End of Year Top 5 Book List 2013

It's time to do a final recap on my top 5 books of 2013, All of these books are great and have a 10/10 rating- enjoy!

5. Alex Rider: Stormbreaker - Antony Horowitz
My first experience of Horowitz's spy world- and I absolutely loved it! It reminded me of the Cherub books (below) but I think that the books are most alike to the young James Bond Novels (Charlie Higson)

4. Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
You may have seen the film, but have you read the book? The novel came first and it gets first prize (in a competition of movies and books anyway) A great romance/action/fantasy/all round great read!

3. Cherub: The Recruit - Robert Muchamore
This is the first book in the Cherub Series, all of the books are equally good and each got a 10/10 rating!

2. TimeRiders: The Mayan Prophecy - Alex Scarrow
The long awaited Mayan Prophecy is the latest installment in the TimeRiders Series and it is one fast read! In some ways a very different novel to the others in the series but as I don't like to disclose too many spoilers: You'll have to read the series to know what I mean!

1. Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men

As far as the title is concerned fans of Pleasant will understand but non-fans or fans-to-be won't. Sorry about that... The storyline is gripping, and the writing is flawless;
The pages seem to turn themselves... Will it really be the last stand of (the) Dead Men, or will Landy do one of his famous 'turn-arounds?' You'll again: have to wait and see...

Happy New Year and have a very book-ish 2014

Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve

Philip Reeve is highly acclaimed for his book, Mortal Engines which is a futuristic steam-punk book with moving cities and flying airships. This book is much the same however it takes place on the ground which is obviously less exciting, it also takes place in London, unlike Mortal Engines. The book is set before Reeve's first steam-punk novel and is supposed to link to events in Mortal Engines however I can't see too many of these links and the only real one is at the end. (and it's not that great to be honest) The book seems to be quite historical because it seems as though we are in the past, but we are actually in the future which is a bit surreal and strange. Reading about carts being pulled around London and archaeologists trying to use 'old tech', things like vacuum cleaners for example is just plain weird. The story often seems to have no real destination and somethings in the book are made out to be a bigger deal than they actually are, for example…

Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light - Derek Landy

This was a little of a disappointment in some ways, the ending chapters were a bit confusing but that didn't stop the read from being utterly compelling in every way!
I would say that a different ending would have worked well but the starting potential of the book maybe created a sense that the read would be ore than it was...

9/10 Good things for comments. Good things also for tweets to @TheOllyBookBlog

Sophie Someone - Hayley Long

This book is very unique and is written in an unusual but fun way. It follows the story of a girl called Sophie who really wants to know what her true identity is and what her story began like. The book is written from Sophie's perspective, however, the book is written in code which makes the story extra interesting and very engaging for the reader. Working out some of the more difficult words is actually quite fun and it does make the entire reading experience more interactive and also better as a whole.
I think that the book is very good although it can be fairly confusing to being with and at first you often ask questions that only get answered later on in the novel because unlike some books where you see the story from the outside, and therefore are privy to information before it is passed on to the main characters, you follow Sophie and get to know the facts when she does.

8 / 10 A good mysterious, unique, fun and very Belgian book. Add your thoughts in the comments if yo…

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