Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top 10 Books of past 3 years

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & Bookish



When I saw people start posting today's topic, I knew I'd be joining in on this one. I loved looking over the past 3 years of books. To make it easier on me, I used 2012, 2013 & 2014 as my 3 years, I didn't bring in anything from 2015.

A lot of people say it's hard to pick out their favorites, but I always find it easy. Sure, I could name a good 50 books that could be on on a favorites list for me, but looking through and just picking out the best of the best wasn't hard. It wasn't until #9 & #10 that I started questioning if I wanted to included them. Definitely #10 I debated with, because the book I stuck with was such a different kind and emotional read. But in the end, I felt like my feelings about it now kept it in the running above other books that I considered. 1-8 were quite easy for me. For this list I had a few more criteria ~ it couldn't be a re-read (sorry, Night Circus & Ready Player One) and only one author could be listed (sorry, Redshirts & Hover Car Racer). Other than that, anything goes for my top books of '12, '13 & '14.

I should mention that I had A LOT OF BOOKS to narrow this down. In those 3 years I mentioned I read a whopping 672 books!! Even I was surprised when I saw how how it was. I thought it was more around 500, but considering in 2014 I read over 300 books, I shouldn't have been surprised. And just so ya know, If I had added in this years books as well, I'd be looking at choosing from 719 books, and another 2 would have been in contention for the list, course that would have made my choices for 9 & 10 easier. :)

On to my Top 10 Favorites of the past 3 years. As always, books link to GoodReads.

The Blurb:

Kaden knows he's dying, but before he goes, he has one problem he needs to solve - he must ask his oldest friend Seth to take over as his beloved wife's Dom and Master after his death.

Seth has always seen himself as the perpetual screw-up and Kaden as the strong and steady one, so his friend's request rocks his world. Now Seth finds himself immersed in a role he's far from comfortable with: inflicting pain to provide emotional comfort for the woman he's secretly loved for years. Can he deal with his crushing grief and learn the skills he must master in time to become THE RELUCTANT DOM?

My Thoughts

I've read a lot of BDSM books, and I'm very picky about what I read. I typically don't care to read about the harder/darker side (S&M) but this book was different. This was the only book in recent memory that made me cry (since I don't like books that made me cry). This was just an all around great book, but hard to read since I have a Hubby who has medical issues. It made it even more real for me. Fantastic book!

The Blurb:

Daughter of a controlling mother, Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking at a nightclub and allowing a strange man's seductive Russian accent lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever.

Twelve years later, the woman known as Abigail Lowery lives on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer, she designs sophisticated security systems -- and supplements her own security with a fierce dog and an assortment of firearms. She keeps to herself, saying little, revealing nothing. But Abigail's reserve only intrigues police chief Brooks Gleason. Her logical mind, her secretive nature, and her unromantic viewpoints leave him fascinated but frustrated. He suspects that Abigail needs protection from something -- and that her elaborate defenses hide a story that must be revealed.

My Thoughts

Nora can't really do wrong. I liked this book a lot, and I really identified with the main character in how she was sheltered as a child. Unlike her, I didn't have the courage to rebel. The whole story and characters were fantastic!

The Blurb:

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

My Thoughts

What a cute story! This book is perfect for book lovers of any age. A scavenger hunt set in a futuristic library, and there's a least going to be a sequel (in 2016).
Great book, so much fun!

The Blurb:

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.

The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team.
But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.

My Thoughts

If you are a fan of Ready Player One and are looking for something similar, this is quite enjoyable. It's not quite got the fun 80s stuff of RPO but it's a gamer in a virtual reality world. Quite a good story!

The Blurb:

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and Kate’s genetic ability to time-travel makes her the only one who can stop him. Risking everything, she travels to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the killing and the chain of events that follows.

Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost, however—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does she have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?

My Thoughts

This first book in a new time travel series is fantastic! I really loved the book and the books since. I'm really looking forward to more from this series.

The Blurb:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts

I'm sure everyone knows about Cinder.
I quite enjoyed it, as did most people who read it. :)

The Blurb:

Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. 4% suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1% find themselves 'locked in' - fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

1% doesn't seem like a lot. But in the US that's 1.7 million people 'locked in' - including the President's wife and daughter.

Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can fully restore the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, 'The Agora', where the locked-in can interact with other humans, whether locked-in or not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, allowing those who are locked in to occasionally 'ride' these people and use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse...

My Thoughts

The blurb for this book doesn't do it justice. It sounds like some weird medical drama, but it's not, it's a fantastic murder mystery in an awesome world. If you haven't tried Lock In, you definitely should!

The Blurb:

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The 'tributes' are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

My Thoughts

I didn't read this until 2012, but like many people, loved it.

The Blurb:

It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for forty years.

They have found a species of animal no one believed even existed. It will amaze the world.

Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed.

A small group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra Jane 'CJ' Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles.

The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that they are perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong...

My Thoughts

Matt Reilly is one of my favorite authors. This is his newest book and my favorite of his. It's a Jurassic Park meets Godzilla type book but it's so fun with tons of action and lovable characters. A great book if you are a fan of action adventure, or if you enjoy a kick ass chick without having the story overpowered by romance.

The Blurb:

Barcelona, 1945. Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother’s face. To console his only child, Daniel’s widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona’s guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel’s father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, 'The Shadow of the Wind', by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax’s work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn’t find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

My Thoughts

My favorite book I have read since The Night Circus (my all time favorite). This is another book for book lovers. How can you resist books that talk about a "Cemetery of Forgotten Books"? It's a fantastic mystery and the other books in the series are not to be missed either. A great book and my favorite over the past few years.

What are YOUR favorite books of the past 3 years?
Leave me a link!