My Favorite Five Books I’ve Read This Year

I read a lot of books every year, and since the year is coming to an end I thought I would give you all a short list of my favorite five books I've read this year. Just keep in mind that these are my favorite books, not a best sellers list and my preferences might defer greatly from yours.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones was published in 2008 and is the first in The Mortal Instruments series. I freely admit that I have not read the whole series as of yet, but I'm working on the second in the series right now. I loved this book. It has everything from a fantasy world put right smack in the middle of a city. When I finished City of Bones I could not wait for the second one.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is a dystopian novel which was published this year. Honestly, this was the first dystopian book I've ever read, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was super good. This is a book that both guys and girls would like. During and after reading, you think to yourself 'what would it be like if our world was really like that?' or 'What faction would I be?' In the Divergent world of dystopian Chicago, all the people are divided into five factions and when each child reaches a certain age they must choose a faction which they will stay in for the rest of their life. Most don't change factions from which they have grown up, but Beatrice does. After changing her faction, she becomes, Tris and begins a brutal training for her new faction.

The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

Ok, I was only going to do single books, but I read these three books in the course of a week. I loved them. For me, The Trylle Trilogy, published in 2010, was new and refreshing. The Trylle, are basically trolls, only not ugly trolls. The first book, Switched, is about Wendy, who finds out she is a changeling, switched at birth from the royal family of Trylle. Once you close this book you want to move right on to the next and that is exactly what I did.

Blood Thirst by L.A Freed

Vampire novels are my favorite reads, but honestly they are getting a little too common and it's always the same story. I like a lot of the new authors and books they are putting out, but sometimes the writing can turn me off…usually I push past it because I enjoy the story, BUT... Blood Thirst was amazingly well written, I cannot begin to express how grateful I was for that. Anyhow, Blood Thirst was published in 2011 and is the first in The Charleston Vampire Chronicles. This vampire read follows a woman through the change into being a vampire and nothing about it was predictable. I loved it! There is nothing predictable and formulaic about this book.

Pulse of Heroes by A. Jacob Sweeny

A. Jacob Sweeny is a new author and I had heard awesome reviews about her new book, Pulse of Heroes, which was published this year. So, of course I had to go see what this was all about. This book was amazing. I loved that it was a whole new spin on immortals. There were no vampires, or fairies, or demons, or angels…just immortals. I loved the characters (several of which are hot guys!) and I loved being taken to different parts of the world. One thing I really appreciated about Pulse of Heroes was the obvious research that was done; you can tell the author knew what she was writing about. I have picked up Of Blood and Pulse, the second in the series, which just released, and as soon as I finish a few other books on my list I'm going to be reading that one.