Thursday, May 16, 2013

Book Girls Don’t Cry: Best of 2013

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Inspired by Book Buzzers, Book Girls Don’t Cry is a weekly feature where we each discuss/vent/advise on the chosen weekly bookish topic. Don’t miss Jenni on Mondays, and Amy on Saturdays:
 



Best of 2013 (so far)



Since we’re hitting the half year mark very soon, we decided to do up a list of the best books we’ve read so far this year, and the top ones we’re excited for that are releasing before the year ends.

Let’s start with my top 5 books of 2013 so far:

Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy #1)
by Karina Halle 

Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents’ latest scam. Now she’s much older, wiser and ready to give her con artist life a rest. But returning to the dry desert town of Palm Valley, California means one more temptation than she bargained for – Camden McQueen. Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.

This is an adult book and it’s absolutely fantastic with some of the best, most realistic characters. Plus the romance puts the woo in swoony (yeah I’m cheesy like that!)
 Hopeless (Hopeless #1)
by Colleen Hoover 

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies.In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, author of Slammed and Point of Retreat, Sky meets Dean Holder, a guy with a reputation that rivals her own. Holder has the ability to invoke feelings in Sky she’s never had before. In just one encounter he leaves her terrified yet captivated and something about him brings up a rush of memories from the past that she’s worked so hard to bury away.

Sky knows Holder is nothing but trouble and tries to keep him at a distance, but he is adamant about learning everything he can about her. Sky finally caves to his unwavering pursuit, but she soon finds out that Holder isn’t the person he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life changes forever.

My favorite New Adult novel that gutted me and shredded my heart. The sequel through Holder’s POV can’t get here fast enough!

Game. Set. Match. (Outerbanks Tennis Academy #1)
by Jennifer Iacopelli  

Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world’s most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.

Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?

Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she’s hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after…until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.

With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.

With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break. Welcome to OBX: Where LOVE is a four-letter word, on and off the court.

As a New Adult book this was just so refreshing. Finally a fun, romantic, and original plot with incredible characters to boot! Any Miranda Kenneally fan should give this a try!
 The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1)
by Rick Yancey 

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

This is probably one of the only dystopian/end of the world novel I have read this year that I enjoyed. An exciting read and actually original which is SO rare in this genre, now!

If You Find Me
by Emily Murdoch  

There are some things you can’t leave behind…
A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

Another one that really got my emotionally involved 100%. I loved the rawness of this story and how, in such a horrifying story, it’s really about hope.

And now for the top 5 I’m most excited for that will be coming out in 2013. Note that since any sequels of the ones above are a GIVEN, I will not put them in this list since it would be just all 5 of those.. 😉

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown #1) 
by Holly Black 

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

Aaaah Holly Black rocks my face so much! I may just die if I don’t read this soon! *faints dramatically*
 Made of Stars
by Kelley York 

When eighteen-year-old Hunter Jackson and his half sister, Ashlin, return to their dad’s for the first winter in years, they expect everything to be just like the warmer months they’d spent there as kids. And it is—at first. But Chance, the charismatic and adventurous boy who made their summers epic, is harboring deep secrets. Secrets that are quickly spiraling into something else entirely.

The reason they’ve never met Chance’s parents or seen his home is becoming clearer. And what the siblings used to think of as Chance’s quirks—the outrageous stories, his clinginess, his dangerous impulsiveness—are now warning signs that something is seriously off.

Then Chance’s mom turns up with a bullet to the head, and all eyes shift to Chance and his dad. Hunter and Ashlin know Chance is innocent…they just have to prove it. But how can they protect the boy they both love when they can’t trust a word Chance says?

I really enjoyed Kelley’s other novel and it’s s till now very fresh in my mind (for me that’s the biggest sign of originality and a book that’s memorable) so I know I can expect some awesomeness in here!

Ashes on the Waves
by Mary Lindsey  

Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him—until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever.

With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied; but, the violent, mythical Otherworlders, who inhabit the island and the sea around it, have other plans. They make awager on the couple’s love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial—and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed.

Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling poem, “Annabel Lee,” Mary Lindsey creates a frighteningly beautiful gothic novel that glorifies the power of true love.

Edgar Allan Poe inspired! Yep. That is all.
  Parasite (Parasitology #1)
by Mira Grant 

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.

We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.

But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives… and will do anything to get them.

Mira Grant! She only wrote one of the most realistic zombie stories out there and she is a master at suspense and horror. 

The Waking Dark
by Robin Wasserman

They called it the killing day. Twelve people dead, all in the space of a few hours. Five murderers: neighbors, relatives, friends. All of them so normal. All of them seemingly harmless. All of them now dead by their own hand . . . except one. And that one has no answers to offer the shattered town. She doesn’t even know why she killed—or whether she’ll do it again.

Something is waking in the sleepy town of Oleander’s, Kansas—something dark and hungry that lives in the flat earth and the open sky, in the vengeful hearts of upstanding citizens. As the town begins its descent into blood and madness, five survivors of the killing day are the only ones who can stop Oleander from destroying itself. Jule, the outsider at war with the world; West, the golden boy at war with himself; Daniel, desperate for a different life; Cass, who’s not sure she deserves a life at all; and Ellie, who believes in sacrifice, fate, and in evil. Ellie, who always goes too far. They have nothing in common. They have nothing left to lose. And they have no way out. Which means they have no choice but to stand and fight, to face the darkness in their town—and in themselves.

Another author that I’ve loved in the past and proved that she can write something well worth reading, plus this just screams my name!
I see a theme here! Mostly thrillers/gothics to come, and contemporaries have been good to me so far!
 
 
What are your top reads and most anticipated books of 2013? 

Also, don’t forget to leave suggestions for future topics you’d like to see! 🙂

You know you love me!
Xoxo, Book Girl!
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Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

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32 Responses to “Book Girls Don’t Cry: Best of 2013”

  1. Nick

    Some great picks, Giselle! I need to read Game.Set.Match soon because almost everyone has been raving on and on about it!
    I’m really excited for The Coldest Girl in Town. It sounds pretty badass and that cover is gorgeous! 🙂
    Hope the books you’re anticipating are going to be as awesome as your top 5 books this year!

  2. Mary @ BookSwarm

    SO MANY GOOD BOOKS!!!! *flails* *runs around flailing* I WANT THEM ALL!! Of course, I’d need about a billionjy years to read them but, hey, a girl can dream. I definitely want to read the Holly Black, like, NOW (greedy, greedy me).

  3. Megan K.

    Wow, The 5th Wave got into your top five! Can’t wait for my copy now. And I’ll be reading Hopeless soon, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it as much as you did. Really looking forward to all those books you mentioned, too, especially Parasite and The Waking Dark. I haven’t had the chance to read any of Mira Grant’s books, but this. THIS. It looks so good I can’t even *O*

    Anyway, I’m sure you’ll score ARCs of all of these and will be able to let us know your thoughts in advance, so. 😉

  4. Amy

    Ohhh I have Made of Stars on my list of anticipated books too! I absolutely love Kelley York’s writing. Coldest Girl in Coldtown is another that I am looking forward to, but I didn’t put it on my list. Awesome list babe! OMG I need to read Hopeless still! *searches for nook that’s been forgotten for kindle*

  5. bookittyblog

    I’m reading The 5th Wave and I’m loving it! I think my some of my top reads are, Park and Eleanor by Rainbow Rowell and Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers. I’m really excited to read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and All the Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry!!

  6. Jenni @ Alluring Reads

    CONTEMPORARY FTW! Love that the genre totally takes charge in your fav’s so far. I can’t wait for the Wasserman one either, it sounds so good. I’m also really curious about Parasite, I haven’t read the Feed series yet but I have the box set and do plan to (eventually)

  7. Megan Hand

    I have Sins and Needles, and it sounds so amazing and different. That is definitely on the summer read pile. I have GOT to check out If You Find Me, because that is totally my kind of book 🙂 And with Game.Set.Match, you had me at Miranda Kineally, sigh… Will have to add that one too. Great post! 🙂

  8. Bonnie R

    I’m also extremely excited for Parasite and The Waking Dark! Sins & Needles was so super fabulous, I just love Karina she’s amazing. I just got my copy of 5th wave in the mail so I’m hoping I love it as much as everyone else has. Great picks! 🙂

  9. Maja (The Nocturnal Library)

    I didn’t expect to see so many contemporaries on your list, Giselle! i just recently finished If You Find Me and really loved it, although it left me completely broken. Ack!
    My copy of The 5th Wave arrived just the other day and I can’t wait to read it. Same goes for Sins and Needles.
    Thanks for sharing!

  10. J. Anne Huss

    I just read The Fifth Wave, really, really good. Sins and Needles was awesome too, I need to get on On Every Street, because I’ve been putting it off. Parasite is def on my list because the science sounds cool.

  11. Faith Sullivan

    HOPELESS is loaded on my Kindle and GAME. SET. MATCH. is on my imminent to-read list. Great picks, Giselle.

    My favorites of the year so far have been EASY by Tammara Webber (technically 2012) and IF YOU STAY by Courtney Cole.

  12. Candace

    If You Find Me would be on my list too. I have started The 5th Wave but so need to finish it! Great list! Some of these are already on my shelf or my wishlist. I just need to read faster!

  13. Jasprit

    Your top five reads for this year are brilliant Giselle! The 5th Wave would definitely make it to my list too, I loved Sins and Needles and I can’t wait to read If You Find Me, Game, Set and Match and Hopeless. 2013 so far looks like another brilliant reading year! 🙂

  14. Nereyda @Mostly YA Book Obsessed

    Hopeless is one of my top picks too. I plan on reading Game. Set. Match soon and I really liked Sins & Needles. I have the other two but I can’t bring myself to read them. Not my kind of book…
    Great picks, so happy to see Hopeless and NA in there 🙂

  15. Kristen

    I’ve only had the chance to read Hopeless by Colleen Hoover and I absolutely loved it. I haven’t cried at a book for a long time. I can’t wait to read your recommendations.

  16. Kristin@BloodSweatandBooks

    As it stands my top three reads so far this year have been Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers, The Culling by Steven Dos Santos and it’d be a toss up between Reboot by Amy Tintera and The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd for third . I’m really looking forward to The Waking Dark and Parasite and I still need to read The 5th Wave sadly.

  17. Shooting Stars Mag

    I really do love a good contemporary. I need to read some of these!! I am excited about The 5th Wave though; I don’t normally do sci-fi but this one sounds fantastic and people keep raving, so that’s great.

    I haven’t read Hushed by Kelley York…YET…but I plan to get to it as soon as I can. I’m curious about Made of Stars too!

  18. Lauren Elizabeth

    Ooh I need to get around to my copy of Sins and Needles! I promised myself when I saw your review for the next book that I’d make time for it. I can’t wait to read it. Totally agree with The 5th Wave and Hopeless too! I need to read If You Find Me and Game Set Match too.

    I am SO looking forward to The Waking Dark. I really loved Wasserman’s Book of Blood and Shadow. And I am pretty much bouncing up and down at the prospect of another MIra Grant book. Parasite looks amazing. Great choices! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  19. Melanie

    I love your picks! The 5th Wave was the best post apoc book I’ve read in a long time and I’ve heard so many things about If You Find Me, I will be reading that one soon.

    I can’t wait for Ashes on the Waves either! The cover and synopsis got me hooked the second I read it, I hope it doesn’t disappoint for such a gorgeous cover.

    Epic post, hon! <33

  20. Jojiwoji

    Of this list, I really want to read 5th Wave and Hopeless. Also want to read Dark Triumph if I get the chance (not on list).

    I’m majorly looking forward to Allegiant (Divergent #3) and Bitter Kingdom (Fire and Thorns #3). Seems like this is the year for trilogies, anyway.

  21. Rachel @ Unforgettable Books

    New adult is rocking for you so far this year. Will check those books out and if you find me; I love stories illuminating hope!
    My favorite stories so far this year are Breathless by Kemmerer and A Corner of White by Moriarty!

  22. Aman

    I loved Sins & needle and Hopeless too! I really need to read Game Set Match and If you find me. Books I’m most looking forward to would be Allegiant, Retribution of Mara Dyer and Fiery Heart. I didn’t notice how many series are ending this year 🙁 More good reads to come!

  23. Micheline D

    Awesome picks Giselle 😀 I definitely want to read The Fifth Wave, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and Ashes on the Waves ( I ♥ Poe!) Your contemporary picks are noted and if the urge ever strikes, I’ll have enough choices to get me started LOL Thanks for sharing precious!

  24. Alexa Y.

    Initially, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read Game. Set. Match. but after seeing your thoughts on it, I think I do! It sounds really fun, and I do love that there’s a sports aspect to it.

  25. Alexa Y.

    (I think my comment is waiting for your approval, but since I didn’t see the message that says so, I’m leaving another one just in case!)

    I’m really intrigued by Game Set Match. I love that there’s a sports angle to it, and I do like that it’s a New Adult book. I haven’t read very many of them, but this sounds like a good place to start.