December 26, 2011

Top 10 Books I've read in 2011

Hello everyone!

I hope you've all had a great time on Christmas!:D

And now that 2011 is coming to an end, it's time to look back over all the amazing books we've read over the year and to see what we put on our keepers shelves.



To make it all fun and easy, Jessica (Confessions of a Bookaholic), Lisa (A Life Bound By Books), Rachel (Fiktshun) and Jaime & Patricia (Two Chicks on Books) are hosting a top 10 week event, where everyone can join the fun and share their favorite books, covers and characters of 2011.

So, today's topic is...

Top 10 Books of 2011!

I feel like I'm cheating (just a little), but I just couldn't narrow down ALL the books I read this year so far to 10. And because I read YA and Adult books alike (depending on my mood etc), I decided to make a top 10 YA books and a top 10 Adult books. I'll try to keep it short though, I promise. ;) (and the books are in no particular order)

Part I:  Top 10 YA Books of 2011

1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1)
by Michelle Hodkin
Published September 27th 2011
by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
*I know I said this was in no particular order, but Mara Dyer might just be my favorite book of the year. Or at least in my top 3. It's EPIC! And you either love it (like, really, really love it) or you hate it. One way or another, it gets to you!;)


2. Divergent (Divergent #1)
by Veronica Roth
Published May 3rd 2011
by Katherine Tegen Books
*Definitely the best Dystopian novel I ever read! PERFECTION!





3. Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) 
by Tahereh Mafi
Published November 15th 2011
by Harper/HarperCollins
*I'm still currently reading this one (grr, I had to put it aside for a while) but... Saying it's mind blowing would be a major understatement.



4. Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1)
by Richelle Mead
Published August 23rd 2011
by Razorbill






5. Twisted (Intertwined #3)
by Gena Showalter
Published August 30th 2011
by Harlequin
*I love this series! Though I might have enjoyed the first book in the series more (after the first two books, Gena Showalter really broke my heart with Twisted - and then stomped on the pieces), I thought I'd better mention in my top the one that came out this year. *sigh*


6. Blood Magic (The Blood Journals #1)
by Tessa Gratton
Published May 24th 2011
by Random House Books for Young Readers
*One of my favorite debut novels of the year! It's so perfectly well balanced! Beautiful writing, interesting, original plot, great characters and NO love triangle! Awesomeness!



7. Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1)
by Josephine Angelini
Published May 31st 2011
by HarperTeen






8. The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)
by Aimee Carter
Published April 19th 2011 by Harlequin







9. Obsidian (Lux #1)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Published December 6th 2011
by Entangled Publishing
*Umm... With all my Jennifer L. Armentrout fangirling on the blog lately, is anyone surprised that this book is on this list?:D (My review)




10. Falling Under (Falling Under #1)
by Gwen Hayes
Published March 1st 2011
by New American Library
*Falling Under was dark, twisted and a bit of a tear-jerker, but I loved it!




Honorable mentions:
The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson  (this book was so, so good; you don't need a favorite genre to love it), Half-Blood (Covenant, #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (the only reason this book is not on the main list is because I already had my top 10 books narrowed down by the time I read it and couldn't find it in myself to delete and replace any of those books; but yeah, Half-Blood was fantabulous!), Brightest Kind of Darkness (Brightest Kind of Darkness #1) by P.T. Michelle, Out for Blood (Drake Chronicles #3) by Alyxandra Harvey, Red Glove (Curse Workers, #2) Holly Black.... and ok, I should stop now. 


Part II:  Top 10 Adult Books of 2011

1. Shadowfever (Fever #5)
by Karen Marie Moning
Published January 18th 2011
by Delacorte Press
*Oh my... I can't even express how much I love this series. Hands down, my favorite book of the year - and possibly my favorite series EVER!




2. Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)
by Kim Harrison
Published February 22nd 2011
by Eos/HarperVoyager
*Favorite author, favorite series, favorite book in that series. Enough said :D





3. Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson #2)
by Darynda Jones (Goodreads Author)
Published August 16th 2011
by St. Martin's Press
*Love this series! Charley is so cool and hilarious! And Reyes... Mmm... *fans self*





4. The Shadow Reader (McKenzie Lewis #1)
by Sandy Williams
Published October 25th 2011 by Ace
*Great start to what I'm sure will become another favorite series! The word building was amazing!





5. Grave Dance (Alex Craft #2)
by Kalayna Price
Published July 5th 2011
by Penguin Group (USA)
*Interesting take on magic and Fae word.






6. Spirit Dances (Walker Papers #6)
by C.E. Murphy
Published March 22nd 2011 by Luna
*I actually see this series as The Hollows' little sister. There's something about the heroine and about Murphy's writing style that reminds me about Rachel and Kim Harrison. And of course, I loved them both. Keeping that in mind, Spirit Dances was for Walker Papers what Pale Demon was for The Hollows (they both had that "finally!' moment with the main characters. :D Mmmmm... <3)


7. Head Rush (The Disillusionists Trilogy #3)
by Carolyn Crane
Published December 6th 2011 by Samhain
*I'll confess it wasn't as mind blowing as I expected it to be (considering the long wait until it came out and the crazy cliffhanger the previous book ended with), but it was still very good. That happy ending was perfect and heart melting! <3




8. Eternal Rider (Lords of Deliverance #1)
by Larissa Ione
Published April 1st 2011
by Grand Central Publishing
*I love Larissa Ione (she may be my favorite Adult Paranormal Romance author!) All her books offer more than a love story; her style is not at all cheesy; all her characters are very well developed and the word building in her novels is pretty amazing! <3


And the last two books didn't come out in 2011, but I did read them this year, so I guess they still count, right?:D

9. The Immortal Highlander (Highlander #6)
by Karen Marie Moning
Published May 30th 2006 by Dell  
I adored this book! I LOVE Adam! And the sarcasm-snark-wit-innuendos-constant-banter-hate/love-relationships-badass-heroes lover in me was completely satisfied when I read it! This is the book I go to when I'm in a funky mood, it always makes me laugh and/or feel all warm and fuzzy!



10. Sin Undone (Demonica #5)
by Larissa Ione
Published September 1st 2010
by Grand Central Publishing
*I actually read the whole series this year, but book #5 was my favorite!<3




As a honorable mention, I'll add another older release that blew my mind this year: Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #15) by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Phew! That's a lot of books! And there are a lot of series I love but I didn't have the chance to read their latest release this year, otherwise they would have made the list too. Series like The Mortal Instruments, The Morganville Vampires, Night Huntress, Chicagoland Vampires, Elemental Assassin... 


Anyway, to join in the fun, all you have to do it so follow the event dates, post your Top 10s on the assigned dates and post your link on Mr. Linky on one of the hosts' posts.
More details about the event and the dates on the original post. They also have a generous giveaway:

Monday 12/26 – Top 10 Books I’ve read in 2011

Tuesday 12/27 – Top 10 Book Covers of 2011

Wednesday 12/28 – Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011

Thursday 12/29 – Top 10 Characters in 2011 (This can be anything you’d like to make it for characters. You can post your favorite Villains, etc. Just be sure that this post is character based.)

Friday 12/30 – Top 10 Books I’m looking forward to in 2012 (Also on this day, we’ll each be adding some kind of a recap of the total number of books read, pages read, etc. This part of the post is optional. Feel free to add any stats you’d like to share with everyone. So, if you’d like to also include some end of year stats, feel free to join us!)
xoxo
Deea

5 comments:

  1. Great List! A lot of these books I enjoyed!

    Come check out my Top 10 Lists. I created two seperate lists. One for adult/UF books and the other for YA books.

    Best of 2011: Young Adult
    Best of 2011: Urban Fantasy

    Hope you'll have time to check out my lists.
    Mystifying Paranormal Reviews

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome list! :) Man, I seriously need to read Obsidian! LOL

    And Falling Under - oooooooh! <33

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have I forgotten that I was already a Networked Blogs follower of yours? Duh..

    I really love your picks!

    I have read Divergent, Bloodlines, Starcrossed, Falling Under, Shadowfever, Pale Demon, Head Rush, and Eternal Reader, too and enjoyed all of them. (Falling Under and Eternal Rider less than the rest, though; Divergent is also the only one of this list I have picked out too - I picked another Fever novel *g*)

    Anyway: Happy Reading & Happy New Year,
    Patricia

    ReplyDelete
  4. So many of the books listed here are on my TBR list. I have a whole lot of catching up to do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shadowfever was amazing! I found this series in November of last year. I read through the first 4 books in the series within a couple of weeks, so I didn't have to wait too long for the final book in the series. Well worth the wait! Fantastic!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! I love comments! ♥

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