My Top 5 (actually 6) Books of 2011

It's getting towards the end of the year (it has gone by so fast!), so I've put together a top five list of my favorite books released in 2011. I feel it has been a great year for excellent books and it was hard to narrow it down to my top five, so I added a sixth because it's my blog and I can. I also could have made the list a top ten, but where's the complication in that? Here is a countdown of my favorite books released this year with my reviews attached:

                                  6. Cleopatra's Moon         5. The Space Between

                   

                                   4. Blood Red Road                       3. Chime

                                                      2. The Scorpio Races

                                              1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone

What were your favorite releases this year?

Review: Chime

I read Chime by Franny Billingsley about a month before it came out in March of this year. It's not a recent read, obviously, but I am in love with the book so much that I want to share it with you. Besides, I can review something I read a while ago because it's my blog and the only thing I seem to have control over in my life. This is where you go "oh, that's so sad" and this is where I say "don't feel sorry for me, feel sorry for the people who hate to read."

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads. I actually have trouble summing up this book because I'm worried about what might be considered spoilers and I worry that my own summary wouldn't do the story justice. I want you to be interested, even in a minor way.

I was instantly addicted to Chime within the first couple of pages. I connected with the main character, Briony, which can been considered strange because how can one love a character that hates herself so much? I wanted her to love herself, I wanted Briony to succeed, I wanted her to see herself as I see her. I'm talking about the character like she's a real person...anyway, I seem to have wanted everything that Eldric wants for her in the story. Speaking of Eldric, I found him to be an incredibly likable character and one of the high points in the book for me. I really enjoyed the dialogue between Briony and Eldric which is fun and quick. There was always something to make me smile or become giddy about.

The story can be predictable, but the characters and overall awesomeness of the book make up for it. I wasn't once disappointed when I came across an answer to something I had previously solved. Chime is full of wit and gorgeousness. There is mystery, romance, and a certain amount of darkness in the book. If you've been reading my past reviews you have figured out by now how much I love the dark and twisted. You'll find that in Chime.

Chime along with Blood Red Road are two of my favorite books this year, so far. I know I really love a book when I buy it in hardcover. P.S. My next hardcover purchases will be Daughter of Smoke and Bone and The Scorpio Races. Just sayin'.