I saw this tag on The Literary Elephants blog and thought it looked like a lot of fun! Check out the Literary Elephant HERE for some great book reviews, tags and commentary! The great thing about books is that our opinions are so subjective. What I like may be what you hate or we may love the same things. I blog because I love talking about books, but over the past two years I’ve really enjoyed reading about YOUR opinions on books. Some of you have influenced my reading as I hope I may have influenced yours.

Ok, on to the fun Tag! Here are the questions, straight from The Literary Elephants mouth. Oh, and if you click on the highlighted name of each book it will take you to their Amazon page so you can check them out.

The best book I’ve read so far in 2017
According to Goodreads I have read 116 books so far this year. Wow, that’s a lot of books! There were quite a few I loved, but did I love one more than another? That’s a hard call because its hard to compare books from different genres, but my favorite probably won’t surprise any of you who follow my blog regularly. I LOVED Anne Bishop’s Written in Red. It was original, the characters were amazing and the world building tremendous. I went on to read the rest of that series as fast as I could, then went out and bought them all in hardback for my library. To read my review of Written in Red click HERE.

Click the link to purchase! Written in Red (A Novel of the Others)
My favorite sequel of the year

No question my most anticipated and favorite sequel of the year so far has been White Hot by Ilona Andrews. I re-read Burn for Me just so it would be fresh in my mind and then burned through White Hot. Ilona Andrews writes the best paranormal fantasy novels! Read my review HERE for White Hot.

Click the link to purchase! White Hot (Hidden Legacy)

A new release I haven’t read but really want to

The Simplicity of Cider by Amy E. Reichart. It looks like a sweet summer romance and I have actually purchased it but haven’t read it yet.  But I will! Read the synopsis by clicking on the name above.

Click the link to purchase! The Simplicity of Cider: A Novel

My most anticipated release for the second half of the year

This is easy, its Wildfire, the third in the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. I have the first two in paperback and have already pre-ordered Wildfire to include on my bookshelf.  It comes out July 25th and I can’t wait!

Click the link to purchase! Wildfire: A Hidden Legacy Novel

My biggest disappointment of 2017

Oh boy. I hate to talk about the disappointments, and luckily there have only been a couple. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know if it was the hype? I read so many reviews about how great it was and well, I thought it was one hot mess. For more details, read my review of it by clicking  HERE.

Click the link to purchase! Beautiful Disaster: A Novel (Beautiful Disaster Series)

My biggest surprise of the year

It was definitely Illuminae by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff. What a fantastic story, told in a totally original way. It was part novel, part graphic novel and part military manual.  Lol, thats kind of a joke but not really. Read more of my thoughts in my review HERE.

Click the link to purchase! Illuminae

Favorite new-to-you or debut author

My sister introduced me to an author named J. Bengtsson. She wrote this great rock star romance named Cake. This is a truly hilarious romance, but it also has real depth to it. Well rounded and really really good. Read my review of Cake HERE.

Click the link to purchase! Cake: A Love Story

My new fictional crush

Oh gosh, I don’t really get crushes. Although I will say either Gabriel or Ricky in Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series would do in a pinch. Or possibly both of them? Hmmm.

Click the link to purchase! Omens (Cainsville)

My new favorite character

I’m going to go with Simon, no Meg, from Anne Bishop’s Others series. No Simon. They are just both great characters! I pick both! Seriously guys, pick up Written in Red for your Urban Fantasy fix. I may have to read it again. Right now.

A book that made me cry

It’s not hard to do, I’m a big baby! Dancing in the Rain by Kelly Jamieson. Its a sad premise about a woman who had a one night stand in college, got pregnant, raised her daughter then finds out she has cancer. She wants her daughter to have a father so she tracks him down. Its a love story and a three kleenex novel. For my review click HERE.

Click the link to purchase! Dancing in the Rain

A book that made me happy

Oh gosh, just reading makes me happy, but let’s see.  Abbi Waxman’s novel The Garden of Small Beginnings was laugh out loud funny! My husband kept giving me the side eye and I’d try to explain the dialog, and well, it’s never as funny as in the moment your reading it. Anyways, this book was amazing. Read more of my review HERE. Then pick up the book!

Click to purchase this book! The Garden of Small Beginnings

My favorite book-to-movie adaptation that I’ve seen this year

I have no idea!  Was Star Wars: Rogue One a book?  I loved the movie.

The most beautiful book I’ve bought/received this year

Flame in the Mist was gorgeous!

Click the link to purchase! Flame in the Mist

Some books I need to read by the end of the year

I have two more left in Kelley Armstrongs Cainsville series and I know they’ll get read soon. Rituals is out in August so I don’t have long to wait for that final novel.

 

I’m also looking forward to reading the next book in the Cake series by J. Bengtsson

I want to finish the Red Queen series.

Wow, there are so many that this post would go on forever! I’ll just stop with those four.

What do you think? In looking at these titles I can see that I definitely like fantasy novels, LOL. How would you answer these questions? Consider yourselves tagged! And let me know when you’ve posted your answers so I can take a look!

Until next Sunday!

Deb