My answers for
Day One: The Books
Day Two: The Characters
Tomorrow will be Day Four: The Random
Day Three: The Scenes
1. best first chapter
Split: Oh ~ pitch perfect male POV and full of ache and intrigue, I love Jace from the first few pages.
Virtuosity: Opens with a prologue ~ and it is stunning.
Past Perfect: oh, Leila Sales, I clicked with your sense of humour from the first page and grinned my way through the first chapter. Love knowing I am about to fall in love with a book.
All I Ever Wanted: YES, sublime writing, cute guy and cycling <3
2. best climax
God is in the Pancakes: I seriously had NO IDEA which way things were going to go down. That is a perfectly suspenseful climax.
The Chosen One: the tension in this book was text-book perfect and then some ~ all the way up to it's breath-taking climax where stakes were the absolute highest.
Virtuosity: another one where I was clueless to how it was all going to play out. Niiiicely done.
3. best ending
in searching around for this category I found I could MUCH easily choose books for worst ending, haha. So many endings had me gnashing my teeth, wishing for an epilogue or leaving me still unresolved. So, here's a few endings I thought were handled with such finesse :)
Genesis: OMG
Her Daughter's dream: made me cry
I Now Pronounce You Someone Else: it was different :)
How To Save A Life: in hindsight, well, obviously it would be the perfect ending. But while I was reading it I was edging towards., well, just how is this going to end?
4. best plot twist/revelation (no spoilers!)
Genesis: perfectly handled. Mind = blown
Froi of the Exiles: no particular one, but the plot kind of weaves and twists constantly. My fave plot revelations were always to do with the characters, their connections and back stories...
5. scariest/most disturbing scene
6. steamiest scene (or sweetest/sexiest kiss award)
Okay ~ so FIVE books is a bit much, eh? (and this is only in the YA scene, gosh). Here's my reasons...
I REALLY liked Connor in Not That Kind of Girl. In fact, Siobhan Vivian has a gift with crafting her love interests and writing those sexy scenes (aspiring writers: take note, haha). Some of the best YA stuff I have come across ;)
Hunting Lila was all about that swoony/sexy stuff ~ constantly delivered in such a fun and flirty way (okay ~ so I have already reread a few of those scenes...and am getting nostalgic now just thinking about it)
Saving June: Hannah Harrington makes you wait for it (the tension builds like crazy) but then when it comes, mate, does it deliver *fans self*
Fixing Delilah: my gosh, the swoon. Some gorgeous kissing scenes in there.
Chasing Brooklyn: much tamer than the other four here ~ but the first kiss was just so sweet and sexy (one of my fave YA first kisses). And it had thoughts from both the male and female POV <3
8. biggest nail-biting moment
Where She Went: Ugh. Those of you who have read it. Gayle Forman nearly killed me.
The Chosen One: well, pretty much the entire book, LOL.
The Queen of Attolia: More too stunned to even move to bite the nails. Early on, it was hard to believe what happened, really happened...
9. most hilarious scene
Oh, pretty much all of Three Wishes. Completely my thing. I grin, ridiculously so, in that book.
Slice: classic Herrick humour in such a brilliant and endearing male POV
The Good Daughter: oh, some more Aussie YA love ~ I love so many parts in this book. I especially laughed in a certain scene with Larry Emdur on The Price is Right. Such a classic!
10. most heart-breaking/tear-jerker moment*
AM I REPEATING MYSELF TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK?
*which is on a bargain January 2012 preorder for the paperback price...(you know,. FYI)
BONUS: favourite meet cute
Oh, definitely Past Perfect. Grinned and sighed and then had great anticipation for further appearances from Dan in the book.
Shout out to There You'll Find Me. For gorgeous dialogue and getting me to swoon and grin from the meet vute (and any other time Bentley showed up...)
Gah! Linky drama. Link in the comments, or whatever. Love you guys
xx Nomes
Okay...so SPLIT is good, yeah? Lol. On my list!
ReplyDeleteWoo hoo! Awesome picks as usual! Saving June - So swoony! Love Jake <3
ReplyDeleteAnd I have moved 4 of the books in my TBR to the top since you keep talking about them in each post :)
Mine: http://www.thetalescompendium.com/2011/12/faves-of-twentyeleven-day-three-scenes.html
YAY SPLIT! That's totally my pick for best first chapter as well :D AHH I love your list, sooo many amazing books. I know what you mean with Froi, and I just read Saving June today... DEFINITELY FANNING SELF ;)
ReplyDeleteGenesis really does fit in so many categories! It surprised me at the end, and sadly, that doesn't happen often.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about Virtuosity. That was such an amazing book! I was a little disappointed when I found out that Jessica Martinez plays the violin, but I still think about that book often, when I usually forget most of the books I read.
God is in the Pancakes sounds very interesting, and I'm always extra interested in books that other people found funny. So Three Wishes it is! :)
I love your choices.
Here are ours
Oh, and Lisa posted the (in)famous pic of Barrons.
Brilliant, I'm loving this and my TBR pile is growing - hoping for book store vouchers for Xmas :D
ReplyDeleteYes to the Queen of Attiola! I have NEVER been so stunned by a book. Right till the last minute I was sure it wouldn't happen and then later I was ~ Excuse me Gen you're what? Do you remember what happened earlier?????
Totally agree with you on the Where she went front! I was nearly ready to have a nervous breakdown! Split sounds really interesting, you seem to love it! I asked for Saving June and Past Perfect for Christmas, hopefully I get them!
ReplyDeleteI read Split last year and it was so powerful. It was my top YA of 2010. That scene in the garage almost made me pee my pants!!!
ReplyDeleteMy scenes today:
http://www.tinasbookreviews.com/2011/12/faves-of-twentyeleven-scenes.html
So, I'm getting the vibe that I should read Split. Okay, it's gonna happen. Oh! And I can't wait to check out those steamy moments you mentioned. All sound swoon worthy to me.
ReplyDeleteHey Nomes, just came by to say Happy Christmas down there in NSW. Hope we have no floods this year, huh?
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's harder to pick a good ending than a bad, or unsatisfying one. Why is this I wonder? Are some authors exhausted by the time they reach the end?
A great resource you've posted here.
Thanks for all you do for the book world!
Denise <3
YES! GENESIS! Did not see that coming! Have you read August? I also did not see the twist coming in that.
ReplyDeleteOn Where She Went: is this the bridge scene? :P
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to read How to Save a Life soon to see that ending. :D
Here's my list: click! :)
I just requested Split from my library thanks to your recommendations! Great list once again!
ReplyDeleteHere's mine:
http://feministfairytalereviews.blogspot.com/2011/12/faves-of-twenty-eleven-characters.html
So many good books this year! Thanks for the recommendations :)
ReplyDeleteMy Favorite Scenes of 2011
Okay, you totally just sold me on Chasing Brooklyn. And Genesis. Gah, Nomes so many books, so little time, such great problems!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite scenes of the year: http://wondersbuecherkiste.blogspot.com/2011/12/faves-of-twentyeleven-scenes.html
ReplyDeleteWe read completely different books! I've got the Chosen One on my shelf but haven't read it yet. I should get on that...
ReplyDeletemy list: http://busyteacher.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/faves-of-twentyeleven-the-scenes/
We have added Split to our list to read as well.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to our Faves of 2011: The Scenes
http://smallpuddles.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/faves-of-2011-the-scenes/
Split and Virtuosity are totally on my wishlist now! And I'm thinking I must get to Saving June and Hunting Lila before I go back to work in the new year. Is it bad that I'm most interested in checking out the books with the swoony scenes? ;-)
ReplyDeleteHere is my list:
http://bellesbookshelf.blogspot.com/2011/12/faves-of-2011-book-awards-scenes.html
Ah, I want to read all of those books. I haven't read any of those yet except Froi of the Exiles and Where She Went which I really really really loved. :) I'll definitely add some of those books in my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteHere's mine!:)