Winter Wrap-Up

Since today is the official first day of Spring I thought I'd take the chance to talk about some of my favorite books from this last winter.  This includes December of 2014, before I started blogging, so it's a great opportunity to high light those books I haven't talked about on here yet.  If I wrote a review for the book I'm talking about, I'll include a link to it.  Hope you enjoy!

(These are in the order I read them)

First up is Froi of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn, two of my favorite books.  They make up the last to books in the trilogy, Chronicles of Lumatere.  They may be the best thing I read last year, to be honest.  If you could only read one thing this year, I would very much say that you should pick up the first book, Finnikin of the Rock.

The Thief is another first book in an award winning series.  It's got a slow beginning, but not long into it I forgot I was reading something at all.  I was flipping pages so quickly and completely lost track of time.  I stayed up until one in the morning, if I remember correctly.  Which, for me, is very rare.  I'm a little anal about keeping track of my time and when a book can get one over on me, it's definitely worth checking out.  So far I've only read one of the sequels, The Queen of Attolia, but it lived up to my expectations.

I may not have given this book five stars originally, but in retrospect I think I should have.  The Enchanted has stuck with me in a way few other books have.  I think about this book very often, and have considered getting it as a gift for most of my friends and family.  The message inside is complicated in the aspect that it has many facets.  The story it tells is unlike anything I've read before, which may have something to do with how much it has affected me.  It's definitively for mature readers, though, so be careful of picking this up.

The Mistborn Trilogy is something I will always hold close to my heart.  I do have mixed feelings over the ending, but then again, having mixed feelings means you constantly think about something.  Mistborn will always simmer under my skin and I don't think I'll find another fantasy series that sits quite this way with me.  Like many people I loved the magic system- allomancy infected my dreams- but more than that I loved the plot.  It was daring, it was provocative, and it was surprising.  Like many other fans of this series, I wholeheartedly recommend it, and think it's a great place to start the Sanderson journey.

Masters of Blood and Bone is a book more people should read.  It's perfect for fans of Gaiman or gritty SF&F reads.  It's got a surprising twist at the end that still makes my head spin.  I got this one as an ARC and didn't have super high hopes, but now, as you can see, it's one of my favorite reads.  Again, this one is for mature readers, so read with care.

Finally on this list is Red Rising and Golden Son, two books that have affected the books I read for the rest of the year, possibly the rest of my life.  I've always been a fan of fantasy, more son in the last two years, but regardless, I've always identified well with it.  Now, though, I think I can safely say that I'm a science fiction fan.  In fact, I've unofficially dubbed this the year of Sci-Fi and I plan on picking up many more of these kinds of books.  While I enjoyed Red Rising, Golden Son is where my heart truly lies.  Part Space Opera, but mostly a military story, it showed me everything a good science fiction story could be.  Red Rising was more dystopian, which may be why it didn't affect me as much, but it's worth getting through in order to reach the sequel.