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

Review: Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff (ARC)

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff
HarperTeen, 288 pages
Expected US Release Date: January 27, 2015
Format/Source: ARC via Around the World Tours - thank you!

A teenage boy tries to understand his best friend's suicide by listening to the playlist of songs he left behind in this smart, voice-driven debut novel.

Here's what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam—listen and you'll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it's only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

Part mystery, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale in the vein of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Tim Tharp’s The Spectacular Now, Playlist for the Dead is an honest and gut-wrenching first novel about loss, rage, what it feels like to outgrow a friendship that's always defined you—and the struggle to redefine yourself. But above all, it's about finding hope when hope seems like the hardest thing to find.
----------------------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

“Different strategies, same problems.”

So, I’m going to say this, and it may be mean, but I don’t intend it as mean as it will come out: saying this compares to The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was a terrible disservice. It made me expect too much, it made me think a certain development, a certain style, a certain self-exploration was going to happen—and unfortunately, it didn’t. It didn’t even come close.

Without the comparison, Playlist For the Dead was pretty good. I liked the little bits of mystery, how we’re trying to figure out what really happened to Hayden and why he did what he did. I enjoyed the music from the playlist too, it helped set a tone and a mood as long as I knew the song. And I admit that I only knew about 40% of them, so I think I definitely missed a few things about it…but it was enjoyable as it was.

I think my main complaint about this book is how anti-climactic it was. I didn’t think the breaks in action were really appropriate, nor did it follow through with the impact it was built up to be. None of the reveals really shocked me, none of the characters or the parts they played really came out of left field. I won’t go as far as to say it’s predictable, but…it was fairly obvious the direction things would go, and I found I was able to guess almost 100% correctly every time.

Weirdly, I kind of like how violent this story got. I don’t endorse violence! Do not think I am condoning going after someone with a bat, or anything remotely close to that! But I appreciated that this book went there, because that is an unfortunate reality to life, especially when it comes to an unfairness of someone taking his life and trying to understand why. Playlist For the Dead faced the helplessness of being left behind, the rage and anger at wanting to understand without being given all the pieces to do so. And I think that was a great thing to tackle, because not many books will.

Perhaps what I attached to most relates to the quote I chose to highlight: “Different strategies, same problems.” It’s a really clever way of summing up so much of this story. Two sides to everything. Different takes on the same thing. So many varying viewpoints and opinions and stories that culminate to the same thing, but take incredibly different paths to get there. It’s kind of a nice way to explain away a lack of depth to a lot of the characters, why sometimes the story is a bit chaotic. But it’s also a clever way of being a little more introspective than it seems.

Playlist For the Dead had a few disappointments for me, but still resonated in its message and the overall takeaway. I appreciated how head on it faced such a tough, sensitive subject—I just wish it had been done a teeny, tiny bit better.

3.5 stars

Holiday Giveaway: A Box of YA Books! (US only)

If you saw this tweet, you know what this is about :) I'm participating in a Secret Santa, and the box I bought for my #TBTBSanta was too small for all the goodies! Solution? Have a giveaway to fill the box, of course!

ONE (1) lucky winner will win a box of YA books!

Most of the books will be ARCs from 2014 or earlier, a few finished copies, and I'll even toss in one or two 2015 ARCs I picked up via Comic-con and/or ALA! The ones I can definitely tell you included are:

 

My True Love Gave To Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins (finished hardcover, pictured)
Great by Sara Benincasa (ARC)
Zodiac by Romina Russell (a 2015 ARC!)

….but that's just the beginning :)

US Only
(sorry INT!)
Ends December 23, 2014

Please do not leave your email in my comment section.

Enter through the rafflecopter below, and all my usual giveaway policy rules apply.

Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
May the odds be ever in your favour!

Feature & Follow Friday (18)

Follow Friday is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View, meant to spotlight blogs and allows bloggers to link up and meet other fabulous bookish friends and share the Following love!

This week's spotlight blogs are Mo_Books and Books Are My Life!

And the question of the week is:

Do you decide in advance what you read for the coming week/month? Why or why not?

Yes and no. (Confusing, I know) Since I do touring ARCs via Around the World Tours, I do have to plan out what to read and when if I know a book is coming or one has arrived. Luckily, I'm all about reading multiple books at once and have no problem with it, so if one pops up I wasn't expecting (either from the publisher, from tour sites, or NetGalley), I can roll with it pretty well.

That all said, I've abandoned this many times, too. It all really depends on the my mood and what I can stomach in terms of genres. Sometimes too many contemporaries in a row skew my reviews, or I start comparing too much if I read 4 dystopians in a row. I usually make a small stack of the ones I know I definitely want to get to in the coming weeks--but I know I'll probably stray far and fast.

If you're wondering, these are some of the books I hope to read this month!

What's your reading plan? Do you keep to it?

Leave me your link and I'll hop by!

And of course I'd love to return a follow if you are kind enough to follow me :)

Review: The Jewel by Amy Ewing (ARC)

The Jewel (The Lone City #1) by Amy Ewing
HarperTeen, 358 pages
US Release Date: September 2, 2014
Format/Source: ARC, via Around the World Tours

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.
--------------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

“Hope is a precious thing, isn’t it” she says quietly. “And yet, we don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone.”

I kind of hate saying this, but I feel like The Jewel is going to be my new The Selection series. One where I like a lot of the elements, and I kind of have to know what happens…but there are so many other parts that make me SO ANGRY I just can’t say I like the book. It was so frustrating to read and recognize the things I didn’t like, but still have that need of finishing or finding out if what I think is true, actually is true. (Usually it was.) (Actually, it always was.)

Largely, The Jewel was interesting and unique, if not a little…flat. I’ve not encountered a Dystopian world like this yet, but I felt like I knew so little about The Lost City. It had a lot of elements similar to other books—the circular levels and districts that determined your worth, the past of a war that made it this way, the element of a Power (or Augury, in this one) that becomes the ticket to elevating your status.  And that’s all well and good, I just don’t really get a good sense of this world around it. I couldn’t figure out how far in the “future” it was, if even in the future…I guess it’s more of an alternate world? I’ll settle on that one, for ease and clarity.

I liked the element of Auguries and how that affected their Lot number, and opened up a whole unexplored territory of what the Surrogates could do. It was interesting to have Surrogates be a little reminiscent of slavery but still be living in the lap of luxury with their own ladies-in-waiting and maids. If I searched for it or felt like linking it, I could find a lot of historial parallels here—and while I don’t think that was really an intention, it was something that held my interest.

However, I really did not like the romance in this. It’s very much insta-love, and entirely expected. All their parts felt rushed and clichéd, without any real development. It just was. While the idea of Companions makes sense, I never liked when Ash and Carnelian were together. I hated Carnelian as a character—she’s too despicable for me to ever get a feel for her, and it made me have no sympathy for any of her parts. I just resented every time she was on the page, because I felt like she was a device meant to make me feel some way without really getting to discover that feeling.

I think what bothered me most about this book was the writing—not that it’s weird or terrible. I just felt like it wasn’t developed well, that a lot of the plotlines that happened did because it was supposed to be that way. Not much of this felt like a natural, flowing story. Like The Duchess was this evil character, but she had moments of weakness and humanity—but those moments felt so fake and calculated. Every time that would happen, it was because I knew she had been too evil and we were just waiting for a “positive” so we would get a rounded character from her. A lot of characters are that way for me; they’re constructed to be just-so and it didn’t feel natural at all.

In the same regard as The Selection, I feel like there is a lot of potential for this series. A lot of the plot itself is interesting, if only because I want to know what’s going to happen, how it will all happen. There’s a lot that can grow from here, that we can eventually learn…I just don’t quite know if it will ever get there.

I’m a bit torn about The Jewel, just because I felt so much that way while reading it. There would be small parts I was into, but it would quickly follow with parts I couldn’t stand. And while I’ll definitely pick up Book 2 just so I can know, I know I’m going to have reservations and doubts going into it.

3 stars