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.

Queen of Shadows

Title: Queen of Shadow

Series: Throne of Glass - book 4

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Number of Pages: 645

Publication Date: September 1st 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary (from the back of the book): Celaena Sardothien is cloaked in her assassin's hood once more. She is back in Rifthold, but this time she is no one's slave. She must delve into her most painful memories and fight for her survival, while resisting a smouldering passion that might very well consume her heart. And she will face former master, the King of Assassins, again - to wreak revenge for a decade of pain...

I don't really know where to begin with describing how much I love this book...so I'll start with.. I LOVE THIS BOOK!! In fact I love this whole series, each book somehow manages to get better than the last.

I found this book to be a lot like Throne of Glass, that is more character driven than plot driven. But where I found Throne of Glass a bit slow for this, Queen of Shadows instead brought out some fantastic character development. 

The character that stands out in this book for most character development would be Lysandra. As we learn more about Lysandra's past we begin to see how similar she is with Celaena. The two become what would have been just one book earlier, an unlikely team, yet they work so well together and become and unstoppable driven force.

The second character that makes some serious changes is obviously Celaena herself. First of all she now goes by her real name Aelin. Aelin begins to accept that she is the Queen of Terrasen and that she cannot keep running from her past. In this book we get glimpses of the queen that Aelin has the potential to be.

Chaol also makes some serious changes as a character. First off, Chaol finally realises that he has been blindly following his King for too long, which thank god! Chaol also begins to realise that magic is actually a part of the world and that he needs to stop thinking of everyone with magic, aside from Dorian, as a monster if they do. I have already seen many comments about how people found Chaol to be really different from previous books, but I found that this book revealed the person he has always been - as if for the first time we are truly seeing who Chaol is.

As I mentioned earlier I did find this book to be more character driven than plot but I actually thought that this was the best way this book could have been told. Like with Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows is told from multiple perspectives and with in seemingly unrelated sub-plots throughout, but once again Sarah J. Maas has managed to makes all of these moments a part of the larger story that you don't necessarily understand until you get to the end of the book. The way that Sarah tells her stories shows how talented a writer she is, that she manages to remember and include the smallest of details to give the story so much more depth and complexity. 

Despite the fact that this book is getting up there in page numbers at no point did this book feel long and daunting. I picked this book up and flew through it. In fact I picked it up and got so lost in it that I didn't even realise that two hours had past.

My favourite part of this book would have to have been the ending of this book. Sarah's book endings always leave me with a certifiably insane need for the next book and waiting for an entire year is likely to give me an eye twitch but this book was different. I am not saying that this book did not leave me needing the fifth book because it did and I do. But it also left me with a sort of completeness and happiness...why?...because for once Aelin gets a genuine happy moment. Minor spoiler alert: Aelin gets to return to Terrasen. In fact the books last line is: "And at long last, Aelin Ashryver Galanthynius was home." I mean after everything that has happened does that not give you the warm and fuzzies. With a line like that I will be able to survive until the next book comes out.

The Assassin's Blade

Title: The Assassin's Blade

Series: Throne of Glass - prequel novellas

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 4.5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Number of Pages: 430

Publication Date: 2014

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary: Celaena Sardothien owes her reputation to Arobynn Hamel. He gave her a home at the Assassin's Guild and taught her the skills she needed to survive.

Arobynn's enemies stretch far and wide - from Adarlan's rooftops and its filthy dens, to remote islands and hostile deserts. Celaena is duty-bound to hunt them down. But behind her assignments lies a dark truth that will seal her fate - and cut her heart in two forever...

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas is a collection of novellas from the Throne of Glass series. These novellas give a back story to how Celaena Sardothien become a prisoner of the Endovier Salt Mines.

Novellas Included:

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

The Assassin and the Healer

The Assassin and the Desert

The Assassin and the Underworld

The Assassin and the Empire

Sarah has a way of intertwining her stories lines seamlessly; she flawlessly adds scenes throughout this series which later connect to further tell another major plot point, and she even does it all without ruining the surprise. Her writing style is beautiful and unique and she creates a vivid and enthralling world you can't help but love.

If you haven't read the Throne of Glass series, you are missing out. This series which follows the badass assassin Celaena, or Adarlan's Assassin is unique and creative and Celaena as a character makes you feel a wide range of emotions. She suffers through betrayal's, love, friendship and loss. This assassin is no ordinary assassin, she operates in a sphere that is totally her own.

I wasn't as impressed with The Assassin's Blade as I was with the main series but I still was absolutely thrilled to learn more about Celaena. She is a character with a dark and slightly mysterious background and it was nice to get to know who Celaena was before she was sent away to the salt mines.

Because I loved being back in the world of Celaena but wasn't quite as impressed as I was with the actual books of the series, I give The Assassin's Blade 4.5 stars.