The Best Book I Read Last Year (01)

button 30 Day Book Challenge

Welcome to the Moonlight Library’s 30 Day Book Challenge!
This meme intends to generate discussion, so please feel free to add a comment.
This particular challenge is taken from the 30 Day Challenge Archive on Tumblr.

Day 01 – The best book you read last year

The best book I read last year was Poison Study by Maria V Snyder (see review here). I’ve read the first two books in Snyder’s Healer series, and her dystopian duology Insider. Poison Study, like those other books, seemed like it was written especially for me. I loved everything about it: the strong female lead, the strong love interest who despises her at the the beginning (seriously, I don’t know why I love romances like that), funny secondary characters, intense villains, a mystery I couldn’t solve until just the right time, lovely worldbuilding, splendid descriptions and of course, gorgeous writing.

There are so many beautiful covers of Poison Study that I’m going to feature a few (click here to see more):

Poison Study (Study, #1)

Poison Study (Study, #1)

Poison Study (Study, #1)

Poison Study (Study, #1)

Poison (Study, #1)

What is the best book you read last year?

Have you read any of Maria V Snyder’s other books?

Who is your favourite heroine?

What kind of romance do you like best?

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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10 thoughts on “The Best Book I Read Last Year (01)

  1. Fly to the Sky

    I’ve read his author’s Inside Out and Outside In and I absolutely LOVED them. I read the first in the Healer series too and loved her style! I’ve yet to have read this series and I really need and want to! Not only do they sound amazing, but everyone seems to love them!! And my fav book last year? I have no idea! There are way to many to pick from!!! 🙂 love all of the covers for Poison Study! Personally though I love the third on the best!! Mostly because the cover it green though!

    1. Nemo

      I think if you enjoyed the Insider duology and the first Healer book, you’ll like Poison Study. It’s quite similar to the Healer books whilst still being its own series. You should check out the other poison Study covers, too; there are so many beautiful ones!

  2. nikihawkes

    I read a lot of stellar books last year, but I have to say my favorite is “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. It was beautifully written, had amazing characters, and sang to me in a way that no book has done since Harry Potter.
    I haven’t read any of Snyder’s books. I’ve had the Poison trilogy on my shelf for at least five years may be more but have yet to pick them up. I’ve heard from so many sources how good they are and I guess I’m saving them for when I need a guaranteed good read. Your obvious excitement for them makes me want to quit saving and just read them already, lol.
    My favorite heroine is probably Kahlan from the Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind. It surprises me that my favorite female lead was written by a man. I generally can only relate to women characters if they are also written by women. Kahlan seems to be the sole exception. She is compassionate, smart, strong-willed, funny, independent, loves with all her heart, and has a beautiful soul.
    I love romance that has tension and build up. Two people that drive each other crazy but it the same time can’t stop thinking about one another. It should be obvious they love each other before either of them have the courage to admit it. Love is in part about choosing the person who you think is best for you, and for that reason I don’t mind love – triangles. It makes the character truly consider what attributes are right for her. I’m not too keen on soul mates in books, as I prefer a relationship that the characters had to work for.
    Thank you for such great prompts – I had a lot of fun answering your questions. 🙂

    1. Nemo

      I have heard a lot of good things about The Name of the Wind. I shall have to check it out!
      I understand about wanting to save Poison Study for a good read but you know we share book tastes so this should be guaranteed for you! If you don’t enjoy them I will personally buy you a new book to read instead!
      I absolutely adored the Legend of the Seeker TV show which was based on the Sword of truth books, so I know exactly what you mean when you say Kahlan is your favourite lead. I am hesitant at reading the books because I love the TV show so much, and I know it’s really different! I love that Terry Goodkind can write such great women in his books!
      I agree – sometimes love triangles can work. Sometimes when they’re only written in to show how desirable the main character is, they can get pretty stupid. I generally don’t like love triangles because I’m not a huge romance fan, but I have read some good ones – Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, for example.

      1. nikihawkes

        If you’re in the mood for adult fantasy, you can’t go wrong with The Name of the Wind.
        LOL, okay you’ve convinced me – I promise to dust them off and start reading them within the next couple of weeks! I am genuinely excited to finally read them. I can’t imagine not liking them after everything you’ve said.
        I loved the show, too, and really wish they had done more than two seasons. The book were worth the read (they were totally profound on occasion), but were incredibly long. I thought they did the tv series justice and absolutely loved the actress they chose to play Kahlan – she was perfect. This probably is going to sound odd, but I spent a lot of years casually searching for the perfect name to use if I ever have a daughter. I think I finally found it in Kahlan, as it represents my love for books and strong female leads. Although, I’ll probably spell it Kaylen so people know how to say it – ha ha.
        Yes, the presence of a love triangle for the sake of boosting the main character is kind of a copout. You can totally tell when this is the case because they don’t like her for anything other than superficial reasons. There is no real development going on there, and that’s the part I crave. I almost prefer it when she meets them separately and develop strong relationships with them on an individual level before the author throws them all back together. My less impressive reasoning for liking them is that I am a sucker for competitions in any format – I just want to see who wins, lol.
        It’s funny, I just bought a copy of Unearthly a week ago. I have yet to read any “Angel” books, so I thought I’d start with this one. The woman who wrote it lives a few hours north of where I grew up so I think I have the stigma that if they’re somewhat local their work must not be that good (Which is funny because I’m trying to become a published author, too).

        1. Nemo

          I’m not really a huge fan of adult literature but I do like a good adult fantasy. Also, Cynthia Hand is actually, truly talented. You may not like the book, but you can’t deny she’s a wonderful storyteller. She teaches it, too.

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