2015 Reading Year in Review!

JANUARY

1. Hope to Die (Alex Cross #22) by James Patterson
2. The Cinderella Murder (Under Suspicion #1) by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burk
3. The Little Prince by Antoine Saint de Exupéry
4. The Demon King (Seven Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima
5. Die Again (Rizzoli & Isles #11) by Tess Gerritsen
6. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
7. Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
8. Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

FEBRUARY

9. Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2) by Veronica Rossi
10. Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah
11. Geek Girl (Geek Girl #1) by Holly Smale
12. Private Vegas (Private #9) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
13. Cane and Abe by James Grippando
14. Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles #3.5) by Marissa Meyer
15. Hush by Karen Robards

MARCH

16. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
17. Cold Cold Heart by Tami Hoag
18. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
19. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
20. Red Queen (Red Queen #1)  by Victoria Aveyard

APRIL

21. The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events #7) by Lemony Snicket
22. The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) by J.R. Ward
23. Someone is Watching by Joy Fielding

MAY

24. A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab
25. Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline
26. The Liar by Nora Roberts
27. 14th Deadly Sin (Women’s Murder Club #14) by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

JUNE

28. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare
29. NYPD Red (NYPD Red #3) by James Patterson and Marshall Karp
30. The Isle of the Lost (The Descendants #1) by Melissa de la Cruz
31. Truth or Die by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

JULY

32. An Ember in the Ashes (Ember in the Ashes #1) by Sabaa Tahir
33. The Wrong Man by Karen White
34. Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2) by Jamie McGuire

AUGUST

35. Cash Landing by James Grippando
36. Defiance (Defiance #1) by C.J. Redwine
37. The Wrath & The Dawn (The Wrath & The Dawn #1) by Renée Ahdieh
38. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

SEPTEMBER 

39. Origins (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
40. Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
41. Alert (Michael Bennett #8) by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

OCTOBER

42. The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
43. Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

NOVEMBER

44. Murder House by James Patterson & David Ellis
45. The Scam (Fox and O’Hare #4) by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
46. After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes
47. The Theory of Death (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus #23) by Faye Kellerman

DECEMBER

48. Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer
49. The Mistletoe Inn (Mistletoe Collection) by Richard Paul Evans
50. Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum #22) by Janet Evanovich
51. The Guilty (Will Robie #4) by David Baldacci
52. Cross Justice (Alex Cross #23) by James Patterson

Top Books of 2015!

I cannot believe that this year is hours from being over! It’s been a year of ups and downs but an overall good one. Here is to the New Year!

Here is a list of my top 15 reads for 2015! These books are books that I read in They are in no particular order and not necessarily books that were published in 2015. I have also included and my three least favourite book of the year. I’m not going to go into detail about the book as I have already done reviews, which are linked:

1. Fairest (Lunar Chronicles #3.5) by Marissa Meyer
2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
3. Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas
4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
5. An Ember in the Ashes (Ember in the Ashes #1) by Sabaa Tahir
6. Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard
7. The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) by J.R. Ward
8. Cold Cold Heart by Tami Haog
9. Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer
10. Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica
11. The 5th Wave (5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
12. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
13. Defiance (The Courier’s Daughter #1) by C.J. Redwine
14. Truth or Die by James Patterson & Howard Roughan
15. Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline

Least Favourite Books of 2015

1. A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab
2. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
3. The Isle of the Lost (The Descendants #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

No. 52 for 2015!

Title: Cross Justice (Alex Cross #23)
Author: James Patterson
Rating: 3.5/5
Book: 52
Pages:  448 pgs
Total Pages: 19,945 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I have been a loyal follower of the Cross series but I’m sad to say that I’m getting to the point of being over the series. While the plot in this book moved at a fast pace, I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. I won’t go into details so as to not spoil but while I enjoyed the book, I can’t bring myself to give it anything more than a 3.5 rating.

 About the Book:

Alex Cross left his hometown, and some awful family tragedies, for a better life with Nana Mama in Washington, DC. He hasn’t looked back.

Now his cousin Stefan has been accused of a horrible, unthinkable murder, and Cross drives south with Bree, Nana Mama, Jannie, and Ali to Starksville, North Carolina, for the first time in thirty-five years. Back home, he discovers a once proud community down on its luck, and local residents who don’t welcome him with open arms. As Cross steps into his family home, the horrors of his childhood flood back–and he learns that they’re not really over. He brings all his skill to finding out the truth about his cousin’s case. But truth is hard to come by in a town where no one feels safe to speak.

Chasing his ghosts takes Cross all the way down to the sugarcane fields of Florida, where he gets pulled into a case that has local cops needing his kind of expertise: a string of socialite murders with ever more grisly settings. He’s chasing too many loose ends–a brutal killer, the truth about his own past, and justice for his cousin–and any one of the answers might be fatal.

No. 51 for 2015!

Title: The Guilty (Will Robie #4)
Author: David Baldacci
Rating: 4/5
Book: 51
Pages:  418 pgs
Total Pages: 19,497 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Cross Justice (Alex Cross #23) by James Patterson

This book had a slow start but I really ended up enjoying this one. It’s not my favourite of the series but definitely worth the read.

 About the Book:

Will Robie is the government’s most professional, disciplined, and lethal assassin. He infiltrates the most hostile countries in the world, defeats our enemies’ advanced security measures, and eliminates threats before they ever reach our shores.

But now, his skills have left him. Sent overseas on a critical assignment, he fails, unable to pull the trigger. Absent his talents, Robie is a man without a mission, and without a purpose.

To recover what he has lost, Robie must confront what he has tried to forget for over twenty years: his own past.

Will Robie escaped his small Gulf Coast hometown of Cantrell, Mississippi after high school, severing all personal ties, and never looked back. Not once. Not until the unimaginable occurs. His father, Dan Robie, has been arrested and charged with murder.

Father and son haven’t spoken or seen each other since the day Robie left town. In that time, Dan Robie – a local attorney and pillar of the community-has been elected town judge. Despite this, most of Cantrell is aligned against Dan. His guilt is assumed.

To make matters worse, Dan has refused to do anything to defend himself. When Robie tries to help, his father responds only with anger and defiance. Could Dan really be guilty?

With the equally formidable Jessica Reel at his side, Robie ignores his father’s wishes and begins his own desperate investigation into the case. But Robie is now a stranger to his hometown, an outsider, a man who has forsaken his past and his family. His attempts to save his father are met with distrust and skepticism . . . and violence.

Unlike the missions Robie undertook in the service of his country, where his target was clearly defined, digging into his father’s case only reveals more questions. Robie is drawn into the hidden underside of Cantrell, where he must face the unexpected and possibly deadly consequences of the long-ago choices made by father and son. And this time, there may be no escape for either of them.

No. 50 for 2015

Title: Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum #22)
Author: Janet Evanovich
Rating: 4/5
Book: 50/50
Pages:  292 pgs
Total Pages: 19,079 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Guilty (Will Robie #4) by David Baldacci

 

I really enjoyed this installment. It kept me laughing and I enjoyed spending time with some of my favourite characters. There were a few laugh out loud funny moments. Definitely recommend.

 About the Book:

Something big is brewing in Trenton, N.J., and it could blow at any minute.

Stephanie Plum might not be the world’s greatest bounty hunter, but she knows when she’s being played. Ken Globovic (aka Gobbles), hailed as the Supreme Exalted Zookeeper of the animal house known as Zeta fraternity, has been arrested for beating up the dean of students at Kiltman College. Gobbles has missed his court date and gone into hiding. People have seen him on campus, but no one will talk. Things just aren’t adding up, and Stephanie can’t shake the feeling that something funny is going on at the college – and it’s not just Zeta fraternity pranks.

As much as people love Gobbles, they hate Doug Linken. When Linken is gunned down in his backyard it’s good riddance, and the list of possible murder suspects is long. The only people who care about finding Linken’s killer are Trenton cop Joe Morelli, who has been assigned the case, security expert Ranger, who was hired to protect Linken, and Stephanie, who has her eye on a cash prize and hopefully has some tricks up her sleeve.

No. 49 for 2015

Title: The Mistletoe Inn (Mistletoe Collection)
Author: Richard Paul Evans
Rating: 4/5
Book: 49/50
Pages:  300 pgs
Total Pages: 18,787 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum #22) by Janet Evanovich

I was not aware that this was book two of a series but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything when I was reading this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick and light read and kept me engaged and there was a nice twist at the end. The only thing that I have to say is that the romance seemed a little too quick for my liking but other than that, I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend.

About the Book:

At thirty-two Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Savannah, Georgia. Deep inside Kimberly knows she’s at a junction in her life and it’s time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.

In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he’s really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he’s unwilling to talk about.

No. 48 for 2015

Title: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Rating: 4/5
Book: 48/50
Pages:  823 pgs
Total Pages: 18,487 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Mistletoe Inn (Mistletoe Collection) by Richard Paul Evans

Great ending to an awesome series. My only complaint is that there were a few scenes that could have been cut out. The book didn’t need to be 800+ pages but I still enjoyed it just the same!

About the Book:

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

No. 47 for 2015

Title: The Theory of Death (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus #23)
Author: Faye Kellerman
Rating: 4/5
Book: 47/50
Pages:  384 pgs
Total Pages: 17,664 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

This wasn’t my favourite Decker book but it was still enjoyable for the most part. Some of the story line seemed to drag on a bit at times. Another thing that I keep trying to figure out is how a kid who is still in college moonlighting as Decker’s partner. That part bothered me throughout the book but that aside, it was still an enjoyable read.

About the Book:

Now living in upstate New York, former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is plunged into a bizarre web involving academia, underworld crime, and calculating killers in this next compulsive novel in New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman’s beloved Decker and Lazarus series

Former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is relishing the quiet and slow pace of his new job with the Greenbury police department. The work is low stress and engaging, and it’s been almost a year since the last murder in this sleepy upstate New York town.

Then the body of a nude man is found deep within the woods, shattering Decker’s peace. The death appears to be a suicide—a single shot to the head, the gun by his side. But until the coroner’s ruling, the scene must be treated as a suspicious crime. Without any personal effects near the body, Decker must dig to uncover his identity, a task made difficult by the department’s tight budget and limited personnel. Luckily, Decker gets some unexpected help when his friend and former Greenbury colleague Tyler McAdams calls, looking for a quiet place to study for his law finals.

The investigation takes Decker and McAdams to Kneed Loft College, where they must penetrate the indecipherable upper echelons of mathematics and mathematical prodigies. Beneath the school’s rarified atmosphere they discover a sphere of scheming academics, hidden cyphers—and most dangerous of all—a realm of underworld crime that transforms harmless nerds into cold, calculating evil geniuses. It will take all of Decker’s experience and McAdams’s brains to penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes and solve a dark, twisted crime devised by some brilliant and depraved masterminds.

No. 46 for 2015

Title: After You (Me Before You #2)
Author: Jojo Moyes
Rating: 4/5
Book: 46/50
Pages:  352 pgs
Total Pages: 17,280 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Theory of Death (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus #23) by Faye Kellerman

While I really enjoyed this book, I didn’t quite like it as much as “Me Before You”. Definitely worth the read though as it was nice going back to visit these characters.

About the Book:

Dear Reader,

I wasn’t going to write a sequel to Me Before You. But for years, readers kept asking and I kept wondering what Lou did with her life. In the end the idea came, as they sometimes do, at 5:30 in the morning, leaving me sitting bolt upright in my bed and scrambling for my pen.

It has been such a pleasure revisiting Lou and her family, and the Traynors, and confronting them with a whole new set of issues. As ever, they have made me laugh, and cry. I hope readers feel the same way at meeting them—especially Lou—again. And I’m hoping that those who love Will will find plenty to enjoy.

No. 45 for 2015!

Title: The Scam (Fox and O’Hare #4)
Author: Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Rating: 4/5
Book: 45/50
Pages:  305 pgs
Total Pages: 16,928 pages
Version: Book
Next up: After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes

I really enjoyed this book and I need the next book thanks to the cliffhanger! I also really enjoyed seeing my fandom, Hawaii Five-0, make an appearance in my reading material.

About the Book:

Nicolas Fox is a charming con man and master thief on the run. Kate O’Hare is the FBI agent who is hot on his trail. At least that’s what everyone thinks. In reality, Fox and O’Hare are secretly working together to bring down super-criminals the law can’t touch. Criminals like brutal casino magnate Evan Trace.

Evan Trace is running a money-laundering operation through his casino in Macau. Some of his best customers are mobsters, dictators, and global terrorists. Nick and Kate will have to go deep undercover as high-stakes gamblers, wagering millions of dollars—and their lives—in an attempt to topple Trace’s empire.

It’s a scam that will take Fox and O’Hare from the Las Vegas strip, to the sun-soaked beaches of Oahu’s North Shore, and into the dark back alleys of Macau. Their only backup—a self-absorbed actor, a Somali pirate, and Kate’s father, and an ex-soldier who believes a rocket launcher is the best way to solve every problem. What could possibly go wrong?