Best of the Bunch January 2013

Best of the Bunch is hosted by Always Lost in Stories.  Best of the Bunch is a monthly wrap-up and award ceremony hosted here on the last day of each month, where we can look back over the books we have read and give a Best of the Bunch award to our favorite book of that month.

It is also a blog hop for bloggers to showcase their pick of "Best of the Bunch". I always put up my post on the last day of the month, but remember, you can add your link anytime in the following month- please join in, I love hearing about which books you thought were the most amazing!

For more info and to grab the button and stickers visit the BOTB page here, then all you need to do is write up your post showing us your Best of the Bunch and add your linky to the list below. Don't forget to check out the other blogs to find out which books other bloggers have awarded the best.

I outdid myself this month!  It was really hard to pick a Best of the Bunch, so I had a tie!

What I read this month

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi--4.5 stars--My Review
A Look of Love by Bella Andre--3.5 stars--My Review
From This Moment On by Bella Andre--4 stars--My Review
Tempest by Julie Cross--5 stars--My Review
Today & Tomorrow by Julie Cross--5 stars
Across the Universe by Beth Revis--5 stars--My Review
Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi--4 stars
Can't Help Falling In Love by Bella Andre--4 stars--My Review
Vanquished by Nancy Holder--5 stars--My Review
Shadowhunters and Downworlders by Cassandra Clare--4 stars--My Review
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier--4 stars--My Review
The Essence by Kimberly Derting--5 stars--My Review
If You Were Mine by Bella Andre--4 stars
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead--5 stars--My Review
Hysteria by Megan Miranda--3 stars--My Review
Ruled by Caragh M O'Brien--4 stars
Me, Him, Them and It by Caela Carter--4.5 stars--My Review
Promised by Caragh M O'Brien--4 stars--My Review
Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs--4 stars--My Review
Sweet Shadows by Tera Lynn Childs--4 stars--My Review
Notes From Ghost Town by Kate Ellison--5 stars--My Review
Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey--3 stars
What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang--4.5 stars--My Review
Clarity by Kim Harrington--3 stars
Gates of Paradise by Melissa De La Cruz--4 stars--My Review
Ten by Gretchen McNeil--4 stars--My Review
If I Stay by Gayle Forman--5 stars--My Review
A Millions Suns by Beth Revis--5 stars--My Review
Shades of Earth by Beth Revis--5 stars--My Review
Breathe by Sarah Crossan--4 stars
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry--5 stars--My Review
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater--4 stars--My Review
The Diviners by Libby Bray--4.5 stars
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons--4 stars--My Review
Crown of Embers by Rae Carson--5 stars
The Shadow Cats by Rae Carson--4 stars
Glitches by Marissa Meyer--4 stars
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor--5 stars--My Review
Hooked by Liz Fichera--4 stars--My Review
Til the World Ends by Julie Kagawa--4 stars--My Review

AND THE WINNERS ARE.....

Goodreads

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceshipGodspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

Goodreads

In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny.

Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds. A breathtaking, romantic, and dangerous second volume in the Fire and Thorns trilogy.


RUNNER UP WINNERS!

Goodreads

They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death. 

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.

Goodreads

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Goodreads

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Which book won your bananas?