2014 Wrap Up/ Favorite Reads

Hey everyone, first of all, sorry for being AWOL for so long, I guess over a month now. It's just that November was majority busy with NaNo by craft fair and Etsy stuff, Thanksgiving, and just everything else. And then December was busy as usual, plus I had my hand in a cast for most of it, making typing hard. Yeah, fun. But I have come back to do a yearly wrap up and share with you what I hope to accomplish next year. I don't do resolutions, but I do set goals for myself.

2014 wasn't a bad year, I wrote one and a half novels, published another, and while I didn't read as many books this year as I did last year, I read some very good ones. And some bad, but that's the way it is. We got a new season of Sherlock, I got into a couple new fandoms, the last Hobbit movie came out and destroyed my feels, and a bunch of amazing books came out this year, several from debut authors! Overall the year was good, if a little boring in my personal life.

Next year, I hope to finish two more novels as usual, continuing with my Modern Tales of Na Fianna series (no longer a trilogy, I have thought of four books now). A lot of book releases to look forward to, no movies I'm currently waiting for yet, but lots of shows I follow coming back. I'm going to get a pet hedgehog! He's sort of a Christmas present, but I haven't gone to get him yet, but you will all know when I do. I am going to start a formatting business online, I'll have more about that later once I get it set up. I always promise to blog more, but that doesn't always happen, though this year I do plan to find a weekly feature to do, maybe staring with Top Ten Tuesday to give it a go. Most exciting, is that Mara (from the Reading Hedgehog) and I are planning on going to BookCon this year! If you too, are going, let me know! I also hope to start reading several series this year that I have been meaning to for a long time like The Dresden Files after I finish the Cal Leandros series, and yes, everyone, I plan to start watching Doctor Who this year. It's been long enough.

Now, onto my reads for the year!

Overall, I read 86 books this year. Not terrible, and I did meet my Goodreads goal, but not as great as the over 100 I read last year. Several were re-reads too, but oh well. I'm going to give you my Top 10 favorite reads of the year: First five are 2014 publications, and the others are just books I picked up for the first time. There were certainly other books that could have made this list, but I decided that I read so many good books this year, that I would just do ten otherwise this could go on for ever!

(You can click on the title for the link to my review)

Favorite 2014 Reads:

2014 Releases

1. Jackaby by William Ritter Victorian era, mystery, amazing heroine, quirky detective, and faeries, what is not to like, I ask? Probably my favorite 2014 release and possibly my favorite read of the year. I can’t say enough about this one!

2. Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater Continuing to love the Raven Boys Cycle, and this one did not disappoint, in fact, it was better than I expected and less painful too. As always Maggie manages to write something so strange yet so perfectly amazing, and once again leaves us with many questions and a terrible cliffhanger to boot. But I can’t stop loving these books all the same.

3. The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Neilson I have loved this trilogy since the beginning, and the last book was no exception, very much everything I hoped for, and tying of the ending perfectly. The only problem was that it was hard to let go of Sage who has become one of my favorite fictional characters.

4. The Mirk and Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson This was a lovely book, and one of the best Tam Lin retellings I have ever read, and I've had a hard time finding good ones. I just love the way she writes, it's so visual and her characters are well crafted and enjoyable to read about. Definitely looking forward to what she has next.

5 The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp This was just a fun book, written in the classic adventure style with faeries and magic and daring do. I love to see classic swashbucklers come back, and was so excited to find this one. It had to make the list.

Other Books

1 Vicious by V. E. Schwab I love me a good revenge story, and this one was totally awesome. I read this at the beginning of the year, and I still say it’s one of the best reads of 2014. Villains done right are ones you actually find yourself caring about. This was a dark story, but wonderful as well. I have a feeling I’m going to be talking about this one for a while yet.

2 I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga I read the whole trilogy this year, after a long time of it being of my TBR and loved it. So dark, so intense and addicting. It’s been a long time since I read a book that really got into the psychology of a killer like this one did. Not books for the faint of heart, but my dark side loved them.

3 The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud This is the first in the Lockwood & Co.  series and I love it! A new favorite series. So very fun and British and though it's set in the modern day, it feels very Victorian. This was the first Jonathan Stroud book I have read, but I now hope to read the rest of his books.

4 Nightlife by Rob Thurman I discovered the Cal Leandros series this year and loved it. I love any story about brothers, and while I still have a couple little issues with this series, I can't help but love it. One of my favorite new finds of the year. I've enjoyed it so far.

5 Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby This might have been the most surprising book of the year. I read this back in January or February I think, but it was lovely, and a very nice story, not at all what I expected going into it. I ended up really loving this book and thought I should add it to my favorites.

As a special extra, my least favorite book of the year:

The Friday Society by Adrienne Cress

Let me know what your favorite reads of the year were!