My Top 13 Books of 2013

Top 13 of 2013

For today's Holiday Break Reading Challenge, I will rank my top 13 books that I've read this year.  This was extremely difficult for me.  I've read a total of 87 books so far this year, and many of them were really great books, so I narrowed my list down as much as possible!

I've decided to only include young adult books on this list, but I wanted to mention a few adult books that were great too:

My top (more than) 13 YA Books of 2013:

#13 Monsters by Ilsa Bick

This is the final book in the Ashes trilogy.  I hate to see this series end.  Even though this was not nearly as good as the first book of the series, it was still a good read.

#12 Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

I read this series back to back, but I really loved the first installment the best.

#11 Eve Series by Anna Carey

                               

I really enjoyed this trilogy, but Eve is the best of the three.

#10 Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

I was so excited to get the next book in this series this year!!!\

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#9 Game by Barry Lyga

I loved I Hunt Killers, but I thought that Game was even better.  It had me on the edge of my seat, and I can't wait for the next installment.

#8 Blood Red Road  by Moira Young

I absolutely loved Blood Red Road.  The second book, Rebel Heart, was also very good, but it made me very mad in some places!

#7 Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I almost left this book off my list, because I'm still sad about the turn it took, but I love this series, and just couldn't bring myself to leave it out.  

#6 Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

I loved the unique take on zombies in this book.

#5 Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

I really enjoyed this entire series, especially the first two books.

#4 The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I'm usually not into alien invasion stories, but this book kept me guessing.  I never knew what was going to happen next and it was always interesting and surprising.

#3 The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

 

I love vampire books, and this series was so interesting and creepy.  I loved the unique mixture of the Amish setting and the terrifying vampires.

#2 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black 

This was another great, unique vampire book.  I really hope that there will be a sequel to this one!

#1 A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 

 I had to rank this as my top book of 2013, because I have been reading this series for about 15 years.  I thought this was a great ending to the series, and I think that Robert Jordan would have been proud of the way Sanderson finished it out for him.  I'm just so glad that Jordan left all so much stuff behind so that the series could be finished in a manner that did justice to the earlier books.  I will miss waiting on the next installment, but I'm considering reading this series from start to finish sometime in the future.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge

Once again, I've joined the Holiday Break Reading Challenge this year.  This year is a little different from past years, but still fun.  Each day, we post the number of pages we've read and the person with the most pages at the end wins.  Unfortunately, I am not in the lead, but I'm trying to catch up!  You can see our progress here and join us if you would like!  Sometimes, we also have activities to complete for the challenge.  The first activity was to create a word cloud using a review of a book I've read.  I used my review for The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.  Let me know what you think about my word cloud!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7410437/The_Coldest_Girl_In_Coldtown

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

I have to admit, that I put off reading this book because of the title.  It just didn't intrigue me.  However, after seeing so many people talking about this book, I decided to pick it up.  Plus, I'm going to a library conference in the spring and Holly Black will be there.  I wanted to have read something by her before I go.  I am so glad that I read this book!  It was excellent and kept me turning the pages.  Yes, it's a vampire book, and yes, they seem to be overdone these days.  However, Black takes a different approach to vampires.  For one thing, these vampires are dangerous, brutal and blood thirsty.

Our main character wakes up the morning after a party to find that everyone in the house, except for her and her ex-boyfriend Aidan, have been drained by vampires.  She finds Aidan tied to a bed, but he has already been infected.  She also finds a vampire chained up in the same room.  She helps Aidan and the vampire Gavriel escape their captives, but since Aidan is infected, she has to take him to Coldtown.  Apparently, vampires have always been among us, but they kept themselves a secret.  However, in recent times, a mistake was created who traveled and infected as many people as he could.  Now the world is overrun by newly made vampires.  Once a person is bitten, they turn cold.  If they can be locked up for 88 days without drinking vampire blood, then the infection runs its course and they are fine.  If not, and they drink human blood, then they die and come back as a vampire.  America's solution for this problem was to quarantine all infected people and as many vampires as they could capture in walled cities called Coldtowns.  Once a person is within the walls of a Coldtown, it is almost impossible to leave.  

I am really hoping that this is not a stand alone novel and the Holly Black intends to make it a series.  The book leaves us with a satisfying conclusion, but there are a lot of unanswered questions too.  Yes, Tanna does end up with a vampire love interest, but I want to point out that the romance is a very minor part of a much bigger story.  Tanna is not a lovestruck damsel in distress.  She can take care of herself and often relies on her own strength and intelligence to do so.  I definitely recommend this book!