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

No. 27 for 2015

Title: 14th Deadly Sin (Women’s Murder Club #14)
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Rating: 3/5
Book: 27/50
Pages:  349 pgs
Total Pages: 10,064/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare

Typical Patterson formula. 8 or so story lines that are all neatly wrapped up in the last 50 pages with one remaining cliffhanger. This book was nothing new.

But that being said, it was enjoyable enough.

About the Book:

Detective Lindsay Boxer and her three best friends are back and recovering from the events that pushed them all to the edge.

After her near-death experience, Yuki is seeing her life from a new perspective and is considering a change in her law career. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy has healed from her gunshot wound and has published a book on the infamous serial killers she helped to bring down. Lindsay is just happy that the gang are all still in one piece.

But a new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco. A gang dressed as cops are ransacking the city, and leaving a string of dead bodies in their wake. Lindsay is on the case to track them down and needs to discover whether these killers could actually be police officers. Maybe even cops she already knows…

No. 26 for 2015

Title: The Liar
Author: Nora Roberts
Rating: 4/5
Book: 26/50
Pages:  501 pgs
Total Pages: 9,715/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: 14th Deadly Sin (Women’s Murder Club #14) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Even though I had the ending pegged when I wasn’t even halfway through the book, I really enjoyed this one. There’s nothing to substantial or “new” about this book and it follows Roberts’ typical formula for her romance mysteries but it’s an enjoyable read just the same.

About the Book:

Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions …

The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved wasn’t just dead. He never really existed.

Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning …

No. 25 for 2015

Title: Every Fifteen Minutes
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Rating: 4/5
Book: 25/50
Pages:  448 pgs
Total Pages: 9,214/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Memory Man by David Baldacci

I really enjoyed this book. Scottoline never fails to impress with her books. This book kept me turning the pages to eagerly figure out what happens next.

The only thing that annoyed me a tiny bit is how much trouble the main character got himself into and some of the resolutions were just a little to convenient but overall, I really enjoyed this book!

About the Book:

Dr. Eric Parrish is the Chief of the Psychiatric Unit at Havemeyer General Hospital outside of Philadelphia. Recently separated from his wife, Caitlin, he is doing his best as a single dad to his seven-year-old daughter Hannah. His work seems to be going better than his home life, however. His unit at the hospital has just been named number two in the country and Eric has a devoted staff of doctors and nurses who are as caring as Eric is. But when he takes on a new patient, Eric’s entire world begins to crumble. Seventeen-year-old Max has a terminally ill grandmother and is having trouble handling it. That, plus his OCD and violent thoughts about a girl he likes makes Max a high risk patient. Max can’t turn off the rituals he needs to perform every fifteen minutes that keep him calm. With the pressure mounting, Max just might reach the breaking point. When the girl is found murdered, Max is nowhere to be found. Worried about Max, Eric goes looking for him and puts himself in danger of being seen as a “person of interest”. Next, one of his own staff turns on him in a trumped up charge of sexual harassment. Is this chaos all random? Or is someone systematically trying to destroy Eric’s life?

No. 24 for 2015

Title: A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1)
Author: V.E. Schwab
Rating: 2/5
Book: 24/50
Pages:  398 pgs
Total Pages: 8,766/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline

I want to start this review off by saying that I absolutely LOVED Schwab’s Vicious and when I heard about this novel, I was so excited to get my hands on it because I knew that I’d love it.

The problem is….I didn’t and I can’t quite place my finger on the reasons why. The story was well written, the world building was done well but the book was still missing something for me and this book was 398 pages of just “meh” for me. I feel bad for this because from the reviews, everyone seemed to enjoy this book so I felt like I was missing something.

Schwab is an amazing writer and she has such a beautiful way of telling a story but this book just missed the mark for me. It definitely will not hinder me from checking out her other already published work and well as future work. She’s definitely an author to keep your eye on!

About the Book:

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London—but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her ‘proper adventure’.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—trickier than they hoped.