I heart _______: Best Books of the Summer!

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, at the beginning of the Summer, I set up a pile of books in my bedroom, and planned to read them all throughout the Summer. Summer's basically over now, I go back to school in two days, so I'm nearly out of time to read through the pile. I was looking at the pile the other day, and I realised that, while I most certianly haven't read my way through the pile, I added books to it quite a lot throughout the Summer, and if I had not added to it, I would probably be entirely done with the pile! Which is quite great indeed.

Now, I read about fifteen books over the past six or so weeks. I'm rather disappointed, really. The pile originally seemed much larger than that, and yet, that is how many I read.

So.

I'm terrible at book reviews. TERRIBLE. But I'd like to give a small run-down on the books that I most enjoyed this Summer:

1. The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

People have been trying to make me read this book for years now, and I truly don't know why I never have until now. It was a gorgeous book, that made me want to take a pencil and underline all the wondeful lines and phrases. It was composed brilliantly, put together like a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece.

2. The Red Necklace & The Silver Blade, by Sally Gardner

Sally Gardner is a genius. A brilliant, fantastic, genius. How wondefully and creatively she can make this brilliant, theatrical story of the French Revolution come to life in such gripping, heartfelt and heartwarming books is beyond me. She takes what was already so very interesting and multiplies it by ten.

The characters: Yann, Sido, Count Kalliovski, everyone ... they are unforgettable.

While reading both these books, I cried. I laughed. I did not put them down.

3. Wings, by Aprilynne Pike

Wings.

I read Wings in about one day, and it completely captivated me. The ... atmosphere was brilliant. I can't quite explain it, but I must say, I truly enjoyed this book! For the first half, Laurel, the main character, bugged me. She was so perfect, her life was just this is how it is, she seemed almost conceited in a way. But she grew on me. A lot of the reasons why she was perfect made sense to me as the book continued and secrets were unveiled. It is definetely a bit childish in a sense, but in another sense it was very, very good.

The Enemy, by Charlie Higson

I admit, I only began to read this book because all my friends were reading it. It didn't look too good; mostly just gruesome and bloody, the sort of book that's aimed at boys to get them to read.

It was nothing like that.

What The Enemy ended up being was a hugely believable, emotional, gripping, dramatic and action-packed book. I didn't want to put this down once, and I was constantly thinking about it. I'm not quite sure how to describe a lot of this book, but it was very, very good ....

4. Stravaganza: City of Masks

City of Masks was simply wonderous, fitting and gorgeous. Sometimes while reading this book, I felt as though it was made for me. Set largeley in an opposite version of Venice, the whole book was perfectly paced, with a gorgeous setting and fantastic characters, this book was a fantastic escape to a different world, and I loved it.