Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

January 19: Top Ten Books I’ve Recently Added To My TBR (inspired by Jamie’s New To The Queue posts)

Rowena: As an avid reader, I’m always adding books to my TBR pile. Like, all the time so this Top Ten Tuesday isn’t going to be hard finding books to list, what’s going to be hard is narrowing down my list but I’m going for it so here we go…

1) All Closed Off by Cora Carmack. I absolutely love Cora Carmack’s Rusk University series but this particular story started a couple of books back and I’m pretty anxious for this one. In All Broke Down, something bad happens to the heroine of this book and we’re finally going to get not only her story (because right now, we know what happened but that’s all we know. Just that it happened.) but we’re also going to get her happy ending. Stella is a character that I loved right from the very beginning and I was heartbroken for her in All Broke Down so I’m rooting for her and I’m definitely rooting for her hero because we know him too and I LOVE the hell out of him.

2) Jockblocked by Jen Frederick. The first book in this series, Sacked released last year and I loved it. I thought it was such an enjoyable romance between the big man on campus and his teammates sister. Everything about that book worked for me and there were quite a bit of characters that were introduced that I freaking fell in love with. There’s Knox’s twin brother Ty. There’s Ellie’s brother Jack and Ellie’s roommate as well, so many of the guys on the team, just so many characters that I came to love so when I found out about this book, I couldn’t add it to my TBR list fast enough. I want this book now, no matter who’s book it is.

3) Untitled Book from Untitled Ivy Years Spin Off by Sarina Bowen. The Ivy Years series is another one of my favorite series ever and Trevi was a part of that series. I heart Trevi. I want more for Trevi than that horrible side piece that was glued to his side through each of the books in the Ivy Years series so when Bowen announced that she’s writing a spin off to the Ivy Years series and Trevi was getting a book, I did a happy dance that looked similar to this:

Yeah Trevi…go and get your girl (that is not the horrible girlfriend of yours from the Ivy Years books). I can’t wait to get my greedy paws on this book.

4) All books that Elle Kennedy has coming out this year. I’ve recently added a bunch of books by Elle Kennedy to my TBR pile because frankly, Elle Kennedy is the bomb. She was probably my top author of 2015 and I cannot wait to read all of the books she’s coming out with this year. All of them. Every single one of them. On each release date of all of her books, I’ll be dancing like Michael Jackson in that gif up there. Haha. I’m not lying either.

5) Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. I loved the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn and to hear that we’re getting a prequel to that series, that the heroine for this book is the sister to Edmund Bridgerton (the father who died from a bee sting) is really interesting to me. I’m so down for this book and cannot wait to get this one read.

Holly:

6) Sebring by Kristen Ashley. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series because the anti-hero doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve heard wonderful things about Nick, though, so I recently bought this one. I’ll get to it soon.

7) My American Duchess by Eloisa James. I’ve only read a couple novels by James, but Rowena loved this one (she even said it made her cry) so I’m adding it to the top of my TBR pile.

8) Brotherhood in Death by J.D. Robb. I’m several books behind in this series, but it’s Mr. Mira!! I’m ridiculously excited for this one

9) A Solider’s Promise by Karen Templeton. I adore Templeton’s real-life approach to romance, but she kind of fell off my radar. I’m excited for this upcoming release.

10) Against the Wall by Jill Sorenson. I love Sorenson’s dark romances and I love New Adult romances. A New Adult romance from Sorenson? Sign me up!

Those are just the releases coming out within the next month that I’m dying for. I’m also looking forward to all the books on Rowena’s list, plus about 500 others. As evidenced by our Books to Binge On posts each month, we’re book whores.

What books have you recently added to your TBR pile?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

January 12: Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn’t

Rowena: There are so many books that came out last year that I had every intention of digging right into but any number of reasons popped up and I never got around to getting those books read. Here’s a very small snippet of the list of books that released last year that I never got around to reading…but wanted to.

1) Cold Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas. Lisa Kleypas made her way back to writing historicals for Avon last year and I had every intention of reading her book, only I never got around to it. I was a little bummed because it’s Lisa freaking Kleypas but goodness, if only I had more time.

2) Sweet by Tammara Webber. I have read and enjoyed each and every single book that I’ve read by Tammara Webber and yet for some reason, I never got around to reading this one. I know that I’d enjoy it, cause Holly did and we normally always enjoy the same books but this one slipped through the cracks for me.

3) Him by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy. Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy wrote a book together last year and I couldn’t wait to dig in to this book so why I didn’t read it, only God knows. LOL.

4) Midnight Captive by Elle Kennedy. This is the book that I’m still kicking myself for not having read last year. I had every intention of reading this book, I was so looking forward to it. I read the entire series last year and enjoyed each book but then this one came out and it’s been sitting on my TBR shelf ever since. I have issues cause I don’t even remember why I never got around to reading this one. I just didn’t.

5) Deep by Kylie Scott. This entire series was at the top of my TBR list for 2015. I specifically put it up at the top because I was mighty interested in reading this entire series and then I just never got around to it. Blah. I will definitely be reading these books in 2016, I promise!

Holly

6) Waking the Dragon by Juliette Cross. I’ve read a couple books by Cross and I’ve been looking for new Dragon shifter books, so this should have been an easy grab for me. For some reason I just couldn’t get into it. I don’t think it was the book, though, so I’m going to try again soon.

7) Chase the Darkness by J.D. Tyler. I’m several books behind in this series, but I was really anxious for this particular story.

8) Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas. I love Kleypas’ historicals, yet I never read this one. I think I was scared it wouldn’t live up to my expectations for her writing.

9) Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase. I just plain forgot about this one until Rowena and Tracy both mentioned it in their Best of lists.

10) Alex by Sawyer Bennett. KristieJ recommended this to me on GR, and I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the author, but I didn’t get around to it. This was actually released in 2014, but it’s the first in the series, so I’m listing it instead of Garrett, which was released in 2015. I’m going to make it a priority this month to read the series.

What books did you want to read in 2015 but never got around to reading?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

January 5: Top Ten Resolutions We Have For 2016 (can be bookish, personal resolutions, “I resolve to finally read these 10 books, series I resolve to finish in 2016, etc.)

Rowena: It’s a new year so another new beginning. With new beginnings, comes goals and resolutions.

1) Read 100 books. Yes, again. I used to obsess about reading the most books that I could possibly read but my reading would be all about meeting those huge numbers and I’m done with that business. I’d rather read less books and enjoy the books that I read (and remember them) so I’m going to read another 100 books this year.

2) Participate more in the book blogging community. I want to comment more on other book blogs, participate in bookish discussions in the blogosphere and participate in memes. This meme is actually the start of that resolution and so far, so good…I hope I keep it up.

3) Read more new to me authors. I don’t usually have a problem starting new to me authors (thanks to review books) but I want to continue to read new authors. I’m willing to try new authors but it usually takes me a while to jump into those books. This year, I want to do more jumping into new stories by new authors.

4) Re-read at least ONE book each month. I love re-reading books that I love but because I’m so hell bent on keeping my reviewing pile up to speed, I never take the time to re-read old favorites and this year, I want to make more of an effort to do that. I’m going to make a list of all the books I want to re-read this year and I’m going to take the time to actually read them.

5) Make a new reading friend. I made a couple of new reading friends last year and I really like emailing back and forth about books with new people that like new to me things. Some of my very best friends are people that I met through books. Holly and Ames are probably my closest friends and we’re all crazy for books. I want to “meet” more book people, become more social on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc…

Holly: I hate resolutions. I feel like I’m just setting myself up for failure when I set them. I prefer to set goals I feel like I can actually achieve. With that in mind…

6) Read outside my comfort zone. I spoke about this a bit here. I want to try more new-to-me authors, but I also want to read more outside contemporary romance.  I tend to stick with what I know, which causes me to miss out on all kinds of awesome books.

7) Read 200 books. This has been my goal the last several years. I try to read more than that of course, but life tends to get in the way. 200 is a reasonable place to start.

8) Breathe new life into this site. Rowena and I have both been swamped with real life stuff. We haven’t been focusing on this site as much as we’d like. I want to find my love of blogging again, and bring that into the new year.

9) Review more. I am never going to be someone who reviews every book she reads. I don’t have the time, energy or inclination. I do want to work on reviewing more than I currently do now. I’m hesitant to set a specific goal, but I’m going to say at least 5 per month. To reach my 200-books-read goal I need to average about 16 books per month. Reviewing 5 of them shouldn’t be too difficult.

10) Be more social. This is something I’ve been trying to work on for several months, with quite a bit of success. As a somewhat introverted person, it’s easy for me to brush off invites from friends. I’m busy and I don’t make socializing a priority. I want to be better about spending time with my friends and family away from my home. At least once a month I want to get out and do something that isn’t related to kid or husband things. Something just for myself that involves other people.

What about you? Any reading, bookish or blogging resolutions (goals) planned for the new year?