Favourite Books of 2015

2015 has been a great reading year for me. My Goodreads Challenge started off at 50 books, then it was 60, then 70 and so on until I had it set for 100. In the end I reached 120 books and that's not including the books I have forgotten to add. The following is a list of my top 10 books of 2015. This list is in no particular order and only some of these books were published this year.

The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

This book which was released at the beginning of 2015 brought about the conclusion of the Bloodlines series and also brought about an absolutely fabulous ending to the Vampire Academy world. The ending of this book is one of those endings when you need more than 5 stars.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

This book was an intense and mind boggling read. This is one of those book that will test you and hold onto you long after you have read the last page. You will question everything in this book as to whether what you are reading is reality or not. So if you love a book that challenges your sanity this is your kind of book.

Click here for my full review.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander (previously published as Cross Stich) is one behemoth of a historical novel. But don't let this put you off. This story is filled with history, action, romance and a little bit of time travel. This book will draw you into a dark past and make you wish you could stay there.

Click here for my full review.

Red Queen by Victoria Averyard

While I must confess that it was the cover that originally drew me in, the story itself was absolutely incredible. It took me a couple of chapters to get hooked into this story but in the end I read it in one sitting. This book is filled with betrayal and treachery around every corner.

Click here for my full review.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This is the first book in the Caster Chronicles and is set in a small Southern American town. This book makes many references to To Kill a Mockingbird and the two stories share many similarities in the sense that both books are about overcoming prejudice with Beautiful Creatures being the paranormal take.

Click here for my full review.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places is Jennifer Niven's debut novel. This book will make you cry and laugh as you are drawn into the intense and dark lives of Violet and Finch as they through each other they try and learn to find happiness. This book is an emotional roller coaster but well worth the read.

Click here for my full review.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor

This is the first novel in a trilogy and a book I can find no faults in. The characters, the plot, the worlds, the writing style. This book is like nothing I have ever read before.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

This sci-fi book which is set on Mars was not what I expected. While I was intrigued I never believed I was going to be amazed. The characters are well thought out and the plot is well balanced. The book is filled with quite a bit of politics but this did not diminish the story.

Click here for my full review.

Cut & Run Series by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban

Cut & Run is the first book in a 9 book series which follows two FBI agents Zane Garret and Ty Grady as they struggle with falling in love with each other and trying to solve some of their toughest cases yet. Where Garret and Grady are involved things are bound to blow up, someone is sure to get shot and their may even be a big cat or two.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. A series which is quickly forging itself a permanent spot on my favourites shelf. While many people feel that this book sees the characters developing some major character shifts, I personally felt that this book was the first time none of the characters had to pretend to be anyone else in order to survive.

Click here for my full review.

Soundless

Title: Soundless

Author: Richelle Mead

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Number of Pages: 266

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Penguin

Summary: For as long as Fei can remember, no one in her village has been able to hear. Rocky terrain and frequent avalanches make it impossible  to the village, so Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, delivers from the zipline shrink. Many go hungry. Fei and all the people she loves are plunged into crisis, with nothing to look forward to but darkness and starvation.

Until one night, Fei is awoken by a searing noise. Sound becomes her weapon.

She sets out to uncover what's happened to her and to fight the dangers threatening her village. A handsome miner with a revolutionary spirit accompanies Fei on her quest, bringing with him new risks and the possibility of romance. They embark on a majestic journey from the peak of their jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiguo, where a startling truth will change their lives.

I read this book in one sitting, it was a quick, easy and light read of a very different and unique story. Three things in particular stood out about this book.

The first thing that I absolutely loved about this book was how Richelle Mead got around the fact that none of the characters could hear anything. We rely so greatly on sound and writing a book that is filled with people who cannot even fathom what sound is, takes some true talent. As you are reading and Fei gets her hearing back you feel as if you too are experiencing what sounds are for the first time. I was also amazed at how Richelle Mead described sounds. It's not easy to describe the sound something makes when we you can't use words associated with sound to describe it but Richelle creates a seamless way around this.

Another thing I loved about this book was the Chinese folk tale aspect. It is this folk tale aspect that brings the fantasy to the book. But if your not a big fantasy fan that's ok because this book isn't fantasy focused. Unfortunately this is one of things I also disliked about the book. I absolutely loved the Chinese folk tale idea and I would loved to have known more about it. Because of how short this book is, much of the story is told in the here and now. This meant that we only got the fantasy aspect at the end of the book when it was actually happening and didn't get much of a prelude or information in the beginning.

My final point about this book is the characters. Like with the fantasy aspect of this story much of the who the characters were was left untold due to happening outside the actual storyline. This I could understand because of how short the story was but I would like to have seen more character development that was directly tied into the plot events. Both Fei and Li Wei are strong characters who are spurred into action because it is called of them but this is who the characters are already. While they learn more about the outside world and lose some of their naive perspectives, this doesn't so much change them as educate them. But then perhaps that is the point, not everyone changes and grows from every event in their lives.