Reading Update: My Favourite Five, January-June

by Bronwyn Jameson

I closed my eyes for just a minute, I swear, and opened them to find half the year gone. How did that happen? Why does it happen every year?

Way back in January, before I closed my eyes, I pondered the merits—and methods—of recording my reading. And I did start a spreadsheet. And I have kept it up to date. So now I can report on my reading for the first six months of the year without needing to scan my Kindle library and my (increasingly faulty) memory.

The statistics:

• 52 books read...which staggers me a little. I would have guessed around 50 a year, but perhaps I was propelled to read more by the recording exercise. I can't imagine getting to 100 before year's end. We'll see.
• 2 audio, 48 digital, 0 paper...again, surprised. I usually read SOME actual hold-in-hands books.
• 3 non-fiction, 49 fiction (no surprise!)
• 6 novellas, 20 category length, 23 single title (I didn’t count the non-fiction.)
• 1 historical, 48 contemporary – this is quite a departure for me; although I’ve still been buying historicals, I’ve not been in the mood to read them. 
• 8 mystery/thrillers/suspense
• 6 womens fiction/chick-lit
• 1 new adult
• 3 erotic
• 31 straight contemporary romance (including category romance.)

Enough with the numbers, which I wanted to record here for comparison purposes at a later date, and on to the best part of my spreadsheet. I rated each read on a 0-5 scale and wrote a (very) brief précis of why I liked or didn’t enjoy each book. And here are my top five 5-star reads from January-June and the reasons why I loved each to bits: (Note that most of my reading isn’t of brand new releases; I tend to buy and stockpile and scan through the library for what I feel like reading at the time.)

FAITHFUL PLACE, Tana French

Irish mystery/crime; Dublin Murder Squad Book 3

This is a dark, grim story about a cold-case disappearance that shaped our hero/anti-hero detective Frank Mackey and which brings him back home 20 years later. It’s brilliantly crafted and intensely compelling—not just the mystery but the family dynamics, the secrets of Faithful Place, and how French uses the two timelines.

  

BROKEDOWN COWBOY, Maisey Yates

Contemporary romance, Copper Creek 3

This is ALL my catnip: snappy banter, loads of emotion, unrequited love, forced proximity, friends to lovers, supporting cast of family and small-town community, western/cowboy...with a barn-raising! It could have been written especially for me.

INVISIBLE INK, Brian McDonald

Non-fiction, writing how-to

Sub-titled A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate, which is a pretty good “plot” summary. I bought it on the recommendation of Anne McAllister. McDonald is a screenwriter and the title is a reference to the craft behind the words (the visible ink). The focus is storytelling structure and I found it highly readable, succinct and on point, and peppered with excellent movie examples. Bonus: it really helped me sort some WIP issues.

THE MOST SCANDALOUS RAVENSDALE, Melanie Milburne

HM&B Sexy/Presents, The Scandalous Ravensdales 4

My favourite kind of category romance, with fun banter and internal musing, believable conflict, a heroine who is no pushover and a hero who deserves her; I felt their connection, I got their attraction, I believed their happy ending. Bonus points for the use of setting (wet London) and the relatable dog and cat characters.

PURSUED BY THE ROGUE, Kelly Hunter

Contemporary romance novella, The Fairy Tales of New York 1

For a novella, this punches far above its weight in emotion and character development. It’s also hot and superbly well written and researched. I loved the contemporary NYC setting and the fairy-tale tie-in (The Ugly Duckling) and the characters’ occupations: she’s a genetic researcher; he’s a violinist. This has gone on my Recommend To Everyone list.

Let’s talk reading...

How has your reading year been thus far? Have you been reading more or less than usual? Have you been "off" a certain type of reading—as I've been with historical romance? Have you been glomming a certain genre or sub-genre or author recently?