2014 Look-Back: Raves

In the last post, I talked about the worst books I read this year.  This post is dedicated to all of my favorites!  These books all received either a four- or five-star rating from me.  Here is why.

Sorcerer's Feud
via Goodreads

Sorcerer's Feud by Katharine Kerr was one of my favorite books of the year.  I got to read it in beta a couple of times, which was exciting enough.  When I finally read the finished product, it was awesome to see how the book had progressed to the completed point.

Granted, this is book two in the series, so I highly recommend reading the first book, Sorcerer's Luck, before you start this one.  The series itself is interesting because it deals with Norse mythology in modern-day San Francisco, and a relationship that begins incredibly quickly but is grounded in past lives.  I loved the exploration of the main characters' past lives, how they connect with what happens to them in their current life, and how they affect the relationships they form with others.

Hollow City
via Goodreads

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs continues the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series wonderfully.  My only problem, and it was completely my own, was that it had been so long since I read the first book I was a little lost in the beginning.  But once I got further into the story and the adventure, I felt like I was in their world running along with them.  The danger was constant, the worry and fear always there in the back of my mind.  I was afraid for all of the children, but also had a lot of faith in their ability to overcome everything thrown at them.  They truly are peculiar children, but they are also remarkable.

This book was nominated for a Goodreads Choice award this year, and I was surprised it didn't win.  At least it came in second!

Three Souls
via Goodreads

Three Souls by Janie Chang was by far the best book I ever received in the Goodreads First Reads program.  It was beautifully written, a wonderful story and one of the best I read this year.  Since I like my own review so much (har har) I'm just going to quote one of the reasons I loved it so much:

I adored the main character, through all her faults and inability to understand she was dealing with things that were much too adult for her. Her character in death was beautifully contemplative and I loved how she was able to see, along with the reader, the impulse of youth contrasted with the reflection of consequences. We all forget, as teenagers, that our actions have repercussions. Even in our adult life it's hard to picture what will happen if we make this decision or that one. In death we are able to see exactly how everything Leiyin did in her youth contributed to the events around her, even without her knowledge or comprehension.

Poison Study
via Goodreads

Poison Study by Maria Snyder only got four stars from me, but that's not to say I didn't adore it.  I took issue with the relationship between the main characters, and the ending.  Both of these issues are expanded on in my review, but I don't want to post spoilers here.  I loved the writing and the story, something I had never read before.  Maybe someone else has written something similar in the past, but to me it was wholly original.

I recommend this book to all fantasy lovers who also like YA fiction.  There is some brutality involved, but I felt it was well-done and inherently relevant to the story.  The continuation in book two was also a great read, and I'm looking forward to finishing the series this year.


I read some pretty awesome books this year, not all included in this retrospective.  I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I did!  And don't forget to set your goals for 2015.  I look forward to seeing how everyone completes their journeys in reading next year!

2014 Look-Back: Duds

In my last post, you saw an overall picture of how my year in reading went.  In this one, I'm going to take a look at all three of the one-star books, and why they received their ratings.

Goddess Interrupted
via Goodreads

Goddess Interrupted by Aimée Carter was book two in her Goddess Test series.  Book one received two stars from me, but this one only merited one star.  I was so angry by the end of this book that I threw it across the room.  What a horrid example of relationships!  The main character spends the entire book complaining that her husband doesn't pay attention to her, and he doesn't love her, but she wants him to love her so badly, why doesn't he love her, why can't he show her affection, why why why whine whine whine.  It was awful.

On top of all of the insecure whining that goes on, there was the ridiculous mythology that was carried over from book one, that fits absolutely nothing from the original mythology.  While adaptation is not a bad thing, this one completely discards history in favor of a ridiculous romance.  Complete and utter fail.

Fractured Dream
via Goodreads

Fractured Dream by KM Randall was another failure for me.  It sounded like a somewhat interesting premise, although considering that we now have shows like Once Upon a Time exploring fairy tales from new angles, maybe it's not as original as I had thought it.  I had a hard time getting through this mostly because of the unprofessional writing, the constant use of the main character's name (Story, ugh), and melodramatic teen angst.  It turned out to be yet another one of those teen-girl-comes-of-age-and-finds-out-she's-a-savior things, but not done very well.

The odd sexual tension didn't help either.  Story and Adam, Story and Nicholas (I actually had to skim a few reviews because I couldn't remember his name), Elliot and literally every single male in the book...

Children Into Swans
via Goodreads

I received a copy of Children Into Swans by Jan Beveridge from NetGalley for the purpose of reviewing it.  However this is one I could not finish to save my life.  It read like an undergraduate academic paper, not professionally written or edited, with very strange personal interjections throughout.  It didn't help that I couldn't figure out where the related stories ended and the exposition began again.

Part of my problem was that I had gone in expecting more fairy tales to be told, but instead I was given a few snippets of fairy tales and then some regurgitated research that had already been done.  There wasn't even an original revelation on any of the stories in any of the pages I read.  I could have just read the original research, and the original stories.  This was a dud.

Stay tuned for the next post dealing with the "studs," my favorite books of the year!

2014 Look-Back: Overall Reading List

This year has been an interesting reading year for me.  I had a lot of fun discovering new authors and series I enjoyed, but also wasted a lot of time on books that I really didn't like.  It's been an up-and-down rollercoaster, but wow what a ride!  Below you can see a map of all of the books I read this year, courtesy of Goodreads.

In total I read 85 books, beating my goal of 60!  This was a huge accomplishment for me, not only because that's a lot of books, but also because it's my highest number yet since I started tracking in 2011.  Maybe I could be considered cheating since I counted short stories on here, but when they're counted on Goodreads as a book, I think it's only fair, right?

A few stats for my reading this year:

• In total, I read 27,359 pages, almost double my page count for last year (16,717).  The longest book I read was The Abominable by Dan Simmons, weighing in at a hefty 663 pages!
• I rated the majority of the books I read as 3 stars (33), followed by 4 stars (30), 2 stars (11), and 5 stars (8).  I only gave three books 1 star.
• The oldest book I read was The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, published in 1988.  This is the first year in which I did not leave the last century.  From my Goodreads map, it looks like the majority of books I read were actually published in the last two or three years, and a few are actually being published in 2015.

Another thing I've been doing this year is participating in the What we've read in 2014 Listopia list.  I love seeing where my books fit in, what I've read compared to others, and how popular the books I've read this year were.  I'm not surprised by the books that ended up at the top, but I admit I'm surprised by some of the books that I read that ended up at the bottom!

In my next post, I'll explore some of the books I really enjoyed and highly recommend, and a few that I felt were complete duds.  In the meantime, take a look at my 2014 book map!

Megan's bookshelf: read

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Review: Goddess Test

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ugh. Cassandra Clare said this was a great book. Much like her book being reviewed by Stephanie Meyer, mother of dreck, I should have known better. There are spoilers for the entire book in this review.

I'm running out of things to say about all the YA I've been reading lately, because it's all starting to sound the same. Why? Because all the books I've been reading are all reading the same way. One thing I've noticed is that every YA author seems to have picked up a liking for the word "deft(ly)" at the same time, and love sprinkling it everywhere. Also, whenever you kiss someone, your lips get swollen so badly you need to mention it. The other thing I'm noticing is that, plot-wise, nothing matters nearly as much as the romance. And that's just no fun.

I don't mind a romance, but I'm starting to think that teen girls are being encouraged to fall in love with the first or second guy they meet, at age 16-17-18, and let that consume their entire being. Their lives suddenly become all about making the guy happy. What about their own happiness? What about their own identities? By the end of this book, Kate is married (she's 18), she's become immortal, and she's 100% certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that she'll never stop loving Henry ever ever ever! She did this entire thing so that she could (a) spend more time with her mom before she dies, and (b) keep Henry from fading away. But what about her life? What about her hopes and dreams? She has zero identity outside of being Henry's new wife and queen of the Underworld. And that strange love triangle with James was forced and awkward. I never would have gone for that angle.

I remember, back when I was a teenager reading YA fantasy, there was actual fantasy amid the romance. The romance did not take center stage, it was often only a background element that blossomed into something more much later in a series. Take, for example, Tamora Pierce's Tortall books. Magic, intrigue, adventure, lots and lots of danger and excitement, and oh, a little romance here and there. Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle is also a great example of fantasy taking center stage, with the romance as something on the side. Why is that so hard to find in this generation of YA fantasy? Why is it that all teen girls (and adults who read YA) apparently want to read about is how a hot girl gets with a hot guy (or a not-so-hot girl gets with a super-hot guy), and oh maybe there's some magic here and there?

Lastly, the writing on this was so glaringly obvious that I had no trouble figuring out James was on the council, and that Kate's mom was actually the goddess Diana. Sorry if that ruined anything for you. I promise that you would have seen it coming a mile away yourself, unless you're super dense.

And I won't even get into the whole mythology thing. That has been very thoroughly covered in other reviews. (These are just two. Go see the multitude for yourself.)

The only reason I'm going to read book 2 is because I swapped for it at the same time as this one, and it's been sitting in my house, and I feel like I should read it before I send it away.

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Review: The Bards of Bone Plain

The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't think my brain was in the right place when I started this book. I had such a hard time getting into it, I was bored and it was putting me to sleep (literally, I'd fall asleep after only a few pages).

But picking it up again a few days ago, determined to finish, I realized it was actually a very good book. Once I got to the halfway point I was much more interested and felt more connected to it. It was still a bit abstract, I don't really understand what happened to Nairn in the tower, but I liked the writing and the characters (for the most part).

Recommended for fantasy readers if you are looking for some good high fantasy with some abstract ideas of magic.

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