By I read a stupid amount of books this year. I clearly did not review all of them and due to that fact I decided to my list my five least favorite and five favorite books. Note: these are books I read this year not necessarily books that were published this year. I was also busy with some photography and working on a manuscript. Wanting to go the traditional publishing route is like having a second full time job: writing, editing, finding those that want to read your work, waiting for feedback, researching the industry, and more editing. I love it and I’m exhausted. Hopefully this work pays off.
Least Favorite
My least favorite books this year are in no particular order here.
Synopsis: In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword—representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own…
When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she’s an anxious twentysomething mired in student debt and working a job she hates. But one day she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name. It has been funded by her long-lost father—and it’s worth nearly four million dollars.
This newfound fortune would be life-changing for anyone. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn’t have imagined. Here, she will begin to understand why she kept seeing that silver-haired, elusive man, why she imagined his voice in her head saying Come home, Breen Siobhan. It’s time you came home. Why she dreamed of dragons. And where her true destiny lies—through a portal in Galway that takes her to a land of faeries and mermaids, to a man named Keegan, and to the courage in her own heart that will guide her through a powerful, dangerous destiny…
My Thoughts: I’m just not a Nora Roberts fan. I like the idea but I have no desire to finish this series. The book was also too long with not enough going on a lot of the time.
Synopsis: Meg
Confession: I’m attracted to my student’s dad. Let me give you Tyler Dixon’s resume: thoughtful, manly, father of the year, widower, ridiculously attractive (basically the opposite of a dad bod).
This might sound like good news for someone like me—someone who dreams of getting married and becoming a mom—but it’s not. Getting involved with a parent is grounds for immediate removal at my school, and right now, my fragile heart can’t handle being fired. My mom just died. My boyfriend broke up with me, and to top it all off, my dad started dating again. Stable employment is the only good thing I have. Risking my job and my heart is the most foolish thing I could do.
Tyler
Being a widower isn’t like the movies. There’s not a block of women knocking on my door, bringing me casseroles every day. No, real life is work, laundry, and groceries—all while being both the mom and the dad. I’m pretty much failing at this single-parent thing. I don’t have time to date. Which is good since the only woman I’m interested in keeps pushing me away: Miss Johnson. Emphasis on the Miss—as in, my son’s teacher. It’s hard to convince a woman to go out with you when she’ll get fired. But it’s either pursuing Meg, despite her job, or the never-ending depths of loneliness—no big deal.
My thoughts: The timeline is WAY too short in this book. They dance around each other most of the book, date for like two months and then get married. Also, they are both WAY too cavalier about the fact that this is her livelihood on the line. Meg dives into her grand gesture with no backup plan. Also, what is she supposed to do after having been fired? Do other schools hire teachers that get fired? Yes, it’s romance but be a little reasonable.
Synopsis: A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while also fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance from the bestselling author of The Bridge Kingdom series.
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.
Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.
Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.
My thoughts: Generally I actually liked this book but towards the end the Freya was just getting on my nerves, clearly to the point that it overshadowed the better parts of the book for me. She takes no control of her own life and gets so angry with everyone else for stuff that was partly her choice.
Synopsis: A sports rom-com about a burly, surly, single dad who falls head-over-hockey-stick for his quirky live-in nanny…
Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween.
Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the “right” thing—breaks her own heart and walks away.
Though Burgess knows it’s for the best—he’s too jaded, with too much baggage—a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.
My thoughts: I have come to realize that I have very little patiences for emotionally immature characters. If it’s YA I give them grace but not in adult romance. That doesn’t mean people aren’t allowed to mess up but fix it properly. Burgess starts out good and somehow his apology and problem solving skills just tank.
Synopsis: A pro hockey player falls for an interior designer in this charming debut sports romance. This flirty workplace rom-com explores mental health, belonging, and finding your way in the world.
Nick Sorensen had once been one of the fastest men in hockey—until the devastating plane crash that took the lives of his best friends, leaving him the only survivor. Now he’s physically ready to get back on the ice, but his coach is concerned Nick isn’t doing as well, mentally, as he says he is. Case in Nick’s apartment is completely empty, apart from a single chair and a mattress on the floor.
To prove he’s fine, really, Nick hires Alyssa Compton, an up-and-coming interior designer, to decorate his space. Alyssa’s thrilled at the chance to prove herself to her demanding boss—with job security at last, maybe she can finally put down roots and create a home for herself too. But Nick turns out to be infuriatingly stubborn and impossible to work with, and just when Alyssa decides to throw in the towel on the whole thing, Nick shows up for her in a way she never could have expected.
The icy path ahead of these two lost souls may be slippery and cracking, but when it comes to love, sometimes all you need is someone on your team.
My thoughts: There is just a lot going on in this book and it could have been streamlined better. Also, communication people. I can take a couple of times of them not communicating properly but not the whole dang book, not when it mattered to their relationship.
Top Favorite
I was going to put these in some type of ranking system but I can’t. Also, it was REALLY hard to narrow this list down to just five books, I went back and forth a lot.
Synopsis: The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society.
Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems.
In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return.
My Thoughts: I pretty sure both Thorn and Murtagh have PTSD before this book starts. I love them both even if Murtagh willingly chooses to disregard advice and walk into this danger, it did need to be done. Paolini better give us readers more of Murtagh and Nasuada in the next book. Of all the couples in all the books I’ve read their love is one of my favorites.
Synopsis: ilk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.
It is split into four chapters, with each chapter dealing with a different pain. Healing a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them — because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
My thoughts: I don’t read a whole lot of poetry but I’ve gone back and re-read some of these poems multiple times. Kaur’s words are both beautiful and harsh and wonderfully unapologetic.
Synopsis: A desperate mother. A dubious escort. And a deranged author who won’t leave them alone.
Caroline Lindley is determined that her new romance novel will be her best one yet. Fantasy! Formal gowns! Fencing! And, of course, a twentysomething heroine to star in an enemies-to-lovers plot with all of Caroline’s favourite tropes.
But Lady Rosamund Hawkhurst is a thirty-six-year-old widow with two children, her sole focus is facilitating a peace treaty between her adopted nation and her homeland, and she flatly refuses to take the correct approach to there being Only One Bed.
What’s an author to do?
Based on her popular Fantasy Heroine YouTube Shorts series, Jill Bearup’s debut novel brings us the best of worlds both meta and medieval-inspired. Terry Pratchett aficionados will enjoy the political intrigue paired with convivial, tongue-in-cheek satire. And then there’s the slow-burn, fade-to-black romance too . . .
If you loved Stranger Than Fiction and The Princess Bride, you will soon find yourself cheering on enemies-to-BFFs Rosamund and Caroline as together they learn what it means to be the hero of your own story.
My thoughts: This is wonderful read. It is by a first time indie author and deserves all the love. Yes, it is romance but it also an exploration of what it means to be a writer. I loved everything about this book.
Synopsis: A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
My Thoughts: This book is generally brilliant but I love the proper representation of the faerie folk. They do not care what chaos they cause and I’m here for it. Also, Emily is described as a dragon at one point by her love interest as a term of endearment, it’s wonderful.
Synopsis: The fate of the Cinder Spires may be decided by crossed swords in the next exhilarating fantasy adventure in the New York Times bestselling series of noble families, swordplay, and airships.
For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade.
Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.
Everyone knows it’s coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora’s Armada and its new secret weapon–one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.
A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch’s diplomatic agents.
It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion–assuming that it is not already too late.
My Thoughts: I have waited YEARS for this book and it delivered. Now I really need the next one. I love Butcher’s Dresden Files but this might be my favorite series of his. It has air ship battles! So many characters and parallel story lines and cats and sword fights and I love all of it.
Did you have any favorite or least favorite books the year? Books on your DNF list only count a little. If you are a vibe reader like me then sometimes it’s not the right time for that particular book. Let me know what you thought about these books in the comments! Happy reading.
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McGee Travel Tales 
An impressive number of books read this year. As a HUGE hockey fan, I’m going to have to check out the hockey rom/coms. I had no idea they were so popular! Happy New Year, Laci!
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The number of hockey romances is kinda ridiculous. Some are great. Some are not. Happy New Year!
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I beginning to realize that. Got any great recommendations that aren’t so Hallmark Channel-ish? 😉
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Okay, I’m going to preface this with that a lot of them are college age romances and open door. They are in no way YA books.
I really loved Icebreaker (I know it got some mixed reviews) – Wildfire and Daydream by the same author are also good.
Elle Kennedy has a ton of hockey romances.
Powerless by Elsie Silver
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Thanks for the recommendations! Appreciate it.
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