Mari's Top 5 of 2013

I'm noticing a descending trend in the number of books I'm reading but thankfully that's not the same with the number of books I'm enjoying. 2013 wasn't the best reading year but it was a year in which I read some of my all time favourite books.

5th: Champion - Marie Lu

I'm a big fan of this series. It's fast paced, action packed and contains two of my favourite characters, Day and June. It's not everyday that one reads about characters as intelligent and compatible as them. In my whole reading career, I've only read one other so it's a treat when books like this come along!

4th: Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas

Something I've come to notice about myself is that I have a fascination with assassins. Crown of Midnight is a perfect example of the kind of assassins stories I like. I love this series.

3rd: Scarlet - A.C. Gaughan

Retellings! To be honest, I tend to ignore retelling despite their reappearance in popular reads. The only one I remember reading is one of Mulan and that's because Mulan is irresistible!

Scarlet on the other hand, is a retelling of Robin Hood with a twist. Robin's band includes a spunky crossdressing girl named Scarlet! Now that I think about it the resemblance to Mulan is probably why I enjoyed it so much :)

2nd: Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

The stunning finale to Cassandra's Infernal Devices literally left me reeling. I'm still a little scarred by this one. Nonetheless, it was fantastic.

1st: The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons

Eek! I've talked about this one quite a lot these past few months. It's different, set in Russia which was automatically a whiff of fresh air after the never ending supply of books set in North America. This one really opened my eyes to the fact that I could enjoy books outside of YA, I haven't found any besides this one but I think it's fun to branch out every now and again :)

P.S. Think man in army suit, now think perfect 20th century gentleman. Do you have the image in your head? Now go read this book!

Conclusion:

It's been an interesting reading year. I've read more fantasy and historical fiction, which are quite like me. I read to escape and to travel and these books are the best at doing that!