2014 Wrap-Up: Most Anticipated Books of 2015!

I know, I know, I usually make a list every month already, but there are ones I ESPECIALLLLLY WANT. :DD

I WANT ALLLLLLLLL THE BOOKS.

I'm just going to list the book, the author, the release date and why I want this book! (YES YES, okay, hate me for not giving you a synopsis.)

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Book: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Release Date: Janurary 27th

It's another Gayle Forman book!!
According to her, it contains the hottest guy she's ever written. So am I excited? YAS.
#noshame

Book: Fairest (Prequel to the Lunar Chronicles)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Release Date: January 27th

I want to know why Levana is an evil evil evil bitch. I want to know what threw the whole series into motion.
But I don't want to feel sorry for her. Can I just hate her in peace?

Book: All Fall Down (Book #1 in the Embassy Row series)
Author: Ally Carter
Release Date: January 27th

ALLY. CARTER. NEW. SERIES. I. WANT.
But seriously this sounds so awesome, and with me loving every single one of her novels, I NEEEEEEED IT.

Book: Red Queen (Book #1 in the Red Queen trilogy)
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: February 1st

It sounds like the perfect blend of fantasy and politics/revolutions, I've heard so many good reviews on it, and the cover is gorgeous.

Book: The Ruby Circle (Book #6 in the Bloodlines series)
Author: Richelle Mead
Release Date: February 10th

SYDRIAN.
PLUS IT'S THE LAST BOOK LIKE WHAAAT?!?!

*also can these covers get any worse? They just do not represent this series well.

Book: The Winner's Crime (Book #2 in the Winner's Curse trilogy)
Author: Marie Rukoski
Release Date: March 3rd

I WANT THIS BOOK SO BADLY. THAT LAST ENDING WAS NOT OKAY. I just want want want want want want this book.

Book: Miss Mayhem (Book #2 in the Rebel Belle trilogy)
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Release Date: April 7th

I love this cover so much. Can we hire this cover artist to redo the Bloodline series? This is so bright and colourful and represents the series so well. I'm so excited to see how the story is going to continues... since we kinda had a situation happen in the last one. PUMPED.

Book: The Girl at Midnight (Book #1 The Girl at Midnight series)
Author: Melissa Grey
Release Date: April 28th

It sounds like a modernized version of Shadow and Bone... which actually sounds really good. I'm excited to see how this turns out, and I've heard really great reviews so far.

Book: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Release Date: April 28th

You know how The Queen of the Tearling had all this hype last year because it sold for a 7 figure deal and Emma Watson signed on for the movie already? Yeah this book is getting almost as much hype, and the reviews have been GLOWING unlike The Queen of the Tearling. (I heard it also got sold for 7 figures or is that just the hype? CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THIS?)

Book: Rogue (Book #2 in the Talon series)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Release Date: April 28th

That last ending was the worst. It sucked. IT WAS PAIN.
Honestly, at this point, I'm just like JULIE KAGAWA JUST TAKE MY MONEY I WANT YOUR BOOKS. *may or may not have read all her books

Book: Crimson Bound
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Release Date: May 5th

ROSAMUND HODGE. ANOTHER FAIRYTALE RETELLING. MY HEART CANNOT. I WANT. I WANT.

Also the cover! WTFFF how it kind of mirrors Cruel Beauty but not really and AHHHHHHH ALL THE FEELS

Book: A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book #1 in A Court of Thorns and Roses series)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: May 5th

Sarah J. Maas+ Fairy/folk tales+ Faeries + Badassness= I NEED THIS BOOK. I NEED IT. I NEED IT. I WANT IT. I WANT.

And now the coverless/possibly release date-less & title-less ones.

End of Days (Book #3 in Penryn & the End of Days series), Susan Ee, May 12th

• I'm a little hesitant that this series got cut from its original 6 book plan to 3. I had no issues with where the second book ended because I thought at the time the series was going to be 6 books, but then I heard it got cut down to three, which now makes me really curious on how the series will actually conclude.

Book #3 in The Fifth Wave trilogy, Rick Yancey, August??

• I mean... it's the last one. I actually quite enjoyed The Infinite Sea, despite initially feeling very sketchy about it being so much smaller than the first book. I think the series is heading to a good conclusion and I'm excited to see how it wraps up. Unlike End of Days, I can actually see this series coming to an end. 

Book #4 in The Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas, September 10th 

• Let's pray this release date is for sure because that's my birthday. #againnoshame I'M SO EXCITED for the next installment of this series! This series just gets better and better and I'm dying to see how everything in Heir of Fire links up with together

Lady Midnight (Book #1 in The Dark Artifices series), Cassandra Clare, September??

• Emma and Julian! I loved little Emma in City of Heavenly Fire and I'm excited to see her grown-up and kicking ass with that fierce attitude of hers. If it's a Cassandra Clare book, we can expect pain. I'd like a shipment of extra tissues and chocolate please.

Book #3 in The Elementary Trilogy, Sherry Thomas, September

• THE END DRAWS NEAR. I'm so excited to see how this ends. YES YES. I actually think I could go with another 1-2 books in this series. I'd love to see a more drawn out novel focused on training or like politics and just UGH I DON'T WANT IT TO END :((

Winter (Book #4 in the Lunar Chronicles), Marissa Meyer, November 24th

• I NEED THIS. It's the last one oh my gosh!!!! I want to know Winter's story and just how everything's going to be resolved. After how things ended in Cress... this book cannot come soon enough. 

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2015 sounds like a pretty good year right now. These are the books I'm most excited for, and the chances of me actually writing a review for them are a little higher. I'm looking forward on what these books bring and ugh there's just so much to be excited about. Let me know what you're excited for!

Here's hoping I actually post a review this month. *fingers crossed

2014 Wrap-Up: Awards!

Again, this is completely biased and based on what I've read in the past year. I just do these... cause I think they're fun. :)

LET'S GO.

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Best First Book in a Series

The Winner's Curse, Marie R:

The Winner's Curse had it all in terms of a first book- wonderful characters and a intriguing world and plot, with an ending leaving you to want more.  Fingers crossed for the next book.


Honourable Mention: Snow Like Ashes, Sara Raasch

Best Continuation in a Series

Heir of Fire, Sarah J. Maas

Let's face it. No other book of 2014 (and possibly to come) could be as badass as this series. Heir of Fire was action packed and introduced a whole new level to the setting and plot and left us tense for what's to come. Only halfway into this six book series, there's no guessing what's going to come.


Honourable Mention: The Perilous Sea, Sherry Thomas

Best Finale 

City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare

This book just has so many memories and ties the bonds between The Infernal Devices and this series together so well. A finale that really wraps up all the characters and has character development like no other novel in this series with all the heart pounding you expect.


Honourable Mention: Blood of Olympus, Rick Riordan

Best Debut Novel

Cruel Beauty, Rosamund Hodge

I think I've said enough things about this book for you guys to realize how much I'm in love with it. Such a edgy, sexy and dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Rosamund Hodge has made it onto my auto-buy author list. Just take my money.


Honourable Mention: All Our Yesterdays, Cristin Terrill

Best Stand Alone Novel 

Cruel Beauty, Rosamund Hodge

I mean....



Honourable Mention: Across a Star-Swept Sea, Diana Peterfreund

Most Pain Inducing Cliffhanger

Talon, Julie Kagawa

Oh what's that sound? RIGHT IT'S THE SOUND OF ME DYING FROM THE ENDING.



Honourable Mention: The Winner's Curse, Marie Rutkoski

Best Cover

Everything Leads to You, Nina LaCour

So gorgeous. This cover reflects the artistic feel of the actual novel as well. Such a great combination of colours. Even prettier in person. (I own it!)


Honourable Mention: Rebel Belle, Rachel Hawkins

Most Disappointing

The Young Elites, Marie Lu

It almost kills me to put this book on my list. I loved Marie Lu' s Legend trilogy, it's probably one of my favourite dystopian series ever. I had such high hopes for The Young Elites. If a debut author had written this, I probably would've just given it a pass, thinking that perhaps the next novel will improve. But I know Marie Lu can do better than this, and I guess my standards were too high cause I was really disappointed.


(Dis)Honourable Mention: Landry Park, Bethany Hagen

The Ultimate Tearjerker/Heartbreaker

 The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

I went through a lot of tissues.


Honourable Mention: In the Afterlight, Alexandra Bracken (*for that one thing. That one freaking thing.)

Funniest 

Rebel Belle, Rachel Hawkins

Other than perhaps Rick Riordan, no other author knows how to combine humour with action so well other than Rachel Hawkins. This book was funny in all the right ways.


Honourable Mention: Blood of Olympus, Rick Riordan 

Biggest Surprise

The Dark World, Cara Lynn Shultz

Call me crazy. Call me insane. I should've hated every single trope and cliché in this book. But I didn't. I ended up loving this book. I was so surprised by how much I loved it. Cara reminds me why I love tropes and clichés.


Honourable Mention: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, Jessica Day George

Most Overrated 

Embrace, Jessica Shirvington

I've heard so many raving reviews for this series, so I finally gave it a try.
It does not live up to what it says. It just doesn't.



(Dis?)Honourable Mention: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black

Worst Book

Struck, Jennifer Bosworth

Look, I don't like chewing out books. As bad as they can be, I know that people have put effort in it. But this book. This book has so many fucking issues. The clichés don't work. The premise is great but torn apart by execution and plot. Just. I don't like this book.



(Dis)Honourable Mention: Fates, Lanie Bross



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SO THAT WAS FUN. Um I feel like I write these for myself mainly... I think they're really fun (and torturing) and it highlights more aspects of books. I don't know maybe I'm just weird haha.
ONE MORE DAY TO GO.

2014 Wrap-Up: My Top Ten! (Blog-A-Thon Day 2)

The most biased thing I'll write all year. Not all of these are 2014 releases... cause lord knows if I can even keep up with new releases anymore.

First up though, some honourable mentions BECAUSE THIS WAS REALLY HARD TO DECIDE. 

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Honourable Mention 

Ignite Me

Series review found here. 

I surprised myself but how much I liked this book actually. While I've always been a big fan of the Shatter Me series and Tahereh Mafi's AMAZING writing, it never actually got anywhere near my favourites list. But um yeah this one. I really liked what happened in this one. (Chapter 55 #noshame) I wished we got a bit more of a conclusion but how everything came together and how far we've come in terms of character development is astonishing. As always, Tahereh Mafi is an amazing writer I literally cannot like HOW?!

Prep School Confidential

This book. I've been wanting it for a while but I finally got my hands on it this year, and can I just say MOST MISLEADING COVER EVER. Literally do not take the cover seriously. This book is so much more thrilling and well paced, with good tension and red herrings, making a great intricate mystery novel and a fun novel with a likeable sassy queen bee character with a fun teenage-y dramatic romance. So much fun to read. (I have the second one on order IT'S COMING)

The Top Ten

Cruel Beauty

Review found here. 

How much did I love Cruel Beauty? Let's see... I read it in February/March, and by then I KNEW. I knew that it had to be on my top ten list at the end of this year. I was am OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK. I love it so much. It is so sexy, edgy, and dark and unique and and and ASDFGHJKLHGDSF FEELS. 

It's such a beautiful retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with such interesting ideas thrown into it and a chilling but thrilling atmosphere with such different and refreshing characters, I CAN'T DESCRIBE IT. 

Just read this book. You'll thank me for it later.

The Winner's Curse

When this book came out, I really wanted to read it, BUT I didn't get around to it. I eventually did get my hands on it and OHMYGOD. Can I just. It was mindblowing. I was so BLOWN AWAY by the plot, the world, the characters JUST EVERYTHING. AND THE END. WTF WAS UP WITH THE ENDING HUH. Like ugh I couldn't believe how good this book was I was in so much shock. Then I was like Marie Rutkoski... hey that sounds familiar. One Goodreads search later and I realized it was the author of The Shadow Society, a novel I had really liked last year, and like everything just came together and SPFTYSYT EXPLOSION OF FEELS. The characters are so likeable, the relationships so genuine, and such an interesting plot combining politics and heartstopping action with high stakes and just wow. I'm just so in love with this novel.

Heir of Fire

This is the third book in the Throne of Glass series and I swear this series just somehow keeps overcoming the ridiculously high standards I have for it. I ADORED Throne of Glass and while I loved Crown of Midnight, I was a little concerned when I heard this was a six book series BUT NOT ANYMORE. This book was SO badass and such a great addition of new funky and interesting characters and how it continues of the ending of Crown of Midnight and just. Somehow character development can still happen, despite the fact that Celaena feels like an old friend by now. I don't understand how Sarah J. Maas does this but OHMYGOD. Seriously, this is starting to compete with Harry Potter as my favourite fantasy series. If you have not started on this series YOU HAVE GOT TO GET ON THE BANDWAGON.

Cress

THIS BOOK IS CRUEL AND UNFAIR AND MEAN AND IT'S EVERY FANGIRL'S NIGHTMARE BECAUSE MARISSA MEYER LITERALLY SENDS A TSUNAMI TO YOUR SHIPS.
She just continues to nail this series and meld it so well with the original fairytales, somehow making everything connect. I adore the characters so so so so much. I love Cinder, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, and Captain Thorne, my beloved fugitive. :)) So basically everyone.
I hate Levana with a burning passion though. *slight hisssss

The Book Thief

I did it. I finally read it. And I cried really really really hard.

Across a Star-Swept Sea

I wonder if any of you guys have heard of this one? I love this book and went out and bought it along with For Darkness Shows the Stars because I love it so much. I know it was inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, but as we all know, Carmen sucks at reading classics so I can't give you an opinion on how well it takes on the original (thought I've heard it does a good job) but I can say that it's such a great plot and characters and set in such an interesting world. Those who have read For Darkness Shows the Stars will have a nice surprise in store for them, but you don't need to read For Darkness Shows the Stars at all to understand this novel.

The Perilous Sea

Let's be honest, is anyone surprised this is on my list? I loved The Burning Sky last year and Sherry Thomas continues to wow us with such a tense and breathtaking way to continue The Perilous Sea. When I read the first two chapters I had like a panic of feels and this whole novel was told from past to present and you're just waiting for everything to connect together. Iolanthe and Titus are still characters so enjoyable to read from and the world of these novels continue to expand and add layers, with badass magic. And then the end. ohmygosh the end. I'm so excited for the third novel.

The Unbound

Wesley. Ayers.
Okay maybe a little more than that. This is a fantastic follow up to The Archived, with so much more revelaed and like heart palpitations from the mystery and hotness that is Wesley Ayers. (Seriously, no one makes guyliner work more than you. Except for maybe Park.) Mackenzie continues to grow as a protagonist and I adore her and Wesley's relationship. The way they begin to learn to trust one another and the more they learn about each other is really well done and the plot is great. Victoria Schwab continues to be an author who really knows how to place her characters in dangerously thrilling worlds yet still be able to have good character development within that world. With such a great premise, I will fucking scream if this is the last Archived novel.

These Broken Stars

I thought I was going to hate this book. It sounded so cliché and despite all the glowing reviews I heard, I just thought it sounded too good to be true.
Turns out I was wrong. This book could've been annoying and cliché but... it wasn't. The characters had layers and were complex which I think made everything work out. While there was attraction between Lilac and Tarver, it was not insta-love. The world in this novel felt so big and unexplored, so many different tidbits that we could discover from it. So many cool sci-fi elements that were incorporated and everything meshed together in a really enjoyable space-travel romance, which has been a genre I've never particularly enjoyed.

Snow Like Ashes

I describe this as Frozen meets Game of Thrones. I haven't read Game of Thrones or watched the show,  (#shame) but from what I know and what I imagine it to be, that's how this book would be like. Meira is such fiery burning character, with insecurities that she acknowledges, and is badass. The love triangle is not annoying. The two love interests are, get this: likeable. Both of them. The plot is well paced, and the world is well developed. I'm looking forward to the next novel, because let's face it, we need MORE THERON.

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Wow, another year and another set of books that have given me pain joy. This year has been the weirdest reading year me for sure, because a) school and b) I didn't read a lot of the new releases. I also read less cause again SCHOOL (honestly, university students please tell me uni is easier).

This year, I'm setting my challenge number down again, to 90 which makes me really sad, recalling that three years ago, my number was over 200. (and I completed it, thank you very much) But hopefully within the 90 there will be ones that excites me like these ones did.

Janurary 2014

Monthly Wish List for this month and what I've read and seen this past month.

Book List: 

*synopses may be 

 if you have not read the previous books in the series. All synopses were found on Goodreads

Book: The Darkest Part of the Forest

Author: Holly Black

Release Date: January 13th 

Synopsis:

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Book: The Conspiracy of Us

Author: Maggie Hall

Release Date: January 13th

Synopsis:

To fight her destiny as the missing heir to a powerful and dangerous secret society, sixteen-year-old Avery West must solve an ancient puzzle in a deadly race across Europe. Forbidden love and code-breaking, masked balls and explosions, destiny and dark secrets collide in this romantic thriller, in the vein of a YA DaVinci Code.

Avery West's newfound family can shut down Prada at the Champs-Elysees when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. 

They are part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle of Twelve, and Avery is their missing heir. If they discover who she is, some of them will want to use her as a pawn. Some will want her dead. 

To thwart their plans, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the landmarks of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul and through a web of ancient legends and lies. And unless she can stay one step ahead of beautiful, volatile Stellan, who knows she’s more than she seems, and can decide whether to trust mysterious, magnetic Jack, she may be doomed after all.

Book: All Fall Down (Book #1 in the Embassy Row series)

Author: Ally Carter

Release Date: January 27th

Synopsis:

Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things:

1. She is not crazy.
2. Her mother was murdered.
3. Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay.

As certain as Grace is about these facts, nobody else believes her–so there’s no one she can completely trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door who is keeping an eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands.

Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. But they can’t control Grace–no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do.

Her past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn’t stop it, Grace isn’t the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world all stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

Note from Carmen: WHO IS FLIPPING EXCITED CAUSE I AM OH MY GOD

Book: We Can Work It Out (Book #2 of The Lonely Hearts Club)

Author: Elizabeth Eulberg

Release Date: January 27th 

Synopsis:

When Penny Lane started The Lonely Hearts Club, the goal was simple: to show that girls didn’t need to define themselves by how guys look at them, and didn’t have to value boyfriends over everything else. Penny thought she’d be an outcast for life…but then the club became far more popular than she ever imagined it would be.

But what happens when the girl who never thought she’d date a good guy suddenly finds herself dating a great one? She doesn’t need a boyfriend… but she wants it to work out with this particular boyfriend. And he wants it to work out with her.

Only, things keep getting in the way. Feelings keep getting hurt. Words keep getting misunderstood.

Penny Lane worked hard to declare her independence. Now she needs to figure out what to do with it — and how to balance what she wants with what everyone else wants. In We Can Work It Out, Elizabeth Eulberg returns to the world of her first novel, The Lonely Hearts Club, and gets to the heart of how hard relationships can be… and why they are sometimes worth all the drama and comedy they create. 

Book: Fairest (Prequel to The Lunar Chronicles) 

Author: Marissa Meyer

Release Date: January 27th 

Synopsis:

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series. 

Note from Carmen: I WANT THISSSSSSS *grabby hands

Book: I Was Here

Author: Gayle Forman

Release Date: January 27th 

Synopsis:

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.
 
I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

Note From Carmen: It's Gayle Forman. I love Gayle Forman's books. I'm so FREAKING excited.

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December Obsessions

Books:

Prep School Confidential

Snow Like Ashes

Other Stuff:

Annoying my dog with my Christmas singing

Things I Read/Saw in December:

Lord of the Flies

Everything Lead to You 

Easy (Book #1 in the Contours of the Heart)

The Shadow of the Wind (Book #1 in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books)

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

In the Afterlight (Book #3 in The Darkest Minds trilogy)

The Young Elites (Book #1 in The Young Elites series)

Say What You Will

The Distance Between Us

Talon (Book #1 in the Talon series)

Thornhill (Book #2 in the Hemlock trilogy)

Being Sloane Jacobs

Rebel (Book #2 in the Reboot duology)

The Cadet of Tildor