My Top Ten Reads of 2015

December 2, 2015

For those of you looking for YA book ideas for gifts this holiday season, here is the list of my top ten reads/recommendations this year in no particular order. You’ll notice that my preferences drift towards fantasy.

An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

My Bookshelves: angels-demons, another-world, assassin, death, disabilities, genie, heroes-journey, knights-in-shining-armor, love-triangle, magic, military, murder-mystery, my-recommendations, read, romance, swoonworthy-guys, villain

My Review: This book has it all! Loved every minute of it. I felt every death and injury and the impact of those things on the characters, who are all so well developed, they seem real. The world building is top notch and so rich and interesting. Such delicious metaphors too! I have a hundred sticky notes pressed between the pages. You need to pick this one up!

UnWind by Neal Shusterman

My Bookshelves: death, disabilities, doctors-medical, future, horror, insanity, my-recommendations, read, religion-gone-wrong, science-gone-wrong

My Review: Wow. The unwinding scene *shiver* still gives me goosebumps. Such a gripping, absolutely chilling book. If you’re not crawling beneath your blankets to read this one, I’d be surprised.

Shadow And Bone by Leigh Bardugo

My Bookshelves: fantasy, magic, my-recommendations, read

My Review: This book was all I hoped for. Fell for the Darkling in the beginning and switched to Mal by the end. This book has a lot of feels for you romance fans out there and it’s also an amazing fantasy world. Love the setting and the clothing and the Russian words and the magic. I’ll stop talking now so you can go read it. =)

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

My Bookshelves: fantasy, my-recommendations, read

My Review: Wonderful! I really love the whole idea of red blood vs silver blood. I don’t want to brag but I was on Team Cal the entire time. =) My favorite thing about this book was the wide variety of powers. Such great world building! This one’s going on my top pick list.

The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

My Bookshelves: based-on-a-classic, magic, middle-eastern, murder-mystery, my-recommendations, read, swoonworthy-guys

My Review: I loved this book! There are so many pages I’ve noted, it’s going to take me a day to go through everything and pick out my favorite quotes. The language and descriptions are so beautiful and lush. My heart breaks for Khalid and I love Tariq just as much. It’s just a lovely book you should pick up immediately.

Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini

My Bookshelves: fantasy, my-recommendations, parallel-universe, read, witches

My Review: This book is so, so good I just wanted to keep reading! Loved all the characters. The whole channeling heat into power thing is such an awesome idea. The willstones were so cool. I want my own willstone now.

Talon by Julie Kagawa

My Bookshelves: dragons, my-recommendations, ocean, read

My Review: I’ve always loved stories about dragons. They’re my favorite mythical creature. This book is such a cool take on the legend of St. George. Adore the love triangle! Both guys, the dragon and the human, are swoonworthy and the heroine is totally relate-able even though she has wings and breathes fire. Love it!

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

My Bookshelves: fantasy, my-recommendations, read

My Review: Love, love this book! The whole idea of eating sins and the whole fantasy world created around it is so amazingly creative. The queen was just so evil I feel creepy just reading her dialogue. Such rich characters!

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

My Bookshelves: adventure, animals, frontier-wild-west, murder-mystery, my-recommendations, read, villain

My Review: Love this book so much! I have a little thing for cowboys and Jesse Colton is as dreamy as his name. Love the heroine, Kate, and her straightforward and bold attempt to avenge her father’s death. The setting felt very real to me since I grew up in the area. So good!

The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent

My Bookshelves: angels-demons, colleen-houck-book-club-pick, my-recommendations, read, religion-gone-wrong

My Review: One of my favorite reads this year! I really, really love the whole idea of Finn. You’ll get what I mean when you read it. Lots of twists in this one so get ready! Already waiting for the next one!

There you have it. My list of top ten reads this year. I have a lot more favorites that I just didn’t have room to add. You can follow all the books I read on Goodreads and if you’re looking for something in particular, I have an extensive cataloging system. Happy shopping!

Oh and PS it goes without saying that I also recommend Reawakened and Tiger’s Curse =)

This entry was posted in Featuring Authors, Top Ten Lists.

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Colleen Houck

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My Top Ten Reads of 2015

December 2, 2015

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Colleen Houck