There’s noth­ing like a good list is there? Espe­cially a ‘rec­om­mended’ book list!

With­out fur­ther ado, here are my top reads out of 117 I’ve read so far this year that have really stood out. Not all of them were pub­lished in 2012, but they are all ones I have read since Jan­u­ary. I’ll be doing a much longer list at the end of the year, but these are, as they say, the creme de la creme.

Easy by Tam­mara Webber

I loved Easy. This is a self pub­lished novel but it is miles ahead of so many books I’ve read that have been tra­di­tion­ally pub­lished. Easy falls into the New Adult cat­e­gory and it was so good to read about pro­tag­o­nist closer to my own age.

If you’re look­ing for some hot moments, ten­sion and a healthy, respect­ful, romance than this is the book for you. Easy isn’t just a romance, how­ever, as it has a darker sto­ry­line and does include some well-written but unset­tling scenes of sex­ual assault. Don’t let that put you off as Web­ber bal­ances the two out nicely.

 

 

Angelfall by Susan Ee

 

Another self pub­lished novel and one that very quickly became pop­u­lar through word of mouth on Goodreads and across the blogs. Angelfall has done so well that Ama­zon will be pub­lish­ing Ee’s novel in paper­back, which is out in August and you can be cer­tain I’ve already ordered my copy.

This is one para­nor­mal YA that I absolutely adore and there are very few out there that I have liked. But I was gripped by Angelfall and couldn’t put it down. The mythol­ogy was great, the world-building strong and the romance just right. Best of all, Ee knows how to write a lead­ing man who isn’t a jerk and a hero­ine who can take care of her­self, who is com­pas­sion­ate but kick-ass if the sit­u­a­tion calls for it. The really great news is that there are sev­eral more books already planned for what could become one of my favourite series!

 

 

Code Name Ver­ity by Eliz­a­beth Wein

This book shat­tered my heart. It’s every­thing I look for when I pick up a book. Every­thing I want to say about Code Name Ver­ity is summed up in my review and I just hope you give this book a chance if you haven’t already. A few parts in the first half may be a lit­tle slow for some peo­ple (espe­cially if, unlike me, you have no inter­est in World War II planes) — but it’s worth the build up when every­thing clicks into place.

One of my high­lights this year was hav­ing Wein on the blog where she agreed to give an in-depth spoiler-free inter­view about the book, which you can read here.

 

 

 

Scar­let by A.C Gaughen

If I wanted to, I could pick out sev­eral things that would nor­mally pre­vent me from rat­ing this so high — the plot was a lit­tle too thin on the ground, Gis­bourne strayed a bit into pan­tomime vil­lain town, I would have liked to have seen more merry men and I hated John with a pas­sion. How­ever. This book was so much fun! I fell in love with the char­ac­ter of Scar­let and the last third of the book sim­ply exploded, that the other stuff didn’t bother me as much as it usu­ally would. Yes, this is your some­what worn, tried and tested for­mula of the feisty girl dressed as a boy who isn’t ‘lady­like’ and prefers doing ‘boy’ things like steal­ing and climb­ing trees and is handy with a knife. But for all that I loved it anyway.

 

 

 

 

The Name of the Star by Mau­reen Johnson

This book came along just at the right time and I was gripped from the first page. It’s atmos­pheric, unnerv­ing and I loved that John­son clearly did her Jack the Rip­per research. There’s a great bal­ance between the dark, sin­is­ter and creepy and some gen­uine laugh out loud moments. I grew really quite fond of all the char­ac­ters, in par­tic­u­lar Rory, whose voice just stood out. Rory pos­sesses a dry wit, is kind, out­go­ing and con­fi­dent and I found it incred­i­bly refresh­ing to have a young hero­ine who wasn’t angsty, obsess­ing over some boy or ago­nis­ing over her own looks or per­ceived defects. She is con­fi­dent in her own skin, with an open­ness and friend­li­ness that made me like her instantly.

If, like me you have a bit of a mor­bid fas­ci­na­tion with Jack the Rip­per, you should def­i­nitely check this out. You can read my full review here.

 

 

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

This is one of those quiet, no fuss books that tend to get lost amongst the pop­u­lar, hyped titles. If I saw this book on the shelf I would, in all hon­estly, be put of by the cover and prob­a­bly carry on by. But this is a heart­felt, intel­li­gent book and I sim­ply can­not praise it highly enough. Words in the Dust, writ­ten by for­mer sol­dier Trent Reedy, tells the story of Zulaikha, a young girl liv­ing in worn-torn Afghanistan. The Tal­iban may be defeated, but Zulaikha is bul­lied daily and often shunned because of her cleft lip, until the day the American’s arrive and offer her a surgery that will trans­form her life. Words in the Dust is such a rich novel and just flows so beau­ti­fully, giv­ing an insight­ful, non-judgmental glimpse into very dif­fer­ent cul­ture and way of life. It was heart­en­ing to watch Zulaikha grow in con­fi­dence and choose her own future. The authors note at the end is also well worth a read. An excel­lent book for younger and older readers.

 

 

VIII by Har­riet Castor

This is a great book to pick up if you’re fan of the infa­mous Tudor king, no mat­ter what your age. VIII tells the story of Henry from a young prince through to his death and Cas­tor really suc­ceeds in bring­ing the prince to life, giv­ing emo­tion and moti­va­tion to her care­fully crafted char­ac­ter, while stay­ing true to his­tory. There is a hint of the para­nor­mal in VIII but it works well, Cas­tor is ambigu­ous enough to leave it up to the reader to decide whether Henry really was haunted, whether his upbring­ing and reli­gious beliefs led to his visions or whether he is a frag­ile young man slowly going crazy. This is an engag­ing story that I’d highly rec­om­mend for any­one with a love of history.

 

 

 

Princess Acad­emy by Shan­non Hale

Princess Acad­emy sur­prised me. I was expected a very girly book, what I got was a strong, intel­li­gent young girl strug­gling to find her place in the world with a strong empha­sis on the impor­tance of edu­ca­tion and choice. Princess Acad­emy is what I would call a ‘light’ fan­tasy but it’s per­fect for young read­ers and an enjoy­able, inof­fen­sive escape for older ones. Check out my full review here.