There are few things I love more than curling up on a worn-in couch at a quiet bookstore with a hot cup of coffee and losing myself in a novel. I rarely find an entire day during the semester where I can do this, so over break, you can catch me doing this almost every day, getting my fix and decompressing from the stress of a crazy semester. If you're like me, here are a few suggestions from one kindred spirit to the other of the best book series to lose yourself in this break.

1. The Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin

Synopsis: (From Goodreads, I'm terrible at summarizing books, the amazingness always seems to get lost and I make even the best of books sound lame)

"Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.
There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.
She's wrong."

Favorite quote: "As I was saying. He could never use you. You own him. You should've seen the way he was looking at you while you were out."

I smiled a litte. "How?"

"Like you're the ocean and he's dying to drown."

2. The Shatter Me series by Taherah Mafi

Synopsis: (Also from Goodreads)

"No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight for herself—and for a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever."

Favorite Quote: "I've just begun reeling him in, pulling him into me when he breaks away.
He’s breathing like he’s lost his mind and he’s looking at me like something has broken inside of him, like he’s woken up to find that
his nightmares were just that, that they never existed, that it was all just a bad dream that felt far too real but now he’s awake and he’s safe and everything is going to be okay and
I’m falling.
I’m falling apart and into his heart and I’m a disaster."

3. The Delirium series by Lauren Oliver

Synopsis: (Still from Goodreads, you're catching on!)

"They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now.

Now everything has changed. Now I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie."

Favorite Quote: "You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope and without fear.

I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."

4. Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick

Synopsis: (From guess where?!)

"Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life."

Favorite Quote: "There's only one thing I know for certain anymore." He turned, his eyes a clear black. "That I would do anything for you, even if it means going against my instincts or my very nature. I would lay down everything I possess, even my soul, for you. If that isn't love, it's the best I have."

5. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Synopsis: (Goodreads once again...)

Side note: this is my #1 favorite book series of all time. I re-read it over and over again and never love it any less so I HIGHLY recommend this one. There's also a prequel series that you should read AFTER reading this series called The Infernal Devices. Same world, a century or two earlier in time, the story of the ancestors of the characters in TMI. Amazing.

"When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know... "

Favorite Quote: "I was thinking about the first time I ever saw you," he said, "and how after that I couldn't forget you. I wanted to, but I couldn't stop myself. I forced Hodge to let me be the one who came to find you and bring you back to the Institute. And even back then, in that stupid coffee shop, when I saw you sitting on that couch with Simon, even then that felt wrong to me-- I should have been the one sitting with you. The one who made you laugh like that. I couldn't get rid of that feeling. That it should have been me."