BEST Books I Read in 2014

Overall, I'd say 2014 was a good reading year. I mean, I had to lower my Goodreads challenge twice (hehe) and I didn't read as many books as last year. However, I do feel like I've read better books this year, mostly due to the fact that I've become better at discerning which books I'd like and which I wouldn't.

Anyway, here are my top books of 2014! Not all of them were published this year, but I did read all of them in the past year.

Happy 2nd Blogoversary To Me! + Giveaway (INT)

GUYS. I'VE BEEN BLOGGING FOR TWO YEARS. *flails*

OHMERGAWD

Two years ago today I made the decision to make a book blog, without a plan nor a goal--just a few scribblings on my notebook and a blog title that I had pulled out of the blue.

It was my first year of high school. I noticed all the students around me had talents and motivations and hobbies, while the only hobby I had was reading (not that there's anything wrong with that). I wanted to do something that would set me apart from my peers, something that would make me unique. After stalking a few blogs, (that I had discovered on Goodreads) I set about creating a blog during my Winter break, knowing little to nothing on reviewing and on blogging in general.

Throwback Thursday #1: NYC & The 50's

Throwback Thursday is an original feature I do in which I highlight some of my favorite historical fiction books from a specific time period. The first book featured is Strings Attached by Judy Blundell, which takes place in the 1950s in New York City! 

Title: Strings Attached
Author: Judy Blundell
Publication Date: March 1, 2011
Genre: Historical fiction

From National Book Award winner Judy Blundell, the tale of a sixteen-year-old girl caught in a mix of love, mystery, Broadway glamour, and Mob retribution in 1950 New York.

When Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, she doesn't have much. She's fled from her family in Providence, Rhode Island, and she's broken off her tempestuous relationship with a boy named Billy, who's enlisted in the army.

Review: The Opal Crown, by Jenny Lundquist

Title: The Opal Crown (The Opal Mask #2)
Author: Jenny Lundquist
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Genre: Fantasy

Action, romance, sibling rivalry and court intrigue combine for a page-turning read in this sequel to The Princess in the Opal Mask, which VOYA called “engaging and action-packed.”

In the year since she was betrothed to the crown prince of Kyrenica, no one has suspected that the Masked Princess has been a decoy. That Elara, the secret twin sister, has been pretending to be Princess Wilha all along. The royal family has kept Elara’s identity hidden from the world, and for the girls, swapping lives has not been easy. Galandra is quickly declining, and the sisters continue to be a pawn in the Guardian’s ever-changing endgames.

But the stakes rise when Elara and Wilha’s younger brother, Andrei, takes the Galandrian throne after their father's death, and he reveals the girls' deception to Kyrenica’s royal family. Viewed as traitors, Elara and Wilha realize they are now fighting for their lives—and for their country. However, with only one crown and one throne to overthrow, Elara and Wilha must decide who will become queen. Or rather, the next savior for their people. -Goodreads

3.5 Stars

This sequel to the exciting The Princess in the Opal Mask and conclusion to the duology did not disappoint, nor cease to keep my interest. Albeit a bit immature and watered down in terms of the political aspect, The Opal Crown was cute and fluffy and huggable after an influx of darker books.

Mini-Reviews: Haze & Daughter of Chaos

Title: Haze (The Rephaim #2)
Author: Paula Weston
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Genre: Fantasy

Gaby Winters’ nightmares have stopped but she still can’t remember her old life. Still can’t quite believe she is one of the Rephaim—the wingless half-angels who can shift from place to place, country to country, in the blink of an eye. That she was once the Rephaim’s best fighter. That demons exist. That Rafa has stayed.

But most of all, she can’t quite believe that her twin brother, Jude, might be alive.

And Gaby can’t explain the hesitancy that sidetracks the search for him, infuriates Rafa, and sends them, again, into the darkest danger. -Goodreads

4.5 Stars

Thank you Tundra Books for sending me this copy for review!

Compulsion Book Blitz, Teaser, & Giveaway

Title: Compulsion (Heirs of Watson Island #1)
Author: Martina Boone

Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: 10/28/14

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient

curse.

All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead--a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.