I’ve seen a few posts floating around from fellow bloggers, mentioning their favorite books of 2013, and I thought I would post my own list!
According to goodreads, I’ve read 102 books so far this year (and I’ll add a few more to the total before New Year’s). Add in 6 beta reads, and I’ve done quite a bit of reading this year.
My memory isn’t what it used to be, and a lot of books fall away into obscurity after I read them. I used to be awesome at remembering the tiniest details about a novel, but alas, motherhood has changed that as well. So going through the list, I realized my true favorite books are the ones that have stuck with me throughout the year. I might not’ve given them a 5 star rating at the time, but I still think about them frequently, and all these months later I remember them well.
So here you are…My favorite books of 2013!
Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. I read Shatter Me and Unravel Me this year, as well as the novella Destroy Me. And all I can say is wow. WOW. Talk about a compelling story. One of the things that fascinated me the most about this series is the writing style, and how the words were arranged on the page…almost like poetry at times. I think about this series more than probably any other right now. Amazing! Can’t wait for the final book to come out in 2014.
Everneath series by Brodi Ashton. Yet again, I read all the books currently out in the series this year–Everneath, Everbound, and Neverfall. And I loved all of them! Some people argue the way Ashton handled the flashbacks in this series was lazy, but I thought it worked fantastically well. I loved getting Jack and Nikki’s prior relationship history woven in with the current relationship stress they are experiencing. And the Everneath? A seriously creepy place.
Divergent series by Veronica Roth. In case you couldn’t tell, I was really into other worldly books this year. Divergent and Insurgent were SO amazing (although I loved the first book more than the second). I absolutely loved the world Roth created in this series, and I love the idea of factions. No, I haven’t read Allegiant yet…Amazon spoiled the ending for me and it might be awhile before I can make myself read it. So excited for the first movie to come out in March!
Esther the Queen by H.B. Moore. I love historical fiction–I did major in history, after all–and this one, for whatever reason, hit me especially powerfully. Talk about bringing a biblical story to life. She so seamlessly wove together fact and fiction, biblical facts and historical context. In fact, I was so drawn in I went and re-read the Book of Esther in the Old Testament while reading this book just to see how closely she kept to the fact. Spoiler alert: super close. Awesome read.
Glimmer of Hope by Sarah M. Eden. They always say that for a romance to be really awesome, the problem keeping the hero and heroine apart can’t be something they could simply solve with a five-minute conversation. I think this book is such an awesome example of that. What kept the characters apart throughout this book was real, heartbreaking, and definitely not something with an easy fix. This one pulled at my heart strings.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Paris. Young love. Boarding school. Really, what more do I need to say? Such a fun romance.
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. It’s pretty rare that I love a companion novel more than the first one, but I think Lola just edged out Anna. Cricket was the absolute perfect hero, and I loved Lola’s fashion sense and quirky personality. This one had me laughing a lot!
The Selection by Kiera Cass. It’s like The Bachelor meets Royalty. And I am a sucker for reality television. I didn’t think the world building was quite as strong as in other dystopians I’ve read, but still well worth your time. That being said, I was not impressed by the sequel, The Elite. Talk about the main character turning flaky!
Blackout by Robison Wells. I’ve seen mixed reviews on this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Teenagers with mutant superpowers? Yeah. Awesome.
My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite. So this one has been sitting on my bedside table for months–since May, to be exact–and I just barely got around to reading it. If I’m being honest, the cover didn’t grab me, and I TOTALLY judge books by their covers. (You know you do it, too.) And I didn’t love the title, either. However, I did love love love the book. Super quick, super fun, super quirky main character. I read it in like two days (and I rarely do that anymore).
Delirium by Lauren Oliver. This is another dystopian series where I loved book one, but felt the series went a little downhill from there (although I did enjoy Hana’s pov in the last book in the series). The whole concept fascinates me, and I still wonder about it all the time. What if love were considered a disease? A seriously cool concept that I thought the author played out very well in book one.
And that’s it…my list of best loved books of 2013. There were so many others I read and loved, but these are the ones that really stuck with me. What were your favorite books of 2013?
I LOVED the writing in Shatter Me, but I got to the end and felt cheated by the (okay, somewhat obvious, but I still didn't see it coming) "twist."<br /><br />Loved the writing in Delirium, too, but could NOT get into Pandemonium. Always nice to hear I'm not the only one ;)<br /><br />How did I miss Glimmer of Hope? No idea. But most of the rest are on my TBR right now!
I do agree that Shatter Me took a weird turn. Is it just me, or did it almost feel like it switched genres at the end, and then Unravel Me was a different genre?
YES! That was exactly how I felt about Shatter Me! I might have picked it up anyway if I'd known it was going to be a <spoiler> superhero book, but I felt kinda cheated to find out that was what it was at the very end! <br /><br />I felt so cheated I didn't read Unravel Me.
Once I accepted it was some sort of superhero novel, and not some paranormal dystopian book, I read Unravel Me and actually really enjoyed it. Was kind of a shift in thought process, since it is SUCH a different book than Shatter Me, but I still loved it. Destroy Me (Warner's novella) was actually really good, too.