Top 6 Books of 2016
So I read a lot of really great books during the year of 2016 and while I would love to say that all of the books that I read last year are my top books it is with a heavy heart that I say that this is not true. I did read some that were not to my liking and I’ll get to those in another post.
I did do some re-reads last year and this post will not include those. At some point during the year I’ll do a few post about my top reads of all time. These are all books that I rated 5 stars on goodreads. Let’s start with two that I absolutely loved and have to say that the third book is my most anticipated book of 2017.
1. Illuminae & 2. Gemina
So I lumped these two together because these are the first two books in an amazing trilogy that will end some time this year. The tentative release date is set for October. However, lets not talk about a release date for a book that does not even have a title yet even though that is really honestly all I want to do because the third and final book of this trilogy is my most anticipated book release of 2017. I have no shame in admitting this.
So Illuminae is the first book in this sci-fi young adult novel. The story telling is told through files, documents, instant messaging, and even from the artifical intelligent systems of the ship that they are on. We follow Kady and Ezra our two main characters of this book. The planet that the two of them are living on is attacked by a company and as they are trying to flee are being stopped but our two main characters and Kady’s mother manage to flee. From there it is non stop action for this book. The graphics are amazing and the story telling is the best that I have seen because of the way it is told.
Gemina is the second book in this sci-fi young adult novel. The story telling is told though the same way that the first book is. Except in this one we follow two different characters. While I am usually not a big fan of character switching in books I could not help but love this. This makes the story bigger than the original book. You see more of the world that they have created for you to see and live in and it’s an amazing world at that.
I love the world building that the two of them have done and the story telling just keeps getting better and better and it just sucks you in from page one. While I will be sad to see this story end I am wonder what other amazing things these two authors will come up with.
3. The Kiss of Deception
So this was one of the last books that I read during 2016 and I loved it. I could barely get enough of this book. Once I got to reading it I just couldn’t stop. I enjoyed all of the different perspectives that I got to read. It as amazing seeing all of the different points of view (POV) and how either the other character was angry or sad. And you never really see it coming on which of the boys was sent to kill her.
You think that they both have feelings for this run away princess pretending to be a tavern maid it’s just an amazing book and I highly recommend this book to anyone. I think that this is an amazing read and I for one cannot wait to finish the trilogy. All three of the books for this trilogy are out. I hope that if you have not read them you decide to pick them up and read them. This is an amazing start to a trilogy.
4. Sea of Shadows
I love fantasy. I’ve always loved fantasy. It’s a world that is not your own. So in this particular fantasy by an author I had never read before sucked me in. I was pulled in from the very beginning. A dark forest looming beside a village where twins are there to protect the village. These twins are teens young teens if I remember correctly but they are bound to make sure those in the forest are given proper burials after they have died in the forest that they have been sent to die in. They want to make sure that their spirits are at rest.
If the spirits are not at rest they can cause all kinds of havoc upon the kingdom that these two twins are part of. Many things happen and the village is suddenly taken over by these things that are signs of things to happen. These twins discover that all of the adults have been killed but the children have been taken as hostages. They then travel through a land they have never traveled as they have always been in the village they were raised in. I have to say that I feel as if I am not doing this book enough justice. I recommend this book. I want to say highly recommend actually.
5. Lux: Beginnings
I did not know what to expect when diving into a book that I was barely sure about. I had heard amazing things and great things and seeing on Booktube that these books are amazing. However, for me I was walking into a part of the young adult genre that I had never really envisioned myself walking into.
I have barely done sci-fi because I never really see myself as a huge sci-fi person. I was taking a huge leap of faith trusting some of the booktubers I watch who said Jennifer Armentrout’s Lux series is amazing. I had never read sci-fi and this is coming from someone who loves Star Wars and Star Trek (Star Wars overall) and has never read a sci-fi book.
So I picked up the first two books in this huge bind up. After seeing how big the bind up was I was slightly terrified by the size. I won’t even being to lie about that. I was terrified by the size of this book and started to back down from the idea of reading it. Then I told myself that I would read this book.
And read this book I did. This was a different book and amazingly good different book. And from an author I had never even heard of. I had read one book that was sci-fi and it was great but it didn’t have aliens in it and it was something I was not sure on how I would feel. I’m not a big aliens kind of person.
However, this book was amazing. I thought it was different and a good different. I found that while at some moments it was slow it was slow in the right places usually after a really fast paced area and you needed that slow pace to make sure your brain actually kept up with you…you not the book but you. I enjoyed this book and cannot wait to finish the series. No, I have not finished the series but I plan to this year.
6. The Testing
This book was something that I was not sure if I was going to love. I thought the idea for this book was an amazing one for sure and it was also during a time when I was reading a lot of dystopians. I was starting to get burned out and I was unsure how well I was going to accept this book.
Turned out I enjoyed it a lot. The idea that if you do well in school and are then able to test to go to University. Well it is thought that if you do not do well in The Testing for University that you are just sent home. Well not everyone is given that luxury. Our main character believes that something is going on and she isn’t really sure what it is. Until someone she came with dies and she has to watch because he made a mistake.
The idea that this book could become a reality is actually one that I can really see. That if our world was turned so upside down that this book could become our reality is amazing. This book just kind of opens up a ton of possibilities of what we could see if we don’t change our future.
Keep an eye out for my next post on Thursday!
It could be a book review or my worst books of 2016!