Favorite Books of 2016

*I would like to preface this by saying that these are books that I READ in 2016. That does not necessarily mean they came out in 2016.

So I read 65 books in 2016. I’m pretty pleased with this number, despite the fact that I definitely could have read more. These past few months have been a bit weak, but all in all it was a good reading year!

Oddly enough, I found it was actually really hard to come up with a solid amount of books I read this year that I would consider “favorites.” Sure, I gave a lot of high ratings to a lot of different books. But not many are ones that made it into that special place in my heart. There were a lot of books that I recall saying “this will be a definite favorite” at the time I was reading them, but only a few of those have actually remained a favorite. For a lot of those cases I think I was a bit too caught up in the moment of reading them.

I’ve decided to break this down into three categories. Finished Series, Unfinished Series, and Stand Alone. The finished series are ones where I read every published book in it this year, meaning I read the entire series from start to finish in 2016 and no previous years. The books will be in no particular order when I first mention them, but I will finish this post by saying what my top three books were overall.

Finished Series (2):

Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo: of course this is on here. These two books, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, are two of the most exciting, entertaining, and immersing books I have ever read. I’ve talked loads about both of them but if you would like to read my gush’s on them they will be linked below. I cannot recommend this duology enough. Please read it.

*These gushes contain spoilers, so only click on them if you have read the books!!

Six of Crows Gush

Crooked Kingdom Gush

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Steifvater: this series is one that really took me by surprise. It is the most atmospheric thing I have ever read, hands down. The writing is beautiful, the story is unique, the characters are lovable, and the tone is magical. While the ending wasn’t quite everything I hoped/expected, it was still a phenomenal series.

Unfinished Series (1):

The Dark Artifacts-Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare: this is the first book in Cassandra’s newest Shadowhunter series. It’s by far the strongest first book out of all her series and I’m very excited to see where the plot will go!

Stand-Alones (2):

The Girls by Emma Cline: This book is based on the infamous “Manson Family,” a 1960’s cult lead by Charles Manson (although names and details are complete fiction). It’s compelling and engaging and the writing is lovely and powerful. Definitely one of the most interesting stories I’ve ever read about.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: This is the best WWII book I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a decent amount). It follows two French sisters and their individual struggles during the war. Intensely beautiful and consuming, this book probably wins the award for “book that caused the most tears in 2016.”

Top Three Books of 2016 (counting down):
3. Six of Crows

2. Crooked Kingdom

1. The Nightingale

I know, two of these books are part of the same duology. But I just loved it that much. And The Nightingale definitely deserves it’s spot. It’s truly an amazing book and I’m so glad I got to read it this year!

Let me know your favorite books from 2016! I hope you all have a happy New Year!

P.S. I won’t be doing a wrap up for December since I only read two books this month and honestly just don’t feel like doing it. You can check out my individual reviews for those two books I read right here:

A Torch Against the Night

How to Build a Girl

Review: How To Build a Girl (by Caitlin Moran)

Whew! I FINALLY finished this book.

If you haven’t noticed, it’s been weeks since I posted a book review. That is because it took me weeks to read this book. No, it is not long. No, it is not slow-paced. It was actually pretty damn good. But sometimes you just can’t turn off a reading slump, even for books like this.

What’s it about? I’m terrible with summaries, but it is pretty much about a teenage girl who is “finding herself,” set in the U.K in the 1990’s. It’s been compared to Almost Famous, and I can definitely see why. They are both about teenage music journalists, a topic I find incredibly interesting.

While I don’t typically reach for contemporaries, I do love pretty much every “coming-of-age” story I’ve read. This is no exception. Our main character was flawed, naive, and frankly quite annoying, but I still managed to love and root for her. She was different from me in a lot of ways, but at her core I found her to be extremely relatable.

There were a great deal of quotes in here that I fell in love with. The writing style is the type that I’m always drawn to, a type that I’m never able to describe. It gets it’s point across in an honest, refreshing, raw way that still manages to be beautiful, at least in my eyes.

I highly recommend this book to all teenagers (and adults too of course!), although I must warn you that there is a great deal of sexual content, if that sort of thing bothers you (of if you think you are too young to read that).

Rate: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Spoiler-filled Gush: A Torch Against the Night (by Sabaa Tahir)

I have a lot of things to discuss about this book (because I loved it) so this is my spoiler-filled gush about it. As always, I urge you to only read this gush if you have read A Torch Against the Night, since you will most definitely be spoiled for it if you haven’t. So if you have yet to read it, I have a spoil-free review up that you can check out right here. I gave the book a 4.75 out of 5 stars.

As for those of you who have read it, time to discuss!

Last warning: THE NEXT SECTION WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!

November Wrap Up

Another slow month, but I’m still not too dissapointed. I read three good books and am partway through another and all in all it could’ve been a lot worse.

1. The Midnight Star: I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars. It was slow at parts and it wasn’t, in my opinion, as good as the first two in the trilogy but it had a solid ending and overall I’d consider it fairly decent.
2. This Savage Song:  I gave this book 4.25 out of 5 stars. It wasn’t phenomenal (phenomenal books are the books I give 5 stars to) but it was definitely an exciting and unique story that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I also have to credit this novel for pulling me out of my reading slump!
3. The Vegetarian: I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was very well executed and something I am very glad to have read, although it wasn’t the quickest or most entertaining read.

I’d say my favorite for the month was This Savage Song.

I’m currently reading A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir and loving it. I should finish it within the next few days!

Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

I finally have a review for you guys!!

As you may know, this book has taken me around 2 weeks (maybe more??) to read. The reasons for that have little to do with the actual book and more to do with the chaos of my own life.

Because of how long it took me, I unfortunately couldn’t get quite as invested in the book as it deserves. It’s a phenomenal book and I greatly enjoyed it, but it was still a bit of a drag considering how annoyed I was at myself for not getting through it quicker.

That being said, I can’t accurately describe the pacing of this book. I’d say it was pretty moderate, with a few slow bits here and there, but that is completely subjective to my own experience reading it.

But how about the actual content?

A quick summary on what this book is about: It follows four main characters (with four different POV’s) during WWII. But it’s not the typical WWII story–this one is about the lesser-discussed countries such as Lithuania, Poland, and East Prussia (was East Prussia even its own country? I honestly have no idea). Three of the four main characters are refugees who are trying to escape the Red Army during Operation Hannibal (which, if I understood correctly, was a German plan to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from East Prussia and protect them from the Russians). They board the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that, soon after departure, sunk. It’s sinking is the deadliest disaster in maritime history (deadlier than the Titanic, by far). Until reading this book, I had never even heard it mentioned.

If you’re someone who is interested in history, even just a little, you will love this book. It gives you so much perspective on history and all of the things that have gone unmentioned. How can it be that a disaster that killed over 9,000 people is something most of us have never even heard of?

The characters in this book were all brilliantly fleshed out, although I didn’t really care much for the romance we saw (which is odd because I typically love romance).

I sobbed at the end of the book, partly because it was beautiful (props to Sepetys) but also because it really kills me to know this was a real event that killed so many people, people who have been forgotten.

So if you’re in the mood for a VERY interesting and super-approachable bit of history woven with a beautiful story about realistic and developed characters, definitely give this a read.

Rate: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

The Raven King (by Maggie Stiefvater)

I’ve finally gotten around to reading (and finishing) the fourth and last book in The Raven Cycle series.

Thoughts? I LOVED IT!

On thing I really appreciate about Maggie’s writing is how well she fleshes out characters. She excels at showing us who all these people are through little things (gestures, nervous ticks, diction) in a way that isn’t just telling us. There isn’t really any way for me to explain this better, but I’m sure that if you’ve read this series you know what I mean. 

Honestly, I love everything about her writing. There were times throughout this series where I felt the plot was progressing a bit too slowly, but IT WORKS for this story somehow. Her writing is just so whimsical and unique and it’s able to feel both dressed up and flowery while remaining blunt and concise. 

I think my favorite part about her writing though is when she repeats lines. This seems like a minor thing to love, but it just adds some much for me. Again, I’m at a loss for explaining exactly what I mean, but if you’ve read it and feel the same way, please let me know. 

But onto the actual story. I can’t say much because this is the fourth book in a series, and I don’t want to risk spoiling anyone who hasn’t read the first three. All I’ll say is that the balance between plot and characters is exceptionally well done, and I never got tired of either.
For those who are familiar with the series, I’m sure you know there’s a lot of hype surrounding the ending of this series and how it would go down (I’m referring to a certain character’s fate). I won’t say anything about that here, but I might do a spoil-filled gush on this book later on where I plan on talking about my feelings on that.

Was this my favorite book in the series? I’m not sure, since I’ve forgotten exactly how I felt about the others. But it was definitely a wonderful conclusion to an amazing series and it will stick with me for awhile. 

Rate: 4.75 out of 5 stars

The Wolf Road (by Beth Lewis)

This book started out incredibly slow. So slow that it took me nearly a month to make it through the first 100 pages. But when I finally did, the entire book turned around.

After the, dare I say it, boring start, The Wolf Road picks up so much that I went from forcing my way through a chapter to devouring many in one sitting.

This post-apocalyptic novel follows a 17 year old girl called Elka who, since the age of 7, has been raised in the woods by a man she calls Trapper (and “Daddy,” when he isn’t around). But when she finds out that Trapper is really a killer named Kreagar, the story becomes a game of cat-and-mouse (although it’s so much more than that).

Like I said, the beginning is really slow paced, or at least it was to me. But I urge anyone who’s even remotely interested in the story to read it. Once you get into it, you will find yourself so invested in the story you’ll forget it’s fiction.

One of the main issues I had at the beginning was the main character. She’s uneducated (for obvious reasons), which means her grammar is extremely bad. She also lacks a great deal of common sense; the only thing she really knows how to do is survive. But while this doesn’t change much throughout the novel, I must say Elka really grew on me.

The setting provided a spooky atmosphere to the story, given that the majority takes place in the woods. I mentioned above that it’s a post-apocalyptic novel, but it feels more as if it was set in the past (it’s one of those books that’s set in a regressed future where we have reverted back to a previous era).

This is honestly the only book I’ve ever read that scared me. Not in a horror movie type of way, but in a thriller, “what’s going to happen” way. My heart was beating so fast through the last third of the book that I was at risk of having a heart attack.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in the mood for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat (once you get past the beginning, that is).

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Rate: 4.25 out of 5 stars 

This Too Shall Pass (by Milena Busquets)

This Too Shall Pass had me hooked right away with it’s title. Something about it really appealed to me, and I thought to myself “I HAVE to see what this book is about.”

So what is it about? Essentially, the novel follows a 40 year old woman who has recently lost her mother, someone she loved immensely. Plot-wise there isn’t too much that happens–it’s more of a character-development driven story, which is always a refreshing thing to read.

Honestly, I didn’t really care much for the main character. I found her far too immature and selfish, but I believe that was the author’s intent. And while I couldn’t in any way relate to her circumstances or lifestyle, I did find myself understanding and agreeing with a lot of her internal monologue and outlook on life. I also couldn’t help but love her charming wit, which added to the strong voice present throughout the novel.

This is one of those books that can be read by anyone, whether you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one or not. It’s perfect for the summer, the time of year we usually reach for a light-hearted contemporary (although the whole theme of death isn’t exactly light-hearted).

Be sure to check this book out–I promise you will fall in love with the beautiful writing just as much as I did!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Rate: 4 out of 5 stars

Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman)

A. MAZ. ING.

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this book. Yes, it’s gotten excellent reviews. Yes, it’s right up my alley. But this book isn’t super popular, nor is it really YA (which is why I haven’t heard much about it). So I went into it expecting a good read, but nothing special.

Now, I say it isn’t “really YA.” This is because, while it’s classified as an adult fantasy, it’s still a pretty good fit for most teens, in my opinion. It just shrugs off some of the typical YA tropes we are used to seeing (i.e. There isn’t really any romance in this book).

But anyways, this book definitely exceeded my expectations.

I loved the whole world (London Below) that was created in this story. Essentially, it’s about a “world” underneath London that is home to the people who have “fallen through the cracks.” People that are forgotten, basically. It’s a really cool concept and one that I’ve never seen before. My one-sentence-summary of the world does not do it justice, but I swear, it’s really cool.

I also enjoyed the writing. Gaiman has a really great sense of humor (the kind that I find hilarious but other people don’t crack a smile at). The writing is witty mixed with ironic mixed with I don’t even know. I just really loved the subtle jokes he made.

My praise starts to waver a bit when we get to the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the characters, Door especially. But they aren’t really ones that will stick with me, not like with Tessa and Will from TID or Cress and Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles. This is of course due in part to the fact that this is a stand-alone novel, not a series like the two I just mentioned. But there was something about the characters here that was a bit lacking., although I can’t exactly pinpoint just what it is.

My only other complaint would probably be with the pacing, which was good for the most part but a bit drawn out at times. I never got too bored, though.

Since most people probably have no idea who Neil Gaiman is (I didn’t either, it’s ok), he’s the guy who wrote Coraline. You know, that creepy claymation movie from 2009? Well, it was a book first, and he wrote it. I loved that movie when I was younger, so if you did too, you will probably enjoy this book as much as I did.

Rate: 4.25/5 stars