2013 – A Year End Book Review

Several months ago Matt bought me a Kindle Paperwhite just because. I replaced my old regular Kindle. Since then I have been reading up a storm. I LOVE the Kindle Paperwhite. It is small, compact, easy to read in the dark and well I have a cute case. 🙂 Since I’ve read so many books this past year I thought I’d do a year end review. I like to find free or cheap books on Amazon. I still have quite a few sitting waiting to be read that were free.

These are in order from newest to oldest.

1 Here (On the Otherside) Swank, Denise Grover
2 Redemption (The Chosen #4) Swank, Denise Grover
3 Sacrifice (The Chosen #3) Swank, Denise Grover
4 Hunted (The Chosen #2) Swank, Denise Grover
5 Chosen (The Chosen #1) Swank, Denise Grover
6 Takedown Twenty: A Stephanie Plum Novel Evanovich, Janet
7 Angels of Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun Series: Book 4) Chase, Deanna
8 Jade Calhoun Series Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Chase, Deanna
9 Haunted on Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun Series: Book 1) Chase, Deanna
10 Night Marchers Gober, Rebecca, Nuckels, Courtney
11 Dentelle (#3 The Guardian Series) Bowhay, Heather
12 Linked (#2 The Guardian Series) Bowhay, Heather
13 Amethyst (#1 of the Guardian series) Bowhay, Heather
14 Collateral Damage: A Matt Royal Mystery Griffin, H. Terrell
15 Honeymoon For One Keniston, Chris
16 One Tiny Miracle… (Harlequin Medical Romance) Marinelli, Carol
17 The Isle of Devils Janacek, Craig
18 Death by Honeymoon (Book #1 in the Caribbean Murder Series) Skye, Jaden
19 Hot Summer (The HOT CARIBBEAN LOVE Series) Powell, Judy
20 Uncharted: An On the Island Novella Graves, Tracey Garvis
21 Longboat Blues Griffin, H. Terrell
22 Life’s a Beach Then You Die (Max Fried Mystery) Jones, Falafel
23 The Shortcut Sabol, William
24 The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls: A Novel DiSclafani, Anton
25 Murder Key (Matt Royal Mysteries) Griffin, H. Terrell
26 Blood Island: A Matt Royal Mystery (Matt Royal Mysteries)Griffin, H. Terrell
27 Going Under Walden, S.
28 Summer Secrets Freethy, Barbara
29 Alone – Book 8 in the Chop, Chop Series Cronk, L.N.
30 Not Quickly Broken (Chop, Chop Series – Book 7) Cronk, L.N.
31 Gone (Chop, Chop Series – Book 6) Cronk, L.N.
32 The Other Mothers (Chop, Chop Series – Book 5) Cronk, L.N.
33 The Other Brother (Chop, Chop Series – Book 4) Cronk, L.N.
34 Pon, Pon (Chop, Chop Series – Book 3) Cronk, L.N.
35 Day-Day (Chop, Chop Series – Book Two) Cronk, L.N.
36 Chop, Chop (Chop, Chop Series – Book 1)
37 Ryan’s Return Freethy, Barbara
38 The Last Call (The Bill Travis Mysteries) Wier, George
39 LOVE, LIES AND HIGH HEELS CONRAD, DEBBY

Here are a few of the highlights: I started out 2013 reading the Chop, Chop Series. This series spans 8 books and chronicles the lives of a boy and girl from highschool to death. Clearly I got hooked because I read all EIGHT books. I did enjoy them but I must say they are heavy on religion. Not normally something I would pick up but still a good read. If you are looking for a good series this is definitely one to pick up.

Going Under. I read this on our trip to Jamaica. I was surprised to find it set in Raleigh however, I was NOT prepared for this book at all. It’s about a teenage girl determined to discover the truth behind her friend’s suicide. What the girl discovers is a secret club that has teenage boys drugging and raping girls. While the rape scene isn’t incredibly graphic, it still haunts me. I would NOT suggest reading this book. While it was a decent storyline, it bothered me.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was on the list of top summer books on Yahoo. I took a chance, and spent $12.00 for this one. I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written with an interesting storyline set in 1930’s North Carolina. It wasn’t overly exciting but def worth the money.

Ohh, The Shortcut. I made it about halfway through this one and well, the writing was TERRIBLE. So bad in fact, I (and quite a few others) wrote a review on Amazon. The terrible grammar wasn’t what sent me over the edge, though close. The story itself was interesting enough until I realized it was about aliens. Whomp Whomp Whomp. I don’t do aliens and I sure as hell wasn’t going to suffer through anymore awful writing to find out what happened. You’ve been warned!

The Guardian series is next on my list of good reads. This series borders on Twilight but they are NOT vampires. The characters do however, have mystical powers set in modern day Washington state. This is definitely not my usual reading style but the books were well written and at the end of Book 3 I still wanted more. Unfortunately this seems to be all the author has written to date. 🙁

The Chosen Series is another good read. Again, I didn’t really know what the books were about and was not prepared for mystical parts. With that said, I clearly liked it and read all 4 books. I think the 1st was the best but it leaves you hanging to the point you want to keep reading. I really liked the author and picked up the On the Otherside Series a few days ago. I just finished Here last night and started on There.

In recent months I’ve been drawn to more paranormal books. I have no idea why. I think it started with the Guardian series. Since then I’ve read about witches, angels and even shapeshifters but NO vampires! I draw the line there. 😉

Happy New Year!

~k