2014 End of Year Book Survey! (Image heavy)

Thanks to the wonderful Jaime of The Perpetual Page-Turner for doing this every year!

All graphics are hers as well.

Number Of Books You Read:
 86

Number of Re-Reads: 3


Genre You Read The Most From: YA Contemporary

1. Best Book You Read In 2014?

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord (SO GOOD.)

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

My True Love Gave To Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins. I loved a couple stories from it, but I found the majority to be more weird than I liked.

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn. I love love LOVE all things Morgan Matson, so I think I went into this expected way too many things.

3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read in 2014?

Talon by Julie Kagawa. NOT my normal read at all, but I loved it.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. It’s well documented how much I can’t stand time travel, but this one was fantastic.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?

Series: The Uninvited Series by Sophie Jordan

Started: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

And honestly…I don't think I ended any series in 2014! I'm so bad at completing series.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?

EMERY LORD.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Talon by Julie Kagawa. And even though I was mixed about Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch, I did like it and am looking forward to book 2.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Unleashed by Sophie Jordan in terms of action and bloospill.

Liars, Inc by Paula Stokes in terms of it actually being a thriller – and a damn good one.

9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

All Emery Lord books. I actually think I might read Open Road Summer sometime this week.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray and Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. COVER. LOVE.

11. Most memorable character of 2014?

I still love Arin from The Winner’s Curse series. I will never let him go.

And Max Watson from The Start of Me and You. Oh god, Max.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?

Emery Lord’s are just…amazing.

And Nina LaCour’s Everything Leads To You was lyrical and seriously made me feel like I was floating. Same with The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder--beautiful and ethereal.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Telley.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?

Most of the ones I read are from 2014, actually, though I’m surprised I was able to hold out on reading House of Hades for so long. And of course, now I’m stalling on Blood of Olympus. Which is bad, since I borrowed it from a friend.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?

“I once read in my physics book that the universe begs to be observed, that energy travels and transfers when people pay attention. Maybe that’s what love really boils down to—having someone who cares enough to pay attention so that you’re encouraged to travel and transfer, to make your potential energy spark into kinetic energy. Maybe all anyone ever needs is for someone to notice them, to observe them.” 

---Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

Longest: The House of Hades, by Rick Riordan – 597 pages

Shortest: Just One Night, by Gayle Forman – 40 pages

If novellas don’t count: Sisters by Reina Talgameier – 200 pages

and if graphic novels don’t count: Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark – 224 pages.

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

Hmmmm… Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern. Not that anything was OMG SHOCK AND AWE, but the content, the progression, how different it is from any story…it really had me. I also love love loved the English version, and picked it up while in London!

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

Kestral & Arin from The Winner's Curse series by Marie Rutkoski

Matthew & Amy from Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Dee & Lilah from Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson.

21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang. I would have read it anyway since it’s definitely my cup of tea, but I moved it real high on the TBR after picking it up at ALA due to all the blogger love for it.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?

Max Watson from The Start of Me and You. God I am so in love with him. Can he just be real?!

23. Best 2014 debut you read?

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Boys Don’t Knit by TS Easton. I seriously laughed aloud. Multiple times. In public. And Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas. Lists and fun!

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand. I mean, read the premise. How could you NOT cry?!

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Telley, and Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

The Winner’s Crime (Winner's Curse #2) by Marie Rutkoski.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?

Hmmm…this one is tough. I’ll say Sisters by Reina Telgameier since it’s a graphic novel haha. I cheated!

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

The Jewel by Amy Ewing. Because it’s The Selection all over again and DAMMIT WHY.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?

100 Sideway Miles by Andrew Smith and I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

 2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut)?

Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard. Because it’s Kirsten and I will always support all her endeavors.

Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

3. 2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaiporta & Dhonielle Clayton (I can’t resist ballet books!)

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?

PS. I Still Love You by Jenny Han. DYYYYYING for this!

Fairest & Winter by Marissa Meyer. LOVE love love this entire series. And Marissa! (and while we're at it, I love Jenny, too!)

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2015?

Other than finally getting my act together so I can fill out the Blog Life section in next year's wrap up? Finally set up all my posts to push to social media. Four years and I stil haven’t gotten that together.

6. A 2015 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:

Is it obvious if I choose The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord? Yes? I’ve pimped her out too much? (NO SUCH THING).

Fine. I’ll choose one I haven’t mentioned: Solitaire by Alice Oseman. I’m not entirely sure it will be everyone’s cup of tea, but I do think everyone should give it a go. It’s…powerful.

Did you do the 2014 Book Survey? Link me to it in the comments!

And if you didn't, what was your favourite book read in 2014? Least favourite?

Review: Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho (ARC)

Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho
Viking Juvenile (an imprint of Penguin), 366 pages
US Release Date: October 9, 2014
Format/Source: ARC via Around the World Tours - thank you!

What if you live for the moment when life goes off the rails—and then one day there’s no one left to help you get it back on track?

Althea Carter and Oliver McKinley have been best friends since they were six; she’s the fist-fighting instigator to his peacemaker, the artist whose vision balances his scientific bent. Now, as their junior year of high school comes to a close, Althea has begun to want something more than just best-friendship. Oliver, for his part, simply wants life to go back to normal, but when he wakes up one morning with no memory of the past three weeks, he can’t deny any longer that something is seriously wrong with him. And then Althea makes the worst bad decision ever, and her relationship with Oliver is shattered. He leaves town for a clinical study in New York, resolving to repair whatever is broken in his brain, while she gets into her battered Camry and drives up the coast after him, determined to make up for what she’s done.

Their journey will take them from the rooftops, keg parties, and all-ages shows of their North Carolina hometown to the pool halls, punk houses, and hospitals of New York City before they once more stand together and face their chances. Set in the DIY, mix tape, and zine culture of the mid-1990s, Cristina Moracho’s whip-smart debut is an achingly real story about identity, illness, and love—and why bad decisions sometimes feel so good.
------------------------Goodreads Summary

Notable Quote

"I'm not running away," she says. "I'm walking away."

I didn’t know what to think going into Althea & Oliver. I’d never heard of it until it popped up on the ARC Tour site I go onto, and because I am a sucker for all things duality and all things contemporary, I went for it. I mean, it seems pretty freakin’ interesting: a disease where you sleep for weeks, months at a time? That in itself is interesting, but then to get the best friends’ viewpoint in it too, and it seems she wants more? I tried to put myself into Althea’s place, and I knew I had to read it. (Because I would not be able to handle it. I have problems going a weekend without my best guy friend.)

At the beginning of the ARC is a letter from the editor that calls this book “a work of literature with teenagers in it, rather than a ‘YA novel’” and I was at first a little offended. You can’t tell me If I Stay isn’t literature. You can’t tell me The Fault in Our Stars isn’t a thing of beauty, that Wanderlove isn’t every bit the work of words and wonder it sounds like it is.

But I get it. I so, so get it.

Althea & Oliver explores so many elements, from teenager things to new adult to young adult to adult things. The before and after, the friendship, the idea of wanting more, the knowing and needing of more and less. The family of friends, a dysfunctional family, a chosen family and a given family. Of making mistakes, horrible, terrible, absolutely shattering mistakes; to the realization and the attempt at fixing or repairing them. And then the failure, and the not-quite-a-failure-but-may-as-well-be.

I have to admit that I didn’t think Althea and Oliver were quite as opposite as they were made out to be. Althea is supposed to be the crazy artiste, the off-the-wall, on-the-cusp kinda girl; and Oliver is the steady, the rock, the grounded. But I don’t actually believe that—yes, I could see how she seems to be the revolving around his axis, but there’s a bit more to each of them, a bit more of the other in them. Althea definitely takes the more obvious route of being crazy and out of control, but Oliver has it on the internal.

Honestly, I’m finding it a bit hard to write a cohesive review for this book, because I have so many thoughts and feelings about it and for it and for them and how much I want to hug them. I’m a bit scattered—but it’s actually pretty representative of this book. There’s so much chaos and unknown and scattered thoughts and feelings throughout. I was so caught up with it, so taken along and invested in the ride I’m having a hard time pulling myself back from it.

I have to say that the plot, the movement…it’s perfect. How the story is built, you really understand who they are and who they are together. I felt like I knew their friendship so well, even though I’ve got nothing like theirs. I liked how it all fit together, how it all fell apart, how it all scrabbled and scraped to get back together, and how it all kind of floundered and figured itself in the end. It’s perfect.

And the ‘almost’ and the ‘favourite’ really got me. Oh god, did it get me.

Althea & Oliver may not be quite what it led me to believe, but I’m actually pretty happy about that because I’ve found a book that feels like it’s a little part of me, like it understood some of the hardest, more difficult aspects of my emotions and fears and feelings. It is a lesson that even in the screw-ups, even in the chaos and broken perfections, we can find enough to get us on the pathway back.

4.5 stars