Favorite Books of 2014 (so far!)

2014 is almost a third of the way behind us (where does the time go?) so I thought it was time to reflect on the books that have impacted me the most so far this year. Admittedly, I've only read 24 books so far which is well below my average but I had my first baby January 6th so I'm still pretty proud of those 24! I'm also not reading a lot of newly released material because I am devastatingly behind on my TBR pile. It's actually quite ridiculous how many books I own that I haven't read! So I made a deal with myself to use 2014 to try to put a dent in those books and only buy the ones that I simply MUST read (you book addicts know what I'm talking about!). So looking at the year so far, here are the books that I would most recommend to a friend:

I am actually recommending this ENTIRE series because it's very, very good. The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting centers around Violet, a teenage girl with a super creepy ability... she hears the "echoes" of dead bodies and is driven to locate them. And these bodies are no ordinary "died of natural causes" bodies, the echoes Violet hears are from bodies that were murdered. Violet's ability naturally places her into intense danger as not all killers want their murdered victims discovered. In addition to her dangerous ability, readers get to watch Violet fall madly in love for the first time. The series progresses nicely and readers will see Violet deal with several dangerous and scary individuals, while dealing with normal teenage angst. This series is entertaining, riveting, suspenseful, and definitely worth a read.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is one of those books that everyone should read. And I know I am WAY late to the party on this one and I want to kick myself for waiting so long to read it! The book centers around Clay, a teenage boy who has been given thirteen cassette tapes from a classmate, Hannah, who recently committed suicide. The tapes give the reasons why Hannah took her life and this book is POWERFUL. I work as a high school counselor and it really saddens me because I see some of Hannah in so many of the students I work with. I think every high school student should be required to read this book so they can see the impact that small, seemingly unimportant things, can have on others. This book will REALLY make you think. I struggled to put this one down.

Two other books stood out as 'Honorable Mentions' so I'm not going to devote a whole lot of time to talking about them but if you're looking for a great contemporary romance, I'd highly recommend How to Love by Katie Cotugno. More in the mood for a supernatural romance with some mystery mixed in? Check out Forbidden by Syrie James and Ryan M. James.

If there's been a book that you just LOVED this year, please let me know in the comments section! I'm always on the lookout for good recommendations. Happy Reading!