2016 in review!

It's no secret that I've not been active in 2016 as I fell into an eight month reading slump. In truth, I believe that my personal and university life took over and I just didn't have (or want) the time to read. However, once my life slowed down (after a fantastic year/summer), and a holiday fast approaching, I was faced with the need to get back into reading which lead to my passion reigniting. I'm so much better for it now (even if my blog and bookstagram took the hit for it)!

I originally set my Goodreads goal to 24 books, fell into a slump and picked my goal back up at 12 books. I reduced it as I knew I'd never reach that before the year was out. Thankfully, I just surpassed it, so let's take a look at what I did read in 2016 even if it wasn't very much.

• A Christmas Carol and Other Writings by Charles Dickens ⭐⭐⭐

I'd always wanted to read this book as the Muppet's Christmas Carol is one of my favourite Christmas films. I'd received this in 2014 but only just got round to reading it the following year, but for some reason I didn't finish it until the first first days of 2016. I'm a huge fan of Charles Dickens (despite only reading a small handful of his works) as Great Expectations is my favourite novel. This was okay, and I'm happy to say I've now read it but I think I'll just stick to the Muppet's adaptation from now on!

• Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick ⭐⭐

It's no secret that I'm a huge Becca Fitzpatrick fan as every single one of her books I own (bar this one) is signed, and I've met her twice. However I do have to lay my battle armor down because this book I cannot defend. It took me two months to finish. It was kind of all over the place, and considering it's supposed to be a standalone, it felt so many unanswered questions. Not for me.

• Allegiant by Veronica Roth ⭐⭐⭐

I devoured the Divergent series. Devoured it. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a series so much, especially since I was new to the dystopian genre. Having said that, I didn't enjoy this book so much. This was my least favourite from the trilogy (discounting the novellas) as it jumped around POV which I now realise, I don't like. The ending was half a wow as by that point I just wasn't invested anymore - it took a long time to finish, let me tell you. However, I can appreciate that Roth was able to kill off a main character just like that. It's not easy when you have a huge fan base. Overall, not bad; just average.

• Four by Veronica Roth ❌ DNF

I don't really have much to say about these novellas apart from, I hate book series that bring them out. They halfway pointless or this "background" would've been included in the main collection of books. Not. A. Fan. Did not finish.

• See Me by Nicholas Sparks ❌ DNF

My go-to books for reading on holiday are Nicholas Sparks novels. They're a perfect summer read for me. No fantasy, just real-life people, doing real-life stuff. I've strayed from his older works as we've all seen the films of those by now, and I've eaten everything else he's written so this was one of the only Sparks' books left. I got 80 pages in and couldn't do it. It's the first of his books I've DNF'ed, and this book isn't small either. Maybe I'll pick it up again one summer, but for now it's staying this way - so disinterested!

• November 9 by Colleen Hoover ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As I ran out of Nicholas Sparks books to take on holiday, I took another author that writes real-life. Colleen Hoover is a new author to me, but she'd just realised this book and I couldn't put it down. Honestly, it'd been the first book I finished in like eight months so this reignited my love for reading. It felt just like a Nicholas Sparks novel, but with young adults so I fell in love with this story!

• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard ⭐⭐

I'd had this book sat on my bookshelves for quite a while (to my recollection) so I was so excited to get stuck into this one. However, it really wasn't what I was expecting. Okay, so I'm aware it has "queen" in the title so it eludes to having royalty in the narrative, but I didn't realise just how much. After reading this book, I became aware just how much I don't like/enjoy those type of books. Aside from this, the narrative was a little complicated and just didn't interest me. It took me a while to finish this one with almost no avail but I finally did it.

• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was a re-read for me. I'd read this when it first came out and I just didn't feel it. I was lost the entire time so I took a break and came back... with the rest of the series. I was initially drawn in to the setting; Victorian London which is entirely my thing (hello, Great Expectations is one of my favourite books!) and it had shadowhunters so what wasn't to love? Coming back to it, I found it so much easier to understand. It wasn't perfect, but I really enjoyed it. Definitely my favourite of the three.

• Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐

I started this straight off the back of finishing the first book and I'm so glad I did this because the previous book was fresh in my mind. This book made me appreciate the first so much more because to me nothing really happened aside from character development so it fell a little flat for me. It's come to my realisation that I'm a more action based reader than a character based reader. I like character development as we go, not an entire story revolving around them. Just preference!

• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐

Cassandra Clare put the love triangle (which disinterested me entirely) to bed in a way that made me describe the epilogue as "a crock of shit" on my Goodreads review. This book was a decent conclusion but seemed a bit tell-y. The last third of the book was magical especially that reveal I didn't see coming. It was so good to tie everything up! Overall, the series was decent, but the characters felt like carbon copies of her other shadowhunter series, the writing was average and I think I was there for the setting. Having said that, in hindsight, I can't stop thinking about how much I enjoyed the entire feeling the series gave me. So immersive!

• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'd heard FictionTea over on Bookstagram singing the praises for this book series so I finally dove in and couldn't believe what I'd been missing whilst I'd been slumping for eight months! At first I was beyond confused. That doesn't cover it. Samantha Shannon has created her own magic system that unlike anything else, but we weren't babied so it takes a little to wrap your head around it. After about 150 pages of confusion, reading the author's blog and re-reading the glossary 20 times later.... I finally got it. I loved this book so much. The characters were unique and held my attention the whole time. If I hadn't been confused for so long, I probably would've given this a higher rating, but that'll probably happen the moment I pick this up for a re-read.

• The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Picking up where I just left off from The Bone Season, I ate this book. This was so much easier to read now that the magic system was fresh in my mind. In terms of the narrative, I definitely enjoyed this book over the first one a whole load more. Paige's London was always hinted at in the first book but we really got a good look at how it looked and worked in this book and I loved every minute of it. For the majority of the book it felt like a filler book, however the ending just came in and slapped you in the face; no, I'm an independent entity - respect me! Respect it, I did. That reveal at the end was so good and I almost didn't see it coming right up until it happened. 

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab ⭐⭐⭐

Much like the rest of my reads, this was so hyped in the book world so I finally gave in and bought this in the UK paperback. I don't have a great relationship with paperbacks as I prefer hardbacks through and through, but I wanted to read this book so bad. However, this was not what I expected. It had royalty. It had magic, but the dark and dingey magic you wanted to see wasn't there. It had Lila Bard, who is just one of the most badass female characters and I loved her. The world travelling was a unique concept in that there were four London's (kind of set in Victorian London but kind of not really), and we saw every London but the one you really wanted to see. It was dangled in front of us, taunting us but never given to us. I felt so let down, and the royal aspect had me at a distance already. It's okay for what it was, there were some great moments in it, but ultimately, not for me. 

Wow, looking at it now, I did read a lot but this was mainly from the back-end of the year! I've set my Goodreads goal for 2017 to 24 books as I'm hoping to double my efforts of this poor reading year. I've got some great books on my TBR that have sat on my shelves for ages, coupled with a few new reads I acquired from my birthday and Christmas! I was almost able to add two more reads to this list, but they were giving me the slumpy feels again so they were firmly on my January wrap-up!