Top Ten Recent 5 Star Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: 10 Of My Most Recent 5 Star Reads.

For this post, I opened up my Goodreads to My Books and sorted my Read shelf by date read.  Then I looked and pulled the first 10 books to come up that I rated 5 stars.  My 10 come from December through March.  I did not include any of my audiobook rereads though.  These are all books that I read physical copies of for the first time.

• Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz – If you pay any attention to my blog at all, you will know how much I love this book!  I’m currently re-reading it for the 3rd time and loving it all over again.
• Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins – This book  was so cute!  I loved Isla and Josh and their story.  Plus I also loved having the characters from the other two books included in the story.
• The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon – My love for the Outlander series knows no bounds.  The 5th book in the series was so good and filled with so many of the things that I love about this series.  Plus you just can’t go wrong with James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser.
• I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga – This book was awesome!  I was in the mood for an exciting thriller and this book totally delivered!
• November 9 by Colleen Hoover – My first full length CoHo book made me an instant fan of her writing.  This was so much more than just a romance.

• Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover – After reading November 9, I hoped that any of her books I read after that wouldn’t let me down… and she pulled through.  Ugly Love was even better than November 9!
• Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover – This book totally blew me away.  I finally posted my review of it yesterday and immediately wanted to start reading it again.  SO GOOD!
• Game by Barry Lyga – Sometimes it is hard to find a sequel that is as good or better than the first book.  But Game was exactly that.  So much better than the first book, I Hunt Killers!  This took the thrill from the first book and amplified it x10!
• The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner – This book was fantastic.  The characters and the writing were so real!  This book broke my heart and put it back together again.
• Truthwitch by Susan Dennard – I had read an advance excerpt of this awhile ago but finally got around to reading the full book earlier this month.  It was so good!  I couldn’t put it down.  I loved the two main characters and the entire world that the author built.  I can’t wait to read more in this series in the future.

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What are some of your most recent 5 star reads?

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Published September 29th 2011 by Dutton Books (first published September 28th 2011)

384 Pages

Goodreads Summary: Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Review: I was hoping to like this one as much as Anna and the French Kiss but unfortunately I did not.  Lola was obnoxious and to be honest, completely naive and selfish.  Her entire relationship with Max was ridiculous and maddening.  Anybody could have seen that it was not a good idea and that it would end badly.  And the way she continued to lead Cricket on…  He was so good to her and it was totally obvious that he was into her and had been for a loooooong time.  The perfect boy next door and she completely took advantage of him.  It almost felt like she wanted to be so different that she had to be the girl dating the hot, older musician.  On the other hand, I did like that she stayed true to herself, no matter what anybody thought of her.  Not many people her age would have worn the things she liked to wear.  I wish that she had been able to get her shit together sooner and realize that Cricket was the boy for her… not Max.  I did love seeing Anna and St. Clair again!  I would really love to get more of them, see what happens for them.

4/5 Stars

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Published: December 2, 2010 by Dutton Juvenile

372 Pages

Goodreads Summary: Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

Review: I read this book as part of the Reading My Library Challenge.  I had been reading a lot of dark and dense books lately so I was looking forward to something that sounded to be the opposite.  This book was like a fresh spring breeze.  I almost immediately was drawn into the story and felt a kinship with Anna.  A lot of the things that happened to her and her new friends in Paris sounded like similar situations I encountered with my friends in high school… but of course they had it better since they were in Paris!  I loved Etienne and hoped like hell that they would be able to work it out.  But even if they didn’t, I loved their friendship.  It was fun seeing Anna experiencing the famous sights of Paris, especially when I would visualize my own experience when I was there in college.  I was more like Etienne though… happy to stand on the ground and look at the Eiffel Tower from there (although I did go to the top of l’Arc de Triomphe).  Overall, this was a very fun, quick read and I really enjoyed it!

4/5 stars