2017 Wrap Up / Favourite Series

It has certainly been a very interesting reading year for me.  Although I have read quite a few books in a series, there really is only one series that I 'completed' and I would call an absolute favourite which is the Throne of Glass series but that was before Tower of Dawn came out (which is in the top of my pile to read in 2018).  However, there have been one or two starts of a series that I have really enjoyed but the next books either haven't been written yet or are not yet released.  I have included them in this post because they are series that I am very excited about...

My Review:  Click Here

Hands down, this was my favourite series of the year and quite possibly one of my most favourite series of all time.  I just could not put this down.  I now have Tower of Dawn which is on the top of my list for 2018.

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.

This series is nearly into its 50th book I believe so its a long series and one that I fully intend on starting from the beginning at some point but just because it is part of a series doesn't mean you can't read it independently of the series, which is what I have done.  I do feel that to get the bigger picture it would be better to start from book 1 and I am planing to find that out... 

This chilling new suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author J.D. Robb is the perfect entry point into the compelling In Death police procedural series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas.

As NY Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman—dazed, naked, and bloody—suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Roarke slams on the brakes and Eve springs into action.

Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for her husband Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him “the devil”...

While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked, this is one case where the evidence doesn’t point to the spouse. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions:

What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?

Songs about a Girl Review - Click Here
Songs about Us Review - Click Here

This book was so much fun to read.  The perfect series to read when all you want to do is sit, relax and read.  I am really hoping there will be a third book to this series as I would love to know more.  

Charlie Bloom never wanted to be 'with the band'. She's happiest out of the spotlight, behind her camera, unseen and unnoticed. But when she's asked to take backstage photos for hot new boy band Fire&Lights, she can't pass up the chance.

Catapulted into a world of paparazzi and backstage bickering, Charlie soon becomes caught between gorgeous but damaged frontman, Gabriel West, and his boy-next-door bandmate Olly Samson. Then, as the boys' rivalry threatens to tear the band apart, Charlie stumbles upon a mind-blowing secret, hidden in the lyrics of their songs...

2017 Wrap Up / Favourite Stand Alones

As we reach the end of yet another year, I thought it would be interesting to see, for myself and for this post, what books I truly enjoyed this year.  In this post I am specifically highlighting my favourite stand-alones.  Now, I do have to say that I have been very picky with what I have chosen and although there have been many more reads that I have enjoyed, the below are the ones that particularly stand out as being unforgettable reads for me.

My Review:   Click Here


What made this one of my favourites for the year was the difficult subject of the story and the way Jodi Picoult, yet again, makes me think about not only the individual character's dilemmas but the bigger picture.


Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favourite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses... and then he confesses his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.

What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behaviour? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?

My Review:  Click Here


Jennifer McMahon has been around for a while now but for some reason I have only just discovered her.  Right in the middle of my 'I need to read a lot of thrillers' stage I found this one and loved it!


"The New York Times" bestselling author of the acclaimed "Island of Lost Girls" and "Promise Not to Tell" returns with a chilling novel in which the secrets of the past come back to haunt a group of friends in terrifying ways.

Dismantlement = Freedom

Henry, Tess, Winnie, and Suz banded together in college to form a group they called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto--"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart"--these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up.

Nearly a decade later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers, but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past pranks commits suicide--apparently triggered by a mysterious Dismantler-style postcard--it sets off a chain of eerie events that threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old daughter, Emma.

Is there someone who wants to reveal their secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die--or has she somehow found a way back to seek revenge?

Full of white-knuckle tension with deeply human characters caught in circumstances beyond their control, Jennifer McMahon's gripping story and spine-tingling plot prove that she is a master at weaving the fear of the supernatural with the stark realities of life.

My Review:  Click Here


We all know that it is not possible for me to have a favourites post without including a Nicholas Sparks book!  As always, such a beautiful read.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with an emotionally powerful story of unconditional love, its challenges, its risks and most of all, its rewards.

At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six year-old daughter, a successful career as an advertising executive and an expansive home in Charlotte. He is living the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is the center of that. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear...and no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside down. In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or wife, caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and rewarding—one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources beyond anything he ever imagined.

My Review:  Click Here

Creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through.  Enough said!

A mutilated body discovered in the woods.
A murderous plan conceived in the past.
A reckoning seventy years in the making . . .

When lawyer Charlie Priest is attacked in his own home by a man searching for information he claims Priest has, he is drawn into a web of corruption that has its roots in the last desperate days of World War Two.

When his attacker is found murdered the next day, Priest becomes a suspect and the only way to clear his name is to find out about the mysterious House of Mayfly - a secret society that people will kill for.

As Priest races to uncover the truth, can he prevent history from repeating itself? 

 My Review:  Click Here


 I went into this book having not read or listened to any reviews or read any description of this book.  Going in that way, I enjoyed the journey the story took me and was really surprised by the twist at the end.  

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

Reading Challenges 2016 and 2017

2016 for me as been a very interesting reading year for me.  Having moved house in the middle of the year, I took a lot of time doing that with packing etc before the move, moving and then settling in our new place.  For me, I can only read when I am relaxed.  I cannot read when I am stressed and moving house is one of the most stressful things you could ever do so there was certainly a period of time where my reading slowed way down.  That said, I have read some really great books this year and even read more than what I had expected!  So, let's first look at what I read in 2016 and then I'll move on to what I plan to read in 2017...

2016 Challenges

Goodreads 100 Book Challenge -  OK, so I didn't complete this one but I think I did pretty good to read as much as I did this year considering I moved house also.  For me, this year has been more about quality not quantity.  Usually when I get busy in life but still want to read, I tend to hurry along and force myself to read when I probably didn't want to.  This year I decided not to do that.  When I didn't want to read I wouldn't and it made a great deal of difference to my reading.  

Read Your Own Books Challenge -  For this challenge I didn't want to set a number of books to read to complete this but just wanted to add it to make sure that I didn't forget to read my own books.  Being a book blogger I am very fortunate to be able to read review copies of books before they come out, which is fantastic and I love it but sometimes I do forget to read the books that I buy.  I am really pleased with how many I read in this section.

Big Book Challenge -  This is a challenge that I host on Goodreads (Check it Out Here).  It is a challenge where you have to read books that are longer than 400 pages long.  I can easily get swept away with wanting to read so many books I only tend to read smaller ones and completely forget that I love to get lost in a big book.  This is a great challenge for me and I think I did really well with this one too...

Cecelia Ahern Challenge -   Ok, so this one I completely failed at but there's a good reason for that and that reason was that I changed my mind with the author I wanted to read.  I was really in the mood for reading Sophie Kinsella books so I decided to go with that author instead and read all of her books, some of which were good and some didn't like as much.  

2017 Challenges

Goodreads 100 Book Challenge - This is a challenge that I always subscribe to and always tend to pick 100 books only because it is a nice round number.  Like last year, this year I am going to be quite relaxed with this challenge and go for quality not quantity and if I don't manage to get to 100 books that's ok.  It's just a 'maybe' goal that would be nice if I achieve. 

Read Your Own Book Challenge -  Another challenge that I brought over from last year with the same rules as mentioned above. 

Big Book Challenge -  This is a challenge that I subscribe to every year and host the Goodreads group for it.  I am not planning on setting an amount of books to read on here but hope that I can get to at least 20 for the year.

Jodi Picoult Challenge - I have been wanting to re-read Jodi Picoult's books for a while now and have been slowly collecting them for my bookshelf ready for the day I re-read.  I have actually already started this challenge so this one is not 2017 specific but a goal that I want to get stuck into.

Read 5 Classics Challenge - Now this one is a very interesting challenge for me.  I don't tend to read classics and find the prospect of reading a classic quite daunting but having read The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence recently and loved it it has made me want to re-try this challenge.  I initially tried to do this challenge I think about a couple of years ago now but failed miserably at it so I am going to give it another go...  I have set the bar really low with only 5 books but let's see how that goes.....