Best Books of 2014

Hello friends! Can you believe that 2015 is right around the corner, ready to knock on our door and demand a cold lemonade? Nor can I. Anyways, to celebrate and farewell dear old 2014, I shall today discuss the best books I read this year. Thanks to the wonderful site goodreads, I was able to review every book I rated 5-stars this year (I promise I'm not being sponsored I just genuinely love goodreads). So here we go!

I rated 34 books out of a total 90 5 stars this year. That's almost 38%!

These are a selection of the books I rated 5 stars that I would rate 6 or more if I could.

City Of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare

If you didn't guess I'd put COHF in here, you don't know me. The conclusion to the fantastic The Mortal Instruments series was definitely not a let down. It was beautiful and heartwarming and I loved it. It was also the longest book I read this year, coming in at 725 pages. Woah. You can check out my review for COHF here; if you haven't read TMI, go get yourself City Of Bones right now. Don't even finish reading this sentence. Go.

My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick

This cutesy, heartwarming love story has to make the top books of 2014. It follows the story of two next door neighbors, the reserved, neat family of three and the wild, rambunctious family of who-knows-how-many. It's a sstory of family, love, friendship and there's also a mystery and a secret in there, too. It's beautiful and hilarious and everything about it is gorgeous. Highly, highly recommend.

The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

This was something that's been on my TBR list for a very, very long time. I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde's poetry and The Importance Of Being Ernest, and so I was desperate to read this. And it has now turned into one of my favourite books of all time. It's a classical novel about a beautiful, beautiful boy named Dorian. His vanity drives him to do something horrible... you'll just have to read to find out. Oscar Wilde's writing is hilarious and wonderful, and if you want a funny, classical novel with a good story, I highly recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Throne Of Glass, Sarah J Maas

Throne Of Glass was the fantasy series I wanted. Awesome female lead, amazingly developed characters, royalty, magic, a brilliant storyline and a half-love triangle that was important but not too important. It is slowly becoming one of my most favourite fantasy series of all time. The main character is an assassin, and her adventures and the storyline are too difficult to explain in just one paragraph. Amazing world-building, character developing and storyline.

Wildlife, Fiona Wood

As a part of the book club I'm in, this year I tried to read all the novels in the Australian shortlist this year. Wildlife definitely deserved to top the shortlist. This story is about a school that sends its year ten students on a term-long wildlife adventure camp. You get to see these characters interacting and dealing with the issues of this camp. The thing that is beautiful and perfect about this book is the writing. The writing was amazing; some of my favourite quotes of this year come from that book. Definitely give it a go if you like fabulous writing and Stephanie Perkins-style writing.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Maggie Stiefvater

You guys know that I love the Raven Boys series, as shown by my reviews of the first book, The Raven Boys, here, and my review of the second book, The Dream Thieves, here. This book is the third book in the series, and I'm pretty sure there's one more coming. The series is about this weird town, psychics, and a group of gorgeous characters. It's a really interesting and beautiful read, and so I highly recommend it to anyone who loves mysterious, supernatural stories.

Fairytales For Wilde Girls, Allyse Near

This book is odd. Really odd. It's almost like a psychological thriller mixed with fantasy and supernatural. It's really weird and intriguing, and you really can't put it down. I wouldn't say anything about it, but it's really, really fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Anna And The French Kiss and Lola And The Boy Next Door, Stephanie Perkins

You guys know how much I love Stephanie Perkins. I've talked about them so many times, because they're some of my very favourites. If you're into extremely cutesy and beautiful contemporaries, then click this link for my review of Anna And The French Kiss and this one for Lola And The Boy Next Door.