The Class of 2014: YA Superlative Blogfest (hosted by Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott, Alison Miller, and me) runs Monday, December 15th through Thursday, December 18th and will highlight favorite books published in 2014 using a variety of fun superlative categories. The Class of 2014: YA Superlative Blogfest is all about promoting the extraordinary young adult books published this year, so if you haven’t already, draft a post and sign up to participate at the end of this post. We can’t wait to see your favorite reads of 2014!
2014 Reading List (starred = debut): The Winner’s Curse, *Let’s Get Lost, *Loop, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, *17 First Kisses, Ashes to Ashes, *The Secret Sky, *Behind the Scenes, Isla and the Happily Ever After, *The Only Thing To Fear, Bleed Like Me, The Bridge From Me to You, *Creed, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, I’ll Give You the Sun, *One Two Three, *Of Scars and Stardust, We Were Liars, *Wish You Were Italian, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Frozen, What I Thought Was True, *The Eighth Guardian, *Pointe, *Push Girl, *Open Road Summer, *Far From You, *The Symptoms of My Insanity, Panic, *The Truth About Alice, *NIL, Complicit, The Summer I Found You, The Evolution of Emily, Into the Still Blue, Heartbeat, The Killing Woods, Brown Girl Dreaming
Head of the Class
Favorite Dystopian
Frozen by Erin Bowman – Loved it even more than its predecessor, Taken! Gray is such a compelling protagonist, and I can’t wait to see how this trilogy wraps up with Forged come spring.
Favorite Science Fiction
Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi – Is this a stretch for the sci-fi category? It’s the only sci-fi-esque 2014 book I read, and it was a fantastic conclusion to a trilogy I’ve followed since its first book. Bravo! (Honorable Mention to These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner, which came out late in 2013 and therefore missed a spot on my Class of 2013 list. It’s so excellent!)
Favorite Fantasy
The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski – Not only my favorite fantasy of 2014, but one of my favorite reads of the year, period. Oh, the glorious world-building and the slow-burn, deliciously forbidden romance…
Favorite Contemporary
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson and Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid – I could not choose between these two! They’re both incredibly moving and gorgeously written, and they both left me feeling just… joyful. New favorites!
Favorite Action/Adventure
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor – Another trilogy concluded. I love Laini Taylor’s prose, and this book was a true page-turner. Unputdownable!
Favorite Historical
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson – Oh my gosh… So gorgeous. I’m such a sucker for verse stories and this one, a chronicle of the author’s childhood in the 1960s and 1970s (so, it’s a little bit middle grade if you want to get technical), is mesmerizing. Plus, that cover… Love.
Favorite Comedy
The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raf – I’m not big on comedies and this book certainly has plenty of profound moments, but it was also full of genuine, perfectly penned humor. I legit LOLed more than once!
Favorite Mystery
Far From You by Tess Sharpe and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart – Again — I could NOT choose! Both of these are gripping, full of beautiful writing, diverse characters, and gut-wrenching twists. So, so good.
Favorite Romance
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins and Open Road Summer by Emery Lord – Both of these are lovely romances, but they’re so much more, too — friendship and travel and authentic voice. Love them both! (Honorable mention to To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, which I couldn’t select this year because I *must* read the sequel before deciding if Lara Jean and Peter’s romance is a favorite.)
Favorite Paranormal
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater – Obviously, right? I am such a fan of this series, and I am already so anxious to see how it concludes next fall. Can I please be Maggie Stiefvater when I grow up?
Favorite Genre Bender
Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian – While I did not love how this trilogy concluded (I want to tear the epilogue out of my copy, quite honestly) there’s no denying that the series, as a whole, is crazy-good. Oh, Reeve. ❤
Click the graphic below to add your name and your Head of the Class post link to our sign up so we can hop around and check out your selections. Don’t forget — there will be a new link sign-up each day!
Katy Upperman ~ Author 
You have a number of picks here that are on my TBR list. Especially the contemporaries. For whatever reason, I read a lot of pre-2014 books this year, so that made it tougher to choose in those categories. We’re never going to catch up, are we? lol Still need to get started on the Siobhan Vivian/Jenny Han books. I have the first two already, so soon! 😀
I was actually surprised by how many 2014 books I read, once I started listing them for this blogfest. I felt like I read a lot of pre-2014 (and non-YA) books as well! I can’t wait for you to read the BURN FOR BURN trilogy… It’s one of my favorites to discuss. 🙂
Lots of great trilogy conclusions this year!
I decided to wait on Frozen so I could read the last 2 together. I hate waiting to find out what happens!
I hate waiting too! But I couldn’t put FROZEN aside because… Gray. 🙂 Can’t wait to see how FORGED wraps everything up!
I wonder how much love Into the Still Blue is going to get on these lists? Because that was definitely my sci fi pick, too.
I thought that trilogy was SO well done. Perfectly satisfying ending too. I love when that happens!
Open Road Summer was incredible. Made me feel all tingly 🙂
ME TOO! I can’t wait for Emery Lord’s next novel. I adore her style. 🙂
I agree with so many of these picks! INTO THE STILL BLUE, WINNERS CURSE, WE WERE LIARS… loved them all. And thanks for the fave dystopian shout-out. It’s very humbling to me on one of your lists. 🙂
Thank YOU for writing such a fabulous book! If you’ve got an extra FORGED ARC laying around… well, you know where to it. 😉 (In all seriousness… CANNOT WAIT!)
Oh Reeve indeed! I wasn’t terribly keen on Ashes to Ashes either but loved the trilogy overall. I really, really liked Let’s Get Lost as well – there were lots of characters and new places but the writing never got out of control. It really did feel like a journey. I can’t wait to read I’ll Give You The Sun but it isn’t out until next year for us.
LET’S GET LOST totally felt like a journey — that’s the perfect description for it, Sophia! When I read that it was a collection of short stories, I was worried that I wouldn’t have time to get invested in the characters, but that wasn’t the case at all. Loved it! And I’m so sorry that you have to wait for I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN — I loved that book so much! Let me now what you think once you read it. 🙂
Still need to get my hands on Open Road Summer! Actually I need to get my hands on so many of these! My poor TBR. 🙂
Oh, I bet you’ll love OPEN ROAD SUMMER, Alison! It’s super charming, and the MC totally kicks ass. 🙂
I loved The Winner’s Curse! I see several books I need to read ASAP too 🙂
Yay for THE WINNER’S CURSE! You know, I check it out of the library months ago and never picked it up because fantasy is such a hard sell for me. Then I checked it out AGAIN months later, picked it up, and couldn’t put it back down. 🙂 Can’t wait for the next book!
So many books on this list that I meant to read but just didn’t get to this year! But now I’m more excited to hit them up next year because of your glowing recommendations! So glad The Winner’s Curse made your list because I loved it too. 🙂 (And obviously, the Raven Cycle always)
THE RAVEN CYCLE… Always and forever! I’m so looking forward to checking out your list, Alice. You have yet to fail me in the recommendation department!
I really need to read Symptoms of My Insanity. I think coming up with a Favorite Comedy pick was the hardest category for me – I read so few humorous YA books!
I rarely read humorous books, Sara… I’m trying to remember what even possessed me to buy SYMPTOMS OF MY INSANITY. 🙂 But it was so good! Not all humor either — there were many aspects of it that were really deep. I definitely recommend it!
I’m excited that so many series are wrapping up–I’ve been trying to wait and read all the way through rather than re-reading every time a new installment comes out (and I just can’t keep details in my head long enough to skip the re-read!) But I really liked Under the Never Sky and I’ve been eyeing Burn for Burn since it came out, so I think I’ll tackle those series soon!
Yay for BURN FOR BURN! I recommend that trilogy all over the place. Even though I didn’t love how it ended (like, the last 20 pages), I still think it’s excellent overall, and sort of under-hyped. You’ll have to let me know if you like it, Jess!
I’m so, so glad you loved Brown Girl Dreaming! I can’t wait to grab a copy and read it. Also nice to hear you enjoyed The Symptoms of My Insanity. It’s one I’ve heard very mixed reviews about. I do like funny in my books!
I’m surprised SYMPTOMS has gotten mixed reviews, honestly. I thought it was pretty fabulous. Just the right amount of funny and angsty and family and romance and HS drama — seriously, it has a little bit of everything, plus the MC is awesome. Let me know if you read it, Rebecca, and what you think!