Best of 2013

I have read many amazing books in 2013. But there were three books that stood out the most to me. These books are Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and Dauntless by Veronica Roth. They are all fiction books, and involve a type of sci-fi.

Before I Fall is about a sixteen year old girl named Samantha Kingston who dies in a car crash and relives the last day of her life seven times. Each time she relives a day, she realizes how cruel she had been to other people and how her friends were all bullies. I love this book because its funny and meaningful. Every day, Samantha tries to fix her mistakes and be kind to others. The author is also constantly promoting the message "your actions can have a big impact on someone else's life." One example of this is that Samantha and her friends had bullied a girl named Juliet Sykes for a really long time. Juliet committed suicide because of her frustration. This is a good example because if Samantha had been nicer to Juliet, Juliet wouldn't be pushed to the point where she couldn't live anymore.    

City of Bones is about a girl named Clary Fray, who finds out she is a Shadow hunter, a race of humans with a little angel blood who are dedicated to killing demons. She is sucked into the Shadow hunter world when her mom is kidnapped by Valentine, a villain dedicated to destroying Downworlders(warlocks, werewolves, faeries, and vampires). I love this book because it includes the three characteristics I enjoy in a book and has a very captivating plot line. The author does an amazing job with mixing humor, romance, and action in only four hundred eighty five pages. I was never bored  and immediately got the urge to not put the book down until it was finished.

Dauntless is about a girl named Beatrice who moves to a faction(group) named Dauntless and has to survive their initiation. This book, like City of Bones, contained romance, humor, and a truck load of action. This book had me and the edge of my seat, even when the characters were just conversationing. The author did a marvelous job with keeping the reader entertained, but also asking sure the reader could connect with the characters. For example, in the beginning of the book, Beatrice had to chose if she was going to stay in her home, or to move to another faction. She had her parents pressuring her to stay, just like most kids have their parents pressuring them to do good in school.

I read lots of books in 2013, and there were many that I loved a lot. It was hard to narrow it down to one, so I tried to figure out my top three favorites. I would recommend these books to everyone who hasn't read them. And if they have, then I recommend the rest of the series. They were all inspiring reads, and I hope that others can enjoy them just as much as I do in the future.