Favorite Books I've Read This 2016

Before the year ends.... I'm presenting you..... My Favorite Books of 2016!!

This is my first ever "Favorite Books I've Read This [insert year]" type of post. *hooray* It's also the birth of my blog last December 20.... It's been 2 years and this is the first time I've ever made a post like this.... WHY?? WHY??? I don't know why, but I hope you enjoy this list and tell me if some of these books made it to your list, too. :P

I haven't read a lot of books this year because of school. So far, while writing this, I already read 17 books only and 7 of them are my absolute favorites! I have no reviews on some of the books listed below because it usually takes me 2-5 hours to finish one book review, meaning, during the times that I read those books, I've got no spare time in my hands to write a review on them (sadly).

[You can click the book titles to be redirected to my book review. Some of them does not have a book review, though]

7 Cruel Beauty

by Rosamund Hodge

This is a modern retelling of the famous fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, which, by the way, is my absolute fave! So, yeah, I guess, it's no biggie of a question as to why Cruel Beauty is on the list, right? But being bias aside, this is a fantastic book and I loved it, but I wasn't in love with it. I have some slight issues with it which you can read, just click at the title.

Reasons why I loved it:

• It's a dark and twisted fantasy, and Ignifex [Beast] is drool-worthy, and it's so hard to hate a beast like Ignifex.
• The world is absolutely mind-blowing in some levels. It actually reminded me (kinda) of Howl's Moving Castle, because the castle is shaping itself. It's kind of hard to wrap your mind with the idea of the world but it's actually great and magical.
• The plot-twist. I love a good plot-twist!

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

6 The Light Between Oceans

by M. L. Stedman

I haven't watched the film yet, as of this moment, and I gotta ask myself: WHY WHY WHY? Okay, I also don't know the answer to that but I am prolly gonna watch it after publishing this post, so yeah, I think I'm gonna buy tons of tissue for that one.

I can't ever fully grasp the moral and emotional tug the story had in my heart. I love the whole story building because it just sucked me right in and I know I want to know how the story will go. I am a sucker for emotional stories and a good cry always makes a book or a movie my favorite. 

This book made me feel all sorts of emotion, from happiness, to sadness, to just PURE sadness, and of course there was a point when I nearly want to throw the book because of frustration and anger and confusion. I was confused that I cannot decide what is right and wrong anymore. I was sad because of that so I left everything to the book. I told myself that I would accept whatever outcome the book will give me, and yes, I loved the conclusion of the book. Saved me from all the stress of thinking about what I wanted to happen.

This is kind of a slow read because the book captured everything up to the small details and I guess that made it more colorful and a great read.

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

5 Me Before You

by Jojo Moyes

I read the book because of the movie and I was not disappointed. Like The Light Between Oceans, this book made me question myself a lot. Would I want this life for Will, or was it wrong for Lou to try and stop Will from ending his life? I have a lot of questions and reservations while reading the book but eventually I learned a lot and I have accepted the ending of the book and I know that that ending was what made me love the book even more.

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

4 It Ends With Us

by Colleen Hoover

I'm always doubtful of a CoHo book... I've read a few handful of her works before and I love her writing style because it captures her readers easily but I always have a problem with her plot. But as you can see, three CoHo made its way to my list, and the first one is It Ends With Us.

I so love the theme of this book because it tackles a delicate issue about men physically hurting women. This abusive cycle of men having the upper hand when it comes to strength is absolutely terrifying and it pains me that some women experience this in their relationship, so I am thanking Colleen Hoover for making a novel which can serve as the voice of these women and I hope that this book can make them feel that they are not alone in this world, and I also hope that they, too, can break the chain and be free from the monstrosity that is caging them from being happy and free.

I may not know the depths of what these women feel and this book showed me that there are circumstances that prevents them from leaving, but I hope that men will also find it in themselves to cherish their woman. If the man truly loves his woman, he will be brave enough to let her go when he knows that he has it in him to hurt someone he loves. Tying a woman to an abusive relationship is cowardice in itself, and it's not love.

SOMETIMES THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU IS THE ONE WHO HURTS YOU THE MOST

Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up - she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan - her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.

This book contains graphic scenes and very sensitive subject matter.

3 November 9

by Colleen Hoover

Hi another CoHo book. This book is brilliant, you know? Have you read/watched One Day? One Day is one of my favorite films of all time and they were a bit similar in a sense that one day every year, they will meet each other and spend the whole day together. Another one that is quite similar is the Before Movie Trilogy [Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight] which is also my favorite. Despite being similar to two of my favorite films, November 9 is also unique in its own way and it will actually make you cry tons of tears. I really love this book that I would probably recommend it to everyone.

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.

2 Maybe Someday

by Colleen Hoover

I loved all of the CoHo books in this list but I gotta give some extra loving points for Maybe Someday because of the music! The book has its perfect guy who plays the guitar and the girl who writes the perfect lyrics to his music, what else can we ask for, right? I know, it's too perfect to be real so there must be something close to imperfection right there, and yes there is! I don't know if I am supposed to say this but our perfect guy is deaf and it just added another touch of color in our seemingly black and white notes on a music sheet story.

Sydney is living in an idyllic bubble—she's a dedicated student with a steady job on the side. She lives with her best friend, has a great boyfriend, and the music coming from the balcony opposite hers is fast becoming the soundtrack to her life. But when Sydney finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, the bubble bursts. The mysterious and attractive man behind the music, Ridge, gives Sydney hope that she can move on and they begin to write songs together. But moving on is harder than she expects, Sydney can only hope…. 

Maybe someday… 

Colleen Hoover draws you in to this passionate tale of music, love and betrayal…

1 Gemina

by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 

Reasons for loving Gemina:

• It's totally kick-ass
• It is UNIQUE
• Drawings from Marie Lu
• PLOT TWIST! Another PLOT TWIST! F*** another PLOT TWIST! Yeah, it was kind of hard to dodge all those plot twist bullets.
• Too. Many. Deaths. :P
• Characters from Illuminae were back!!!

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminaecontinues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.