The big day has arrived! Today is the day I reveal my Book of the Year for 2014. Yay!
A lot of great books have been eliminated along the way. I said goodbye to some books that made me sad to have to let go.
It has all been leading to this. Two challengers remain. Only one will get the title.
Here's where the bracket currently stands:
And the challengers are:
Representing the left side of the bracket:
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Morgan Matson
I swooned over this book relatively early in the year. I built myself a Spotify playlist based on the songs listed in Roger's playlist as they made their way. I even posted this glowing review on the blog. In the review, I stated that "I was hooked right from the beginning and I was sad when it was done. This was one of those books that I just wanted to go on forever." I also said that it would be a strong contender for 2014 BOTY. I wasn't wrong in that early assessment.
Representing the right side of the bracket:
Just One Day
Gayle Forman
Gayle Forman had a rough go of it in this year's bracket. She originally had three books in the running. Just One Year, the sequel to Just One Day, lost out in round two to Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. An even harder loss came later on when Just One Day managed to take out Gayle's other book, Where She Went. Nothing like having to go up against yourself!
Just One Day was lovely. It was romantic and sad at the same time. I loved the Shakespearean theme. I fell in love with the characters. In my Goodreads review, I said "my heart was in my throat most of the time and it very nearly made me cry, but the potential pain was totally worth it. This is one of those books that goes to the top of the list to read over and over again."
Obviously we have a very good match up.
The Faceoff:
I will admit that when I first started working on the bracket, I kind of had an idea how things would all play out. However, there were a few surprises as the randomized bracket knocked out some pretty strong challengers early on. My final four were not the same books I expected. However, I will say that the final two were the ones I did have in the back of my mind.
Since I somewhat envisioned who would be pairing off in this round, I had a little time to think it over as we went through the other eliminations. No matter how I spun it, I always came out with the same winner. My heart just belongs to this book. I couldn't let it go, no matter how good the book going up against it managed to be. This book was nearly perfect. The characters were gorgeous and written appropriately for their age. The narrative was easy and flowing.
What set this book above the rest for me were the little extra touches: the ephemera used in the chapter heading pages and...yes...the playlists.
So...if you've been paying attention, it should come as no surprise that 2014's Book of the Year is:
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Morgan Matson
I recommended this book for my sister-in-law when my brother asked what to get her for her birthday. She texted me the other day to ask if I thought she should read Amy & Roger or Fallen by Lauren Kate first (one of my other recommendations). Obviously, I recommended Amy & Roger. Of course, I may have now ruined all other books for her. This one will remain not only my favorite of the reads from 2014, but one of my favorite books ever read.
Congratulations to Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, the Erratic Project Junkie 2014 Book of the Year!
Want to look at how other past winners claimed their crowns?
To all of you who participated, THANK YOU! I have enjoyed watching your brackets develop and I will be poaching from your winners to add to my TBR list. I will be doing a bracket for myself again this year and hosting the challenge again next January. I hope you'll all be able to join me again.
Link up to your 2014 Book of the Year Winner in the comments below!
Yup, my winner was who I expected. Of course, I kept 3 out of my final 4 in the different quadrants, so that was a bit of a cheat. I had to though, couldn't have the best of the best against each other. :)
ReplyDeleteHere's my 2014 Winner. Thanks for the fun! I think I'm going to (at some point) do the other years I kept track on GoodReads. I know what a few favorites will be, so it'd be fun to see where I'd rank everything now.
When do we start 2015? :)
http://rachaelc94.blogspot.com/2015/01/2014-book-of-year-bracket-challenge_17.html
ReplyDeleteHere's mine! This was such a fun challenge. I own Amy and Roger so I will get to it very soon.
Aw, your winner sounds like such a fun read! I need more of those in my life, so I may just check it out. :) Thanks for hosting such a fun challenge—can't wait to join up next year!
ReplyDeleteMy winner: http://shainareads.blogspot.com/2015/01/2014-book-of-year-boty-bracket_17.html
Well you've totally added some books to my tbr with this challenge! I've been so crazy busy this past week I couldn't check in, but seriously - thanks for hosting this. It was so much fun and I was surprised by a lot of my eliminations. The book that won was not the one I expected at all!
ReplyDelete