2014, A Year of Books

I thought that since the year is ending, I'd give you the highlights of the books I read this year.  I read 75 books this year, most of which I loved, and I had a hard time narrowing it down, but here are most top 10 favorite books of the year, in no particular order. (If I read multiple books in a series, they're counted as one).  All of the official descriptions came from Goodreads, and the brief reviews were written at the time that I finished the book.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Official Descriptions

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washedup child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun–but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Or

Katherine V thought boys were gross

Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart 
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.
On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

My Brief Review:

This book was incredibly funny.  I loved the characters, the situations, and even the calculations.  It was truly masterful, and one of my favorite realistic fiction books.  It's the second-best John Green book, by far.

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Official Description: 

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Brief Review: 

I really loved the book's voice. (In a way, it reminded me of the narrator in Beautiful Creatures.) The entire book flowed very smoothly and the storyline was very engaging. This book was definitely worth the hype, which so few books are. It was fantastic. Highly recommended!
In an unrelated note, I love how the author's name on the front cover was so small unlike some others like James Patterson whose name fills each of his books' entire cover so that it's difficult to tell if you are reading "Blah Blah Blah Book" or "James Patterson". I really appreciate it when authors make the book more important than themselves. You go, Ransom Riggs!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Official Description:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

My Brief Review:

Easily the best book I've read in a long time. I cried during the last third of the book, but I loved it so much! It is one of those books that seem to reach into your soul and brighten some small essential part of yourself. At least it did for me.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Link to Full Review from earlier this year

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Official Description:

Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten...and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.

My Brief Review:

An amazing book. Not a single slow second in all 800 or so pages. I highly, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone! It was both a mystery, romance, and science fiction book all in one! I've recommended 11/22/63 to more people than I can count.

Misery by Stephen King

Link to my review from earlier this year

Legend by Marie Lu

Link to my review of this entire series from earlier this year

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Link to my review of this entire series from earlier this year

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

Official Description:
Vane Weston should have died in the category-five tornado that killed his parents. Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memories of his past - except one: a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing in the winds. She swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she's real.
Audra is real, but she isn't human. She's a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She's also a guardian - Vane's guardian - and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs.
When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both their families, Audra has just days to help Vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them. 

My Brief Review:
I loved this book! It was just perfect. I do not have a single complaint (which is a first). The characters were wonderful and non-annoying. The romance was believable, and the plot line was really engaging. Also the voice of the novel (both Vance's and Audra's). 
It's kind of similar to Beautiful Creatures. But better. 
I highly, highly recommend!

Winger by Andrew Smith

Official Description:

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.

My Brief Review:

Amazing. It was probably one of the funniest books I've ever read. I just loved Ryan Dean's narration style. It's also not very rugby-oriented like the official description would have you believe. (I'm not entirely sure what rugby IS and I loved it). 

I highly recommend Winger (but only if you have at least a high-school maturity level). 
I didn't have high hopes for this book, but it surprised me by being completely amazing. It had everything you could ask for and placed it all together perfectly.

If you are looking for a book to read this coming year, I strongly suggest trying out one of these.  They are all incredibly different but they were completely amazing, nonetheless.  

Happy Reading!

The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare (Awesome)

I'm going to do a group mini review for The Infernal Devices series.  I loved the series so much!  To be fair, I started the series off with an incorrect idea of what it was about.  For some reason, I thought the series was basically just Magnus's backstory.  I was terribly wrong, but I loved the series all the more for its unexpected plot line!
(The reviews were all written right after I read whichever book I'm mentioning. )

CLOCKWORK ANGEL:

The cover:

To tell the truth, I'm not sure which character is on the cover.  I am about 90% sure that it's Will Herondale, but it could be a completely different character.  Above the series title, Tessa's clockwork angel flies.  

Official Description:

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.
The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them....

My review:

I really liked Clockwork Angel.  It was such a great book.  I had forgotten how much I loved Cassandra Clare's writing.  She is truly a fantastic author.

I read the first five books in the Mortal Instruments series before I read Clockwork Angel. I would NOT suggest this to readers. Read Clockwork Angel, at least, right after City of Glass and before continuing the series. My ordering of the books caused me to be about 99% certain that I know what Will's hiding. It kind of built a sense of dramatic irony around it, instead of curiosity, which is what I am sure was intended. 

(*Note: You can actually read them in whatever order.  I still suggest the above ordering, but it turned out that I was wrong about Will's secret...)
All of this doesn't even mention how GREAT the book was. I had high hopes because Cassandra Clare is an amazingly talented writer, but I was afraid that working with different characters might not go as well. This was not the case, by any means! The storyline was completely engaging and exciting. The characters were very well written and the plot complex. All in all, a fantastic book! I am going to find (and read) the sequel as soon as I can!

CLOCKWORK PRINCE:

The cover:

This cover also shows whom I believe to be Will starting with a torch.

Official Description:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

My Review:

I don't think I've been as frustrated by any other book more than I was with this book. It made me want to let loose a grutal scream as many as twenty times throughout the book. (Some of those times, it actually happened.)
However, unlike the normal frustrating books, Clockwork Prince tackled the problems in the correct ways. A character would do something and the effects would be terrible, but I could find no fault with how they handled the situation. 
I LOVED this book. Thinking back on it, while the book was super fast-paced and plot driven, there was not very much that happened in regard to the villain of the story. This, surprisingly, had no effect what-so-ever on the way I enjoyed the book. 
I had a slight issue with Tessa at one point. She would be making some commentary on some event, and I could only think of one thing, "Please, please do not make this a love triangle." Then, as the book progressed it morphed more into, "She's going to make this a love triangle, isn't she?" And then, finally, "She went and make this a huge love triangle." For me, anyway, love triangles just make unnessary tension, an unneeded hatred between the guys, and disappointment in about half the readers at the end of the series. 
Besides the love triangle, I loved watching all of the character's relationships evolve and shift. They are all fully developed characters with their own habits and personalities. Together, you could never know how they would behave. 
A lot of Clockwork Prince simply tugged at my heart strings. As Will's secret was slowly revealed, I couldn't help but feel heartbroken for him. 
All in all, Clockwork Prince was a worthy sequel to Clockwork Angel, and I can't wait to read Clockwork Princess. (In fact, I couldn't and went ahead and started reading it!)

CLOCKWORK PRINCESS:

The cover:

It shows Tessa, like she always is, reading a book.  The bridge (significant with Jem!) is in the background, and she wears her clockwork angel necklace.

Official Description:

Tessa Gray should be happy—aren't all brides happy? Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

My Review:

I imagined this series's end many times. None of them came even close to the majesty of this book. Clockwork Prince was easily the best book in the Infernal devices series, which really says something when you think of all the other great books included.

Cassandra Clare easily solved the issue of the love triangle with such elegance that I believe that all writers should take heed of.  

In a show of how much I loved all of the characters, I had to fight tears while reading the epilogue.  Thinking about epilogues, Clockwork Princess had one of the only truly good and necessary epilogues that I've ever read.  It was perfect.  This book was perfect.  This series was perfect.

Series-long Phrase:  Demon Pox!