I can't believe we have come to this time of year again where we are drawing to a close 2019 and lookin forward to a new year with new challenges and goals. With that, I always like to highlight the books that I adored this year. I have not included all the books here that I have marked 5 stars, not because they were not enjoyable reads but, for me, you have 5 star reads that are great and you move on and then you have 5 star reads that leave an impression on you that doesn't ever leave. These below are those.
This list is in no particular order. I have thoroughly enjoyed and would recommed you check out each and every novel in this list :-)
Feyre's survival rests
upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a
cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in
the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for
the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing
something so precious comes at a price ...
Dragged to a magical
kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his
face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing
green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely
guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from
hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous
place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him
forever.
A stunning psychological thriller about loss, sisterhood, and the evil that men do, for readers of Ruth Ware and S.K. Tremeyne
Two solar eclipses. Two missing girls.
Sixteen
years ago a little girl was abducted during the darkness of a solar
eclipse while her older sister Cassie was supposed to be watching her.
She was never seen again. When a local girl goes missing just before the
next big eclipse, Cassie - who has returned to her home town to care
for her ailing grandmother - suspects the disappearance is connected to
her sister: that whoever took Olive is still out there. But she needs to
find a way to prove it, and time is running out.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE -
I am deliberately not putting a description on this one as this is a series that is in the middle of the Shadowhunter world and I don't wait to include any spoilers in this post.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
Michael was in a hurry.
He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law
firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better;
a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time
to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of
panhandlers. No time for a conscience.
But a violent encounter
with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant
did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he
was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many
years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and
the secret involved Drake & Sweeney.
The fast track derailed;
the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret
file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a
street lawyer.
And a thief.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
They watched Danilo
Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a
quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; a simple life in a modest home,
certainly not one of luxury. Certainly no evidence of the fortune they
thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been
altered. He spoke a different language, and spoke it very well.
But
Danilo had a past with many chapters. Four years earlier he had been
Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a
pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter
night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death.
When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes.
From
a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled.
Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm's offshore
account. And Patrick fled some more.
But they found him.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
In a small seaside community, there’s always somebody watching…
Twisty, pacy, and superbly plotted, Last Seen is the perfect psychological page-turner for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Sabine Durrant.
Seven years ago, two boys went missing at sea – and only one was
brought to shore. The Sandbank, a remote stretch of coast dotted with
beach huts, was scarred forever.
Sarah’s son survived, but on the
anniversary of the accident, he disappears without trace. As new secrets
begin to surface, The Sandbank hums with tension and unanswered
questions. Sarah’s search grows more desperate and she starts to
mistrust everyone she knows – and she’s right to.
Someone saw everything on that fateful day seven years ago. And they’ll do anything to keep the truth buried.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
For both Zane and
Darby, their small town roots hold a terrible secret. Now, decades
later, they've come together to build a new life. But will the past set
them free or pull them under?
Zane Bigelow grew up in a
beautiful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge
Mountains. Strangers―and even Zane’s own aunt across the lake―see his
parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances
at their children’s ballet recitals and baseball games. Only Zane and
his sister know the truth, until one brutal night finally reveals cracks
in the facade, and Zane escapes for college without a thought of
looking back...
Years later, Zane returns to his hometown
determined to reconnect with the place and people that mean so much to
him, despite the painful memories. As he resumes life in the colorful
town, he meets a gifted landscape artist named Darby, who is on the run
from ghosts of her own.
Together they will have to teach each other what it means to face the past, and stand up for the ones they love.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
When Catriona Drouot, a
young music therapist, honours an opera diva's dying request to help her
son, Umberto Monteverdi, recover his musical gift, she knows it will be
a difficult assignment. She had shared a night of passion with the
once-celebrated composer ten years before, with unexpected consequences.
The
extent of her challenge becomes apparent when she arrives at her
client's estate on the glittering shores of Lake Como, Italy. Robbed of
his sight by a nearfatal car accident, the man is arrogant, embittered
and resistant to her every effort to help him. Still, Catriona sings a
siren's call within him that he cannot ignore.
Caught up in the
tempestuous intrigues at Umberto's Palladian mansion, Catriona discovers
that her attraction to the blind musician is as powerful as ever. How
can she share what she has hidden from him for the past decade? Soon she
realises that hers is not the only secret that is rippling uneasily
below the surface. Dark forces haunt the sightless composer, threatening
his life - for the second time.
Concerto is a sensual and
romantic story of lost love and forgiveness, destiny and difficult
choices, and of a heroine determined to put things right at last
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
After serving out a year
of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old
assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince
Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his
champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Her
opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the
empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats
her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for
four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training
sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and
exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little
more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but
it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then
one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by
another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a
victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to
discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
Child experts will tell
you that I'm way too young to carry such a burden of responsibility on
my tender shoulders. But really, what do they know?' Who is Bobby Seed?
He's just your average sixteen-year-old - same wants, same fears, same
hang-ups. Dull, dull, dull. But then there's the Bobby Seed who's a
world away from average. The Bobby Seed who has to wipe his mum's
backside, sponge her clean three times a week, try to soothe her pain.
The Bobby Seed whose job it is to provide for his younger brother,
Danny, to rub his back when he's stressed and can only groan and rock
instead of speak. That's Bobby Seed. Same, same, same, yet different,
different, different ...
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
In a small New England
town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his
toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new
minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform
the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs
Jacobs; the women and girls – including Jamie’s mother and beloved
sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs. With Jamie, the Reverend
shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments
in electricity.
Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the
preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from
the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. In his
mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and
roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a
showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their
meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a
pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…
This
rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most
terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece
from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and
Edgar Allan Poe.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
Lexie’s got the perfect life. And someone else wants it…
Lexie loves her home. She feels safe and secure in it – and loved, thanks to her boyfriend Tom.
But recently, something’s not been quite right. A book out of place. A wardrobe door left open. A set of keys going missing…
Tom thinks Lexie’s going mad – but then, he’s away more often than he’s at home nowadays, so he wouldn’t understand.
Because
Lexie isn’t losing it. She knows there’s someone out there watching
her. And, deep down, she knows there’s nothing she can do to make them
stop…
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW HERE
