Dec
20 2012 |
Last year I had a reading slump. I was so busy all the time that reading fell off my list so I made a committment to myself to find time to read again and this year I did. I read A LOT of books in 2012. This list isn’t in any particular order nor are all the books on it necessarily ones that came out in 2012, I just read them this year. I am a dork and did not keep a list so I *KNOW* I am forgetting books I loved, but off the top of my head, here goes:
In the totally worth the hype department I’ve got Justin Cronin’s The Passage. This book wowed me. I enjoy a lot of books, but The Passage was a book I found myself carrying around so I could read it in all my spare moments. I stayed up late to read more. Huge, sweeping scope and yet there’s a claustrophobic sense of doom always there. Great characters (and there are A LOT but all handled so well you aren’t overwhelmed). The story isn’t told in a linear fashion as you flash back to the original experiment and each character’s experience leading to the present. Excellently done. I really liked The Twelve as well, but The Passage really stood out in a way few books do for me.
Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series – especially FEED, which actually made me weep in one scene. Loved the “new normal” of this future where the infected are simply part of their world and bloggers are out there on the front lines to deliver the news. I’d also include Blackout and Deadline on the list as I loved them both as well.
Because Mira Grant is also Seanan McGuire, I glommed onto her October Daye books and LOVE them. So much that the latest, Ashes of Honor, makes my favorite list this year.
Definitely not out in 2012 but a book I loved was Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Such a great mashup of several genres. Totally sucked me in.
Eileen Wilks’ Mortal Ties – I am a HUGE fan of Eileen Wilks and I loved this installment in her Lupi series. Love Lily and Rule, love the world she’s built. Really excellent book.
Patricia Briggs’ Fair Game. LOVE the Alpha and Omega series and this installment was really awesome.
Tessa Dare’s A Week To Be Wicked. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tessa Dare’s voice. I love her books and her heroines and her dialog. Minerva is one of my all time favorite heroines.
Madeline Roux’s Sadie Walker is Stranded. I picked this one up on a whim at an airport bookstore and had it devoured by the time my flight landed. I loved this 2nd wave of a zombie apocalypse book set in the northwest and the book that came before it (which I grabbed as soon as I finished Stranded) Alison Hewett is Trapped)
Carly Phillips’ Destiny – Nash’s book is my favorite in this excellent series!
Some honorable mentions:
I read a lot of horror this year so this list will be full of zombies and vampires and many of the books are not from this last year, but I discovered them then so there!
13 Bullets by David Wellington. SUCH a freaking scary vampire book.
Rise Again by Ben Tripp – female protag who is one messed up cop who is also a war vet.
Rhiannon Frater’s As The World Dies trilogy – I really liked these books taking place during and right after a zombie uprising
Joe McKinney’s Dead World books – several books spanning quite a long period of time during and after a zombie uprising. Each book gives you a totally different POV from a variety of different characters.