Top Ten Tuesday: Five Star Reads of 2016

A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Today's prompt is our most recent 5-star reads. If you follow my blog you know that I typically go with a 10 star review structure. I've had a few 10-star reviews this year but no where near 10. But Goodreads being what it is, I use 5-star ratings there. So these are all of my 5-star ratings of 2016 in chronological order. I'm not including rereads or novellas because otherwise this whole list

1.) Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
(Goodreads / My Review)
I was a fan of Dennard's first series and I loved this one even more. It's such a fantastic YA fantasy with an interesting and complex world. I went through a lot of embarrassing things at BEA to get a copy of this book and I'm glad that I did.

2.) Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
(Goodreads / My Review)
Alex's dystopian series is one of my favorites in the genre and this time travel book was so fantastic. It had a good balance between historical and science fiction. The ending was out of control and I cannot wait for the next book in this series.

3.) Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
(Goodreads / My Review)
The next book in the Mistborn series is just as fantastic as all the rest of them. I love the way this series is building and I'm loving it more and more with each book. Plus after reading this one I became even more motivated to read the rest of the Cosmere.

4.) Calamity by Brandon Sanderson 
(Goodreads / My Review)
Not quite perfection but all Sanderson books are probably going to be five star reads for me. I love this series and I thought the conclusion of it was incredibly interesting but I do still have some questions. Good thing that there will be a spinoff.

5.) The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock 
(Goodreads / My Review)
This book definitely blew me away. It's probably my favorite debut so far this year and I have read around a dozen of them. This is a really fantastic and emotional historical fiction novel with great characters.

6.) A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab 
(Goodreads / My Review)
I love this series. The first in it was my favorite read of 2015 so obviously this was another great book. While this book isn't as good as the first one in the series it reminded me how much I love the characters and this world.

7.) Stars Above by Marissa Meyer 
(Goodreads / My Review)
I'm not usually a big fan of short stories but this is a great collection of prequels about characters that I adore and a great sequel to a series I'm not ready to say goodbye to. And the audiobook was phenomenal just like all the audio in The Lunar Chronicles series.

8.) Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
 (Goodreads / My Review)
I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so glad it lived up to my expectations. I mean how coulf a Western in a Middle Eastern setting not be great. Sometimes complex world-building makes for a messy book. Here it added to the plot, and it was a great plot too.

9.) The Skylighter by Becky Wallace
(Goodreads / My Review)
This is such a brilliant duology and this book was such a fantastic conclusion. I loved the first book so much and I was so happy that the debut exceeded my expectations. The entire second half had me on the edge of my seat and gave me all the feels.

10.) Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston
(Goodreads / My Review)
I'm not a huge fan of contemporary so when one is a five star read it's such an amazing surprise. This book did just that. I didn't know entirely what I was getting into and I found a fantastic contemporary that balanced serious and funny.

And those are my five stars reads of 2016. What books were five star reads for you? Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!