I am happy to say that this year I completed my Goodreads Book Challenge for the year! I think I had set my sights a little high the last two years I did it…although being extremely sick while pregnant with little #3 and then moving across country the next year probably stacked the odds against me a bit. This year I found a nice number and went with it, fifty. I’m actually over it at fifty-three, which is awesome. There are actually several books I didn’t submit on the list, like a ton of little novellas that I read over the course of the year as well. Suffice it say I’m pretty proud of myself and now I just need to decide what my number for next year will be. The Book Chat link up question for this time around was your favorite books of the year. I’m not sure how I can narrow it down through fifty-three books. There are so many that stick out in my head, but I’m going to give it a try here.
This was new author for me, and a whole series of books that I’m still working on. These books are from quite awhile ago, but were re-published with new covers recently. I wasn’t quite sure how I would like it, or if I would get into it because at first the fact that it was slighty “dated” was pretty apparent. In the book the emails and computers are still relatively new – with chatrooms and all that as well. But I ended up absolutely loving it, and so far all the books that I’ve read in the series. You can find my review here.
This year I accidentally became obsessed with military-themed romance novels. It seriously was an accident, but now I’m hooked. When I was roaming the aisles of the books store I came across a books cover with a fighter plane and a guy in a flight suit on it. I had never seen a fiction book that was military-themed like that. Crazy right? So I snagged it up and then became obsessed, in a good way I promise. This was also the time I discovered that Romance novels weren’t really what I had thought they were. I had this whole milk-maiden, Fabio, gross sex stuff in my head….but it really wasn’t that at all. Although I am sure that is out there. It really was about romance, and the story. I didn’t do a review of this one, but here is the Goodreads page for it.
I swore I would never read another Nicholas Sparks book after A Walk to Remember, and I didn’t until Safe Haven. Frankly I just didn’t want to read a sad book. It wasn’t the year for them. I blame the movie….I saw the previews and wanted to read the book before I saw it. I’m glad I did. Great book, great movie. And it wasn’t ridiculously tragic as far as the main characters go (which is usually Mr. Sparks style).
Another new thing for me this year were Amish novels. Never read them, never really had any interest to either. However, some of the publishing houses I work with have an abundance of Amish novels to review. So I thought, “why not, I’m not paying for it.” Again, super surprised that I liked them. Cindy Woodsmall has definitely jumped to the top of my favorite authors list. Amish Vines and Orchards is a series that I have barreled through and am trying to patiently wait for the next book to come out *not until Spring of next year, ahhhhh!!!*. This is book one and I think my favorite. You can find my review here.
Debbie Macomber is also a new author on my list. I’ve read all six Navy series books, and I’m going through the Cedar Cove series (because I watched the tv series on Hallmark!). This is probably one of my favorite of the six, but they are all really good. These are definitely romantic, and they all have a great story line so its not just fluff. Debbie is a great author, and I would highly recommend trying any of her books.
I had the extreme pleasure of being able to read and review the 25th Anniversary edition of this book. When I first announced that I was doing it, my facebook page was flooded with people who had their lives greatly affected by this book and were in shock that I had never read it. It is an absolutely amazing story of love, of love between a man and a woman; and about the redeeming love of Christ (hence the title). The book is basically a metaphor. Even if you are not one to read “Christian” books this is still a great read and I would recommend it especially to young woman in the older highschool/college age range. I will definitely be giving this to my daughter when she gets older. You can find my review here.
This is a cool series that I started reading mainly because we live where they are written. How cool is that? I can actually go to the places that are talked about in the books. Another cool little tidbit is that the author, Margaret Truman, is President Truman’s daughter. Pretty neat. Murder in the Supreme Court is probably my favorite so far, but I’ve only read four of them. There are a ton! I’m excited to continue you on with this series and visit all the places talked about.
Apparently this book series is supposed to be a movie soon, although I haven’t really done the research on that. It popped up on my free book deals notice for Amazon, although I don’t know if it is still free. It is classified as a Young Adult, and is very Twilightesque…although they aren’t Vampires. Similar but different. I thought it was written really well, probably a little better than Twilight. It was a decent story, with some twists and turns. It was a nice, easy and fun read, especially after some of the heavy books I read this past year.
Can’t wait to read what other people on the linky have as their favs of the year. I’ll probably be adding them to my cue. Did anyone else participate in a book challenge this year? Did you finish? Did you have a favorite book for this year?
