Sunday, January 1, 2012

Waiting On in 2012

What a difference a year makes, eh? Although, me being me, I posted my 2011 list in March. So it hasn't quite been a year, but still, with Borders having been closed for 4+ months now, I have quite the list of books I'm anticipating. In true holiday spirit, I made a list. And then I checked it twice. And then I decided to make two lists.


The Ten 2012 Books I Would Exercise Every Day for Two Weeks For

  1. Elfhome by Wen Spencer (7/03/12)
  2. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb (2/21/12)
  3. The next Nightworld book by L.J. Smith (NOT SOON ENOUGH)
  4. Heart Secret by Robin D. Owens (8/07/12)
  5. Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh (5/29/12)
  6. Cynful by Dana Marie Bell (ALSO NOT SOON ENOUGH)
  7. Book 5 in Thea Harrison's Elder Races series (Late 2012- I HOPE!)
  8. Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston (3/27/12)
  9. The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley (4/3/12)
  10. The Darkest Seduction by Gena Showalter (2/21/12)

Please note that I did not specify a time limit, but considering how badly I want to get my hands on these ten books, I'd be willing to commit to thirty minutes a day! It has been years since Spencer has published anything and I had actually pre-ordered the next Nightworld book when it was first supposed to come out. Amazon broke my little teenaged heart when it canceled the pre-order, especially since the previous book had ended on a cliffhanger of sorts. I have been patient during all the Vampire Diaries screaming, now gimme my Nightworld, dammit! Observant readers may note I skipped from book 4 to 5 for the Elder Race series and that's because I've already read Oracle's Moon. It is fabulous, in my biased opinion, but it also functions as a stepping stone to a series arc featuring Dragos. So I need Book 5, like stat, but Thea hasn't finishing writing it yet and no amount of whining is speeding up the process. In addition, I've been waiting for Showalter to produce Paris's book and I'm almost afraid it won't live up to my expectations. 


The Ten 2012 Books I Would Stay Up & Go to a Midnight Opening For

  1. Isis Collar by Cat Adams (3/13/12)
  2. Just Down the Road by Jodi Thomas (4/13/12)
  3. Whispers in the Dark by Maya Banks (1/03/12)
  4. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews (8/31/12)
  5. Biting Cold by Chloe Neill (8/07/12)
  6. Heart of Atlantis by Alyssa Day (1/03/12)
  7. Flashfire by Deborah Cooke (1/03/12)
  8. Samurai Game by Christine Feehan (7/03/12)
  9. Nightfire by Lisa Marie Rice (2/07/12)
  10. Jacked Up by Erin McCarthy (6/05/12)
I would go to a midnight opening for the books on the first list, but the books on the second aren't what I'd call exercise-worthy. I'd lose some sleep over them and shell out some cash, but that would be that. I know three of these are coming out in two days, but the others are months away. It will be painful. 

I made another list. Because I like lists. 


The 2012 Books I'd Buy if I Still Worked Two Jobs But Will Instead Get from the Library
  1. About that Night by Julie James (4/03/12)
  2. Angels' Flight by Nalini Singh (2/28/12)
  3. Delusions in Death by J.D. Robb (9/13/12)
  4. Fair Game by Patricia Briggs (3/6/12)
  5. Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong (7/21/12)
  6. Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz (1/10/12)
  7. The Shifter by Jean Johnson (5/12/12)

Okay, so I'll probably end up buying #1 & #2, let's be realistic, but these seven books fall low on the anticipation scale. #3 will probably ratchet up after I read Celebrity in Death, but for right now, I'm content to wait. There are other books I'm interested in (Alpha Instinct by Katie Reus, Coveted by Shawntelle Madison, and Alien Diplomacy by Gini Koch), but it's soon to tell yet how excited I should be. Koch has been proving to be a good read, but her books are fairly self-contained so I'm not chomping at the bit to see what happens next. Reus and Madison are both debuts so they could be hit or miss. Madison has the first two chapters of Coveted up on her website and I've been told it could hit Netgalley soon. 

Monthly Tally: December 2011

This month, I learned that December is not the month for post-apocalyptic fiction. I finally gave in and read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Lemme tell you, it's kinda surreal baking Christmas cookies and thinking about a book where twenty-odd kids are slaughtered. The thing that freaked me out the most about it is that my instinct was to be resistant, like, 'oh, that could never happen.' However, it totally could. We all know about gladiators and there are, unfortunately, child soldiers across the globe. It only takes one disaster for the lines to be crossed. In any case,  I can see why the books resonated with so many people. I didn't like Catching Fire as much as The Hunger Games because I felt like it covered a lot of the same ground and I was ready for more character development. I haven't read Mockingjay yet because I actually wanted to enjoy Christmas.

There were two other stand-out books for me in December: Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews and One More Summer by Liz Flaherty. I reviewed One More Summer here so I won't go into that, but Magic Gifts was freaking awesome. A special free e-novella for her fans, it was kind of a bridge between Magic Slays and the upcoming Gunmetal Magic. I'm not really a fan of novellas because I am usually left wanting. Dangling plot threads, unanswered questions, poor character development, etc, the novella format makes it difficult for an author to tell a complete story. However, Andrews accomplishes the task easily with Magic Gifts. It helps that all the pieces were already in place for readers of the Kate Daniels series and this really was just a treat to help us survive the wait between books.  The novella will eventually be packaged with Gunmetal Magic, but if you google it, you should still be able to download a pdf from Andrews's website.

The worst book for me was a comic strip collection, Stephan Pastis's Larry in Wonderland. I'd written a really long GoodReads review on why I didn't like and then the computer ate it. Apparently, I'm still not in the mood to re-write it, but suffice to say, I didn't find it particularly funny. The runner up to this was Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud. My review explaining why I disliked this book is here.

There were a couple of other things I wanted to mention. Firstly, Hot Secrets was my gateway drug into the backlist of Lisa Marie Rice. I reviewed it here, but, I have to say, I'm still impressed by it. Any novella that can a) make me enjoy it and then b) motivate me to track down everything else is something else. If you're looking for a quickie romance suspense read, definitely check it out. Secondly, I also binged Eve Langlais books, reading five in a three day period. They weren't particularly consistent, in terms of quality, but they were like Shelly Laurenston-light. My favorite of the five was Bunny and the Bear, mostly because the heroine was a rabbit and how freaking often does that happen? Finally, I read two series titles by Sandra Hyatt. As you probably remember, Sandra passed away back in August. It's always a little weird, reading books by an author who went too soon. It was a little bittersweet because I enjoyed them, but I was also sad she wouldn't get the chance to spread her wings.


Category Totals

Romance: 41
Comic Strip Collections: 3
Urban Fantasy: 4
Graphic Novels: 2
Young Adult: 3
Picture Books: 2