Best Books I’ve Read in 2016

Best Books I’ve Read in 2016

{Hosted by Two Chicks On Books, Fiktshun, Tales of a Ravenous Reader and Dark Faerie Tales}

This top ten was really hard for me to compile because 2016 was one of the best years when it came to reading since I read so many amazing books. 

These are ordered by surname of the author but I do have to say An Exaltation of Larks was the #1 best book I've read this year.

You can find the links below either to Goodreads or my review, depending on whether or not I reviewed them on the blog.

Six of Crows | Swear on This Life | Lady Midnight | Shadow of Night | Hunting the Eagles | An Exaltation of Larks | A Court of Mist and Fury | The Maiden Seer | Glitter | And I Darken

Honorable mention:

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

I don't usually do honorable mentions but I feel like in this case Voyager definitely deserves to be mentioned because this book was amazing.

~

Let me know in the comments if any of these books are on your top ten of 2016 as well or just tell me some of your favorites of the year. ♥

Stacking The Shelves: December 24, 2016

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted @ Tynga's Reviews.

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Gift:
FairyLoot: Sci-Fi Adventure

My very first FairyLoot came a day after my birthday so that was perfect. I'm super happy with it, obviously. I especially love my Rey funko! I also went ahead and ordered the January box too. 

Gifted To Me:
Torn by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Daring by Elliott James

Girl From Above: Escape by Pippa DaCosta

Inger Iversen surprised me by gifting these books from my Amazon wishlist to me. So freaking nice of her! ♥

Bought:
Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell
I just HAD to get this historical fiction when I saw there was a great sale on it. 

For Review:
Sky Raiders by Michelle Diener
I love Michelle for always giving me the chance to read and review her books. Find my review of Sky Raiders here.

For Review:
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
A part of me still can't believe that I actually got an ARC of Kate Quinn's new book. It sounds amazing!

Bought:
Valley of the Kings: The 18th Dynasty by Terance Coffey
Bought this book set in Ancient Egypt for 99c! 

Please leave me links to your book hauls so I can stop by! :)

Review: Sky Raiders by Michelle Diener

Title: Sky Raiders
Author: Michelle Diener
Series: Sky Raiders #1
Publication: December 15th 2016 by Eclipse
Genre: Science Fiction
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 3/5

First they flew their mysterious sky craft through the skies of Barit. Then they started attacking. Finally, they began to raid.

Garek's one year of duty as a guard walking the walls of Garamundo was extended to two when the sky raiders appeared. Two long years away from home and his lover, Taya. When he finally returns, the town is empty. While Garek was protecting Garamundo, the sky raiders were taking their victims from his hometown.

Taya can't bear looking into the night sky. All she can see is Barit, her home planet. Impossibly, the sky raiders have brought her and their other victims to Shadow, the planet that shadows her own, and looking up makes her aware of everything she's lost. Garek is out there somewhere. She knows he'll look, but he'll never find her.

She and the other captives have to find a way to escape. Without the food and clothes the sky raiders bring them from their raids on Barit, they'll starve on the almost barren wastes of Shadow. And when they've given the sky raiders enough of what they want, that's exactly what the sky raiders will leave them to do.

She does have an idea of how she can break free--the sky raiders have brought them to Shadow to mine for ore. A very special ore which Taya has worked out is as dangerous to the sky raiders as it is valuable.

What she doesn't realize is she'll have some help with her plan. Because Garek isn't giving up. And he's even more resourceful than she could ever have imagined.

Nothing is going to keep him from Taya. Not even space itself.

At first I had a pretty hard to getting into Sky Raiders. I may also had a mini reading slump so that didn't really help things. After the first 50% I started getting more into the book and I was getting more invested in all the characters. I wish I had liked the story a little more since I absolutely loved Michelle Diener's other sci-fi trilogy, Class 5 but I'm still looking forward to the next two books to see where everything will be going.

Garek has been away for two years due to guard duty that had been extended to two years instead of one. When he finally gets back, he arrives at his home town only to find it empty because the sky raiders have taking everyone, including the woman he loves, Taya. Meanwhile Taya and the other people the sky raiders have taking have been brought to Shadow where they are forced to work in the mine. Garek is working on a plan to save Taya while Taya is working on a plan to get off Shadow and back to her home planet.

The story is written in dual point of view by Garek and Taya. I always felt myself drawn more to Garek's POV. Not that I didn't like Taya also but I loved him as one of the lead characters, especially when he was trying to get to Taya. Another favorite character of mine was Aidan Hansard who kind of had to go along with Garek to find Taya. I really liked how their friendship developed out of a sort of necessity.

I found myself almost not being able to wait until Garek and Taya finally would be reunited and once they did it was worth all the trouble they both had to go through. I loved them as a couple and how they both wouldn't stop until they would find each other. To me this book also had a certain fantasy element because some of the characters could call upon the change and basically control an element, which I thought was very cool.

Sky Raiders by Michelle Diener had a slow start for me. Like I said, I had a hard time getting into it.  There was loads of action in the story which was something I loved but I still missed a certain "oomph", to be honest. But I still thought it was a great sci-fi adventure and a good start of this new trilogy.

         About the Author:

                     Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Michelle Diener writes historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction. Having worked in publishing and IT, she’s now very happy crafting new worlds and interesting characters and wondering which part of the world she can travel to next. Michelle was born in London, grew up in South Africa and currently lives in Australia with her husband and two children.

When she’s not writing, or driving her kids from activity to activity, you can find her blogging at Magical Musings, or online at Twitter, at Google+ and Facebook.