For the rest of the Fridays in December, I'll be showcasing some of my Favorite Books of 2013. I have a hard time choosing, but my general criteria is that the books have to be memorable and well-executed, books that stay with me even if I read them six months ago, books that I'd happily re-read again.
There will be a giveaway at the end -- the winner can choose any of my picks. Open internationally, and you will have a new chance to enter each week!
Today I'm featuring six of my very favorite YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Dystopian/Paranormal Books of 2013. Everyone makes their own rules for these lists -- mine are that the book came out in 2013 AND I read it in 2013.
I also decided to lump these categories together because there are so many hybrids these days: sci-fi/fantasy, dystopian/sci-fi, sci-fi/paranormal… you get the idea… Next week I will look at series -- best ending to a trilogy, etc.
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund (Balzer + Bray)
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Disney-Hyperion)
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt)
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt)
The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee (Knopf)
Antigoddess by Kendare Blake (Tor Teen)
Dream Thieves was amazing (The Raven Cycle is my favourite series) :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the awesomesauce giveaway!
I love that series so much!!
DeleteWell I loved SoO MANY this year. For dystopian there was HORDE by Ann Aguirre and Waterproof by Amber Garr. In paranormal there was Centaur Legacy by Nancy Straight, Finned by Sutton Shields and Dangerous Depths by Karen Amanda Hooper. New Adult was Open Gates by DT Dyllin and Twisted Perfection by Abbi Glines. I could list many more but those are the ones that surfaced first :) Thank you for the giveaway!!
ReplyDeleteOoh -- I have not read any of those. Adding to the list!!
DeleteUnravel Me was my favorite book this year. I also liked The Dream Thieves. I still haven't read Siege and Storm it's been sitting on my shelf for months. I still have a week or so till the end of the year to read it.
ReplyDeleteI am featuring that one next week on my feature on series and trilogies!
DeleteRead Siege and Storm!!! So good :)
I haven't read many new releases for 2013. I mainly took this year to get and read books that I've had my eye on for a little while. The ones that were released this year that I loved was Origin, The Liberator and Unremembered. The rest of my books were releases in 2012
ReplyDeleteI'm doing what you did right now -- during the last two weeks of the year -- I'm going back and reading stuff I missed. It's fun!
DeleteThe Darkest Minds and Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken were favourite dystopians this year...
ReplyDeleteAhh-- Never Fade is on my list to get to this year!!
DeleteMy favorite is Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I love the writing, plot, and characters. I love it, I recommend it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that one too -- it didn't make my short list, but I highly recommend it!
DeleteI really enjoyed both The Dream Thieves and Siege and Storm but also The Pirates Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke and The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski.
ReplyDeleteI didn't include Winner's Curse (even though I read it in 2013) because it isn't out yet. Everyone makes their own "best of" rules and I decided that if the book wasn't out I'd save it for next year.
DeletePirate's Wish sounds really great!
I really enjoyed The 5th Wave, The Darkest Minds, and In The After this year :)
ReplyDeleteOf those, I think my favorite was In the After -- so creepy!!
Deleteparanormal: Elysian fields by suzanne johnsxon i devoured it and can't wait for the next book
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of that -- I need to check it out!!
DeleteI've only read The Dream Thieves from this list and it was enjoyable. Some of my favorites include Control by Lydia Kang, Evolution of Mara Dyer (though it came out last year), Allegiant by V. Roth, and Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi of course!
ReplyDelete- Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf
I'm featuring Unravel Me -- as well as some other books in trilogies -- next week :)
DeleteLoved Siege and Storm, one of my fav reads this year. Favorite dystopian is definitely Champion by Marie Lu.
ReplyDeleteI might be featuring that next week too :)
DeleteMy favorite paranormal was The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan. Favorite dystopian (more post-apocalyptic) was Endless Knight by Kresley Cole :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jen!
Gosh, I guess I should have mashed post-apocalyptic in there too. So many books now are blends..
DeleteI loved Legend by Marie Lu and Throne of Glass! Thanks for this amazing giveaway - I would love to win!
ReplyDeleteSuz Reads
I really enjoyed both of those! They may be on my list next week...
DeleteThis year's favorites are definitely Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo and Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken. Thanks for a giveaway! :)
ReplyDeleteAh -- clearly I have to read Never Fade...
Deletemy top picks of this year are Unbreakable (kami garcia) & Sweet Peril (wendy higgins) there are a few others that i thought were good too but cant think of them at the moment..
ReplyDeleteLOL -- both of those are on my "try to finish in 2013" pile!!!!
DeleteThe Raven Boys/The Dream Thieves is one of my favorite series I read this year! I absolutely love them! I fell in love with all the characters and the quest to find the welsh king.
ReplyDeleteMe too -- I'm becoming obsessed with that series….
DeleteDefinitely Shadow and bone and Siege and Storm-they were amazing!
ReplyDeleteLOVE that trilogy!
DeleteLoved Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally. :D
ReplyDeleteLove her books!!!
DeleteMy favorite was THE BOOK THIEF.
ReplyDeleteLoved that one -- have you seen the movie?
DeleteAwesome choices! I really need Antigoddess it looks so good! Hmm. Paranormal/Fantasy/Dystopian are my favorites. I love the Gemma Doyle series, Bloodlines, The Hunger Games of course.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a mythology nerd like I am, you should definitely read it!!!
DeleteI love The Raven Boys! That was such a fantastic book! All of Maggie's books are soo amazing!
ReplyDeleteI am completely obsessed with this series!
DeleteI've had so many favorites this year. My favorite dystopian is The 5th Wave, Crown of Midnight is my favorite fantasy and I think Pivot Point was just amazing!
ReplyDeleteI loved Pivot Point too. It came *this* close to making the list, but I did feature it as one of my favorite debuts in 2013!
DeleteSome of my favorite fantasies I've read this year are Siege and Storm and Diana Peterfruend's Killer Unicorns duology (not released this year). I definitely need to read her Across a Star-Swept Sea soon, though. Thanks for the giveaway, Jen!
ReplyDeleteI want to read more of Diana's books too - thinking I'll start with the Secret Society ones!
DeleteSome of my favorite dystopian/sci-fi/fantasy reads this year would be:
ReplyDeleteProdigy/Champion
Through the Ever Night
Unravel Me
Unbreakable
World After
Clockwork Princess
Siege and Storm
Sweet Peril
Star Cursed
:D
I can agree with ALL those (except haven't read World After or Unbreakable yet)
DeleteThis reminds me how much I want to check out All Our Yesterdays; I wasn't very interested in the cover or title but learning that it involved time travel (plus your review ;) got me psyched about it!
ReplyDeleteRead it!!!! It's really, really fun.
DeleteI really loved Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. It was absolutely amazing. I really recommend it even though it's an adult read.
ReplyDeleteI will check it out!!!
DeleteYikes, I haven't read any of your favorites yet! I'm soo behind! But yeah, I did love the Legend trilogy, which I read back to back this year! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm discussing Champion next week!!
DeleteI have had a lot of favorites this year. I will tell you my two most recent favorite series. The Immortal Empire series by Kate Locke was amazing and is one of my all time faves. And the other is The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens. These didn't come out this year, but I just finished reading them at the beginning of this month. I would highly recommend both of these series. As a warning, there is language and sexual situations in both of them.
ReplyDeleteOooh -- I'll check those out. Are they historical fiction?? Love that!
DeleteA couple stand-outs for me this year: Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout (I know it wasn't released this year but what can I say, I was late to the party :) ), The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey and Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi. All three were un-put-downable!
ReplyDeleteYep, definitely talking about Unravel Me next week :)
DeleteI've had too many faves this year, so many books I've loved and enjoy! I'm doing a series of posts for next week and I just can't choose just a few! Siege & Storm was a bit of a letdown for me, and I haven't read The Midnight Dress but all the other books I also loved!
ReplyDeleteLook forward to reading about your choices :)
DeleteI haven't read that many dystopian just Allegiant and Clockwork Princess which were both good. My favorite YA paranormal was probably The Lux series which I finally read this year.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm kind of winding down on dystopians :)
DeleteEndless Knight was my favorite read this year. Death came out of nowhere and suckerpunched me.
ReplyDeleteI don't read too many Dystopians, but I want to explore my tastes a little bit and see what I like.
Endless Knight was my favorite read this year. Death came out of nowhere and suckerpunched me.
ReplyDeleteI don't read too many Dystopians, but I want to explore my tastes a little bit and see what I like.
I loved These Broken Stars, Just One Day, Pivot Point and I recently read Avalon and I loved that one!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite book of this year has to be Allegiant by Veronica Roth which is the third book in the Divergent Series(:
ReplyDeleteThe Indigo Spell. I still haven't gotten to The Fiery Heart yet. I love Adrian so much. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway!
I am eagerly awaiting the end of the Healer series by Maria V. Snyder (10 days!) but I am sure it will be my favorite of the year because it is Maria V. Snyder. :)
ReplyDeleteI read Allegiant, the final book of Veronica Roth's Divergent series, and it was amazing. Though it's kinda sad that the series already ended. :D
ReplyDeleteI read The Darkest Minds & Never Fade in the last 2 months . Definitely those.
ReplyDeleteThese Broken Stars, which I am in the middle of reading, will definitely be one of the best sci-fi books I read this year (pending it stays good :) )!
ReplyDeleteAshley @ The Quiet Concert
Crown of Midnight is my favorite fantasy of 2013 but you listed some awesome books in your post - All Our Yesterdays, The Dream Thieves, Siege & Storm <333
ReplyDeleteI have read quite a few indie new adult books lately but a dystopian book I read that was really good was After the Ending by Lindsey Pogue and Lindsey Fairleigh. It was incredibly good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway! All Of Our Yesterdays is one book I would love to read.
ReplyDeleteProdigy was my favorite dystopian, but I still need to finish Champion. I love the closing lines in Prodigy! I love reading your blog and then finding more books to read!
ReplyDeleteDark Hunter Series is my favorite from paranormal,I love,love all books from this series :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you :)
I haven't read ANY of these, so I'm adding them all to my To Read list! Dystopian/sci fi isn't always the first thing I reach for, but I usually find myself getting sucked right in. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI read quite a few series i enjoyed this year, The chemical gardens was a different read, dystopian books are new to me, but i rather enjoyed it and looked for more books, i am currently reading Allegiant, they are all so different which keeps me reading.
ReplyDeleteI've only read Seige and Storm but do plan to read many of the books on your list! My favourite read this year is Slammed by Colleen Hoover.
ReplyDeleteI read the False Prince and The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Neilson. I love it, i can't wait for the 3rd book
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken, Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi and Boundless by Cynthia Hand.
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays and thanks for a giveaway! :)