Best of 2009

I've been very disappointed in myself this year! I only read 31 books, compared to 102 last year, and almost all of those were in the first few months of the year. I have barely read anything at all since June. Admittedly, I've been very busy, with moving and starting a new job, but one of my resolutions this year is to read more. My goal is a book a week. (If I don't start reading, my TBR pile will overwhelm me!)

I only had two books this year that I graded 4.5, which is the equivalent of an A read. (No keepers, but I've become very picky about those...) One was a 2009 book, Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James. I think one reason I loved this book so much was that it was a contemporary. It's so hard to find a great contemporary! The other was a mostly unknown Harlequin Temptation from 2003, Room But Not Bored by Dawn Atkins. I really loved the characters, who weren't stereotypical at all, and I loved that the conflict came out of who they were as people, and felt very real. Although it's out of print, I'd recommend looking for it at a used bookstore! (If you can still find one - the great used bookstores seem to be disappearing, especially ones that carry back lists.)

Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

Room But Not Bored by Dawn Atkins

Here are the other books that I gave good grades (4). All of these were well worth reading. Not very many from 2009 - I didn't buy a lot of books this year. Hopefully more 2009 books will turn up on my future lists.

Marrying the Captain by Carla Kelly (2009)
Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James (2008)
The Legacy by T.J. Bennett (2008)
The Holly and the Ivy by Elisabeth Fairchild (1999)
The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed (2005)
Shadows of the Heart by Tracy Grant (1996)
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins (1996)
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (2009)
Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory (2009)
Christmas Promise by Carla Kelly (short story) (2009)

One thing these all have in common - they all tried something different. Sometimes it was a different setting, or a different type of character, or a different storyline, but they weren't the same-old-same-old. Although I appreciate a tried-and-true story if it's done well, it's nice to see something new and different (if it's done well!).

One bonus of not reading a lot this year - not many clunkers. (I gave up on a few books without finishing them, but I don't count those.) The only truly bad books I read this year were The Wicked Ways of a Duke by Laura Lee Guhrke, which I read at the very beginning of January and mentioned last year, and The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven, which made it very clear to me that Harlequin Presents is Not For Me. But nothing since January that really made me want to scream and throw things. I guess that's a good thing!

So now I'm off to attack my TBR pile. Hopefully I'll have much more to report in the near future!


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Now playing: Owl City - Fireflies
via FoxyTunes

A Regency Christmas (Anthology)

It's nice to see Harlequin continuing the tradition of the Regency Christmas anthology, even if only one of the stories was really worth reading.

A Regency Christmas by Lyn Stone, Carla Kelly and Gail Ranstrom
(2009, Regency) 12/28/09
Grade: 2, 4 and DNF

Three Christmas stories by Lyn Stone, Carla Kelly and Gail Ranstrom. The Lyn Stone story is about a wounded captain who is thrown together with an equally troubled woman. Carla Kelly revists Navy captains with a story about a navy captain reviving a romance with an old love, now widowed. And Gail Ranstrom’s story is about the reading of a will.

The Lyn Stone story had promise, but it seemed like enough story for a book (or two) was crammed into 90 pages, and in the end, the story fell apart under its own weight. The Gail Ranstrom story felt very mannered and didn’t appeal, so I gave up after 20 pages. But the Carla Kelly story, Christmas Promise, made this book worthwhile. It was a lovely story of a Navy captain, left at loose ends when the war ends, rediscovering the woman he grew up with, who married his best friend, and who is now widowed. Somehow Carla Kelly can fit a story like this into 90 pages without it seeming rushed or incomplete (although I would have loved more). Her hero, Jeremiah Falk, was wonderful - somehow Kelly can write heroes who can be vulnerable but still very strong. The heroine was less well characterized (she was one of Kelly’s trademark strong-and-virtuous heroines) but she had her moments. Despite the short length, it left me with warm fuzzies, and it was a perfect compliment to her recent books about Naval heroes. A 4+ for that story (and alas, a 2 for the others).

I was looking through my Christmas anthologies from Mary Balogh and Mary Jo Putney, and Carla Kelly definitely needs an anthology of her own. (I saw in an interview that her publishers were considering it. Please, pretty please!) The interview (at Word Wenches) also said that the original title for this story was While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, which is a great title, but I think Christmas Promise works well with the story.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb

I haven't posted in so long! I've barely read anything in the past few months. It took a library notice to nudge me into reading something new.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb
(2009, Futuristic Romantic Suspense) 12/26/09
Grade: 3.5

When the 16 year old daughter of a NY police captain is murdered, Eve Dallas is on the case. The horrific scene shocks even Eve, but she and Roarke methodically investigate, tracing the crime back over decades, to the police captain’s past.

Although I’m not usually a fan of suspense, there is something about the J.D. Robb books that attracts me. Maybe because they are procedurals and I like seeing all the pieces fall into place. This one felt very Law and Order-ish (and that’s a compliment). There wasn’t a lot of emphasis on the secondary characters, although we get to see Eve working with her team, including Roarke. (I was amused by his annoyance with the tedium of police work, although you would think he’d be used to it by now!) Overall, I found this a solid entry in the series, although nothing exceptional.

Interesting that there is no mention of Nora Roberts anywhere on the book, unlike previous books in the series. The jacket merely says "J.D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number-one New York Times bestselling author." I wonder if they're trying to widen the book's appeal to men? This would be a good book for a newbie to start with, if they didn't want to go back to the beginning - although I'm not sure if a reader could understand Eve without knowing her back story.