You may notice a theme in this week’s reading. Yes I went all out for the end of the Pink Carnation series and read another Lauren Willig I had on the kindle as well. And then while writing about Deanna Raybourn in my 2015 Obsessions post I found that a the book sale gods were smiling on me, and I could reading the rest of the Lady Julia Books safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t get left on a cliff hanger! I’m still trying to ration myself on the new Laurie Graham – by which I mean only letting myself read a bit more every few days to try and stop myself from bingeing. So far it’s working.
Read:
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig
The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig
Whisper of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn
The Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig
The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn
Bleakly Hall by Elaine di Rollo
Started:
n/a
Still reading:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
Oh dear. Massive Deanna Raybourn spending spree in the Kindle sale (as mentioned in my 2015 Obsessions post), then there was the only Hellions of Halsted Hall book I haven’t read on offer for 99p. How could I resist.
As you may have noticed, I am a total binge reader when I discover an author I like and promptly buy up their back catalogue (or borrow it from the library) to fulfill my desperate craving for another fix. This does not help the state of the to-read pile or my bank balance and can make me look a little unhinged. So here – for your amusement – are my big obsessions of 2015 and a few examples of the ridiculous lengths I’ve gone to…
Janet Evanovich
Can it really be true that I only read my first Janet Evanovich novel in April? Goodreads assures me that it is so and thus it must be. Since my first taste (Wicked Business), I’ve read 18 Stephanie Plums – and all four between the numbers fill-ins, the other two Wicked books, two Full books, two Fox and O’Hares and a standalone romance. So that’s 30 Janet Evanovich novels in less than nine months. This is why people think I’ve got a bit of a book problem.
I’ve read so much Janet Evanovich this year, I’ve a whole shelf of her books – non-matching of course!
Deanna Raybourn
I read Silent in the Grave back in January – and since then I’ve read three more of the Lady Julia series – with a fourth waiting for me on the shelf. And the only reason that that has been waiting is because the price of the next one has been so expensive. And ditto her standalone novels. But in a piece of glorious serendipity, they’re all on offer on Amazon Kindle at the moment – so last night I spent just under £20 on 8 (!) books and novellas – buying up the rest of Lady Julia, the first Veronica Speedwell and two standalones and their prequel novellas. Now that is what I call obsession…
Only four of my Deanna Raybourn’s are here – Silent in the Grave is on loan to Little Sis!
Historical Romance
My love of historical romance has continued this year. In fact it’s turned into more of a quest – to find more authors who write my favourite sort of smart, witty, sexy romance novels. Because this is the problem with being a binge reader. You find someone that you like, you binge on their back catalogue and then you have to start following their publishing schedule like everyone else does – so you might have to wait a year before you can get another fix from them. So you need another author to read. In 2015 I’ve read some really good, some really bad and a lot of in between. Among the good were Sabrina Jeffries, Kerrigan Byrne, Johanna Shupe and Courtney Milan. I’m not going to mention the bad! There’s loads more I want to read – listening to the DBSA podcast each week will do that to you – but the prices of those sort of American-published romances are often really quite high over here – and fall into the same buying rules as the cozy crimes. So often I play roulette with NetGalley – requesting new releases there and hoping I like them. Sometimes it pays off – the aforementioned Byrne and Shupe for example – and sometimes it doesn’t…
Cozy Crime
I’ve always had a soft spot for the “lighter” end of the crime market, but I’ve really been rattling through various cozy murder mysteries this year. I’m still reading Donna Andrews (three of them this year) – but now I’m closer to the end of the series the books have got more expensive to buy and I have rules about what I’ll spend on a book that will only take me a couple of hours to read. So as a consequence my net has spread wider. Jenn McKinlay’s become firm favourite and there’s a bunch of other series I’ve dipped into too (again thanks to NetGalley) – to varying success. I feel more coming on in 2016.
All my Donna Andrews bar one are out on loan, but the McKinlay collection is growing!
Historical Crime
This is often the meeting of two of my other obsessions – Cozy crime and Historical romance. The Daisy Dalrymple and Phryne Fisher series were two of my discoveries of 2014 – and now I’ve read all of them, I’ve been searching for more – and not just those set in the 1920s and 1930s. That’s how I discovered Deanna Raybourn and started that obsession. But as well as Lady Julia, there’s Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily and James Runcie’s Sidney Chambers. And then there’s the ones which are more crime-y and less romance – like Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver, Carola Dunn’s Eleanor Trewynn. And no romance at all – like Flavia de Luce (because she’s a child!). So many good books.
I thought the light shining behind them was a nice touch…
So there you are. My five big obsessions of the year. Of course some would argue that books in general are my biggest obsession of them all. And they’d be right. There’s nothing like sitting down with a book and being transported to another world to make life seem better. You can live so many different lives and visit so many different places by reading a book. And then there’s the friends that you can make – real people I mean – because of books and the book community. The ones that you chat to on Twitter, the ones you meet at author events and who turn into proper friends and everything in between. Long may my book obsession continue.
Happy 2016 everyone – and thank you for reading my bookish wafflings. I hope you’ve enjoyed them – and I’m sure that there’s more where they came from.
More Christmas-y reading and a few tie-in short stories for last week’s Make a Christmas Wish. I’m trying to make the Laurie Graham last – I love her books so much and I know there’s going to be a longer wait than usual for her next one, so against all my usual behaviour I’m trying to pace myself!
Read:
A Wicked Way to Win an Earl by Anna Bradley
Four Weddings and a White Christmas by Jenny Oliver
My Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Dad’s Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Granny’s Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Anything for You by Kristan Higgins
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Started:
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
Still reading:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
No books bought, but several received as gifts – and they were all ones that I had asked for so that’s excellent news. I’m going to try to continue to restrain myself, although if I see some good bargains I may not be able to!
Well this is what a week of Tonsillitis will do for the to-read pile! And a reasonable mix of actual books and ebooks too. I finally called time on Lair of Dreams this week – I tried again to get into it and I couldn’t. It’s been lingering way too long, so I’ve reluctantly given up on it.
Read:
Paint the Town Dead by Sybil Johnson
Bricking It by Nick Spalding
A Talent for Trickery by Alyssa Johnson
311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber
Agatha Raisin and the Blood of an Englishman by MC Beaton
74 Seaside Avenue by Debbie Macomber
Snowed in for Christmas by Clare Sandy
Christmas at Lilac Cottage by Holly Martin
The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham
Make a Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
A Christmas in Disguise by Katie Fforde
Started:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
A Wicked Way to Win an Earl by Anna Bradley
Still reading:
n/a
I managed to control myself and no books were ordered from my sickbed. Which is impressive. I did do some shopping – but it wasn’t for me!
I’m really struggling with Lair of Dreams – I just can’t get into it, but I hate giving up on a book, so I’m going to give it one more week and try to break through and see if I can get into it. I developed a cold after last weekend’s nights and thought it was getting better until it struck back with a vengeance on Friday and the weekend, so comfort reading has been the order of the day, rather than the Christmas new releases that I should be looking at!
Read:
Mitzi’s Midwinter Wedding by Christina Jones
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander
One by Sarah Crossan
First Season and Bride to Be (double pack) by Jane Ashford
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days by Christina Jones
A Winterfold Christmas by Harriet Evans
Started:
Paint the Town Dead by Sybil Johnson
Still reading:
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
I didn’t buy me any books this week. I have bought other people books as part of their Christmas presents – but that doesn’t count does it!
Back on track this week! I finished a few books that I’d been reading for a while, and then started on the e-book and physical to-read pile.
Read:
Masquerade by Hannah Fielding
Master of Shadows by Neil Oliver
After You by Jojo Moyes
Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards
Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie
From Bad to Wurst by Maddy Hunter
His Majesty’s Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
Started:
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Still reading:
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
I have been very restrained and not bought anything at all this week. I’m not sure that it will last though. I’ve been trying to put any books that I want on my Christmas list, but I think I’m running out of people who buy me presents who might get them for me!
Hello! After last week’s fog of misery and gloom, you’ll be pleased to hear I’m in a slightly better place in my head. I’m not quite back to normal yet, so this is still not your normal BotW post. Instead, here’s a brief snapshot of what I read last week.
So, there was a double dose of Janet Evanovich – Steph Plum 18 and Full Tilt, one of her romantic suspenses with Charlotte Hughes. The Plum was quite a good one – not my favourite, but not quite as strangely magic-inflected as 17 so I was happy. I’m still not sure what I make of the Full series – they’re not as fun as the other Evanovich series, but I get the feeling that if I just happened across them and they were an author that wasn’t Janet Evanovich I’d feel more enthusiastic about them!
I also finished The Necromancer by Jonathan L Howard last week. This had been popping up in my recommendations lists all over the place and I mostly liked it. I thought it had a slump at about two thirds of the way through – where I started to lose faith in the outcome, but it recovered and I was enjoying it again at the end. I’m not sure if I’ll be reading the follow-ups though. But that might be because it is quite dark, and I was in a dark place last week so it may not have been ideal reading matter for me!
Then there was Death before Decaf by Caroline Fardig, which NetGalley pitched to me as “if you love Janet Evanovich, then you’ll like this” – and while it didn’t quite live up to that billing (heroine a little too stupid to live, love triangle feeling a bit forced) I can see where the comparison was coming from. A perfectly fine way to spend a few hours though.
Cathy Bramley’s latest, Conditional Love, brightened my mood a lot in the middle of the week – it’s this month’s Novelicious Book Club book – you can read my thoughts here and we’re chatting on Twitter tonight at 8pm.
My last book of the week was a Flavia de Luce – and I’m still not sure what I think of this series – Flavia drives me bonker sometimes, and the plots are a bit bonkers, but this one was really good fun.
So there you are. I can string my thoughts together enough to give you mini-reviews, but that’s about it. I’m getting there though. Next week, dear reader, next week!
A more steady, but still productive week. There were somethings that I really liked, and some that I didn’t – and there were a couple of research howlers too. Hey ho, it happens.
Read:
The Last Chance Christmas Ball by Mary-Jo Putney et al
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig
Unmasking of a Lady by Sophie Dash
The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne
Good Earl Gone Bad by Manda Collins
The Love Match by M C Beaton
Started:
A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh
Still reading:
Still n/a!
I didn’t buy anything! My first week back at my normal job and I resisted the urge to purchase books – even though I really wanted to buy the last in the Pink Carnation series to have it ready. The pile it is decreasing!
Now this is what a week on holiday will do for me – we didn’t get back to the UK til Thursday evening – and I’d spent most of the week up until then on a sun lounger on the beach, or relaxing with a book at the hotel. And then when we did get back, we had a relaxing end to the week involving sofa time and books.
Read:
The Thirty List by Eva Woods
Dead over Heels by Charlaine Harris
A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
Last Scene Alive by Charlaine Harris
Wickham Hall Part 3: Sparks Fly by Cathy Bramley
Poppy Done to Death by Charlaine Harris
The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Appleby Farm by Cathy Bramley
Started:
The Last Chance Christmas Ball by Mary-Jo Putney et al
Unmasking of a Lady by Sophie Dash
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Still reading:
n/a!
I didn’t buy anything we were on holiday – and I’ve been bringing the kindle backlog back down!
Oh the perils of holiday posting when you do a weekly list of what you’ve read. I’ve been in Gran Canaria, I wrote this on my tablet out there, and thought I’d set it up to publish – after all the Book of the Week post went up fine. Imagine my surprise when I got home tonight and discovered it hadn’t gone up! I’ve pushed the September stats back to tomorrow so I can get this up, but it hurts me that I’m posting out of cycle.
As I went on holiday on Thursday, the end of the week is dominated by ebooks – if I was taking actual books to read on the beach I’d need a second suitcase and would be charged excess baggage!
Read:
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Dangerously Dark by Collette London
A Place of Confinement by Anna Dean
Raincoats and Retrievers by Cressida McLaughlin
Thirteen Guests by J Jefferson Farjeon
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke
Stirred with Love by Marcie Steele
Wickham Hall Part 2: Summer Secrets by Cathy Bramley
The Thirty List by Eva Woods
Started:
n/a
Still reading:
Appleby Farm by Cathy Bramley
I bought a couple of eBooks, but I’ve been very restrained!
