2016 Reading Year in Review!!

January

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
2. The Mistletoe Promice (Mistletoe Collection) by Richard Paul Evans
3. Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling
4. Storm Front (Dresden Files #1) by Jim Butcher

February

5. Corrupted (Rosato & DiNunzio #3) by Karen Slaughter
6. Mistborn (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson
7. The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska #5) by Tami Hoag

March

8. Glass Sword (Red Queen #2) by Victoria Aveyard
9. NYPD Red 4 (NYPD Red #4) by James Patterson and Marshall Karp
10. Stars Above (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer
11. City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4) by Cassandra Clare
12. City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare
13. She’s Not There by Joy Fielding

APRIL

14. Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) by Diana Gabaldon
15. Private Paris (Private #11) by James Patterson and Mark T. Sullivan
16. Darkness by Karen Robards
17. The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) by J.R. Ward

MAY

18. Gone Again (Jack Swyteck #12) by James Grippando
19. The Obsession by Nora Roberts
20. The Glittering Court (The Glittering Court #1) by Richelle Mead
21. Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
22. Most Wanted by Lisa Scottoline

JUNE

23. City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare
24. Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare
25. Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare
26. 15th Affair (Woman’s Murder Club #15) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

JULY

27. The Last Mile (Amos Decker #2) by David Baldacci
28. The BFG by Roald Dahl
29. Matilda by Roald Dahl
30. Cruel Crown (Red Queen #0.1 and #0.2) by Victoria Aveyard
31. The Widow by Fiona Barton
32. Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica
33. Clockwork Princess (Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare
34. The Pursuit (Fox and O’Hare #5) by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

AUGUST

35. First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
36. Tomorrow, When the War Began (Tomorrow #1) by James Marsden
37. The Games (Private #11) by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan
38. Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) by Cassandra Clare
39. Damaged (Rosato & DiNunzio #4) by Lisa Scottoline

SEPTEMBER

40. With Malice by Eileen Cook
41. A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir
42. Blood Kiss (Black Dagger Legacy #1) by J.R. Ward
43. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
44. This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1) by Victoria Schwab
45. The Trial (Women’s Murder Club #15.5) by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
46. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

OCTOBER

47. Bound to Darkness (Midnight Breed #13) by Lara Adrian

NOVEMBER

48. Bullseye (Michael Bennett #9) by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
49. Missing (Private #12) by James Patterson and Kathryn Fox
50. Heartless by Marissa Meyer

DECEMBER

51. Cross the Line (Alex Cross #24) by James Patterson
52. The Mistletoe Secret (The Mistletoe Collection) by Richard Paul Evans
53. No Man’s Land (John Puller #4) by David Baldacci
54. Turbo Twenty-Three (Stephanie Plum #23) by Janet Evanovich

No. 46 for 2016!

Title: The Girl on the Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
Rating: 4/5
Book: 46/50
Pages:  336 pgs
Total Pages: 18,058
Version: Book
Next up: Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore

I really enjoyed this book. It took me until about half way through the book before it really grabbed me but I found that this book kept me guessing until the end.

About the Book: 

EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

No. 45 for 2016!

Title: The Trial (Women’s Murder Club #15.5)
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Rating: 3/5
Book: 45/50
Pages:  110 pgs
Total Pages: 17,722
Version: Book
Next up: Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Enjoyable enough but I don’t think it added anything to the story. I’m also not a fan of these “bookshots” I think it’s just another money grab. I wouldn’t have read this one had I not been able to get it from the library.

About the Book: 

An accused murderer called Kingfisher is about to go on trial for his life. Or is he? By unleashing unexpected violence on the lawyers, jurors, and police involved in the case, he has paralyzed the city. Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women’s Murder Club are caught in the eye of the storm.

Now comes a courtroom shocker you will never see coming.

 

No. 44 for 2016!

Title: This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 4/5
Book: 44/50
Pages:  427 pgs
Total Pages: 17,612
Version: Book
Next up: The Trial (Women’s Murder Club #15.5) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to read the next installment. This book also had zero romance, no insta-love and no love triangle. It was very refreshing considering that is a common theme throughout YA.

About the Book: 

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

No. 43 for 2016!

Title: The Couple Next Door
Author: Shari Lapena
Rating: 4/5
Book: 43/50
Pages:  306 pgs
Total Pages: 17,185
Version: Book
Next up: This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1) by Victoria Schwab

I couldn’t put this book down! The writing style is a little choppy and perhaps that is just because this was a debut book but it wasn’t enough to distract me from the story. The plot had me guessing right to the very end. I definitely recommend this one for those who are looking for a good mystery.

About the Book: 

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco  soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.

No. 42 for 2016!

Title: Blood Kiss (Black Dagger Legacy #1)
Author: J.R. Ward
Rating: 4/5
Book: 42/50
Pages:  397 pgs
Total Pages: 16,879
Version: Book
Next up: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

What can I say? It’s the Black Dagger Brotherhood which will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. Good solid start to a new series.

About the Book: 

Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.

And that’s before she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field, and off.

No. 41 for 2016!

Title: A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes #2)
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Rating: 5/5
Book: 41/50
Pages:  452 pgs
Total Pages: 16,482
Version: Book
Next up: Blood Kiss (Back Dagger Legacy #1) by J.R. Ward

There isn’t enough words to describe how amazing this book is. I had a few pacing issues but it wasn’t enough to not give this book a 5 star rating. I NEED MORE!

About the Book: 

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf – the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison – to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene – Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own – one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape… and kill them both.

No. 40 for 2016!

Title: With Malice
Author: Eileen Cook
Rating: 4/5
Book: 40/50
Pages:  315 pgs
Total Pages: 16,030
Version: Book
Next up: A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir

A very twisty mystery. The only issue I had is that it all seemed to wrap up in a page or two. I would have liked to see a little bit more.

About the Book: 

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital room, leg in a cast, stitches in her face and a big blank canvas where the last six weeks should be. She discovers she was involved in a fatal car accident while on a school trip in Italy. A trip she doesn’t even remember taking. She was jetted home by her affluent father in order to receive quality care. Care that includes a lawyer. And a press team. Because maybe the accident…wasn’t an accident.

As the accident makes national headlines, Jill finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. It doesn’t help that the media is portraying her as a sociopath who killed her bubbly best friend, Simone, in a jealous rage. With the evidence mounting against her, there’s only one thing Jill knows for sure: She would never hurt Simone. But what really happened? Questioning who she can trust and what she’s capable of, Jill desperately tries to piece together the events of the past six weeks before she loses her thin hold on her once-perfect life.