2013 Reading Year in Review

JANUARY

1. Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward
2. Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
3. A Winter’s Dream by Richard Paul Evans
4. Come Home by Lisa Scottoline
5. Private: London by James Patterson and Mark Pearson
6.  Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson

FEBRUARY

7. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
8. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
9. Private: Berlin by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan

MARCH

10. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
11. The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
12. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
13. The Forgotten by David Baldacci

APRIL

14. Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian
15. Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward
16. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward

MAY

17. Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward
18. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward
19. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
20. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
21. Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline
22. No Way Back by Andrew Gross
23. Inferno by Dan Brown

JUNE

24. The Hit by David Baldacci
25. Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts
26. Lover at Last by J.R. Ward
27. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
28. 12th of Never by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

JULY

29. The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
30. Suspect by Robert Crais
31. Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
32. Hidden by Catherine McKenzie
33. Family Pictures by Jane Green
34. Second Honeymoon by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
35. 9th Girl by Tami Hoag
36. Unseen by Karin Slaughter
37. Legend by Marie Lu

AUGUST

38. Prodigy by Marie Lu
39. Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich
40. Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
41. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
42. Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

SEPTEMBER

43. The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
44. Always Watching by Chevy Stevens
45. The Never List by Koethi Zan
46. Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid
47. The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

OCTOBER

48. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
49. The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot
50. Reconstructing Amelia by Kim McCreight
51. Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison

NOVEMBER

52. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
53. Abandoned by Lisa Scottoline
54. Gone by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

DECEMBER

55. King and Maxwell by David Baldacci
56. Cross My Heart by James Patterson
57. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
58. Champion by Marie Lu

No. 13 for 2013

Title: The Forgotten
Author: David Baldacci
Rating: 4/5
Book: 13/50
Pages: 422 pgs
Total Pages: 5,127 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian

I enjoyed this book as I do with most of Baldacci’s books. John Puller is an interesting character and he is a very good narrator. My only complaint is that he seems too strong and too smart. Puller never seems to make mistakes. Ever. Also, he gets I injured and it barely phases him. In this aspect, he seems too perfect of a character. Overall, a great read.

About The Book:

Army Special Agent John Puller is the best there is. A combat veteran, Puller is the man the U.S. Army relies on to investigate the toughest crimes facing the nation. Now he has a new case-but this time, the crime is personal: His aunt has been found dead in Paradise, Florida.

A picture-perfect town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Paradise thrives on the wealthy tourists and retirees drawn to its gorgeous weather and beaches. The local police have ruled his aunt’s death an unfortunate, tragic accident. But just before she died, she mailed a letter to Puller’s father, telling him that beneath its beautiful veneer, Paradise is not all it seems to be.

What Puller finds convinces him that his aunt’s death was no accident . . . and that the palm trees and sandy beaches of Paradise may hide a conspiracy so shocking that some will go to unthinkable lengths to make sure the truth is never revealed.

No. 12 for 2013

Title: Beautiful Darkness
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Rating: 3/5
Book: 12/50
Pages: 503 pgs
Total Pages: 4,705 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Forgotten by David Baldacci

I have to say that I enjoyed this book better than Beautiful Creatures and I think the reason why is because this story was more about Ethan than Lena. I enjoyed seeing the character development in Ethan and it was nice to have less of Lena.

That being said, I’m not entirely sure I’m in a rush to continue the series. This story did feel like it dragged on from time to time and I don’t think it necessarily had to be 500+ pages. I also don’t know how the authors are going to carry the story for another two books. It just seems that there isn’t enough material to keep them going and keep my interest.

I will eventually move on to read the rest of the series but if it doesn’t happen for a few months, I’m not worried. I’m not absolutely dying to know what happens next.

About The Book:

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

No. 11 for 2013

Title: The Painted Girls
Author: Cathy Marie Buchanan
Rating: 3/5
Book: 11/50
Pages: 349 pgs
Total Pages: 4,202 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I found this book to be a bit of a chore which is disappointed as it consistently has good reviews on both Goodreads.com and Chapters.com. It was missing the “wow factor” to me. The author has this way of glossing over important events that left me flipping back through the story trying to figure out when something happened. The change of narrator was a bit distracting and there were many times the plot seemed to lag. I’m very glad that I borrowed this one over buying it.

About The Book:

Paris. 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventy francs a month, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work — and the love of a dangerous young man — as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Antoinette, meanwhile, descends lower and lower in society, and must make the choice between a life of honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde—that is, unless her love affair derails her completely.

No. 10 for 2013

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Rating: 3/5
Book: 10/50
Pages: 563 pgs
Total Pages: 3,853 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

First of all, on the back of this book, it is recommended to fans of Twilight and True Blood. All I can say is that recommendation is wrong. Any fan of True Blood would definitely not find the elements in this book similar to the Southern Vampire Mysteries or the television show. Not at all. A better recommendation would be for the fans of Twilight and the House of Night series maybe.

Anyways, the book was enjoyable at best. There seemed to be a lot of repetition in the book and I think about 100 pages could have been cut out. The whole waiting to see whether Lena is going to be Light or Dark stretched the ENTIRE book and [WARNING!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD] we didn’t even get the answer to whether she chooses to be Light or Dark and it looks like we have to wait ANOTHER book (or more) to find out.

All in all, I enjoyed the book even though I found it a little slow in spots and I’m intrigued enough to at least check out the second book in the series.

About The Book:

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.