In the last post, I whittled down to four fantastic books.
These matchups weren't easy to decide on. All four of the final four are great reads. Funny enough, only one of the four isn't a YA Fiction book. Apparently that genre is more my taste than I knew.
The Paris Wife was a great book that read like a memoir; excellent for a fictional depiction of a real person's life. The characters were rich in detail and the plot got me quite involved. There were several times when I felt that the book allowed me to easily envision strolling Parisian streets.
Clockwork Princess was an amazing conclusion to the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. I really loved the way the series worked right into her plot for the Mortal Instruments series. The imagination that she has to create characters and a whole new world is incredibly impressive.
Pitted together, these two books had very little in common. The genres were incredibly different, the styles of writing even more so. I thought about this match for quite a while before finally making my decision. And so it had to be...when I asked myself the fatal question of which of the pair I would pick to read right this moment, the winner came to be...
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
The other side of the bracket was a little easier to decide.
Thirteen Reasons Why moved me. Seriously. I just swooned over this book. It's a very emotional read, but I just wanted more when I finished. Jay Asher just has a way with words. I really look forward to reading more of his work.
Matched was a great book. It was my favorite of the dystopian novels I read in 2013. It set the bar high for the rest of the series, so I was unfortunately mildly disappointed in the second and third novels that followed. It was my Twilight meets 1984. I loved it. Oh...and I loved the cover too. I know that's extraneous information, but it's important to note that not all of the covers I love turn out to be books that are disappointing.
My heart decided this match for me, corny as it sounds. I was far too moved by it, so the winner just had to be...
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
And so it is...both young adult novels. One sci-fi, one teenage angst. Both fantastic.
By the time I got to this point, honestly I think that I already knew what the winner would be. In all honesty, I think I knew it by the time I got to the final four.
And the winner is...
If you like young adult fiction at all, you need to read this book. It is amazing. Make sure you put aside enough time that you could finish the book all at once if you need to. I split mine between two evenings and that resulted in me being up until past 2 a.m. both nights. I even took it to work with me to read during a lunch hour between the two evenings. I absolutely will be reading this book again.
And there you have it. I actually finished up my 2013 Book of the Year bracket before January came to an end. Shocking. Hopefully you can manage to find a few good books in the batch that I read. I look forward to gleaning another good crop this year. Oh...and if you're a reader and haven't done so yet, go find and friend me on Goodreads. I always enjoy checking out my friends' lists to find myself some hidden gems.
Happy reading!
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