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You may still be catching up on all the great reads of 2013, but here at TYF we decided to compile a list of the best books 2014 has had to offer (so far).  Are some of your favorites here? Some new recommendations? Tell us your favorites and find out which book is the best of 2014 (so far, of course)!

Click NEXT to see The Young Folks Top 5 Books: 

Gabrielle’s Top 5:

I read about half as many books as I usually do so far this year, and many of those were not 2014 releases. However, I still managed to get to some great new releases (even some that are still not out yet), that I absolutely enjoyed. Without further ado, here are my Top 5 Books of 2014 (so far):

5.  Five, Six, Seven Nate! by Tim Federle

4. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

3. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

2. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

1. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Honorable Mentions:

Sister’s Fate by Jessica Spotwood

Silvershadows by Richelle Mead

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

To All the Boys Who I’ve Ever Loved Before by Jenny Han

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Leigh-Ann’s Top 5:

5. FANGIRL_15 by Aimee Roseland

Chloe gets the opportunity that many readers would kill for; the opportunity to change the unfortunate ending of a beloved book. But it comes with a price (like everything usually does). Chloe realizes that she’s an important part in the story and that she was the apple of a very powerful demon’s eye for a very long time. And it gets even weirder. When it looks like all is about to come to a terrifying end, she figures out that she’s been the hero of the story in a way that would make Tim Burton proud.

4. Before You Break by Christina Lee

Before You Break is a cute story that tackles serious and painful issues and one that shows that even if you’re as broken as Humpty Dumpty, there’s someone out there willing to love you and help you put all the pieces back together.

3. Worth the Wait by Laura Jackson

Ellie is a girl who strives to be perfect. She’s one of the most popular girls at school. She’s got a boyfriend she’s known all her life and intends to marry. Her family is a God-fearing set of individuals and loving in every way. And she does everything she’s told to do. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, everything. Ellie is thrown into a mixture of emotions when she discovers that Dylan, her long-time boyfriend, cheats on her, her mother gets diagnosed with cancer and her perfect world seems to be falling apart. She begins to question why God would throw all these trials her way after she’d obeyed all His instructions and what exactly it means to be herself and not somebody’s shadow or the symbol of perfection.

2. Stronger Than You Know by Jolene Perry

Fifteen-year-old Joy is the definition of broken. After being rescued from an abusive household and sent to live with her caring relatives, Joy has to re-learn what it means to live among people who aren’t constantly trying to hurt you. A wonderfully written novel about recovering from a traumatic experience, Stronger Than You Know is a story anybody who’s every felt rejected, abused or even abandoned should read.

1. A Different Me by Deborah Blumenthal

Allie Johnson is a girl who’s got her eyes on one prize, a new nose. She’s been dreaming of changing her nose ever since she realized what the “ideal” image of beauty was. However, as she stumbles through the woods of self-discovery, she comes to the realization that you don’t always have to live up to society’s expectations. She realizes that it’s best to just be yourself. Even if it means living with an unsightly nose.

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Stephanie’s Top 5:

 5. Unhinged by A.G. Howard

 4. Say What You Will by Cammi McGovern

3. Destined for Doon by Lorie Langdon

2. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

1. Rain by Amanda Sun

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Bri’s Top 5:

5. Cress by Melissa Myer

The third book in one of the most original adventure series I’ve read, Cress starts with an attempted rescue gone awry and ends with the realization that our favorite ragtag team of heroes is going to have to save the world.

4. The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

A dark, slightly eerie middle grade story about a girl and an arrogant boy who can enter books and must defeat the creatures within to escape.

3. The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

This is how you worldbuild, my friends. Kestral and Arin’s world is one of war and deadly games, where deciding who to trust can cost you everything.

2. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Matson captures best friendship and how it can change you perfectly in this summery contemporary.

1. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Coming of age. History of the end of the world. Giant bugs. Andrew Smith’s latest is one of the most bizarre and fantastic books I’ve ever read.

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Jenna’s Top 5: 

5. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira 

This is definitely my favorite contemporary novel that I’ve read this year. One of the few novels that I read with no prior conceptions about the author or the series or anything connected to it. I went into reading this book with just what was written on the inside jacket and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The writing was great, the characters were diverse, and the story was interesting.

4. This Star Won’t Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl

This book gave me a major case of the feels. I’m a huge nerdfighter, a huge fan of The Fault in Our Stars, and now, a huge fan of Esther Earl. It is a compilation of Esther’s journals and updates from a website her family had created after she got sick in order to keep their family and friends updated on her health. There are also many guest contributions from people such as her doctor, her friends, and her siblings. We get to see the darkness of a depression that was inevitable in her life but it also gives us a look at the positive, caring, intelligent, sarcastic, full-of-love 12-16 year old girl that Esther was throughout the duration of her sickness. Esther made a lasting impression on many people in this world and that’s all that
one can hope to do in a lifetime, let alone at just 16 years of age.

3. Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

Gah… I just read this last week, a day or so after it was released, and honestly it drew me right back into my obsession with the Divergent series. Four is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters and getting an entire book from his point of view was just awesome! Also I loved seeing what his life was like before Tris and how he adjusted to his transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless. It reminded me how much I love Veronica Roth’s writing and how much I can’t wait until she comes out with a new series!

2. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

I LOVED the entire Shatter Me series but this last book was by far the best. Mafi’s series was so beautifully written. Her style is one of my favorites because of how lyrical each sentence is. I loved watching Juliette grow from the terrified girl she started out as into the badass that she became in this last book. I loved watching Warner’s hardened exterior being broken down. I thought this novel ended perfectly. It was one of the few last-in-a-series that I’ve read this year that I felt had a satisfying ending.

1. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

If Cassandra Clare had released five books so far this year, I’m pretty sure all five would be dominating this list. I love everything she writes, I devour it like nothing else I’ve ever read before. I love all of the Shadowhunter books and the only thing I wish is that I didn’t have to wait a year or more between each one! City of Heavenly Fire was a great ending to The Mortal Instruments series. Not only did I love the way it gave us a lot of time to get to know the main characters of her next series, The Dark Artifices, but it was just the right amount of funny and heartbreaking (without taking the heartbreak too far). It wasn’t as sad as the end of The Infernal Devices series and it left plenty of unanswered questions to lead us into her next set of Shadowhunter books!

Runner Up: The Secret Diamond Sisters by Michelle Madow

I love Michelle Madow and I adored this book! I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series!

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Michael’s Top 5:

5. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

The lime green cover is the most normal thing about this book. Told from the perspective of a hormone crazed teenage boy, this story chronicles life in a small town where an ancient virus is released that may just end the world as we know it. This standalone will have you questioning what Smith was on when he wrote this work and where you can get some.

4. Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #2) by Ransom Riggs

Photo enthusiast Riggs built this series off of antique photos he came across in street markets. When’s the last time you did something so fascinatingly fresh? If you’ve read the series, you’d know the answer to that question is never.  The inexplicable images string together a creepy story that follows a band of misfits who could run a freak show just as easily as they can take out the bad guys. And by bad guys I mean Nazis. Did I mention the story jumps time between present day and World War II?

3. Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1) by Kelley Armstrong

In one of the most promising series openers I’ve read in a while, Armstrong draws us into an ancient world where a mystical evil is released. And who better to fight that evil than a pair of polar opposite, kick-ass twin sisters whose world is turned upside down in a spine tingling-ly creepy opener? Seriously, that opening was so haunting and original it still has me doing double takes at those dancing shadows in the night.

2. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare 

How does one wrap up a seven-year-old urban fantasy series with a legion of devoted fans? With one final, loaded 700+ page installment of course.  Clare brings the death, the love, the action, and the quirky, magical characters her fans have come to love, and we really couldn’t have asked for anything more.

1. Ruin and Rising (Grisha series #3) by Leigh Bardugo

Ms. Bardugo took no prisoners in her finale to an epic fantasy trilogy. Set in an Avatar: The Last Airbender-like Russia, the Grisha series features an orphan girl who learns of a rare power hidden within her. Over her journey, she must come to accept a role she never expected to fill, and try not to lose herself in the process. Does power really change people? Now, what if that power required you to kill?

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Danielle’s Top 5:

The Vacationers by Emma Straub 

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian 

Emily Shepard is the teenage heroine of Bohjalian’s newest novel, a homeless teen running away from her past. When the nuclear plant in her town has a meltdown, many people are killed and those who’ve survived flee, losing their homes and their possessions. Who’s to blame? Emily’s father. This is a really thought-provoking, painful, unique read.

Tease by Amanda Maciel 

(Reviewed here!) Tease is a tale of high school bullying gone too far – told from the point of view of the bully. Maciel’s debut novel is an incredible study of bullying in the digital age, and the fragile egos of today’s social media-obsessed youth.

We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt

(Reviewed here!) This coming-of-age novel explores the relationship between two high school-aged sisters, and examines the weight of secrets and responsibility. The protagonist is really well-written.

Brazen by Katherine Longshore

(Reviewed here!) Gossip Girl meets the Tudor court? Sign me up! Longshore’s newest book is narrated by Mary Howard, a young newlywed and a lady in Queen Anne’s court. There’s a lot of scandal, romance, and intrigue to be had.

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Alaa’s Top 5:

5. When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds

In a world where we need more diverse books, Reynolds’s passes the test by giving us the authentic story of Ali and his best friends Needles and Noodles as they try to figure out their paths in their small urban New York neighborhood.

4. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A mysterious, prestigious family. A narrator you can’t trust. We Were Liars is a beautifully written novel with a twist so good, you’ll have to read it again. Or three more times.

3. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Delliara

Fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower will devour this novel as they wither and bloom with Laurel as she faces the challenges of growing up, falling in love, and admitting what really happened with her sister May before she died.

2. Noggin by John Corey Whaley 

Imagine if your head was chopped off and put into a freezer. Then, five years later, it’s reconstructed and everyone you have ever loved has moved on with their lives, but you haven’t changed at all. This is Travis Coates’s new scary reality as he comes back to life, cured of leukemia, but not of his love sickness for his girlfriend Cate. Er, ex-girlfriend. Emerge with Travis as he finds his way through a life once lived with humor, wit, and heartbreak.

1. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

It’s a book about love. It’s a book about giant horny praying mantises. It’s a book about the end of the world and the beginning of life. This is one special book, you know what I mean?

A Few Honorable Mentions:

A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

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And the best book of 2014 (so far)  is….

Andrew Smith’s best and perhaps most bizarre novel yet has been listed the most on everyone’s top 5. It’s about figuring out who you are, who you’re in love with, and whether or not these giant blood thirsty pray-mantises are actually going to take over the world. It’s full of wit, humor, heartbreak, and “whoa, did that just really happen?” moments. Sci-fi realism at its best, Smith will take you on a ride that you will never forget. No matter how hard you try.

Think it will make it to our end of the year list? Tell us what you think in the comments! What is your favorite book of 2014 (so far) and what are you most anticipating?