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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Top 10 of 2012 - Best YA Books I've Read in 2012


Welcome to the Top 10 of 2012, hosted by Confessions of a BookaholicFiktshunTwo Chicks on Books, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads!!! 

I am very excited to participate in this weeklong event to share my faves of 2012! Here is the schedule for this week:

Monday, December 24th 
Best Adult Books I've Read in 2012 

Tuesday, December 25th 
Best Book Covers of 2012

Wednesday, December 26th 
Best YA Books I've Read in 2012

Thursday, December 27th 
Best Book Boyfriends of 2012

Friday, December 28th 
Top 10 Books I'm looking forward to in 2013

I had a REALLY hard time with my Best Books list so I split it in two. Today I listed my favorite YA reads of 2012. I shared my favorite ADULT books of 2012 on Monday. See that list HERE.


Best YA Books I’ve Read in 2012


Iced
(Fever World #1)
Karen Marie Moning
Even with our love of the Fever series and devotion to all these KMM, many readers feared a new trilogy from the POV of hyperactive fourteen year old Dani would grate on our nerves. We were wrong. I adored Dani in ICED and loved seeing some of Fever's side characters come to the forefront, including Ryodan, Christian, and new character Dancer.


Deity
(Covenant #3)
Jennifer L. Armentrout
This series quickly became one of my favorites in YA due to the heart wrenching love triangle, the fun mythology, and the politics of half-bloods and full bloods. These books are breezy reads that will leave you gasping for the next installment. 

Stormdancer
(The Lotus War #1)
Jay Kristoff
This was a unique young adult book and I've never read anything quite like it. Combining historical Japan with steampunk and mythological creatures, Kristoff blew me away with Stormdancer. The biggest strength of the book is the amazing teen heroine, Yukiko, and her bond with Buruu, a thunder tiger. This is an epic read if I've ever read one.

The Lost Girl
Sangu Mandanna
Buy on Amazon



This book from brand new author Mandanna, was haunting, poignant, and beautiful. The story is told from the POV of Eva, a girl created as a copy of another person so that in the event of a tragedy she could step in and take the other girl's place. I felt every emotion poor Eva felt and I also adored her relationship with one of her guardians, Sean.



This Is Not A Test
Courtney Summers
My Review   Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon
This Is Not A Test kept me up until the wee hours of the morning reading the plight of Sloane and a handful of other teens locked in their high school gym. While the scenes actually involving the zombies were few, the terror they caused was felt the entire time, as were the emotions of Sloane, who actually wants to be taken by the zombies to end all her pain.


 Girl of Nightmares
(Anna #2)
Kendare Blake
Buy on Amazon



This one was just as good as the first in the series and I absolutely loved being back in Cas' world again. Cas' dark sense of humor, along with Carmel's feisty nature and Thomas' brave front, make these some of my favorite YA characters. Cas' trip into hell is especially scary but his and Anna's love for each other is both sweet and serious. 



Onyx
(Lux #2)
Jennifer L. Armentrou
My Review   Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

Yes, this is Armentrout's second appearance on this list, which just proves how strongly I love her books! I could have put any of the Lux books on this list, but Onyx is my favorite because it marks the transition between Katy and Daemon's love/hate relationship to full on coupledom. 



Masque of the Red Death
(Masque of the Red Death #1)
Bethany Griffin
Buy on Amazon

Griffin creates a haunting and scary alternate Paris where disease has taken over. Araby is a sad main character who is torn between the fancy dresses of Paris nightlife and her constrictive home life. The two men in the book, loyal-to-his-family Will and mysterious and cynical Elliot, are oddly hard to choose between. 


 The Immortal Rules
(Blood of Eden #1)
Julie Kagawa
My Review   Add to Goodreads
Buy at Amazon
This debut of a new series by Kagawa totally surprised me. I absolutely loved tough Allie and I loved the dystopian, vampire and disease riddled world Kagawa created. This series is one to watch for sure, as this first book was epic in many ways. I'm highly anticipating the sequel!


Cinder
(The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Marissa Meyer
This was a fantastic and fresh read that I highly enjoyed. I loved the futuristic, sci-fi world combined with elements of the original Cinderella. All of the characters here are noteworthy, especially Cinder herself, Kai, Peony, and Cinder'd android best friend Iko.  


Be sure to check back tomorrow for:
 Best Book Boyfriends of 2012!

Missed any of my other Top 10 lists this week?

Best Book Covers of 2012

Best ADULT Books I've Read in 2012

What were some of your favorite young adult reads of 2012?

4 comments:

  1. Oooh, I had no idea that Iced even existed. I suck. But, heck, this gives me PLENTY of incentive to read the Fever series.

    Ahh, and I TOOOOTES have to agree with you about Immortal Rules, OMG CINDER, and This Is Not a Test. All three explore human emotion so well and the character development is fabulous. Who's pumped for Scarlet? *does hand-eye spazz movements* CAN'T. WAIT.

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  2. I not a huge YA reader but this list looks interesting. Not sure I would have put Iced on it but I did put it on my Adult Titles list.

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  3. I loved Cinder and Deity...so good! I am becoming a JLA fangirl...I'm reading Obsidian right now. Great list and so many more books I need to check out.

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  4. Cinder is also in my top for the year it was just such a great read, especially in YA where that type of storyline is rare.

    I'm not in love with the Lux series since the first book was almost exactly like Twilight but with vampires being aliens in the case of this series. Idk I recently received the second book for xmas so I guess I had better give the characters one more chance to wow me.

    I really love Armentrout's Covenant series though.

    Thanks for posting such a great list, now I know what I must make time to read in 2013

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