I have to admit I didn't read that many books in 2016 as I'd hoped to but there were some amazing titles that I want to share with you anyway. Here are my favourite books of 2016! I'd love to hear about your favourite reads, too. Feel free to leave a link to your posts in the comments.
#10
Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch
Angra is alive, his Decay is spreading—and no one is safe. Meira
will do anything to save her world. With Angra trying to break through
her mental defenses, she desperately needs to learn to control her own
magic—so when the leader of a mysterious Order from Paisly offers to
teach her, she jumps at the chance. But the true solution to stopping
the Decay lies in a labyrinth deep beneath the Season Kingdoms. To
defeat Angra, Meira will have to enter the labyrinth, destroy the very
magic she’s learning to control—and make the biggest sacrifice of all.
Mather
will do anything to save his queen. He needs to rally the Children of
the Thaw, find Meira—and finally tell her how he really feels. But with a
plan of attack that leaves no kingdom unscathed and a major betrayal
within their ranks, winning the war—and protecting Meira—slips farther
and farther out of reach.
Ceridwen will do anything to save her
people. Angra had her brother killed, stole her kingdom, and made her a
prisoner. But when she’s freed by an unexpected ally who reveals a
shocking truth behind Summer’s slave trade, Ceridwen must take action to
save her true love and her kingdom, even if it costs her what little
she has left. As Angra unleashes the Decay on the world, Meira,
Mather, and Ceridwen must bring the kingdoms of Primoria together…or
lose everything.
#9
The Someday Jar by Allison Morgan
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMON-DROP MARTINIS...
Real-estate
broker Lanie Howard figures she has the perfect man, the perfect job,
and the perfect life. Then she stumbles across her old Someday Jar, the
forgotten glass relic where she stashed all the childhood wishes—no
matter how crazy—that her father encouraged her to write down on the
backs of Chinese restaurant fortunes. She used to be fun once! What
happened to her?
DON'T CHOKE ON THE RIND.
Although
Lanie is wary of uncorking her past, when an attractive stranger saves
her from a life-or-death encounter with a lemon peel at the bottom of a
martini glass, she realizes that life is way too short for regrets. Now,
jar in hand, Lanie decides to throw caution to the wind, and carry out
everything she had once hoped to do, even if it means leaving her
perfectly “perfect” life behind…
#8
P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
Signed, sealed, delivered…
While
spacing out in chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite
song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk and added a message to her. Intrigue!
Soon,
Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters—sharing
secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes
she’s kind of falling for this letter writer. Only, who is he? As Lily
attempts to unravel the mystery and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can’t always be spelled out…
#7
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Jude and her twin
brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws
constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door,
while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the
talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are
barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different
and dramatic ways . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy,
as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her
life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are
Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half
the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another,
they’d have a chance to remake their world.
#6
The Way Back To You by Michelle Andreati, Mindi Scott
Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident. Her
best friend Cloudy is keeping it together, at least on the outside.
Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken.
Kyle
is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and
when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he
cares about anymore.
As the two people who loved Ashlyn best,
Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a
terrible mistake last year, they're barely speaking. So when Cloudy
discovers that Ashlyn’s organs were donated after her death and the
Montiel family has been in touch with three of the recipients, she does
something a little bit crazy and a lot of out character: she steals the
letters and convinces Kyle to go on a winter break road trip with her,
from Oregon to California to Arizona to Nevada. Maybe if they see the
recipients—the people whose lives were saved by Ashlyn’s death—the world
will open up again. Or maybe it will be a huge mistake. With
hundreds of miles in front of them, a stowaway kitten, and a list of
people who are alive because of Ashlyn, Cloudy and Kyle just may find
their way to back to her...and to each other.
#5
The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye
Vika Andreyeva can
summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through
walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only
two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening,
the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.
And so he
initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the
greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the
Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated
is sentenced to death.
Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole
life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand
capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even
when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?
For
Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But
his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful,
whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her. And
when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts
to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl
they both love…or be killed himself. As long-buried secrets
emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously
clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.
#4
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
In a kingdom by the sea…In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word. A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.
Emma
Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation.
She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai,
Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where
vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of
supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with
Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in
the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy
alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s
chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the
faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the
murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.
Their
search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery
where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more
secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does
Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?
The
darkly magical world of Shadowhunters has captured the imaginations of
millions of readers across the globe. Join the adventure in Lady Midnight, the long-awaited first volume of a new trilogy from Cassandra Clare.
#3
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes.
Lee
Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a
loyal steed. She has a best friend—who might want to be something more.
She also has a secret. Lee
can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small
nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She
has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the
harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that
kind of power? A person might murder for it. When everything Lee
holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California—where gold has
just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl
can be herself. If she survives the journey.
#2
Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson
After a harrowing
journey across the country, Leah Westfall and her friends have finally
arrived in California and are ready to make their fortunes in the Gold
Rush. Lee has a special advantage over the other new arrivals in
California—she has the ability to sense gold, a secret known only by her
handsome best friend Jefferson and her murdering uncle Hiram.
Lee
and her friends have the chance to be the most prosperous settlers in
California, but Hiram hasn’t given up trying to control Lee and her
power. Sabotage and kidnapping are the least of what he’ll do to make
sure Lee is his own. His mine is the deepest and darkest in the
territory, and there Lee learns the full extent of her magical gift, the
worst of her uncle, and the true strength of her friendships. To save
everyone, she vows to destroy her uncle and the empire he is
building—even at the cost of her own freedom.
#1
Just One Day & Just One Year by Gayle Forman
Just One Day. Just One Year. Just One Read.Before you find out how their story ends, remember how it began....
When
he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague
or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again
alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one
magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes
Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over
the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as
months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the
hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought. . . .The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen—and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.
