The Best Books of 2015!

Hey Guys! 

With New Years Eve approaching, I thought this was the perfect time to hit you all with the BEST books of 2015, at least according to me! If you disagree or have other books to add, let me know down in the comments! I haven't read every book ever this year, unfortunately, so these are all picked out of the ones that I have read and in NO particular order because I'd be here until next year trying to choose a ranking! They're also all books that where out this year!

1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo 

New Bardugo, 'nuff said! 

2. Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Freaking amazing, the feels, the romance....ugh. Perfection

3. Oblivion by Jennifer L Armentrout

Hello, Daemon's POV, need I say more?! 

4. The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

The completely perfect sequel to The Invisible Library! Original, fun and fantastic!

5. Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch 

Man this gave me the feels to another level and then THE ENDING!? Damn. Can't even. 

6. Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Norse Gods, Rick Riordan, sass and amazingness!

7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas 

Yes, two Maas books, but this was FANTASTIC! I loved it 100%, not to mention diving in to another world Maas created and the proof came with a cool mask too! 

8. Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray 

I waited SO LONG for this guys! SO LONG! It was PERFECT. I badly need the next book cos ya know....Sam and Evie! 

9. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir 

This intrigued me so much going in, and it blew past all my expectations and was freaking fantastic! Another that leaves you wanting more. 

10. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

The wait for this seemed like forever and it was everything I was hoping for and more! Now the wait for the next one *sigh* 

11. Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey 

Another debut! This helped me through a really rough time and helped pick me back up again and it was original and fun and it made my week when I was reading it. 

12. A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Schwab 

MORE, I NEED MORE! I freaking LOVED THIS to another level! I'd wanted to read her book The Archived but actually read this first and completely fell in love with Schwab's writing and this was so original and exciting. 

13. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 

This was a good year for debut's to be honest! This has firmly lodged itself as one of my favourite new series, I loved Mare, I loved the originality of it and I couldn't stop reading it!

14. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

The proof for this was so freaking awesome it was insane! I loved everything about it, it sucked me in and it gripped me and had me feeling feels!

15. Rogue by Julie Kagawa 

The sequel to Talon was freaking perfect, I'm barely coping with the wait for the next book in the series!

I picked 15 because 2015 and I needed some sort of restraint to control myself, a few others that where awesome and deserve a mention

are.... Sin Eater's Daughter, The Potion Dairies, Invasion of The Tearling, Secret Fire, The Return (SEEETHHHHH), A Mad Zombie Party, The Osiris Ritual, Library of Souls, Angel Dares (such a mood lifter!), A Thousand Nights , Reawakened aaaannnnddddddd The Hunter's Kind! All of these are either debut's or next in series and each and everyone is perfection, and knowing me as you should by now, they're all original or having something different about them! You see why I had to restrain myself! What where your best books of 2015?! 

Six of Crows

Six Of Crows
Rating: 5/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy. Just do it. 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. 

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. 

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

I just....I can't even right now. I had to have a day before I wrote this, after I read the book, to process the pure awesomeness that I have read. I have been so so SO excited for this book. I am a huge fan of the Grisha trilogy, and I wish I had the time to re-read them before I read this but it was no matter because it was so easy to slip back in to the world of the book as if you hadn't left it at all. I had so much excitement for the book and I wasn't the least bit disappointed. It was everything I was hoping for and more and now I'm desperate for the next book! It's going to be a long wait and I'm impatient as it is, but with the ending of the book it's going to be even worse! 

Everything you loved about the Grisha trilogy is present in the book, but with a different setting and a different set of characters brought to colourful life off the page. The writing was evocative and beautifully descriptive right from the start, drawing you in to the world of the story as the atmosphere settles over you like a blanket and the real world ceases to exist. 

The opening, quite frankly, was quite chilling. It didn't half send shivers down my spine as I was reading as well as setting up the book perfectly and capturing your attention. You where intrigued from the start, compelled to keep reading even when you should be sleeping, or you know....eating. The intrigue didn't stop, there where little tidbits that kept you intrigued as you tried to work out backstories and what was going on with the mission and so on. You wanted to know more and more as you started to put the pieces together. 

The book has different POV's, Inej (who is the first one we meet), Kaz, Nina, Matthias and Jesper. Each has a different and distinctive narrative, each is engaging and adds a different view to the other characters and the city itself. Each has a unique viewpoint based on where they're from, who they are and what they've experienced which makes it particularly fascinating to read each POV. In some cases you see both sides of a story, there's never a repeated scene but from different POV's. You learn more about the characters and their pasts. Each POV adds something to the story or the characters or the world. 

From the first chapter we're thrown in to the shadowy streets and action as we meet Inej, Kaz and Jesper for the first time. I've got to say....I loved them all instantly, as well as Nina and Wylan when we met them. I was a bit torn on Matthias however, as I liked Nina so much! There's more than meets the eye to all of them and I immediately wanted to know more about them, they had such rich histories and backgrounds to them. You learn loads about the characters, yet I still found myself wanting to know more about them as the book was coming to a close. Or maybe I just wanted to hang on to them a bit longer. I'm not entirely convinced that there isn't anything more to be learned about the characters! 

Inej is a complete badass, and the quiz said I was most like her....I WISH! She had an interesting past, and one that wasn't the happiest either, and I loved watching her overcome what happened to her. Kaz is kind of scary. He's super intelligent and very cunning shall we say. The thing with Kaz is that you like him and understand him and why he acts the way he does, but sometimes, usually during another characters POV, you can't help but kind of want to smack him one. Or you kind of dislike him a little bit in a moment or two. Nina is probably my favourite, it's kind of hard to have a favourite with this lot! She was a badass as well, they all are in their own way. I loved her attitude in general to be honest, she was snarky and sassy and made me chuckle. Matthias had an incredibly interesting background and it was particularly interesting because of how it relates to the story and Nina. I kind of wanted to like him but sometimes I just wanted to smack him one because I loved Nina so much, but then I understood his behaviour and I loved watching his character try to come to terms with what he was doing and his feelings for Nina.  Jesper made me chuckle from the go and I'd really like to know more about him. Wylan is kind of the odd one out when you consider his lineage, shall we say. He's not a criminal and he's not from the gan per se. I mean he is, but he's kind of the fringes I think. I loved watching him change over the course of the book and get to the place he was at the end. 

If you couldn't tell from that, the characters are a colourful, lively and well written bunch. There's more to them than meets the eye, they each have different motivations, beliefs and backgrounds. They're full of depth and while you learn a fair bit about the characters, there's still more to know I'm sure! There's supporting cast, other gang members, the bad guys and so on, and all of them are as well created as the main characters. Some of them you just love to hate. Others you just hate. Some you might even like a little bit! 

Coming back to the world of the Grisha is a lot like coming home. But this time you're exploring a different part and it's equally as rich and enchanting as Ravka. You cheer and grin at all the mentions of places, events and people from the Grisha trilogy. The settings are all vividly painted, and they spring up around you as you read, while the atmosphere seeps off the page and draws you further in to the world and the events of the book. 
The atmosphere of the book is a very real thing. You can feel the tension, the suspense radiating off the page as a tangible thing, feel the high stakes hovering over you as the story speeds towards the end. 

I love the different influences to the book in the language and the settings and the people and everything. There was a scene in particular that reminded me of the Roman gladiators but with a twist. I love the rich customs and cultures of the different parts of the world, I loved them in the Grisha trilogy and I love them in this one! I basically really need a book that's just all the mythology and legends and history for each of the different peoples of the world of the book. I would so read that avidly. Everything about this book just feels so authentic and real and that's largely due to the detail in the book, the things like all the different customs and cultures. 

Six Of Crows is definitely like Oceans 11 but better. I really tried to think of another comparison but I really couldn't, but it's not really a comparison. I mean it's like Ocean's 11, but it's completely different at the same time because of all the originality of the world of the book. The plot is intricate. The plan the crew have is intricate. There's intricate relationships and histories, and the book is all one web of intricacy that you're determined to untangle but fail epically as each new twist and turn surprises you. The plot is just so perfectly woven with all these different threads and keeping you surprised. 

The relationships in the book, like I said, where intricate. I loved the dynamics between the gang, each is linked. Some more closely than the others. I loved the friendships and I loved the other relationships even more. I basically loved all the relationships no matter if it was romantic or friendship or what. There's some romance in the book you see. But it's very subtle romance and not the main point of the book at all. Take the romance/relationship between Matthias and Nina for example, it's fascinating because of all the history between them. It's not an easy one, there's struggle because of who the both of them are and where they're from and what they are, and so it's interesting to watch them interact. The feelings are already there and it's just....brilliant watch them fight it and then you know.....waiting to see where it goes. As subtle as the romance as, you still cheer when it comes to fruition. I'm no sure if the others are all the way to romance yet, but we'll see. Either way...it's going to be very interesting and not at all easy. 

Six Of Crows is a fantastic addition to the world of the Grisha. It was everything I wanted and more, I was grinning as I was reading even when it was bits I shouldn't have been grinning at because I was so happy to be reading another Grisha novel and back in the world. Slipping back in to the world was easy, and it was like you never left. The characters where so ridiculously full of depth, with personal histories as rich as the world of the book. They came to life, they brought the world of the book to life as much as the vivid world building did, they where lively and colourful and funny and complex. The settings where vivid and sucked you in, the atmosphere was a tangible thing and you found yourself completely lost in the world of the book with no idea of time or reality. It's one of those books you're compelled to keep reading and really don't want to put down. 

Six Of Crows, I should warn you, brings the feels. It's funny, there's loads of quotes I noted because they made me laugh as well as quotes that I just liked because of the meaning behind them. I found myself chuckling along to the book and glad I wasn't on public transport. But despite the humour of the book, the book is full of other emotions. There's sad parts, angry parts, bits that break your heart, bits that make you all angry and want to murder on behalf of the characters. So many feels. There's action, and it's completely epic. I loved reading the fight scenes and the general badass-ness of the characters. I should also warn you to prepare for suspense, tension and heart-stopping moments. 

Don't even get me started on the ending. I mean....you can't just leave people hanging like that!?! I'm so incredibly excited for the next book and the new mission, and learning more about the characters and seeing where relationships and friendships and just everything goes. The direction it's going to take, or at least that I think it's going to take after things mentioned in the final chapter....is going to be so freaking exciting. I can't wait to be back in the world, with the characters that I love a ridiculous amount, and being surprised by the truly shocking plot twists that just come faster and faster as the book builds up to the end after following a perfect pace. Also, I want to be in the crew....okay I'm done gushing!