December Wrap Up

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years! This wrap up post is going to be a little longer than usual because I am also including my favourite and least favourite reads of 2017, along with all the usual things I include! I also want to mention that I managed to complete my Goodreads Reading Goal! I actually surpassed it by one book (91/90) books, so I think I will set myself 95 books for 2018 and see how it do. How did you guys get on with your goals? Will you be setting new ones?

Read:

• The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson (Read in November, Reviewed in December) – 1 star, DNF
• First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy (Read in November, reviewed in December) – 1 Star, DNF
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown – 4.5 stars
• The Switch by A. W. Hill and Nathaniel Hill – Review Copy, DNF, 1 star
• Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy – ARC, 3 stars
• Golden Son by Pierce Brown – 5 stars 

Started:

• Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Bought:

• Renegades by Marissa Meyer
• Aidan Book Candle from Glittering Flames – Link leads to the Glittering Flames Etsy shop!

ARC’s Acquired:

• Lullaby by L. R. W. Lee – Received from the author
• Society of Wishes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh – Received from the Authors
• Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari – Received from Penguin Random House Canada via Netgalley

Goodreads Monday:

• Monday 6th – Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre
• Monday 11th – Renegades by Marissa Meyer
• Monday 18th – Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Special Posts:

• Cover Reveal: Deranged Angels and Cannibal Hearts by Martina McAtee
• Cover Reveal: Society of Wishes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

Book of the Month:

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Published: January 6th 2015 by Del Ray

Amazon: Golden Son

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.

I am absolutely loving the Red Rising series (I am reading Morning Star at the time of writing this) and this book just had me completely shaken. The ending was absolutely shocking and I just sat and stared at my kindle for about 20 minutes just wondering what I had just read! I highly recommend this series if there is anyone out there who hasn’t jumped on the band wagon yet!

Favourite Books of 2017:

I’ve narrowed this list down to my top 10 books, because there were really a lot of amazing books that I could have included in this list!

• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – I was a little hesitant to pick this up because of the size and the layout, however, I had this finished extremely quickly and went and got Gemina because I absolutely loved it!
• Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – This book was even better than Illuminae and I had it finished in 1 sitting in a couple of hours. I also went and pre ordered Obsidio as soon as I had finished (the wait has been killing me).
• Warcross by Marie Lu – Another book I was hesitant to pick up because I haven’t liked any of Lu’s previous woks. I bought this on a whim when I was in the bookstore and I am so glad I did because this book had me completely hooked! I cannot wait for the sequel.
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown – I actually had this book on my TBR for the longest time, but I never really felt the need to pick it up… I decided to pick it up this month because of the release of Iron Gold in January, and I feel like I should be kicking myself for not picking it up sooner!
• Golden Son by Pierce Brown – I picked this up as soon as I finished Red Rising and this book just had me hooked from the beginning to the end. There’s stabby betrayal in every corner and I loved it!
• A Bond of Blood and Fire by Karen Tomlinson – This is one of my all time favourite series and I was lucky enough to be a beta reader for this book! There is action from the beginning to the end and I really feel that this book is really extremely underrated!
• Hoax by C. L. Stone – This is the 5th book in the Scarab Beetle series by this author and I found it to be a quick and fun read! I love the world she has created and I cannot wait for the next book in this series.
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas – Where would this list be without the Queen? There are a lot of mixed reviews for this instalment of the ACOTAR series, but I personally really enjoyed this instalment.
• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor – Laini Taylor is an auto buy author for me, so I pre ordered this before hand and got the Blue Sprayed edged copy. The writing is absolutely beautiful and the story even better!
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – This was a fast paced duology that had me constantly wanting to know what was going to happen next! Can I also just say Kaz Brekker? ❤

Least Favourite books of 2017:

So, I think it would be fun to also include my least favourite books of this year! I do just want to mention, though, that these are my own opinions, and I you did like these books, I’m glad you did! They just weren’t for me! Like My favourites, I’ve narrowed this list to 10. All links lead to my full reviews.

• Shooter by Caroline Pignat – I feel like I waited a really long time for this book and it just fell completely flat for me. It didn’t focus enough on what should have been the main part of the story (the school shooting) and it focused on really petty things the characters kept bringing up.
• The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee – I was extremely excited to read this book because it was pitched as Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girl – which are both series that I love. However, this book fell completely flat for me because I feel like it just meandered it’s way through without a huge amount really going on.
• Hunted by Meagan Spooner – Again, this was a highly anticipated release for me because I love beauty and the beast! However, this book was extremely repetitive and there wasn’t a whole lot going on plot wise.
• Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge – Romeo and Juliet is one of my favourites, so I was excited to get to this retelling. However, I mostly felt confused because I didn’t really understand what was going on and I feel that there wasn’t sufficient world building and plot to really keep me interested in what was going on.
• Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon – I didn’t really get that far with this book before I DNFed it. It was basically Twilight rewritten by a different author. It felt very repetitive and I feel the Fallon basically plagiarised Twilight.
• Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This book looked extremely creepy and I was really excited to read it. However, it fell completely flat both plot wise and horror wise. Nothing was really happening and I felt like it was really going nowhere fast.
• The Switch by A. W. Hill and Nathaniel Hill – I actually received a review copy of this via Netgalley, so I feel a little bad for not liking this as much as I thought I was going to. The book was very repetitive and rehashed the same points of inter dimensional travel every time he switched to a new reality. I ended up DNfing this book by the 3rd or 4th switch.
• First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirrowy – This was a highly anticipated read for me. I actually really enjoyed the beginning of this book – it was interesting and really had me hooked. However, I feel that the author lost her way a bit with this book because it really fell into a bit of a tangent by the middle and it felt confused and lost.
• The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson – This book. I literally do not understand why there is so much hype surrounding it. There was nothing going on plot wise to really keep me interested and the romance aspect of the book really fell flat for me as well.
• All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis – This was yet another highly anticipated read that really did nothing to tickle my fancy. I was expecting a lot from this book because of the subject matter, but I feel that the execution was lacking – which is a shame because it had a huge potential to be something amazing and unique!

So, that was my year (and month) in books in a nutshell! Have you read any of the books on my Favourites or least favourites? Did you agree with any of my choices, or would you have picked differently? Leave me links to your wrap posts so that I can check them out! I hope everyone has a great 2018 ❤

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