64 Books Read in 2012!

2012 was not a bad year reading wise. I managed to get 64 books read, which put me 14 books over my 50 Book Challenge.

To recap, here is a list of the books that I have read and links to their reviews:

JANUARY:

1. Wicked by Sara Shepard

2.  Killer by Sara Shepard

3. Heartless by Sara Shepard

4. Lost December by Richard Paul Evans

5. Wanted by Sara Shepard

6. Twisted by Sara Shepard

7. Ruthless by Sara Shepard

FEBRUARY:

8. Voyager by Diana Galbadon

9. Sleepwalker by Karen Robards

10. 1222 by Anne Holt

11. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

12. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

MARCH:

13. Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian

14. Bond Girl by Erin Duffy

15. Private #1 Suspect by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

16. The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike

17. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

18. Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag

APRIL:

19. Gun Games by Faye Kellerman

20. Need You Now by James Grippando

21. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

22. Private Games by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan

MAY:

23. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

24. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

25. The Innocent by David Baldacci

26. The Uglies by Scott Westerfield

JUNE:

27. 11th Hour by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

28. Forgotten by Catherine McKenzie

29. Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green

30. The Witness by Nora Roberts

31. The Jane Austen Marriage Manual by Kim Izzo

32. Pretties by Scott Westerfield

33. Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich

JULY:

34. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

35. Changeling by Phillipa Gregory

36. Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis

37. Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich

38. 50 Shades Darker by E.L. James

39. Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot

40. I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

AUGUST:

41. When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison

42. 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross

43. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

SEPTEMBER:

44. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

45. 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King

46. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan

47. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

48. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

49. Where We Belong by Emily Giffin

OCTOBER:

50. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

51. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

52. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

53. Stunning by Sara Shepard

NOVEMBER:

54. The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

55. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

56. Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen

57. NYPD Red by James Patterson & Marshall Karp

58. Divergent by Veronica Roth

DECEMBER:

59. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

60. Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

61. Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward

62. Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

63. Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward

64. Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward

No. 50 for 2012

Title: The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Rating: 5/5
Book: 50/50 (100% completed)
Pages: 553 pgs
Total Pages: 18,914 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

I loved this book. I really love Jason, Piper and Leo and I can’t wait to see more of their story. I couldn’t put this book down and I’m really excited to start Son of Neptune. I’m also grateful that Mark of Athena comes out in two days so I won’t have to wait too long to get my hands on book three!

About the Book

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently, he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They’re all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids,” as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn’t know anything-except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out, whether she wants to or not.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too-like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them-including Leo-is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason’s amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

No. 49 for 2012

Title: Where We Belong
Author: Emily Giffin
Rating: 4/5
Book: 47/50 (98% completed)
Pages: 372 pgs
Total Pages: 18,361 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Last Victim by Karen Robards

I enjoyed this book. I definitely enjoyed it more than I did her last couple of books. I just wished we say a little more Marian/Kirby/Conrad bonding. Also, the ending to this book kind of sucked. To me, Giffin just decided one morning that she was through with the story and just ended the book. It didn’t feel complete or resolved to me.

About The Book:

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six year old television producer, living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and satisfying relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had sealed off forever. From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s perfectly constructed world—and her very identity—will be shaken to its core, resurrecting ghosts and memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her.
For the precocious and determined Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to re-evaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light. As the two women embark on a journey to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves—a place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever.

No. 48 for 2012

Title: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Rating: 5/5
Book: 48/50 (96% completed)
Pages: 381 pgs
Total Pages: 17,989 pages
Version:  Book
Next up: Where We Belong by Emily Giffin

This was a great ending to a great series! I think of all of the books, this one is my favourite book of the series! I can’t wait to start the new Percy Jackson books. I hope that they are just as good as this series was!

About The Book

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the “New York Times” best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

No. 47 for 2012

Title: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Author: Rick Riordan
Rating: 4/5
Book: 47/50 (94% completed)
Pages: 361 pgs
Total Pages: 17,608 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

I think this book, along with book 2 are my favourites of the series so far. I’m finding it hard to put these books down. I can’t wait to read more!

About the Book

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. but when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.

In this forth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Krono’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.

No. 46 for 2012

Title: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Titan’s Curse
Author: Rick Riordan
Rating: 4/5
Book: 46/50 (92% completed)
Pages: 312 pgs
Total Pages: 17,247 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

I really enjoyed this one. I’m really enjoying Percy’s point of view and all of the half-bloods and characters that we meet in this series. Definitely can’t wait to read more!

About the Book

When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it’s up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared—a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.

No. 45 for 2012

Title: 11/22/63: A Novel
Author: Stephen King
Rating: 4/5
Book: 45/50 (90% completed)
Pages: 849 pgs
Total Pages: 16,935 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

This was an awesome book! I loved the majority of the book. There were parts that I thought were just filler and had nothing really relevant to add to the story. I also think that the execution of JFK was a little rushed. There was 750(ish)pages of build up and 100 pages on the actual execution. I would have liked to have seen more of that. Anyways, that being said, this book was awesome and should be read by all!

About the Book:

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed forever.

If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you?
Would the consequences be worth it?

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

Explore the Possibilities…

No. 44 for 2012

Title: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Rating: 5/5
Book: 44/50 (88% completed)
Pages: 279 pgs
Total Pages: 16,086 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Still reading: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

Awesome book! I don’t know why I didn’t finish reading the series after I had read the first book two years ago! I’m really enjoying the fast-paced plot of these books and all of the mythology involved. Can’t wait to devour the next one!

About The Book

Percy Jackson’s seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get…well, ugly. And the unexpected arrival of his friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

In this fresh, funny, and wildly popular follow-up to <i>The Lightning Thief</i>, Percy and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. But first, Percy will discover a stunning new secret about his family-one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honour or simply a cruel joke.