*All graphics are from Jamie's blog, The Perpetual Pageturner. Aren't they pretty??
BLOG STATS
Number of Books You Read: 201--yay! I surpassed my Goodreads goal, but read less than last year.
Number of Re-Reads: 0--I don't really re-read anymore! No time what with all the new and new to me books that need to be read!
Genre You Read the Most From: Paranormal YA
BEST IN BOOKS
Best Book You Read in 2014: Oh gawd...you mean I have to choose one?! That's not even theoretically possible! LOL...Endless Knight by Kresley Cole, Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes, White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Basically all the JLA books I read this year!)
Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going to Love More But Didn't?: The Glass Casket by McCormick Templeman; I was just expecting more of a creepy mystery kind of thriller and well...it had those elements in a way, but just weren't executed to my enjoyment.
Most Surprising (in a good way or bad way) Book You Read in 2014: Dire by Alyssa Rose Ivy; I wasn't expecting to love this one so much! It was dark and edgy and had all kinds of feels.
Book You "Pushed" the Most People to Read (And They Did) in 2014?: I say I pushed Briar Rose by Jana Oliver a LOT! I read it earlier this year and LOVED it! I was soooo blown away about it! I had a total gush-fest over it, though I can't say if many people went out and bought it! Though I did just "push" it again on someone talking fairy tale reads!
Best Series You Started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014? Best series I started would be the Arcana Chronicles with Poison Princess by Kresley Cole! I liked the first one, but LOVED the second!
Best Sequel, I guess would be The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey! It was definitely intriguing and pulse-racing and was quite the game changer plotwise!
Best Series Ender, well I didn't get to Kim Harrison's like I wanted to, but I did read Jennifer L. Armentrout's Opposition and I must say I LOVED IT! Which shouldn't be surprising at all!
Favorite New Author You Discovered in 2014?: That would be Gretchen McNeil--I picked her books up after reading some excellent reviews and being intrigued with Get Even which I was lucky to come by an ARC of and then I read all her back titles! Totally loved them! Ten was my favorite amongst them!
Morgan Rhodes--I had had her first two books; Falling Kingdoms and Rebel Spring in my TBR Mountain of Doom and tackled them earlier this year! OMG! Total LOVE for this series!! It's one of those I can't believe I waited so long/I'm glad I waited to have so much to read/dear god why didn't I wait until I had the three of them/I NEED BOOK 4 NOW kind of thing! ;)
Danielle Paige--total debut author but LOVED Dorothy Must Die!
Best Book from a Genre You Don't Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone: I guess that would be Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. It was a straight up dystopian kind of read and it was just an overall totally different kind of read for me! But boy did I enjoy it!
Book You Read in 2014 That You Are Most Likely to Re-Read Next Year?: I'm not really a re-reader these days! I have too many new books to read!
Favorite Cover a Book You Read in 2014: So many! I really liked Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson! And Talon by Julie Kagawa was gorgeous too!
Most Memorable Character of 2014: Janco from Maria V. Snyder's Shadow Study--though I read that as an ARC! Daemon--like he could ever not be memorable!, from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Opposition, and Magnus from Morgan Rhodes' Gathering Darkness!
Most Beautifully Written Book Read in 2014: Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, a remarkable fantasy! Total love and ooohhh the twists and turns of not knowing who was who!!!
Most Thought-Provoking/Life-Changing Book of 2014: Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre, it definitely makes you rethink things on bullying and body image. Pretty emotional read, plus hot demon like guy! ;)
Book You Can't Believe You Waited UNTIL 2014 to Finally Read: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes! Seriously, WHY did I put that off again?!
Favorite Passage/Quote from a Book You Read in 2014: I don't always remember or mark the quotes that I liked! Kind of weird I guess, maybe I need to start doing that!
Shortest and Longest Book You Read in 2014? Shortest (non-novella):
Shortest: Crazy in the Blood by Lucienne Diver 215 pages
Longest: Cress by Marissa Meyer 550 pages
Book That Shocked You the Most: The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa...quite a few surprises and shocks in that one!
OTP of the Year: That would be Ivy and Ren from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Wicked! The fact that their from a JLA book should not be surprising!
Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of the Year: Well, that would have to be Ari and Janco from Shadow Study, but it's a 2015 book, but I seriously LOVE these two together! They're a riot!
Favorite Book You Read in 2014 from an Author You've Read Previously: Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout! Again, not surprising! I LOVE this woman and the way her mind works!! Her books are AMAZING!!!
Best Book You Read in 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY on a Recommendation from Somebody Else/Peer Pressure: That would be The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson! Sooooo many bloggers pushed this one that I felt obligated to try it! And I LOVED it!! READ IT! ;)
Newest Fictional Crush from a Book You Read in 2014: Well in the YA world that would be Magnus from Morgan Rhodes' Gathering Darkness! I was previously team Jonas in that realm, but then oohhhh things happened! Magnus all the way!!
In the adult world, it would be Ren from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Wicked! Gotta love it when the male hero is more your age!! Still a bit younger then me I believe, but not by much!
Best 2014 Debut: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige! LOVED it! I thought Maguire's Wicked was good, this was incredible!!
Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read this Year: The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz because it was a great cross with our world and a spirit/shadowy world that Paige saw when she looked at things a particular way! Plus ghosts and a very mysterious, hot guy! ;)
Another would be Mary E. Pearson's The Kiss of Deception! It was a perfect fantasy-esque world! So beautiful and the cover is gorgeous as well!
Book That Put a Smile on Your Face/Was the Most Fun to Read?: Oooh that would be Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout, because Daemon! What's not to smile about with that boy around?! He's so funny and snarky...and dreamy...that's enough to put a smile on my face!
But also The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz because Paige was hilarious! She's got a sassy attitude herself with a side of snark!
Book That Made You Cry or Nearly Cry in 2014?: Oh there were tears! Many tears. While I read on my break at work. Yeah. Not fun! And that was naturally Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard. If you read it, you know why the tears!
Hidden Gem of the Year: Ooh that would be Alyssa Rose Ivy's Dire! I've read her previous Crescent and Empire Chronicles, but this one just blew me away! I can barely describe why! I liked the romance, the suspense, the bit of mystery we got! Soooo cannot wait for more!
Book That Crushed Your Soul?: That would definitely be Susan Dennard's Strange and Ever After. The cause of the tears also crushed my soul. I poured my tears out to her when I met her a few months ago...it was just something that had to be done. And I got that! It fit with the "stuff"...but WHY?!
Most Unique Book You Read in 2014: Danielle Paige's Dorothy Must Die! I wasn't expecting what kind of twist to have with Wizard of Oz after Wicked, but oh wow! I LOVED this one! It was sooooooooo gooooooooood!!
Book That Made You the Most Mad (Doesn't Necessarily Mean You Didn't Like It)?: For me I was mad and I didn't like it! I was expecting so much more from this one! A mystery kind of read with a paranormal twist. And it was far, far, FAR from that in my opinion. That read would be The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson. I LOVED her Tiger Lily, so I was really expecting to love this one, but I so did not. :(
BLOGGING/BOOKISH LIFE
New Favorite Book Blog You Discovered in 2014: I actually discovered this one with the The Broke and the Bookish's Secret Santa project! It was my person I was Secret Santa to and that was Rebecca at The Library Canary! Funny how that worked out!
Favorite Review that You Wrote in 2014: Basically any JLA book, because I love gushing over that woman's work! It's incredible! And also Dire by Alyssa Rose Ivy! More love gushing over the amazingness of that one!
Best Discussion/Non-Review Post You Had on Your Blog: Basically any Random Thursday post! Especially ones regarding Disney factoids!! Those were fun to share! And I have a whole slew of them coming up for next year too! Plus a few books I bought with odd random facts!
Best Event That You Participated in (Author Signings, Festivals, Virtual Events, Memes, etc)?: RT 2014, YALLFest, the Julie Kagawa Signing, the Barbara Vey Luncheon, Maria V. Snyder signing, and the Rick Yancey signing...so very nearly EVERYTHING I went to this year!
Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life in 2014: Probably gaining 200 GFC Followers! Possibly a tad more!
Most Popular Post This Year on my Blog (by Comments!): That would be my review of The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson!
Post You Wish Got a Little More Love?: My review of Dire by Alyssa Rose Ivy! Sadly despite all my gushing and love over this one I didn't get any comments. :(
Best Bookish Discovery (Book related sites, bookstores, etc)?: Realizing that Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville qualifies for a long day trip when there is that MUST SEE Author in attendance!
Did You Complete Any Reading Challenges or Goals You Had Set for Yourself at the Beginning of this Year?: Yes! I completed all my challenges; Goodreads, TBR Challenge, COYER March Challenge, and another ebook challenge!
LOOKING AHEAD
One Book You Didn't Get to in 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?: Iced by Karen Marie Moning and the Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison.
Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut): The Forgotten Crown by Julie Kagawa! We are being promised it will release this year and I am DYING to read it!!! Talk about cliffhanger trauma!
2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?: A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas, because I LOVE fairytale reads! Be they retellings, reimaginings...whatever! I LOVE them!
Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?: Naturally that would be a Jennifer L. Armentrout book with the finale to the Dark Elements trilogy; Every Last Breath!
One Thing You Hope to Accomplish or Do in Your Reading/Blogging Life in 2015?: That would be reaching 2000 GFC Followers! Only 294 to go!
A 2015 Release You've Already Read and Recommend to Everyone: Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder--this continues Yelena's story, though you don't have to have read the Study trilogy, but I still highly recommend reading it because it was awesome!
The other is The Eternity Key by Bree Despain! OMG it was AWESOME! Read it a couple months ago and it leaves you dying for the next one! Read with caution! ;)
Fantastic list, Jessica! I have Faling Kingdoms and Kiss of Deception and really need to find time to read them both :)
ReplyDeleteAwww thanks so much for the shoutout! I was so shocked to see my name there. <3 Love your blog too! That's definitely something I love about the Secret Santa exchange. Discovering new blogs and making new blogging friends! I just finished Kiss of Deception btw and it was amazing!!! You were so right. Thanks again for all my Christmas goodies! You're the best!
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