Woo hoo! Happy New Year and good luck to everyone embarking upon new reading and writing challenges! I just scraped by with my exactly 50 books for last year, and thought it would be fun to look over the titles I read in 2016! For 2017, I’ve doubled the challenge, and I look forward to it! Feel free to share your favorite books or recommendations for my ever increasing TBR pile, and let me know how your 2016 reading challenge went!
A few notes: I work as an automotive journalist, so that explains those outliers! Romance and erotic romance novels are in purple. Also, I count audiobooks because they are such a huge component of my reading experience, which I discussed here. Otherwise, enjoy the list!
Books:
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom
Car Crazy, G. Wayne Miller
Enchanted Pleasures, Eloisa James
A Lady Most Likely, Connie Brockway, Eloisa James, and Julia Quinn
Just Like Heaven, Julia Quinn
Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng
The Taming of the Duke, Eloisa James
Pleasure for Pleasure, Eloisa James
Aussie Grit, Mark Webber
A Fool for Love, Eloisa James
A Wild Pursuit, Eloisa James
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, Julia Quinn
The Rogue Not Taken, Sarah MacLean
Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
Her Mad Hatter, Marie Hall
Leonardo: The Artist and the Man, Serg Bramly
Interview With a Vampire, Anne Rice
In Bed With the Devil, Lorraine Heath
Between the Devil and Desire, Lorraine Heath
Surrender to the Devil, Lorraine Heath
Viking Fire, Crystal Jordan
The Tempest, Julie Cross
A Good Debutante’s Guide to Ruin, Sophie Jordan
A Duke of Her Own, Eloisa James
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
Must Love Breeches, Angela Quarles
Commonwealth, Ann Patchett
A Song of Snow and Ash, Diana Gabaldon
Dirty For Me, Jackie Ashenden
Audiobooks:
The Sum of All Kisses, Julia Quinn
Much Ado About Love, Eloisa James
Duchess in Love, Eloisa James,
Mr. Cavendish, I Presume, Julia Quinn,
Desperate Duchess, Eloisa James
An Affair Before Christmas, Eloisa James
When the Duke Returns, Eloisa James
Duchess By Night, Eloisa James
The Wicked Wallflower, Maya Rodale
Night Hawk, Beverly Jenkins
The Lady Most Willing, Connie Brockway, Eloisa James, and Julia Quinn
The Switch, Lynsay Sands
Love and Other Scandals, Caroline Linden
The Selection, Kiera Cass
The Elite, Kiera Cass
My American Duchess, Eloisa James
Hard As It Gets, Laura Kaye
The One, Kiera Cass
I really enjoyed going through this list, because it helps me understand my reading habits and see where I can expand. I read a lot of romance novels (obviously) because I write romance novels – and I write them because I love them! I have my clear favorites – no points for guessing right – but I’ve stumbled upon some authors and books in the genre I positively loved! For instance, Kiera Cass and Laura Kaye are playing leapfrog in my heart right now, as the books come in from the library. I’m currently reading the next book in The Hard Ink series, Hard as You Can, by Laura Kaye and The Heir, book four in The Selection Series by Kiera Cass, just came in on my holds list (along with another Julia Quinn novel, so my audiobook pile is full).
Looking past the romance genre, I know it’d be good to add more nonfiction and historical to my list, and I certainly plan to do that this year. I have several non-fic feminist and political books I’m looking forward to reading, My current read is Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming, a fascinating but, at nearly 8 years since publication, ultimately outdated text about climate change.
I took a little look at the 2016 Reading Challenge that went around, and I don’t think I did too poorly! For me, the point of a reading challenge is to help people prioritize reading over other things and I certainly look forward to doing more of that in 2017. Let me know how you did with your 2016 Year in Books!