As the colder months draw in, it’s got to be the perfect time to snuggle down with a good book and a cuppa. With that in mind, I thought that today I’d have a nosy through my book journal and share with you some of my favourite reads from the past year or so.
They’re an eclectic bunch of books, so I’m hoping there’s something for everybody here, though I have to say, I didn’t design it to be quite such a mix of genres, it just fell that way as I looked back on the books that I’ve loved reading.
To find out more about each of these titles, just click on the book covers and it’ll take you through to Amazon for the full synopsis and reviews.
I have now read several Lucy Diamond books and I’ve enjoyed every single one of them. They are chick lit at its finest, in my opinion, as although they are fast and easy reads, they have a depth to them and great characters that makes them really satisfying. The leads are always female and there are often several interconnecting stories. Whilst there are romances involved, relationships between the women are often central to the plots, as is the case with this one. It’s tale of step-sisters and how their lives are forcibly brought together over a crisis that allows them to slowly unravel past misunderstandings.
I’ve now read the first two in the Tearling trilogy and am eagerly awaiting the third. These are great fantasy books, telling Kelsea’s story as she is made the Queen of the Tearling as a teenager, a mythical land where she is possessed with magical powers. I don’t often read fantasy, but enjoy dipping into it every now and then. I’d spotted this one getting several great reviews so decided to give it a go and I’m so pleased that I did. Read them, you won’t be disappointed.
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘cemetery of lost books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out ‘La Sombra del Viento’ by Julian Carax.
And so the story begins and it draws you in from the start and keeps you turning those pages, lost in its tale. This to me is quite simply a modern day classic, not to be missed.
I adore regency romance and historical fiction, so I had to have it feature in the list, didn’t I? This is from one of my favourite authors, Sarah MacLean, and I’ve chosen this particular title, despite this not being the first in the Rules of Scoundrels series, as Cross and Philippa’s story is a great fun read. Every single one of MacLean’s books could be on this list, though, as I have read and loved them all!
Love isn’t an exact science – but no one told Don Tillman. A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don’s never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie – ‘the world’s most incompatible woman’ – throwing Don’s safe, ordered life into chaos. But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he’s feeling?
This one had me laughing out loud from the very first chapter. Out loud. Yes, it makes some inaccurate sweeping generalisations, but you cannot help but fall for the main characters and find yourself rooting for Don. He is endearing and so very funny.
This was, somewhat unbelievably given how big a name this author is, my first Ahern book and I adored it. I hadn’t anticipated the magical and surreal elements of this tale, and I struggled to put it down. Lucy’s ‘life’ contacted her as she was making a bit of a mess of it, and ‘life’ was then personified throughout the book. It was quite unlike anything I’d read before and to be honest, not what I was expecting. I’ve since read a couple more Ahern books and again they’ve surprised me by how totally different they are, yet still utterly charming and riveting.
To be honest, just pick up any Tess Gerritsen book and you’ll be set! I tend to favour the Rizzoli and Isles books, though I have read others and I still enjoy them. They are thrillers set in Boston and are always really pacy with a sprinkling of the main characters’ back stories and family lives thrown in there for continuity between books, which I like. That said, you wouldn’t have to read these in order to follow and enjoy them. I’ve chosen this one as it appealed to me as it was set around a museum, though I have read several Gerritsen books over the past few months and enjoyed every single one of them.
Odd by name, a hero by nature.
He’s Odd. Odd Thomas, to be precise. Genius fry-cook at the Pico Mundo grill; boyfriend to the gorgeous Stormy Llewellyn – and possibly the only person with a chance of stopping one of the worst crimes in the bloody history of murder…
That grips you, right? It certainly did me as the book opened. I picked this one up in a charity shop as I used to enjoy Koontz as a teen and just fancied trying one again. This did not disappoint, it’s a truly brilliant book and is now my favourite of his. I know this is the first in a series, so I am keen to read more about Odd, with his strange abilities and likeable character.
Every time I start a Peter James book, I know I’m going to reading it within a couple of days. He is utterly brilliant at drawing you in and not allowing you to put the book down. This one remains my top read of his as it hooked me from the opening page and did not disappoint at the end either – not easy to do within the horror genre in my experience, as I can so often end up feeling let down by the ending.
Ah, another regency book to round my list off, as I just could not fail to include a Julia Quinn title. I’d recommend pretty much all of her books to you if you enjoy this genre, too, as they are witty, funny and feel-good, and I have read them all. I have gone for this particular title as it’s one her well-loved Bridgerton books, and I think Michael may just be my favourite of her heroes. As the heroine is a widow, it doesn’t follow the often more typical stories, as it opens with a lot of heartache and pain for her, though being written by Quinn, still manages to remain a pleasure to read.
Have you read any of these? If you could recommend that I read one book this autumn, what would it be? I’ll be sure to add it to my ever-growing TBR pile!
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Thank you!