Five Star Reads of 2014

Either I've (slightly) improved at rating what I read or I simply didn't read as many five star books this year as I usually do. December was a good month though, I had two 5 star reads one after the other and November's read was non-fiction!

January

February

April

May

June

July

August

September

September

November

December

December

Waiting On Wednesday #102 - Sword

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

Sword - Amy Bai
ISBN - 9781936460618
Publisher - Candlemark & Gleam
Expected release date - February 10 2015
Find - Goodreads

Sword shall guide the hands of men . . .

For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.

For over a thousand years, some of Lardan's fractious provinces have been biding their time.

Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the royal Houses, and the court's only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of her sixteen years what the future holds for her - politics and duty, the management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed heir to the throne. But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her world - and her closest friends - fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.

I will be honest and say it's the cover of Sword that made me want to pick it up initially. The fact that's it's fantasy and about a sword-wielding girl make it even better but I can't find any info about where it will be available :( 

 

Favorite Covers of 2014

I'll read a book regardless of whether I do or don't like the cover. Occasionally though my cover love takes over and I buy a book purely because it's pretty, I've discovered both great books & truly awful books this way. This list is a sample of my favorite covers of the year, both YA and Adult, read and unread.

Top Ten Tuesday #76 - Bookish & Bloggish Sort-Of Resolutions 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fabulous gals cover at The Broke & The Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Bookish & Bloggish Goals/Resolutions For 2015

I don't normally make resolutions because I never stick to them so I'm thinking of these more as goals! The important one is stop buying books otherwise in May I'll not be going beyond the end of the Channel Tunnel, never mind into France :)

Favorite Adult Novels of 2014

It was hard to pick my favorite adult novels from 2014. Although I'd read plenty and gave most four stars I still don't have any clear favorites. This lists the books that stuck in my mind most, that I fell in love with and bought multiple copies of to give to people! As with my YA list I'm pretty sure there are books that were far more obvious but I've somehow skipped over them.

Landline

Ready Player One

Throne of the Crescent Moon

Poison

Smiler's Fair

Jasmyn

Ancillary Justice

The Days of the Deer

Peacemaker

Between Two Thorns

Favorite YA Novels of 2014

These are in no particular order and I'm 99% certain there are several that I've missed out but these are (most) of my favorite YA reads of 2014!

Fangirl

Isla & the Happily Ever After

Aristotle & Dante

Stolen Songbird

Trust Me, I'm Lying

Say Her Name

Compulsion

Court

Killing Sound

The Unhappening of Genesis Lee

Book Haul #94

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

As expected I didn't receive a single book for Christmas but do not fear, I more than made up for that unhappy fact by buying a few books as presents to myself! Also listed this week are the other half of my review/blog tour books and my December library haul. I've been really lucky with my requests so far but now Netgalley have changed their dashboard I can't find titles I've requested but not heard about anywhere. Anybody know where I can find this? I've gone to request the same title three times now...  My library haul has three Shirley Jackson titles, I own all of them but do you think I can find them? I was in the mood for a reread of The Sundial so decided to have a Jackson marathon, hopefully reviews in January!

Bought

 Review 

Library Books

Favorite MG Books of 2014

To finish off the year I'd thought I'd share some favorites from the past 12 months of reading and some books that I'm looking forward to in 2015. Today's list is my favorite MG books this year, including a classic and an historical with a ghostly twist!

Honorable mentions go to