HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I can't believe it is already 2016. The past year was so jamb-packed full of living that I could be considered a "rare siting" on my own blog. Like Big Foot almost. "Does this blogger exist? It is rumored that she does, but nobody's seen her in 2015, so maybe not!" Lol.
It's a good think I noted some of my reading on Goodreads otherwise I wouldn't remember what I read this year. Sheesh. Unfortunately, I did not keep up with my reviewing at all. Mostly I was just working, if you must know. Plain ol' boring working 40 hrs a week with moments in transit where I forgot where I was and missed my train stop completely because my book was so good. :-D
You want to know which books are that awesome, right?
I like to read series and twice this year the final book in a series made me zippy back and read the entire series from start to finish again. The first was AC Gaughin's retelling of Robin Hood. There is so much revealed in each book in the series that after the 3rd, going back to the beginning is like reading an entirely different set of books. LOVE THAT.
The other ENTIRE SERIES that I re-read in its entirety is McFarland's Dragonsworn series. I'm not even sure why I love these so much. There's something about Kai, specifically, that I just really like. Not to mention, there's insta-love and an author who says "NO!!" and finds a way for the main characters to get around their chemical attraction and find true love despite it.
So... both of these books have spit-fire characters. That might have been my "thing" in 2015.
I also loved Dark Horse by my fav author, Michelle Diener. It made me want to read traditional sci-fi again, which I haven't picked up in ages. The winner in this story is the main character again. There's some romance, but the main focus is surviving and being intelligent and getting out of a weird situation... getting out and making it awesome. :-D Loved this book. Of course, the next one is just out and I'm blitzing about it all week while I read it. :-D YES!!
I also loved Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, which is all about characters and plot twists and stuff. So, yeah, it fits well in my year of awesome books.
The book I anticipated reading the most this year was Winter by Marissa Meyer, like everyone else. Lol. And it didn't disappoint. It's a very, very big book and the first 160 pages just set the scene, but then the slippery slope of "too exciting to put down" just picks up speed. I'm sure everyone's read this (how could you not?!?!) but I have to put it down as one of my favs of the year even if that's true.
Lemme check out my reading device... if I wasn't checking books out from the library this year, I read them on my big, fancy phone (not totally new or totally big, but still.. it holds Kindle and Nook books!! Hundreds and hundreds of books everywhere I go!! Yes, I'm still thrilled about that.)
Did these two come out this year? Both of these I pre-ordered on my Kindle phone so that I could read them the very moment they were available. I can't believe these were also in 2015:
I think Maas is my new favorite author and I'll pre-order anything she wants to write. I'm not surprised I didn't review either on Goodreads. Books by Sarah J Maas climb under my skin or fit so naturally in my reading library that I consider them additional limbs. I find that I don't even recommend them to other readers and certainly not relatives because what if you didn't like them? I'm not sure we could still be acquainted.
So those were the BEST of 2015 for me. I really don't want to rank them, they're all just awesome and made the year memorable for their own reasons.
You want to know some funky disappointments? I don't want to fight with anyone and I certainly don't want a broken nose, or anything, but I started reading the Harry Potter series and got bogged down in The Goblet of Fire. So I did make some progress, but after awhile it seems like capers mesh together and there's no romance, for cryin' out loud. I think I had to read an adult romance after 3 Harry Potters. Something too hot to admit to reading, like Dark Deceit by Lauren Dawes. That really helped balance me out.
I tried Prophecy by Ellen Oh and it's ok for me, but not as fun as I would like it to be based on the premise and stuff. Daughter of Dusk by Livia Blackburne with the cool panther girl didn't rock my world like I'd hoped. Siren's Fury actually made me mad. One of the oddest let-downs for me was Sentinel by Armentrout. I'm a fan of her writing in general, but I've never enjoyed the Covenant series much and I'm still stuck mid-way through Sentinel. One more... Servant of the Crown by McShane has everything I could possibly love and I want to love it badly, but... I suspect the author is trying to drive me insane before she resolves things (kind of) and I decided I am tired of panicking. I couldn't not-finish the first book, but I will keep my distance from the next one.
In my browsing I found one more delight that is worth mentioning. I'm rather worn out on the fairy world and wasn't too thrilled when I saw what this book was about and then absolutely loved it:
Naturally this book fits nicely with my kicka** characters of 2015. Aileana is super-great and I look forward to reading more of this series. Mid-June 'til the next comes out? Seriously? Ridiculous. I hate waiting.
