A Life Bound by Books, Confessions of a Bookaholic, Two Chicks on Books and Fiktshun have put together a fun little end of the year fun-ness for us bloggers to take part in as we all look back on the books we've read in 2011 and look forward to what 2012 has in store for us.
View the schedule and participating blogs here
Top 10 Books I’ve read in 2011
(In no particular order)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Published: May 31, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
My Review
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Why I liked it: I love Greek Mythology. Starcrossed takes those legends and brings them to present day. It has constant action, plus add in some great spins on the romance. You can't get much better than this.
Synopsis: How do you defy destiny?
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.
As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: October 1, 2008
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
My Review
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Why I liked it: I was probably one of the last people to have read this series. Better late than never. Once I started, it was impossible to put down. The whole series was engrossing and addictive! Each book made you feel like you were a part of it's World.
Synopsis: Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.
Author: Francine Rivers
Published: October 1, 2009
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
My Review
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Why I liked it: This book introduced you to various biblical females and told their stories from their point of view. It amazed me how much we can still relate to these women today. This is a book you can read again and again, and learn something new each time.
Synopsis: In this compilation of the five books in the best-selling Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers, we meet the five women whom God chose—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary—even scandalous—challenges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.
Author: Amanda Havard
Published: March 29, 2011
Publisher: Chafie Press, LLC
My Review
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Why I liked it: The Survivors blends mythology, history, and fiction so well, I found myself researching to find out what is real and what came from the mind of the author. I found the book to be highly original and was introduced to some creatures I had never heard of before.
Synopsis: In 1692, when witch trials gripped the community of Salem, Massachusetts, twenty-six children were accused as witches, exiled, and left for dead. Fourteen of them survived.
The Survivors is the first installment of the tantalizing tales of the fourteen ill-fated Survivors and their descendants, who have been content in hiding for over three centuries. Isolated on a Montana mountainside, only Sadie, the rogue daughter, dares to abandon the family's sacred hiding place. But no matter how far Sadie runs, something always pulls her back.
On a muggy summer night in Tennessee, she witnesses a shocking scene that will change her life forever. It is the first in a sequence of events that will drag her from the human world she's sought to belong to for over a century and send her back to her Puritanical family and into an uncertain future filled with cunning witches, mysterious nosferatu shape-shifters, dangerous eretica and vieczy vampires, millennia-old mythology, and the search for her own mortality. After all...
HOW DO YOU KILL A SURVIVOR?
Author: D. Apodaca
Published: June 10, 2011
Publisher: Eminent Books
My Review
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Why I liked it: I'm a sucker for a pretty cover. This book cover lured me in, but it didn't stop there. It loved up to it's name. I love it when I think I've figured a book out and it surprises me.
Synopsis: Mindy Keenan couldn't shake the feeling that somehow...in a matter of moments...the boy she once knew was not the one standing before her.
After Mindy's childhood best friend, Dean Aiken, shuts her and everyone else out of his life, she learns to move on. Years pass and she gets used to the fact that he's no longer a part of her life, but things begin to change
Mindy's new best friend, Markus Medina, witnesses Dean kill two people behind a club. Mindy has a hard time believing him, especially when he mentions that the bodies disappear. Poof! Into thin air. Markus decides he has to follow Dean around in order to get evidence that he's been killing people, so he doesn't sound like a nut to the police.
Despite Marcus' crazy theories about the possibility of Dean not being human. And not to mention the fact that he's dangerous. Mindy can't help that she may be falling in love with him. Even after hiding their feelings for each other from the world. Dean and Mindy being together stirs up dangers that neither of them could ever imagine. When she finds out about what Dean really is and the world he tried to keep her away from...it's already too late.
Author: Bonnie Erina Wheeler
Published: July 21, 2011
Publisher: Compelling Read
My Review
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Why I liked it: Fate Fixed had a little bit of everything. secrets, drama, supernatural creatures, an intense love affair. Oh yeah!
Synopsis: When Lexie Anderson’s mother suddenly announces she is marrying a Romanian immigrant, Lexie willingly leaves behind her busy life in Connecticut for her penance in “The Moose Capital of the World.” Small town living is strange enough, now Lexie must cope with her overbearing stepfamily monitoring her every move. They disappear into the woods at night and keep a strange secret locked in their shed. Her once calm mother is now having violent outbursts and Lexie’s little sister is hearing sinister sounds coming from the forest behind their new home. Lexie’s biggest surprise comes when she discovers the boy she has been dreaming about since her accident is living in Maine. Despite Torin’s questionable reputation, Lexie cannot resist the physical and emotional attraction pulsating between them. Animals and people in town are turning up dead and Lexie learns the strange new world she lives in has real life monsters. Just when she decides she wants to be with Torin forever, she must fight to protect her mother and sister from being harmed by a formidable evil.
Author: Melanie Dickerson
Published: November 29, 2011
Publisher: Zondervan
My Review
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Why I liked it: Once of my favorite fairy tales is Beauty and the Beast. The Merchant's Daughter is a wonderful portrayal of the classic tale with a many new twists of it's own.
Synopsis: An unthinkable danger. An unexpected choice.Annabel, once the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is trapped in indentured servitude to Lord Ranulf, a recluse who is rumored to be both terrifying and beastly. Her circumstances are made even worse by the proximity of Lord Ranulf's bailiff---a revolting man who has made unwelcome advances on Annabel in the past.Believing that life in a nunnery is the best way to escape the escalation of the bailiff's vile behavior and to preserve the faith that sustains her, Annabel is surprised to discover a sense of security and joy in her encounters with Lord Ranulf. As Annabel struggles to confront her feelings, she is involved in a situation that could place Ranulf in grave danger. Ranulf's future, and possibly his heart, may rest in her hands, and Annabel must decide whether to follow the plans she has cherished or the calling God has placed on her heart.
Author: J.D. Watts
Published: December 2, 2010
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House
My Review
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Why I liked it: Finally an angel book with strong, intelligent angels!!! I got tired of angels looking weak and ignorant of the ways of the world like you see in so many other books out there right now. I was glad to finally read a book that depicts angels closer to how I imagine them to be.
Synopsis: In modern times, mankind believes they know all that there is to know about the world around them. Arrogant in their ignorance, they travel through life completely unaware of the other beings in their midst, the other Children of Creation. Celestial Angels and Fallen walk amongst them unseen, while the third beings of creation, the Guardians, live along side them, protecting them from attacks of the Fallen.
Daniella Rossi is a nineteen year old college student who sees the world quite differently than those around her. From infancy, she was aware of the beings that walked among her kind who were not like them, as well as her own personal Guardian who watched over her. Dani always knew she was different, but she never dreamed the full scope of her importance.
Follow Dani as her life takes an unexpected turn when a new Guardian is assigned to replace her lifelong companion and friend. Much older, more experienced, and socially awkward, Nathaniel must learn to adjust himself to fit into Dani’s world in order to guard her without drawing unwanted attention. While the Fallen are determined to capture Dani, she and Nathaniel find themselves developing a bond that goes far beyond that of Guardian and charge. Facing the strains of a brewing war and forbidden affections, will they be ready for the coming battle? Will Dani be able to handle the truth of her existence and destiny?
Author: Ella James
Published: September 14, 2011
Publisher: Barkley Books
My Review
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Why I liked it: Not many books make it into my dreams. The first night I picked it up, I was so engrossed in the story that even after putting it down to go to sleep, it made its way into my dreams.
Synopsis: After a fire destroys seventeen-year-old Julia’s home and kills her foster parents, she chases the monster responsible across the country and back, determined to avenge her family and discover why a host of baddies want her dead. With Julia is enigmatic hottie, Cayne, who has his own score to settle with the half-demon, and who might be just as dangerous as the creature he and Julia hunt.
Author: Jordan Dane
Published: December 27, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
My Review
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Why I liked it: I loved the cover so, that got my attention right away. This book wasn't at all what I expected which was a good thing in this case. It stayed with me. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it.
Synopsis: "The choices I had made led to the moment when fate took over. I would learn a lesson I wasn’t prepared for. And Death would be my willing teacher."
Five years ago Abbey Chandler cheated Death. She survived a horrific car accident, but her lucky break came at the expense of her mother’s life and changed everything. After she crossed paths with Death—by taking the hand of an ethereal boy made of clouds and sky—she would never be normal again.
Now she’s the target of Death’s Ravens and an innocent boy’s life is on the line. When Nate Holden—Abbey’s secret crush—starts to climb Alaska’s Denali, the Angel of Death is with him because of her.
Abbey finds out the hard way that Death never forgets.
What are your favorite books that you read this year??
Yay for Hunger Games! It's on my list too. But I haven't read any of the other books :(
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I'm happy to see THG on so many so far -- that series definitely deserves the hype. I can't wait to read On a Dark Wing.
ReplyDeleteMy Top Ten
I'm about to read On A Dark Wing and Starcrossed very soon. I loved The Hunger Games! Great picks!
ReplyDeleteMy Top 10 of 2011