Tag: Best of 2011

Worst of 2011: The Books.

Posted January 20, 2012 by Rowena in Features | 1 Comment

Holly: For the most part, my reading in 2011 was pretty stellar as far as quality goes. I read a lot of really great books. Unfortunately, I also read quite a few really bad books.

In no particular order:

  1. Baby, Come Home by Stephanie Bond – I enjoyed the town and hero, but the heroine totally killed it for me. Totally.
  2. Cowboy’s Like Us by Vicki Lewis Thompson – This made my “worst of” list mainly because I’m saddened at how flat the series has fallen for me.
  3. Lonestar Sanctuary by Coleen Gable – This was a free read. I wanted to like it, but the plot was all over the place and the characters a mess.
  4. Liberty Starr by Rebecca E. Grant – The hero acted like a stalker. Not hot, man. Not hot.
  5. When You Dare by Lori Foster – The fact the heroine is an author who feels the need to rant about readers and reviewers offended me. Plus, the plot was unbelievable. It did have a few redeeming qualities, but mostly it failed.

Rowena: I’m not sure if I’ll have five books but here’s what I could remember not enjoying in 2011.

  1. Tris & Ivie by Mette Ivy Harrison. I just couldn’t get into this book. I kept waiting for the book to take off but with an unlikeable main character and a strange love interest. It was a total miss for me.
  2. A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies. I read this book for my YA blog, The Book Scoop and I didn’t care for it. This was another book that I kept waiting for it to pick up and when it never did- I was bummed. The main character in this book assumed too much and drove me bat shit crazy with the way she handled just about everything that happened in the story and the back and forth between Asher and Devin drove me up the wall. This book was another miss for me.

None of the romance novels that I read in 2011 fit into my worst of list so I’m listing any of those here.

Casee: I read so few books in 2011, I’m not sure that I’ll come up with 5. Oh hell, I’ll come up with 5. I had two DNF’s at the end of the year so I don’t know how I wouldn’t be able to.

  1. A Place Called Home by Jo Goodman (I can barely address this because I love Jo Goodman to pieces).
  2. Delaney’s Shadow by Ingrid Weaver – It just didn’t do it for me. I could barely finish it.
  3. Justice by Karen Robards – I find Robards heroines TSTL. I’m surprised they don’t have heart attacks with how much their hearts jump, race, palpate, etc.
  4. When You Dare by Lori Foster – As a reader, I felt like it was a slap on the wrist for daring not to like My Man, Michael. Which was just childish.

What were your more disappointing reads of 2011?

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Best of 2011: The Series.

Posted January 19, 2012 by Rowena in Features | 1 Comment

Holly: I often complain about the number of series books currently on the market, but I’m a total hypocrite. I always want to read more about the characters I love. I just can’t be pleased, apparently.

Series I fell in love with – or continue to love – in 2011:

1. Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series. Oh yes. Love.
2. Lauren Dane’s Federation series. Futuristic erotic rom with unexpected m/m love. Mmm.
3. The Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Anne Long – historical romance with smart characters. What more can you ask for?
4. The Iron Seas by Meljean Brook – Steampunk love.
5. Lucky Harbor series by Jill Shalvis – Flawed characters falling in love in a small Northern California Coastal town. Yes please.

An honorable mention goes to Sarah MacLean’s The Rules of Scoundrels series, a spinoff of her Love by Numbers series. I didn’t include it in my top 5 for two reasons 1) it doesn’t come out until 2012 and 2) I’ve only read one book. I have a feeling it’s going to make the 2012 list, though.

Rowena: I didn’t read too many romance series last year but I did enjoy a few. Here’s my favorite series from last year.

1. Lucky Harbor series by Jill Shalvis. Fabulous contemporary series. Love the small town of Lucky Harbor.
2. The Turners series by Courtney Milan. Adore the Turner brothers and am salivating at the mouth to start Smite’s story.
3. Sunshine, Idaho series by Jill Shalvis. Loved Dell’s addition to this series and cannot freaking wait for Adam’s story.
4. The Dressmakers series by Loretta Chase. Wonderful start to a series that I have such high hopes for, I’m confident that Chase will not disappoint.
5. Love by Numbers series by Sarah MacLean.

All of these series brought a lot of entertainment and enjoyment into my life last year for a variety of reasons but I absolutely adored each of these series and out of all of the series that I started or continued, these five are at the top of my favorites list.

Casee: I don’t think many new books are written that aren’t series books these days. While I love a good series, I don’t enjoy a series that drags on and on. A series like the BDB that infinitely changes, doesn’t stick to any sort of schedule and just frustrates the reader in general.

My favorite series of 2011 were (and I expect will continue into 2012):

1. Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh
2. Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh (I’m a fangirl, I can’t help it)
3. Immortal After Dark series by Kresley Cole
4. Lords of the Underworld by Gena Showalter
5. Lords of Deliverance by Larissa Ione

What were your favorite series of 2011?

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Best Of 2011: The Authors.

Posted January 18, 2012 by Rowena in Features | 3 Comments

Holly: As I was going through my reads for the year I realized I didn’t read many new-to-me authors in 2011. I feel like I need to work on that in 2012.

1. Thea Harrison – She’s sweeping my Best Of lists this year. I can’t help it, I’m in love.
2. Lauren Dane – 2011 was kind of The Year of Lauren Dane for me. I read her entire backlist. If you haven’t read her yet, DO IT.
3. Julie Anne Long – 100% because of What I Did For a Duke. Her other novels are great, but WIDFAD was over the top awesome.
4. Meljean Brook – I love how well she balances romance and adventure.
5. Sarah Mayberry – Smart characters and witty dialogue. I’ve only read a handful of Mayberry’s novels, but she’s someone I plan to keep an eye on in 2012.

Honorable mention goes to Jill Shalvis. It’s no secret that I adore her novels. For fun, emotionally charged contemps, she’s your girl.

Rowena: I read a lot of new to me authors of YA books but not very many of romance novels. That’s something that I’d like to change in 2012. Wish me luck with that. Here’s my list of favorite authors from 2011.

1. Jill Shalvis. One of my favorite authors who wrote a bunch of stories that I read last year and have absolutely loved. I’m always looking forward to new stuff (borderline greedy for new stuff) from this author because she writes my favorite kind of romances. The funny contemporaries with heroes that are swoonworthy. As long as she keeps writing those stories, she’ll still keep showing up on my best of lists. =)
2. Courtney Milan. I read a couple of books by Courtney Milan last year that have seriously rocked my socks. She writes historical romances with characters that reach out and grab you by the throat. Her characters are always refreshing and her storylines always keep me wanting to turn the pages. She writes wonderfully romantic stories and I absolutely love them. I adored Unlocked and Unclaimed and I can’t wait to read Smite’s story.
3. Julia Quinn. Funny stories with fabulous characters, that’s what I like. Julia Quinn always delivers with those and she always impresses me with the world that she built for us readers. She writes faulous historical novels with characters that are linked to other books and instead of making her characters unbelievably cheesy, she always makes them charming and keeps me coming back for more. Love her books!
4. Loretta Chase. Loretta Chase wrote Silk is for Seduction and I thought it was fabulous. She gripped me within the pages of that book and she wrote a book that stayed with me long after I finished reading it. I re-read it twice over last year and will definitely be reading it again. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series and my anxiousness for that book is only a small part of the reason that Loretta Chase is one of my favorite authors from last year.
5. Sarah MacLean. Sarah MacLean is another author that hasn’t written a book that I haven’t liked in one way or another. She writes engaging stories with characters that leap right off the pages. I’m always left thirsty for more when I finish one of her books and that’s why she’s one of my top authors from last year.

Casee: It wasn’t until I was going over this post and read Holly and Wena’s list that I realized that I didn’t have many new-to-me authors either. Maybe less than a handful. Which is quite depressing considering how much I love discovering new authors to love. I think I’m more wary than I used to be. I blame it on the recession.

My favorite 2011 authors were:

1. Nalini Singh (She has made my list the last few years and I expect she’ll make it this year as well)
2. Thea Harrison (A new-to-me author) [H: Now we just need to talk Rowena into trying her…]
3. Christy Reece
4. Kresley Cole
5. Gena Showalter

Now that you know our favorite authors from last year, share with us what authors made it to your top list of 2011.

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Best of 2011: The Books.

Posted January 16, 2012 by Rowena in Features | 6 Comments

Rowena: It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that we’re doing things a little later than we planned. I did something that I never thought possible ever in the year 2011. I read 150 books. Despite losing my Mom, my nephew fighting cancer and worrying about everything under the sun, I found time to read 150 books. To say that I’m happy is not even close to the truth.

I read a ton of books. Some I loved, some I liked well enough, some I didn’t care of and even a few that I hated. This post will cater to the books that I read that I absolutely loved.
Here’s my list:
I enjoyed all of those books for one reason or another and they’re definitely keepers as well as books that I will definitely be re-reading in the near future. =)

Holly: I set a reading goal of 211 books for 2011. Unfortunately I fell short. I read 191, including rereads. I’m not beating myself up about it, though. I had a pretty hard pregnancy, which means I couldn’t concentrate. Then I had the baby, and we all know how that goes…

According to Goodreads, I rated 23 books with 5 stars. 11 of those were rereads of old favorites. That isn’t quite accurate, however. Because Goodreads doesn’t do half ratings, I tend to grade high. In actuality, I gave five books a 5 star rating. I’m cheating a bit. Two of my top reads of 2011 don’t come out until 2012. Since I read them in 2011, however, I’m including them here.

1. Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison 

3. Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison
4. A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
5. What I Did For a Duke by Julie Anne Long

When I initially read these books – with the exception of Heart of Steel – I would have rated them in the 4.5-4.75 range. I ended up giving them 5 stars because I kept going back to them. I think I re-read Dragon Bound something like 40 times throughout the year. If that doesn’t deserve a 5 star rating, I don’t know what does. Unfortunately, I haven’t reviewed most of these. I always struggle to write reviews for the books I love. I’m going to work on doing better in that regard this year.

Casee: I didn’t make a goal for the number of books in 2011 because I had no idea that I could read so few books in one year. That should make my Best/Worst of lists very easy this year. I only read 91 books in 2011. That is really pathetic for me. I think I regressed to sixth grade.

Without further ado, here are my top five three.

1. Home Front by Kristin Hannah
2. Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh
3. Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

I couldn’t pick five. These were the three that were the most memorable.

What about you? What were your favorite reads of 2011?

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End of the Year Book Survey: 2011.

Posted December 30, 2011 by Rowena in Features | 3 Comments

Instead of doing one of those Best of lists that everyone does at this time of year, I thought I’d participate in this end of the year Book Survey from The Perpetual Page-Turner. I thought that it’d be a lot easier since I just had to answer questions but man, this is a lot harder than I thought. I’ve been racking my brain for the last half hour trying to remember everything I read and how much I loved them and what not. It’s a good thing I kept a book log of all the books I read this year.

Anyway, let’s get on with the survey, shall we?

1. Best Book You Read In 2011?

I read 150 books this year (barely made that too, whew!) and of those 150 books, I gave 14 books an A grade. Of those A grade books, I have a top 5 favorites list and they are:

Where She Went by Gayle Forman|Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson|Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins|Past Perfect by Leila Sales|Geek Girl by Cindy C. Bennett


I loved all of these books, I can’t pick a favorite from them because I loved them all for different reasons. So I’m cheating and keeping them all on here. Deal with it, haha. =) As you can see, I’m a HUGE fan of Contemporary YA. I love getting into the heads of teens from the here and now because I can totally relate to what they’re going through because I so remember being in their shoes when I was their age.

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?


My most disappointing read of the year has to go to Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison.

I absolutely adored the cover of this book. I thought it was too cute for words and I just knew that I was going to love the book, only I didn’t. The female lead got on my hot damn nerves and I was intrigued by the male lead, but not in a good way. It was more of how stranger could this guy get? Needless to say, it was a total miss for me and I was pretty bummed about that.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?


My most surprising (in a good way!) read of 2011 has to go to The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder. I’m not much of a free verse type of reader. I’m not sure why, I get scared that I might not enjoy the book because I’m not much into poetry? I’m not sure but for whatever reason, I don’t read a lot of books written in verse. When I requested this book from NetGalley, I didn’t even realize it was written in verse but I went ahead and read it anyway and was glad that I did because I ended up really liking it.

It got an A grade from me. Woot!

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?


All of the books in my answer for #1. I recommend those books to anyone that will listen. I loved all of those books, that much. Oh wait, I also recommended The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen a lot too. That’s my #1 pimp book and I pimped it out a lot this year. My nieces all thanked me for it too, haha.

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?

There have been a few series that I began in 2011 that I absolutely adored. Like, the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty, The She’s So Dead to Us Trilogy by Kieran Scott and the Angelfire series by Courtney Allison Moulton. All of these series were fabulous series that I’m anxious for more from, so yeah those are my choices.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?

Stephanie Perkins, Morgan Matson, Elizabeth Eulberg, Lindsay Leavett, Courtney Allison Moulton, Meg McCafferty. I read a bunch of fabulous authors for the first time this year and look forward to reading more from them.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?


I think this would go to Forbidden by Tabitha Suzman. I’m not a fan of books that deal with incest and stuff like that. It’s heartbreaking and it’s just not something that I’m comfortable with but man, I couldn’t put this book down.

My heart went out to both Lochan and Mia. They both had a hard time of it and they fought their feelings and just everything.

This book was one of those books that you needed to know what would happen because so many different situations went through your head while you were reading it. It was one of those train wrecks that you can’t help but look, no matter how much you didn’t want to.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?

I think this would go to I think, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I read this book twice before moving on to the next book. I loved it that much.

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?


Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I read and absolutely adored Anna and the French Kiss and just knew that I was going to love this one as well. This book didn’t knock me on my ass nearly as much as Anna did but I did enjoy getting to know Cricket Bell. Lola took too long to come to her senses for me to be wild about her but it was still an entertaining book.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?

For some reason, my mind is drawing a blank. I have no freaking clue.

11. Most memorable character in 2011?

Jessica Darling: Jessica had me cracking up from the moment I was introduced to her character. She was funny, she was quirky and she was refreshingly honest. Her voice had me turning the pages and reading more. She had me wanting to read more, I loved her!

Adam Wilde : When we first meet Adam in If I Stay, he was great. He was that boyfriend that every girl wanted by their bedside, while they were fighting for their lives but we got to know him through Mia’s memories. In Where She Went, we got to know Adam through Adam’s memories and through his POV. Reading about his journey to where he was WSW made my love for Adam grow by heaps and bounds.

Etienne St. Clair: I fangirled all over my review about how much I loved Etienne. If you need to refresh your memory, go ahead and read my review again. Everything I can say to justify St. Clair being a memorable character for me is in that review. He was fanflippin’tastic.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2011?

Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal. This book was a romance for a younger audience but it’s a story that stayed with me for a while and I thought it was beautifully written.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011?


Sign Language by Amy Ackley. This book took me right back to when I found out about nephew RJ’s cancer and when my Mom died. Ackley was spot on with the thought processes that go through your mind when those things happen in your life. I cried a lot when I read this book because I could totally relate to Abby’s grief even though we both handled our grief in different ways. It was one of those books that you need to read to understand.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read?


Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty. This book had me cracking up from beginning to end. I absolutely adored Jessica Darling and the way she thought, the way she acted and the way she obsessed over her best friend’s move. The month that I read it, the book was celebrating its 10 year anniversary. Seriously, why in the world did it take me ten years to read this book? Shame on me.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2011?

Here’s another one that I have no clue. I know that there are a lot but for the life of me, I can’t think of anything right now. I’ll have to edit this when I can think of any but for now, I’ll publish this post without answering this. I know, I’m a cheater. Sorry (not really). =)

16. Book That You Read In 2011 That Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2012?

I’m already planning re-reads of all of the books in #1. I want to read all of those books again, soon. I think I’m going to start with Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour. That book was too freaking rad.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!


He’s So Not Worth It by Kieran Scott. The way that book ended had me gasping all over the dang place. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t wait until the next book comes out. I gotta know what happens next.

Another one is Wildefire by Karsten Knight. I closed that book on a screech. I wasn’t completely wowed by that book but I did enjoy it and that ending threw me for a loop. I had to go back and re-read something before I closed that book and screeched like a weirdo.

And there you have it…my bookish survey results. I hope you guys had a good reading year like I did. I look forward to another fabulous year of great reading so cheers to the freaking new year, I’ll drink to that (yeah, yeah).

See you next year!

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