Top 10 Week! My Favorite Books of 2017

Happy New Year!!

The cold weather stinks! But, when it comes to my blog, I love this time of year, because I get to remember and pick out all of my favorite bookish things that I've read over the past year! 

Let's start the week off with my Top 10 Favorite books of the year!

(I couldn't begin to decide which I liked better than the other. It was hard enough to only pick 10. So, here they are, in no particular order)

Body Parts by Jessica Kapp 
Genre: Young Adult (Science Fiction)
Date Published: August 15,  2017
Publisher: Diversion Publishing

Why did I love this book?
People are scary. Many don't look farther than themselves, so I could see something similar happening in real life. That made for a very interesting reading experience.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

How to Hang a Witch (How to Hang a Witch #1) 
by Adriana Mather 
Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal)
Date Published: July 26, 2016
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Why did I love this book?

This story shows how, as a society, we really haven't changed much since the Salem Witch Trials. It was very well told, and allows you to think for yourself while still getting the full experience of what's going on. The author's personal history added a little fun too.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

Beauty of the Beast (Fairy Tale Retellings #1) 
by Rachel L. Demeter
Genre: Adult Fiction (Fractured Fairy Tale/Fantasy Romance)
Date Published: March 15, 2017
Publisher: Self

Why did I love this book?

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale. Hands down! This retelling stayed true to the Beauty and the Beast feel, but told it's own darker story. This is the Beauty and the Beast that should have been made into a movie in 2017.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

The Ghost of You and Me by Kelly Oram
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary/Fantasy Romance)
Date Published: June 20, 2017
Publisher: Bluefields

Why did I love this book?

There are so many levels of emotions I went through while reading this book, it's hard to explain and still give it the justice it deserves.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

Love Me Never (Lovely Vicious #1) by Sara Wolf
Genre: New Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: April 5, 2016 (first published April 5th 2015)
Publisher: Entangled Teen

Why did I love this book?

I absolutely love the sarcasm and bantering! Love it! That alone was enough to entertain me, but it has a darker side too.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Genre: Young Adult (Fractured Fairy Tale)
Date Published: March 14, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen

Why did I love this book?

Like I said earlier, I love Beauty and the Beast. Clearly, I can't get enough B & B retellings either. Here's another one for you. This one brings something new to the table. It intertwines with Russian fairy tales. I'm not familiar with these stories, so it was a pretty unique spin. I really enjoyed the brief perspectives from the Beast too.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber
Genre: Young Adult (Fantasy/Romance)
Date Published: January 31, 2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books

Why did I love this book?

There aren't words for this one. Seriously, if you can only read one book from my list, this is the one. It's completely intoxicating.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

The Valiant (Valiant #1) by Lesley Livingston

Genre: Young Adult (Historical Fiction)
Date Published: February 14, 2017
Publisher: Penguin Razorbill

Why did I love this book?

Gladiators and the whole mindset of their time fascinates me. This book fed that fascination. It's got a healthy does of girl power too!

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy

Genre: Young Adult (Fractured Fairy Tale/Fantasy)
Date Published: November 11th 2016
Publisher: Self

Why did I love this book?

Twisted was a dark and creative re-telling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale. It was unique, haunting, dark, and brilliantly written.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

To All the Boys I've Loved Before 

(To All the Boys I've Loved Before #1) by Jenny Han

Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary Romance)

Date Published: April 15, 2014

Publisher: Simon Schuster & Books for Young Readers

Why did I love this book?

This book brought me right back to high school. Lara Jean reminded me so much of myself, it's embarrassing, but I enjoyed her story all the same.

Click here for the blurb and my full review!

The Honorable Mention goes to...

Why? Because I've gotten way too much enjoyment out of this series this year, for it not to be on this list. I'm addicted! I can't pick just one book from the series. This series, as a whole, has everything I love about romance and just enough of it! Sweet with Heat describes it perfectly!

Top Ten Week!!!

My Favorite Books of 2017

My Favorite Quotes of 2017

My Favorite Book Covers of 2017

My Favorite Book Boyfriends of 2017

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2018

Book Review of Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy

Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy 
Genre: Young Adult (Fractured Fairy Tale/Fantasy)
Date Published: November 11th 2016
Publisher: Self

An old tale tells the story of how a little man named Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and tricked a desperate girl into trading away her baby. But that’s not exactly how it happened. 

The real story began with a drunken father who kept throwing money away on alcohol and women, while his daughter, Aoife, ran the family farm on her own. When he gambled away everything they owned to the Duke, it was up to her to spin straw into gold to win it all back. 

With her wits and the help of a magical guardian, she outsmarted the Duke and saved the day. 

Well almost…

Her guardian suddenly turned on Aoife and sent her on a quest to find his name, the clues to which were hidden deep in the woods, a moldy dungeon, and a dead woman’s chamber. 

This is not the tale of a damsel in distress, but a tenacious, young woman who solved a mystery so great that not even the enchanted man who spun straw into gold could figure it out. 

Not until Aoife came along. 

Twisted was a dark and creative re-telling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale. You know how so many fairy tales in their original form are tragic and scary? This felt original and authentic like those stories. It definitely wasn't Disney.

None of the characters are great people. Not even the main characters. They all have made some pretty bad life choices. That was part of the story's intrigue though. As the story unfolds, many subplots come together in a pretty brilliant way. I hope this new author writes some more, because I would love to read more of her work.

Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy was kindly provided to me by Tribute Books Blog Tours for review. The opinions are my own.

Bonnie grew up a shy, quiet girl who the teachers always seated next to the noisy boys because they knew she was too afraid to talk to anyone. She always had a lot she wanted to say but was too afraid to share it for fear she might die of embarrassment if people actually noticed her. Somewhere along the line, perhaps after she surprised her eighth grade class by standing up to a teacher who was belittling a fellow student, she realized that she had a voice and she didn’t burst into flames when her classmates stared at her in surprise.

Not long after that, she began spinning tales, some of which got her into trouble with her mom. Whether persuading her father to take her to the candy store as a little girl or convincing her parents to let her move from Los Angeles to Manhattan to pursue a career at eighteen as a ballet dancer with only $200 in her pocket, Bonnie has proven that she knows how to tell a compelling story.

Now she spends her time reading and making up stories for her two children at night. By day she is an English teacher who never puts the quiet girls next to the noisy boys and works hard to persuade her students that stories, whether they are the ones she teaches in class or the ones she tells to keep them from daydreaming, are better escapes than computers, phones, and social media.

To learn more about Bonnie M. Hennessy and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter.

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Teaser Tuesday! Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker. 

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share  doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumplestilskin's Name by Bonnie M. Hennessy .

No one noticed the unfamiliar hitch in Maeve’s chest or the way her eyes widened. The knot that had formed in her chest weeks ago when the Duke settled his crosshairs on Aoife tightened, threatening to choke her usual ease. Hiding behind a thin layer of calm, she raised her glass to her latest guest and his entourage. He taunted her with a wicked smile. 

An old tale tells the story of how a little man named Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and tricked a desperate girl into trading away her baby. But that’s not exactly how it happened. 

The real story began with a drunken father who kept throwing money away on alcohol and women, while his daughter, Aoife, ran the family farm on her own. When he gambled away everything they owned to the Duke, it was up to her to spin straw into gold to win it all back. 

With her wits and the help of a magical guardian, she outsmarted the Duke and saved the day. 

Well almost…

Her guardian suddenly turned on Aoife and sent her on a quest to find his name, the clues to which were hidden deep in the woods, a moldy dungeon, and a dead woman’s chamber. 

This is not the tale of a damsel in distress, but a tenacious, young woman who solved a mystery so great that not even the enchanted man who spun straw into gold could figure it out. 

Not until Aoife came along.

Do you have a blog? Post a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in the comments. 

No blog? Post a Teaser in the comments anyway!