading some of her other books in the future.
While the ending is a tad abrupt for my taste, I overall really liked this book. The set up was unique (even if it was never explained) and it was beautifully written.
WHO SHOULD READ: A.S. King fans, magical realism fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five dead bats