I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. For the past ten years, I have taken the week off and I always find myself reading, reading, reading. I fondly remember the year (2008?) I read the ENTIRE Twilight series in our cold, teeny, aubergine-painted bedroom. My husband thought I was crazy, but willingly watched the children (still babies back then).
Since I love lists —particularly the End of Year/Best of lists, I decided to look back on my own reads and give some of the highlights —for those of you who may be looking for a little something to read by the fire this winter.
2017 boiled down to three authors —that’s right, three. I read about forty books this year, but these authors take the prize both in volume and my unadulterated fandom.
1) Penny Reid
2) Sarah Maas
3) Sally Thorne
It seemed I could not get enough of Penny Reid and I read books from several of her series: Knitting in the City, Winston Brothers, Elements of Chemistry, and the Rugby series with L.H. Cosway. If you haven’t given any of Penny’s books a try yet, I highly recommend you do. They are smart, funny and full of strong heroines and hot, modern men. Seriously, in my fictional dreamworld, I would date them all.
On the YA/Fantasy front, I started the first of Sarah Maas’ Throne of Glass series on December 31st, 2016, and finished the fifth —Empire of Storms — exactly one year later (as in, I stayed up all night last night because I could NOT get enough). Trust me, once you hit halfway, it becomes increasingly hard to put down. By chapter fifty-five, there is no way to stop until you’ve finished.
And by far my favorite book of the year was Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game. I read it twice. In January, electronically, and then again in September after I bought my hard copy. Again, a modern hero in Josh Templeman. I clearly have a penchant for super tall heroes —as do Penny, Sally and Sarah, I think.
Life is a bit slow during this time. So reading, combined with the inevitable year-end self-reflection, is creative catnip. Check back in 2018 as I plan to write more, blog more, and publish more.
Happy New Year!
M. Tsuki