2013: A Year in Books | The Favorites

Image Credit: Abhi Sharma

The year is almost over, and you know what that means: it’s time to write our “Best of” lists and anger people with our terrible choices. But fear not! My impeccable taste guarantees a list filled with nothing but great recommendations… That, and I’m aware of how obnoxious and pretentious some of these lists are, which is why this year I’m going with “Favorites” instead of “Best”. So even if you violently disagree with me, at least you know that I consider this my list and not the list.

Before I get to it, though, I wanted to thank you all for the wonderful year I’ve had. I know I was a bit of a slacker, yet you’re still here even when I only blog once a month. But consistent or not, 2013 was a lot of fun and that’s all thanks to you blogger/twitter/reader/author friends who make the Internet welcoming, interesting and highly addictive.

I’ll resume my not-so-regularly scheduled blogging next month, but in the meantime I leave you with my favorite books of the year (in no particular order). Let me know if any of your favorites made the list.

Lovely Excerpt from Susanna Kearsley's The Firebird & Awesome Giveaway of Four of Her Books. Four!

Have I told you how much I like Susanna Kearsley’s books? Yes I have. Multiple times, actually. But I’ll say it again: Ms. Kearsley is one of my favorite authors. Her books are filled with magic, interesting characters, delicious angst and lots of swoon-worthy romance. So it’s no surprise that her upcoming book, The Firebird, is one of my most anticipated books of the year. This is why when Sourcebooks asked if I wanted to be part of this mini-tour I didn’t hesitate to say yes.

We have an exclusive excerpt to whet everyone’s appetite and an awesome giveaway for those who have yet to read her books.

Review: Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

At this point it should be obvious that I love Ms. Kearsley’s books. Mariana was first published before The Winter Sea and The Rose Garden, and even though there are quite a few similarities, it’s obvious that this was written first. I found it a bit lacking when compared to her other books, though I’m probably to blame for it since I shouldn’t be comparing them in the first place. However, it is a beautiful book and I enjoyed it a lot.

The first time Julia Becket saw Greyweathers, a beautiful farmhouse located in Exbury, she was five and immediately knew that it was her home. Ever since then, when she visits the place, the same feeling of belonging invades her. And after an impulsive decision she finds herself its new owner. While she settles in, she develops a series of relationships with her neighbors including Geoffrey de Mornay, the wealthy and handsome lord of the manor, farmer Ian Summer and the local pub’s owner, Vivien.

Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Last year I read my first Susanna Kearsley book and it ended up being one of my favorites of the year. So I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her backlist. The Winter Sea had a similar plot to The Rose Garden in that they both had historical plots taking place parallel to their present counterparts, but that’s where the similarities end.

On one of my latest reviews I was complaining about unrealistic endings where the characters got everything they wanted, and how I felt that we should get more bittersweet endings where the characters had to make sacrifices. This book is a perfect example of that. I think not everyone would be happy with how things end but to me it was fitting to the circumstances. The ending was both happy and sad, and I was very glad (and weepy!).

2011, A Year in Books: The Best

This year I read a lot of books, I don’t have an exact number but I think it was over 200 books. Not all of them were published in 2011 and not all of them were good, some of them were huge disappointments (I’m looking at you Susan Elizabeth Phillips), but I think that overall it was a good year for romance novels.

I admit that most of the Contemporary Romances of the year were either mediocre or good, but just a few were truly outstanding, and only two books made my list:

Review: The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

The Rose Garden is one of the best books I have read this year. Everything about it is beautiful: the setting, the characters, the romance, and most of all, the writing style. There’s something about Ms. Kearsley’s voice that feels almost magical, I was transported to the places she describes and I felt like I was part of the book.

When Eva’s sister, Katrina, dies, she has the painful task of having to take care of her ashes. After much consideration she decides to bring them to the small town in Cornwall where they used to spend their summers when they were kids.