Jessica (HDB)

In the world of Jessica, five star ratings are not given lightly. I'm lucky if I find one or two books a month that really blow me away, and make my "I'm going to shout love for this to the ends of the Earth" list. This year I devoured 200 books and, of those, only 29 made the cut. Out of those, I've chosen a few to highlight. Let's take a look, shall we?

 

2014 Re-Reads

        

 

Now here's the thing about re-reads. When I go into a book I've already read/listened to, what I'm really doing is testing how much I loved that book the first time. I figure that if these are favorites, I'll fall in love all over again. The four books you see above stunned me into silence a second time when I went through them. Thus landing them a spot on the "purchase a hardcover" shelf. That's a tough place to get into :).

 

 

2014 Series Books

         

 

There are certain books that I just know I'll love, based on the ones that came before them. These 4 books fall straight into that category. I have been in love with Jasper Dent since I first met him, Julianna Baggott stole my heart a long time ago, Sarah J. Maas introduced me to a new world, and Jonathan Stroud made me laugh or shiver depending on the page. I knew these would blow me away.

 

 

2014 Middle Grade Gems

        

 

If you've been following me, it should come as no surprise that there are middle grade reads on this list. Honestly, this is one of my favorite set of books to read! There are so many stories out there now, that I wish existed when I was a kid. I'll say though, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of them now! These four were stellar, and deserve your attention.

 

 

2014 Picture Books/Graphic Novels

        

 

Moving on, here are four picture books/graphic novels that definitely garnered five stars! I loved Zita and her adorable world. Julia's house was so sweetly illustrated. The Strain was dark, vampire filled, and violent. Ash and the Army of Darkness? Well, come on. It's Ash. What more is there to say?

 

 

2014 Notable Picks

        

 

These are all books that completely surprised me with how much I loved them. Josh Sundquist made me decide that I might like non-fiction after all. Jennifer Lynn Barnes made me fall in love with crime fiction. Graeme Simsion showed me that I can like an unlikable character, and Robin Wasserman led me into the YA side of horror. Loved ALL of these!

 

 

That's it for me!

 

If you want to see the full list of these, there's a shelf on my page that's entitled 2014- 5 Star Reads :). I plan to do one of these every year to see how many 5 star reads I end up with.

 

Happy 2015 guys! May it be filled with BOOKS!