2014 Wrap Up and Best Book Awards

Hey everyone!

So we've finally got there- the illusive 2014 wrap up is finally here.

Over the course of the year I've read 39 books (41 if you include the two I read in school for English) just 11 short of my reading goal for the year which actually I'm pretty proud of!

Here's the list of books I read

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Cross My Heart And Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
United We Spy by Ally Carter
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Looking For Alaska by John Green
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Paper Towns by John Green

Holes by Louis Sachar*
Billy Elliot by Lee Hall and Melvin Burgess*

*Read in English at school

The first 10 are only in rough order since I didn't actively record when I read stuff back then

Wow that took a good 15 mins to type up!

So most of my year has been dominated by a few key authors- Cassandra Clare and Rick Riordan who wrote The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices (series) and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus (series). All of these series have quickly become some of my favourites of all time.

I ended also being pretty dominated by fantasy/paranormal books this year and I also read a fair few contemporaries (more than I usually do) with a few dystopians thrown in there for good measure.

Best Book Awards:

Rules:

-Each book can only be mentioned once
-All books mentioned must have been read in 2014

(A/N: I actually wrote most of the comments for these out of order because I couldn't decide which books to choose and was running out of time so some of them might be a little repetitive sorry! It's currently 23:47 as I write this!!)


Best Series Opener: This has to go to Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I absolutely adored this book and loved all the characters especially Rose to pieces. She was so brilliantly snarky, smart and bad ass- just a brilliant female kick butt protagonist. I fell in love with the world and the story and just everything about it that I bought the entire series before even finishing the second book which obviously means it's made it onto my all time favourites for sure

Best Series Instalment: I really can't decide and I'm running out of time!

Best Series Finale: City of Heavenly Fire- So close to quite a few others ( so I have given them their own award) but this is the one that I have really been looking forward to and craving for such a long time. It was so funny, charming, interesting, sad and emotional all rolled into one. I do

Best Fantasy: Spirit Bound Again a ridiculously hard decision to make but this book was so much fun blended with enough action and suspense to make it brilliant. Loved all the couple-y moments and read this within just a day or two

Best Contemporary: Fangirl. Such an amazing and cute read. I really love stories with lots of growth and character development and this has to be up there with one of the best. Just the right balance of cuteness and deep stuff. I've come back to this one a couple of times since reading it to read m favourite parts when I'm feeling down. This has to be one of the best reads this year and has made it onto my favourites shelf.

Best Middle Grade: The Mark of Athena/The House of Hades. I've allowed myself to ut two here just because they're from the same series, too close and I'm running out of time to get this up before New Year's! Again this was a really difficult decision but I loved all the Percabeth moments in this as well as all the character arcs in this so much plus I sped through both of these within just a few days.


Best Book Overall: Clockwork Princess- This was such a difficult decision to make as I can never quite list favourites as they tend to change all the time. This was very narrow but it just pipped City of Heavenly Fire and the others to the post but  I have mentioned them elsewhere. I was so emotional reading this book because I just love all the characters to pieces and found the plot so interesting to read.Once again I can barely put into words how much this book means to me and

Worst Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Looking For Alaska. I really hate or even talking about books I don't like but these...I know there are loads of people to LOVE both of these book and I don't mean to offend those of you who do. For both of these I wasn't expecting them to be the way they were and they just  weren't quite my cup of tea.

Most Anticipated Book: Lady Midnight- one of the easiest decisions of all these awards. I actually hardly know what's coming out in 2015 book-wise to be perfectly honest but holy crap, I am SO excited for this I can't put it into words!

Best Book to Movie Adaptation: The Fault in Our Stars. This was a toss up between Mockingjay as well but I've given that some credit too (see below). This is was such a true-to-the-book movie adaptation and it was brilliant to see it play out on-screen.

Most Anticipated Book to Movie: Mockingjay Part 2 hands down. I barely know what else is coming out in 2015. Okay I sort of do but this overshadows them all by far I actually can't

wait and it'll probably be one of the best book-to-movie adaptations of all time. So pumped!


Yeah! I actually did it AND before 2015 (in the UK with 5 mins to spare)!

Hope you enjoyed!
See you next year,

Amber xxx

December Wrap Up

Hey everyone!

So I feel like I'm finally making progress with these wrap ups since I've published the ones for both October and November. I know I normally do these within the first week of the month after, but I feel like I need to have the last few done and dusted before the new year which is only a couple of hours away now -eeek!

This month I read two books, a little less than what I expected but progress none the less

It's been a while since I've read a book surrounding witches and magic so I decided to pick up Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the first book in the Caster Chronicles series. To sum it up quickly, it's another YA paranormal/fantasy book told from the POV of a boy called Ethan Wate who starts dreaming of this girl before he even meets her. He lives in a small town neighbourhood where nothing out of the ordinary ever really happens but when she turns up at his school everyone thinks she's some sort of devil. Magic and chaos ensue. I guess that's probably best to not say any more about the plot. I actually really enjoyed this book- more than I was expecting to, given the mixed reviews. I'd say about an 89% from me, a solid 4 stars on Goodreads.

There's also a movie adaptation that came out in 2013. It was actually the trailer that initially made me want to read the book but looking back I don't think that I'm going to watch the movie. Not that it looks bad or anything I just think it will spoil the way I picture everything in my head.

Read my booktalk for Beautiful Creatures (Coming Soon)

The final book that I read in December (and in 2014) was Paper Towns by John Green. Ever since I read The Fault in our Stars earlier on this year I've wanted to read some of John Green's other books. I did end up reading Looking For Alaska which really ended up  not being my cup of tea but I liked this one more. Mid way through I was almost thinking that I didn't like Paper Towns either because it was getting sort of... I don't know... kind of depressing? I don't think that's the right word but I ended up liking it much more, later on. Now that I think about it I actually enjoyed all of it except for a couple of chapters towards the middle but overall it was a good book. An 82% from me, another 4 stars.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Paper Towns by John Green

That's it for my December wrap up and for the monthly wrap ups for 2014. Only the last yearly wrap up to go!

Hope you enjoyed!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

November Wrap Up

Hey everyone!



So today I'm doing my November wrap up. even if it is a month late. I did a fair amount of reading this month, reading 3 books total which is actually loads for how busy I was- especially taking into account the size of them





The Scorch Trials is the second book in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. I'm not too sure what I was expecting from this book- I'd heard lots about it and that it wasn't as good as the first book; even from people who love the series. Honestly I did like this one but I found it a little slow, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it had a sort of Insurgent feel to it- it wasn't as gripping as it was supposed to be. I was mainly reading to figure it out rather than caring for the characters ( which I have a whole rant/ discussion written on my phone, that'll eventually go up in a booktalk). I'm definitely NOT saying I hated the book though, as I do intend to go ahead and read the last book, The Death Cure, and then probably The Kill Order. As for final thoughts I think I'm going to give it a 75% on my scale which is just over 3.5 stars on Goodreads. Also sorry about not having any of my own photography for the Scorch Trials- I don't own a copy and the one I read has already been returned to my friend.

Read by full booktalk for the Scorch Trials (Coming Soon)
See more about The Maze Runner series Booktalk: The Maze Runner by James Dashner


The next book I read I can barely talk about, let alone type about without wanting to shake and do a happy dance- City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, the sixth and finally book in The Mortal Instruments series. I got this book  for my birthday (thanks Mum) and I literally read it in just over a day - even though my copy is the giant, tall paperback edition that's over 700 pages long.I absolutely adored this book to pieces and was really emotional when it ended- I'm finding it difficult to describe how incredible this book is without going on a long discussion about it so just go read by booktalk for it once it's up, to read all the details but I will say that it was the finale I was looking for to wrap up the series and I can't wait for Lady Midnight to come out  in 2015. A huge 97% from me.


Read my full booktalk for City of Heavenly Fire (Coming Soon)
Read my booktalk for the prequel series Booktalk: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare


And finally, the last book I read, just before the month finished was House of Hades by Rick Riordan, the fifth book in the Heroes of Olympus series. Again, I can't really talk about plot or anything like that but I'm just going to say that it's one of my favourite ones so far and that I actually was just craving Percy Jackson as soon as I had finished it but I'm just going to have to wait until I can get The Blood of Olympus which came out on October 7th for those of you wanting to buy it. To keep this spoiler free I'll just link my booktalk below for you to read once you've finished the book. Final ratings for House of Hades are at 96%.

Read my full booktalk for The House of Hades (Coming Soon)
Find out more about The Heroes of Olympus series (Coming Soon)
Find out more about the Percy Jackson series Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan



The Scorch Trials by James Dashner*
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

*Already returned book so no photography


Once again there's no TBR list, this time for December, as it's already New Year's Eve but if everything goes to plan, my December and 2014 wrap up should be up before the year is out -here in the UK at least :)

Hope you enjoyed!
Bye for now,

Amber xxx

October Wrap up

Hey everyone!

So hopefully I'm keeping on track with getting all the wrap ups done by the end of the year. There won't be any TBR list this time since well... it's the end of December already.

Here's October's Wrap Up!

Only two of my reads this month were new reads and both were from the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.


Son of Neptune  and Mark of Athena were absolutely amazing and I zipped through them straight away, finishing them in a day or two each.. It was really nice to have Percy's POV again - you I know I love me some Percy Jackson. I swear I didn't realise how much I missed him until he came back. Due to spoilers I'm not going to give away any of the plot but I'll say that Son of Neptune picks up within a week of the end of the Lost Hero while Mark of Athena picks up that same day. If you've read the first Heroes of Olympus  book and didn't enjoy it maybe as much as you would've, definitely carry on and pick up this one because it's well worth the read. I'm going to give Son of Neptune  91% and Mark of Athena 96%

See more info about the Percy Jackson series Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
For more info on The Heroes of Olympus series  (Coming Soon)

Read by full booktalk for The Son of Neptune (Coming Soon)
Read by full booktalk for The Mark of Athena (Coming Soon)

As pretty much all of you know, Mockingjay Part 1 came out in November so I had planned to reread the book in October. However after reading The Mark of Athena, I wasn't quite ready to go back into reading, especially a book I knew had some very heart-wrenching points in. So I ended up falling into a little bit of reading slump for a while.

But I did eventually come around, mainly with the help of the trailers to get me excited for the movie. And I'm really glad I did reread it since I realise now that I'd forgotten a bunch of important info as well as the little details and definitely enjoyed the movie way more after having  fairly recently read the book again. I'm not going to give a synopsis for this one, just because I'm pretty sure all of you know it already. As for rating I'm giving it an 87%.


The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Okay so that's it for the October wrap up! I know these are usually much longer but there's not much I can say in order to stay spoiler free and I'm writing this long after October is over.


Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in my next post,

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Another Update

Hey everyone....

Merry Christmas to everyone who's celebrating it and Happy Thursday to everyone who doesn't.

So I'd like to apologise (once again) for basically no posts up for a long time. For the past couple of
months I've had some serious technical issues and in my last PE lesson I injured and almost broke my finger so typing was a bit of a nightmare. But now I'm back.I realise that I say this every time there's a lack of updates, but I'm really hoping I can get back on track before the new year,and yes, I know that's less than 6 days from now...But I'm off from school and currently ill in bed so I have a some time on my hands to get it done

Since it's been so long, here's a list of books that have been read since The Battle of the Labyrinth which is the last booktalk I put up.

The Last Olympian                Rick Riordan *

Fangirl                                   Rainbow Rowell

The Lost Hero                        Rick Riordan

The Son of Neptune               Rick Riordan

The Mark of Athena               Rick Riordan

Mockingjay                            Suzanne Collins **

The Scorch Trial                    James Dashner

City of Heavenly Fire            Cassandra Clare

The House of Hades.              Rick Riordan

Beautiful Creatures                Kami Garcia and                                                    Margaret Stohl 

*Written, needs to be edited
** Reread, no booktalk coming

As I'm sure you can count, that's 9 booktalks that need to be written, edited and published in time for 2015 plus I also want to upload October,November and December wrap-ups and and overall one for 2014 which is going to take some work. What I'm just to say is to not judge too harshly for the next 10 odd (God that does sound like a lot) posts since they will be fairly short and sweet;bordering on a little rushed.

I'm also thinking of starting a new series called "Reader Rambles" or "Reading Rambles" which will be random  posts where I'm, you've guessed it, rambling,discussing  or just sharing my thoughts about something. They're likely to be highly unedited, unlike  my usual posts butt they'll be *hopefully* pretty interesting . I'll explain more about why I'm doing this in my main post on it.

Hopefully this cleared a few things up, I'm off to work on this massive list of blog posts :/

Enjoy the stream of updates coming your way!

Amber xxx