2012 Year in Review!! My top books and series of the year!

If you have any favorite reads for this year please share! 2012 has been quite a year for me. I’ve read some incredible books, some great books, some not so great books, some terrible books. But overall it contributed to read count of over 131 stories this year. It’s kind of funny because I feel like a slacker compared to some other Goodreads friends who I’ve seen read over 400+ books; one even read over 900. But good or bad, I’ll take it as a victory. Communiting to and from my job takes a good 2 hours of my day, which allows me to and dedicate most of that to reading. A broken iPod has helped quite a bit too, but Christmas kind of rectified that so I’ll have to see how my read count in 2013 compares. But in the meantime, I want to narrow things down and present my favorite urban fantasy/paranormal books of 2012.

1

Ever After ARC (The Hollows #11) by Kim Harrison

I debated listing this one because it technically doesn’t come out until 2013, but it rocked my personal socks this year, and I’m sure it will rock yours in January, so I’m going to list it.

2

All Dorina Basarab novels, including Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

Fury's Kiss, Karen Chance, dorina basarab

Though I was fairly familiar with its original sister series, Cassandra “Cassie” Palmer, I was really surprised to find that I love this series infinitely more. It’s got all of the pluses, none of the annoyances. Dory is a riot, but she kicks ass too. It just pains me that it take 2 years between books.

3

Wicked as They Come (Blud #1) by Delilah S. Dawson

Early on in the year this was my favorite book. The world was new, interesting and exciting. And Criminy was awesome! I definitely can’t wait for the next book featuring him and Tish, but much like Karen Chance, this author alternates from book to book.

4

A Perfect Blood (The Hollows #10) by Kim Harrison

Yes, the Hollows takes two spots on my list. In addition to the Ever After ARC, with all of the different publications this year from Into the Woods to Blood Crime to Trouble on Reserve to Trent’s POV from the paperback of A Perfect Blood, two spots can’t be surprising. However, while good, this book wasn’t quite in the same class as Ever After, but I did love it. And like most Trenchers out there, Trent’s POV left me speechless! Oh and it’s also pretty awesome anytime I can meet Kim Harrison!

5

Kingmakers (Vampire Empire #3) by Susan and Clay Griffith

This was another fantastic finish to a wonderful trilogy. I was fortunate enough to read the ARC for this series and I loved it! If only there was more!

6

Dead Morning Sky (Experiment in Terror #3) by Karina Halle

experiment in terror, dead morning sky, karina halle

I wanted scary and I got scary! Just a little more than I bargained for with the weird crap that was happening OFF the pages while reading it. And funny enough, there was no repeat of that peculiar activity after I was done. I have since stopped here, but there are definitely more books with Dex and Perry’s adventures. I plan to get to them after catching up with the Night Huntress series that I’m currently reading.

7

Ashes of Honor (October Daye #6) by Seanan McGuire

ashes of honor, seanan mcguire, october daye, toby daye

I read this book at a pretty difficult time. I started reading it and then I got my hands on the Ever After ARC. I was riding too much of a high for anything else to compare, including this. But in hindsight, this book rocks and I bet the next book will be my favorite of the series!

8

Tale of the Vampire Bride by Rhiannon Frater

Tale of the Vampire Bride, Rhiannon Frater

I was gripped from beginning to end on this one. It’s not an easy read, and do not mistake this for a romance. It’s more like one of those train-wrecks that you can’t look away from. Unfortunately the sequel was nowhere near as good, but I hope this series continues eventually. I would love to read a third book if it could get back to the level of book 1.

9

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

I have a bit of an aversion when it comes to the Young Adult genre, but this is an exception. I LOVED this book and I often find myself wondering how long it’d be until the second book is released. That’s definitely a sign of a book worthy of this list. Even better, it’s probably the best $0.99 I’ve spent on a book!

10

Love is Fear (Valerie Dearborn #2) by Caroline Hanson

Though this trilogy arc is complete, this book is probably my favorite of the three. I finished wanting more, more, MORE!

Honorable Mentions

Iced (Dani O’Malley #1) by Karen Marie Moning – I definitely didn’t inhale this one as fast as the original Fever novels, but it did leave an impression. Honestly though, I just want more Mac and Barrons!

At Grave’s End (Night Huntress #3) by Jeaniene Frost – The review is pending right now because I wanted to post this year in review first, but I did enjoy it the most of the three novels thusfar. This series isn’t really among my favorites, but it seems to be positioning itself in the tier of series that are right below my favorites. Not a bad place to be. There’s Bones to thank for that.

Fire Baptized (Habitat #1) by Kenya Wright – I inhaled this book as well. This fresh take on the urban fantasy genre was just what I needed at the time and unlike some series where the sequels don’t measure up, its sequel certainly did and I look forward to book 3!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion – I enjoyed this book quite a bit, as well as the movie. It presented a different take on the genre that I found refreshing.

A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1) by Pamela Palmer – an alternate Washington, DC gets some bonus points! This book introduced a pretty intriguing world. I read it in a day and enjoyed it, so that’s why it gets a mention. Just beware that this isn’t true romance. If you go in with those expectations you’ll likely be disappointed.

The Fire Lord’s Lover (The Elven Lords #1) by Kathryne Kennedy – I read this particular book in one day and I loved the world building and build up to the eventual romance. Unfortunately the sequels never really struck the same chord.

So all in all it’s been a good year! This blog has been good to me. YOU guys have been good to me. And I hope 2013 is even better!! The great thing about books is that there’s something for everybody. I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

December 29, 2012 | Categories: Blud, Cassandra Palmer (Cassie Palmer), Fever Series, Penryn & the End of Days, The Elven Lords, The Hollows (Rachel Morgan), Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Books, Valerie Dearborn, Vamp City, Vampire Empire Trilogy (The Greyfriar), YA (Young Adult) | Tags: 13 Hollows Books, A Local Habitation, A Perfect Blood, adele and gareth, adele and greyfriar, Algaliarept, An Artificial Night, And with Madness Comes the Light, Ashes of Honor, at grave's end, Avon, Big Al, Blood Crime, Blood Work, Blood+, Blud, Bones and Cat, caedmon, Captain America, Caroline Hanson, Casper, Cassandra, Cassie Palmer, cat and bones, Catherine Crawfield, Cecily, Cer, Cesare, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Clay Griffith, Come Alive, Criminy and Letitia, Criminy and Tish, Criminy Stain, Crispin Russell, Darkhouse, DAW BOOKS Inc, Dawn Cook, Dead Morning Sky, Dead Witch Walking, Declan Foray, Delilah Dawson, Dex and Perry, Dex Foray, Dominic and Cassandra, Dominic Raikes, dorina, dorina basarab, Dragonfairy Press, dystopian, Etienne, Ever After, Every Which Way But Dead, experiment in terror, Experiment in Terror series, fae werewolves, favorites, Fire Baptized, fire magic, gareth and adele, Giles, Giles and Cecily. Lady of the Storm, Giveaways, greyfriar and adele, Hagi, Haji, halfway to the grave, Harper Co, Harper Collins, Harper Voyager, Historical Romance, Host of the Hills, how many hollows books do we have left, how many rachel morgan books do we have left, Ian, Into the Hollow, Into the Woods, isaac marion, Ivy Tamwood, Jack and Valerie, jeaniene frost, Jenks, Juie and R, Julie, Julie and Perry, Karen Chance, Karina Halle, Kenya Wright, kill bill, Kim Harrison, King Cer, king of cats, Kisten, kit marlowe, Lady Cass, Lady Cassandra, Lanore, Late Eclipses, Letetia Everett, louis-cesare, louis-cesare and dorina, love is darkness, love is fear, love is mortal, love triangle, Lucas, Lucas and Valerie, Luidaeg, Lying Season, magic, MeShack, Metal Blonde Books, midnight's daughter, Mircea, Mircea Basarab, Mor'ded, morpho and murdoch, mysterious madam morpho, nicholas hoult, night huntress, October and Connor, October and Tybalt, October daye, Old Blood, On Demon Wings, one foot in the grave, One Salt Sea, Paranormal, paranormal african american heroine, Perry, Perry and Dex, Perry and Julie, Perry and R, Perry Palamino, Pet Shop Boys, Pocket Blood, Prometheus, Pyr, R, R and Julie, R and Perry, Rachel Morgan, radu, Red Fox, rhiannon frater, Rob Corddry, Robert Downey Jr, Rosemary and Rue, Saya, seam punk, Seanan McGuire, Shifter, Sourcebooks Casablanca, steam punk, steampunk, Susan Griffith, Sylvester Torquill, tale of the vampire bride, tantor media, The Avengers, The Benson, The Burning Bush, The Dex-files, The Elven Lords, The Fire Lord's Lover, The Hollows, The Kingmakers, The rift walker, Theresa Palmer, Tish Everett, Toby and Connor, Toby and Tybalt, Toby Daye, Trent and Rachel, Trent Kalamack, Trouble on Reserve, tybalt, Tybalt and Toby, Urban Fantasy African American Heroine, Valerie Dearborn, Vampire, vampire empire, Vampire King, vengeance of the vampire bride, Vintage, Warm bodies, warm bodies movie, Werewolf, Zulu | 7 Comments

Fury’s Kiss – I might just have a new #2…favorite series that is

“We got unfinished business,” he reminded me.
“My name’s not Bill.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I loved that movie. Shoulda brought a katana, but it seemed like an unfair advantage.”

– I love that movie too!

“I wasn’t the kind of gal who wore designer and knew what all the forks were for. I was the kind of gal who thought the nightgown drawer was where old T-shirts went to die and who had only started using forks in the last century. And who frankly still thought them kind of a waste when there were perfectly good knives handy.”

Dorina is awesome. Yeah, yeah, I know that’s not news, but we could SO be besties if it weren’t for her little quirk of blacking out into nasty dhampir rages that can level a whole village (think Saya from Blood+).

Though Dorina’s dhampir heritage has made her the pariah and enigma of the paranormal community, her skills are still quite useful to the Vampire Senate. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. While working with them to smuggle magical items and weapons out of Faerie, the operation hits a snag that leads to Dorina’s capture. Though eventually saved by master vampire Louis-Cesare, she has no memory of what happened, but she has to find out fast or else the vampire community and herself will be dangerously vulnerable. This leads to new enemies, new revelations about her past, and ultimately a war residing completely within…herself.

She did make readers wait two years for it, but this is definitely the longest Dorina book to date! Karen Chance doesn’t let up when it comes to the twists, turns, and action sequences that you wouldn’t believe. Chance proves herself to be a master story teller with the continuous world building, complex plot, and super fast pace; it makes me wonder how she keeps up with it all. There HAS to be a secret.

For the most part I was really with it, but I did have a couple of annoyances. I sometimes felt like I was reading about a character with ADHD because there are a number of times when she doesn’t complete a thought before something else happens. That felt a bit unnecessary because the books are fast paced enough. By the 80% mark it sort of hit a wall, though it didn’t last for very long because the end was beyond stellar.

As much as I love her Louis-Cesare (they are probably in my top 3 ships now), the developments with Mircea were probably my favorite parts of this book. Chance’s love of time travel is as present as ever. She skirts the time travel idea often used in her Cassie Palmer books by pretty much turning Dorina’s mind into a time machine. Being 500 years old, she has a lot of memories she can recall.

We see romance all of the time in this genre books, but so rarely do we see such a the delicate father-daughter relationship like theirs develop and evolve over the course of a series. Absolutely it is unconventional, but at the root of it, we are seeing a bond that is unbreakable, as it should be. They are both hundreds of years old, so it’s hard to navigate their relationship in a convincing way, but Chance does it and it works so well. I got some serious warm fuzzies and my only complaint is that I wish we got a little more. Though I would have liked more, what I want to see is probably more suited for the last book…woohoo for 4 more years! That’s assuming she ends this series at 5 books.

I would say that slightly less action, more Mircea, more Louis-Cesare, or just less pages would have put this book on the path to perfection. These little things took it from perfection to NEAR perfection. It was definitely one of my most satisfying reads of the year!