Top Ten Tuesday | Top Ten Books I Read In 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

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This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a Freebie, so I've chosen to write about the Top Ten Books I Read In 2014! I read some fantastic books last year but these ten are the ones that really stood out for me - they're the books that are still stuck in my mind months later.
Just to point out, not all of these books were published in 2014 - I just read them last year.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater : Okay, let's make it known that Maggie is my absolute queen, forever and always. The worlds she creates are perfect, her writing is perfect; I would happily live in her imagination. She also seems like a downright awesome lady, to boot. And have you seen her artwork? PERFECTION.
The Raven Cycle is my most favourite YA Paranormal series; it has everything I love - lore, adventure, fantastic characters, and a romance that doesn't overwhelmingly take over the story like some other YA romances. These are spot-on perfect books for me. Blue Lily, Lily Blue lived up to all my expectations and more; it had all the things that I love. It broke my heart, it terrified me, and I loved it all so, so much. This was definitely my favourite book of 2014.

The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson : Brandon Sanderson is an incredible writer; his books are so unique and I've never ever read anything like them. The Rithmatist follows Joel, the son of a chalk-maker at Armedius Academy, who aspires to be a Rithmatist. Rithmatists have the power to bring two-dimensional chalk drawings to life to do battle against the Wild Chalklings that have taken over a section of the American Isles.
Whatever I say will do this book the justice it deserves, but there's murders and mystery and it's just damn great altogether. Y'all should read it.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn - Alison Goodman : The book's protagonist is Eon, who is training in hopes of one day becoming a Dragoneye - a role that allows one to share the powers of the world's energy dragons and thus control the climate and land. This book completely took me by surprise; I expected I'd like it, but it was so much better than I'd hoped. The setting, characters, Asian mythology - they're all wonderful and vividly-written. This duology is definitely worth picking up.

Vicious - V.E. Schwab : This book .. oh man, it was fabulous. It had everything I love in a book of this genre. I was quite wary of picking it up because I really didn't like the first book in Victoria's Archived series, but Vicious completely blew that book way out of the park. To me, it felt like reading a comic book without the art; there are friends-turned-nemeses, crazy science experiments, super powers and all that good stuff. Vicious was a book that I didn't want to end or have to put down. I really hope there's a sequel at some point in the future.

Avalon - Mindee Arnett : I picked this up after hearing Lainey from Gingerreadslainey speak about it. It was one of the first few YA Sci-Fi books I'd picked up and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love all things to do with space anyway, so criminal gangs and overlords in space? AWESOME.

The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater : Another book by the queen herself \o/ I'd had this book sitting on my shelf since picking it up on a visit to Los Angeles's Barnes & Noble in 2013 and finally got around to reading it near the end of last year. It's different and completely jarring at times and YES. I'm not surprised I enjoyed it so much because hey, it's blood-thirsty horses that come from the sea and are caught to be raced - which, more often than not, ends with men being mauled or worse. And, of course, it's Maggie's so I'm most probably going to love it.

Half Bad - Sally Green : In a world where there are White and Black witches -who are good and bad respectively- Nathan is the illegitimate son of a White witch mother and a Black witch father. On his seventeeth birthday, it'll be decided by a council which he is more of - if the White is more prominent, he will be gifted three items and become a fully-fledged Witch; if the Black side is more prominent, he will surely be killed. Half Bad was such a unique and exciting read, and I can't wait to continue on with the trilogy.

Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas : I read all three novels of this series last year and ugh, I think Sarah J. Mass is next in line to Maggie as queen of my bookshelves. I think this was, by far, the most epic of the series so far. So many great new characters are introduced and I loved the direction that the story has taken.

The Lost- Sarah Beth Durst : This was another book I was wary about picking up but was more than pleasantly surprised by. The Lost is set in a town where all things missing turn up. It starts with our main character, Lauren, taking a detour to try to escape her problems and she eventually, after duststorms that keep her from finding her way home, finds herself in the town of Lost - a place she can't leave until she herself comes to terms with what she's missing.  This was another book I struggled to put down; it was a really great read!

The Cormorant - Chuck Wendig : This was my first read of 2014 and what a great read it was to start the year with. The Cormorant is the third book of the Miriam Black series. It follows foul-mouthed Miriam who has the rare talent of seeing how and when people will die simply by touching them, and how she puts this talent to good use. These books are gritty and dark and have what I'd call "man humour"... which is okay with me because I have the sense of humour of a teenage boy most of the time, hah. These books probably won't be everyones cup of tea but are a great read if you like books like this.

What were your favourite reads of 2014?

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