2013 End of Year Book Survey

best books 2013 end of year survey

Jaime from The Perpetual Page Turner hosts an annual book survey and this year I’m taking part.

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The Best Books of 2013

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist)

Contemporary YA – Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend by Louise Rozett

Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic – Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Historical Fiction – The Wrong Girl by C.J. Archer

Paranormal — The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Science Fiction — The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by K.A. Applegate

Fantasy — Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)

See review.

 3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013? 

Banish

See review.

 4. Book you read in 2013 that you recommended to people most in 2013?

The Wrong Girl (Freak House #1)

See review.

 5. Best series you discovered in 2013?

The Wrong Girl (Freak House #1)

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2013?

The Wrong Girl (Freak House #1)

I’m not even sorry.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

Red Hot Dragon (Dragon Heat, #2)

My first taste of erotica. See review.

 8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2013?

Insurgent (Divergent, #2)

See my thoughts on the entire Divergent trilogy here.

9. Book You Read In 2013 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1)

See review.

10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2013?

Boundless (Unearthly, #3)

11. Most memorable character in 2013? 

The Solution (Animorphs, #22)

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2013?

Sever (The Chemical Garden, #3)

See review.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013? 

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 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2013 to finally read? 

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)

See review.

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2013?

OK, I’ve got a few:

“Oh for mercy’s sake,” Bitterblue snapped at her advisors. “I’m proposing a walk to the smithy, not an expedition to the moon. I’ll be back in a matter of minute. In the meantime, you can all return to work and stop being annoying, if such a thing is possible.”

“At least take an umbrella, Lady Queen,” pleaded Rood.

“I won’t,” she said, then swept out of the room as dramatically as possible

― Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue

“Tell me my copy is missing the last twenty pages or something.

Hazel Grace, tell me I have not reached the end of this book.

OH MY GOD DO THEY GET MARRIED OR NOT OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS?!”

― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“And oh, god, how could so much regret and so much sweetness and so much sadness all be present in that single moment. I was already dead and missing my unlived life. I was already dead and Tobias was mourning.

I tried to smile. For him.”

― Katherine Applegate, The Beginning (Animorphs, #54)

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

Longest at 547 pages:

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)

Shortest at 3 pages, ‘The Meeting’ (Vampire Academy #1.1) by Richelle Mead

 17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!

Adorkable

I don’t want to spoil this, so at risk of that, see review here.

18. Favourite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2013 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).

The Goddess Test (Goddess Test, #1)

I only rated the book 3 stars, but there was something about Henry I really likes, and his developing relationship with Kate. See review here.

19. Favorite Book You Read in 2013 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Hork-Bajir Chroncles (Animorphs)

See review.

20. Best Book You Read In 2013 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else:

A Curse Dark As Gold - Audio Library Edition

Based solely on recommendation from Lyn from Great Imaginations.
See review.

21. Genre You Read The Most From in 2013?

Technically sci-fi, because I read the entire Animorphs series (64 books) plus a few others.

But apart from that, it was paranormal romance. Not by choice. Kind of accidentally. I was trying to cut back on paranormal romance books, but do you have any idea of the sheer number of them published? Sometimes it’s hard to find anything else.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2013?

Adorkable

MICHAEL! SWOON!

23. Best 2013 debut you read?

Sky Jumpers (Sky Jumpers, #1)

See review.

24. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2013?

The Ellimist Chronicles (Animorphs Chronicles, #4)

See review.

25. Book That Was The Most Fun To Read in 2013?

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 1 (The Search, #1)

See review.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2013?

I’ll warn you, I cry A LOT.  My fiancé says you can tell if it’s a good movie by whether I cry or not. I cry when people are brave or sad or mourning or something really great happens. He took me to see Frozen last weekend and I cried four times. FOUR! When we went to see Les Miserables in theatres last year I cried throughout THE WHOLE DAMN THING.

That being said, I LOVE books that make me cry. I love that feeling, and I love feeling so passionately about a book that it can bring me to tears. Books that make me feel so much are very special to me.
So I have rather a lot of books that I want to include in this section:

eight animorphs tears covers

six tears covers of 2013

27. Book You Read in 2013 That You Think Got Overlooked This Year Or When It Came Out?

Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend (Confessions, #2)

See review.

Looking Ahead:

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2013 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2014?

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2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2014 (non-debut)?

The Winner's Curse

3. 2014 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Storm Siren

4. Series Ending You Are Most Anticipating in 2014?

Up From the Grave (Night Huntress, #7)

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2014?

I really want to focus on whittling down my staggering physical to-read shelf and get through all those ARCs and review copies I owe. Currently I own over 200 books to-read combined on both my Kindle and my shelves, and have packed a double shelf full of physical book. I owe 16 reviews for books I’ve received. I would really like to work on emptying those shelves and get all my review books down, because I feel obligated and I want the freedom to pick any book I choose rather than succumb to a deadline. I’m getting better at only requesting books I’m a) excited for b) have already added to my to-reads list c) really really want to read and d) based on the cover, blurb and author think I will really enjoy.

Nemo
Nemo

About Nemo

A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.

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6 thoughts on “2013 End of Year Book Survey

  1. MidnightPageTurners

    Throne of Glass, yet another book I need to read… Everyone seems to be raving about the Divergent Books but I’m not sure I can stomach the ending of Allegiant that so many people hate.

    1. Nemo

      The ending has polarised a lot of people. I’m not quite sure why I’m so OK with it – I guess it just worked for me. I’ve read a lot worse. Endings are always hard for people – all the open possibilities shut down.

  2. Rain Jeys

    Ahhh love for The Indigo Spell! Yay! I need to read The Chemical Gardens soon.

    I’ve been eyeing The Wrong Girl for a while now. Is it anything like the Gemma Doyle series?

    That cover of Boundless is amazing! Which country got that one!?

    I read “The Meeting” two, and “Adrian’s Lost Chapter”, but I didn’t count those ones. 🙂

    I want to read “The Search” SO badly! But I wish they’d just made them as episodes or even motion-comics. *pouts*

    I love it when something makes me cry too. 🙂

    Also, your blog is gorgeous! I love the background and the kitty.

    I did the survey too: http://roseshadowink.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/2013-end-of-the-year-bookish-survey/

    1. Nemo

      I’m sorry, I haven’t actually read the Gemma Doyle series, but I really want to! The Wrong Girl is a historical paranormally-type book with a voice very similar to a comedy of manners book.
      The Boundless cover is for Australia – we were ridiculously lucky with out Unearthly covers and all three of them are breathtaking.
      Huh, motion-comics? I’ll have to look that up. Never heard of them before.
      Thank you so much for your compliment, I have put a lot of work into getting my blog just how I want it and I’m so pleased you like it!

      1. Rain Jeys

        I can’t recommend the Gemma Doyle series highly enough, It’s just amazing. I like the way you describe The Wrong Girl. I’ll have to give it a try.

        Hmm. I wonder if I order the read of the Unearthly series through the Book Depository Australia if I can get the awesome covers? I’m going to try. Or maybe amazon.au….

        The only motion comic I’ve seen is the Astonishiong X-Men ones. They were fairly dark but I liked them.

        You are most welcome. 🙂

  3. Book Review: The Athena Effect by Derrolyn Anderson | The Moonlight Library

    […] How wrong I was. Derrolyn approached me before we were acquaintances on Goodreads to ask me if I wanted to read her book. When I glanced around on Goodreads and read some other reviews I decided that yes, I did want to give it a shot. I’d been burned by self-publishers and cold callers before, so I was a little hesitant, but I saw that some friends of mine whose judgement of quality literature I trusted and whom I could also trust not to up the rating just because Derrolyn’s a giant sweetheart had rated the book highly. I was eager to read it, especially as my favourite novel of 2013 was a self-published novel. […]

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