Good Reads on Goodreads

I have a bad habit of trying to get organized. I call it a bad habit because I'm really good at the trying part, not so great at the getting organized part. I think if I were truly organized I could manage to stay that way. But I'm not. Hence I am in a continual state of trying.

In the spirit of getting back into this writing thing, I undertook a massive project: I cleaned off my desk. I told the WGH I should've taken before and after pictures so that everyone would appreciate the magnitude of my accomplishment. The relative neatness that now graces the grossly underutilized but quite lovely piece of furniture unearthed one of the piles of paper I'd been hoarding, a printout of the ebooks I've bought from Amazon and a corresponding list of those books I've read this year as recorded on my Goodreads profile for the 2018 Reading Challenge.

When I don't keep track of things, I wind up rather surprised with myself at how much I've actually done. My original challenge to myself was 50 books. To date I have recorded reading 61. I will admit that most of these are ebooks, despite the fact that I have at least three times as many actual books sitting on my many bookshelves in the study, awaiting my return to some semblance of normalcy, wherein I aspire to sit in my recliner and read. The obvious reason for the plethora of electronic books on my list is that when I finish reading one on my Kindle it automatically updates Goodreads. It's a no-brainer, and lately my brain has needed all the help it can get.

I won't go into details about every single one of the 61 books currently on the list, but as this blog is at least partially devoted to the discussion of ... well, books ... I thought I should give you my impressions of at least some of them. You can, of course, click the link above to see the entire collection, but that's up to you.

Series. Another of my habits - as yet to be determined whether good or bad - is that I don't like to start a series unless it's with the first book, and in the long run I find myself so absorbed with the characters and story that I've bought and read every book in the series before I've blinked twice. I also find myself very disappointed when there are no further books in the series available. In my 2018 collection there are several such series that I thoroughly enjoyed and eagerly anticipate the more to come. In random order, following are the series I particularly liked.

Lindzee Armstrong's No Match For Love series (books 1-6):

1. Meet Your Match
2. Miss Match
3. Not Your Match
4. Mix 'N Match
5. Strike a Match
6. Mistletoe Match

Sweet, clean contemporary romances centered around a matchmaking company called Toujour and its successful record of bringing together couples who are perfect for each other. Very cute. Of course, upon further exploration for purposes of research on this post I've just discovered SIX more books in the series. Sigh. My book budget is nothing short of blown. Overall series grade = B+/A-.

Kennedy Chase's Harley Hill Mysteries:

1. Murder on the Hill
2. Murder on the Page
3. Murder in the Kitchen
4. Murder in the Cake
5. Murder in the Salon
6. Murder in the Mine

Set in London's Notting Hill, this is a cozy mystery series with a quirky protagonist. Harley is a terrific character, and although the main plot of each story is a murder mystery, Chase adds more to Harley's underlying story in tantalizing bits and pieces. I hope there will be more to read of these adorable, fast-paced mysteries. Overall series grade = A-.

Gina LaManna's Magic & Mixology series:

1. Hex on the Beach
2. Witchy Sour
3. Jinx & Tonic
4. Long Isle Ice Tea
5. Amuletto Kiss

In the middle of Lake Michigan (yes, you read that right) sits the Isle, home to a community of witches and wizards, shifters and vampires, ghosts and magic. This is where Lily Locke, a marketing agent from Minneapolis, discovers her true heritage and her rightful and very important place in the magical world, along with a family she never knew she had and a mysterious, tall, dark and handsome - and powerful - magical law enforcement agent. I'm completely invested in Lily and Ranger X's world of magic, mayhem, mystery and more, and each installment in the series is better than the one before. There are more books by LaManna that are related but not part of the Mixology series, but I do hope there are more to follow that will bring Lily and Ranger X's story to a satisfying conclusion. Overall series grade = A.

Morgan Rice's Throne for Sisters series:

1. A Throne for Sisters
2. A Court for Thieves
3. A Song for Orphans
4. A Dirge for Princes
5. A Jewel for Royals
6. A Kiss for Queens

I was so wrapped up in reading these delightfully different books, racing through the first few, pre-ordering the next and the next and the next, that I could've sworn I'd already read #7 in the series, A Crown for Assassins, when in fact I hadn't even bought it yet! (I have since remedied this problem. I've also pre-ordered A Clasp for Heirs, book #8.) Sisters Sophie and Kate, raised in an oppressive, dismal orphanage, escape to discover their destiny as members of a royal family long exiled from the kingdom that is their birthright. No spoilers on this one, the story keeps going over the course of these eight books with tons of twists and turns, good versus evil and a touch of magic thrown in for good measure. Enchanting, entertaining, fairly easy reads. Overall series grade = B+/A-.

Actual books. Back in the spring, as you may recall, I posted about a cute little first-in-a-series book I read called Éclair and Present Danger by Laura Bradford. Since then I've read three more of the books I brought back from Birmingham: Buying the Farm by Kimberly Conn, Trouble in Summer Valley by Susan Y. Tanner and Small Town Trouble by Laura Benedict. The Conn book was completely charming and gets a solid A from me. The two Trouble books are 4th and 5th in a series (I know, it goes against everything I stand for; I'm working on that) featuring a black cat called Trouble, who solves mysteries (with the help of humans, of course). Trouble is the progeny of another mystery-solving black cat called Familiar, the creation of mystery writer Carolyn Haines (see Authors I Admire link to the right), who launched the Trouble series as a tribute to her beloved character. The really cool thing about the Familiar Legacy series is that a number of really good mystery authors are penning the installments. If you've kept up with me at all you know Laura Benedict is one of my favorites (both as an author and a person), and her take on Trouble is a nicely twisted mystery with hints of family secrets and romantic possibilities. Susan Tanner's Trouble book is equally as entertaining, with a worthy charitable cause as the centerpiece of the mystery.

Among the "real" books in my read-and-loved list this year are the latest two standalones from J.T. Ellison, Lie to Me and Tear Me Apart. Setting aside our longtime friendship and writers' bond, I don't think this woman could write a book I wouldn't love. She is supremely talented and possesses a limitless supply of awe-inspiring imagination. The question I'm asked most often about her is, "Where does she come up with this stuff?" I can only shrug and say, "She's brilliant." And that's a completely unbiased opinion.

Last but certainly not least, when the BFF visited in the late spring we happened upon (*snort* *ahem*) a bookstore, and I purchased one of the many books on my TBP/Most Wanted list, The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling). If I thought The Cuckoo's Calling was one of the best books I've read, the second in the Cormoran Strike detective series ranks right up there with it. This one was a bit more gruesome than the first; fortunately, Galbraith/Rowling handled the macabre nature of the murder with a certain brand of delicacy that made it much more tolerable than some books I've read with similar themes. Seriously, people, if you haven't given this series a chance, do it. Do. It. Now.

The WGH will probably not be happy with me when he finds out, but I've just purchased what amounts to an entire series of ebooks for my Kindle, the first (and maybe second and quite possibly third) I've read already but am rereading because I want to get through the lot in one sweep. That's another bad habit of mine, binge-reading. Sort of like binge-watching a series on Netflix, but with more pages. Provided I survive the wrath of He Who Makes the Money, I'll post another book report when I'm far enough along to share an opinion.

In the meantime, read a book. It's good for you.