Category Feature Posts

Dec 16 2014
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Top Ten Books I Read in 2014!

top ten tuesday

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Oh my gosh – two TTT’s in a row! I was seriously slacking in the blogging department this week (I blame the holidays… and finals). On the bright side, at least my two lists are related. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is look back and figure out which books totally rocked my world. This year, these books were so good they kind of made my decision for me…

Top Ten Books I Read in 2014!

One of my resolutions for 2014 was to “read the best books first,” and based on the killer titles on this list, I’d say I definitely achieved my goal! Last year I chose a top adult and a top young adult novel, but these titles were all so amazing that I couldn’t bring myself to pick just one of each. Many of these books have become my favorites EVER within their respective genres. Yeah, they were that good!

What were the best books YOU read this year?

By Niki Hawkes

Dec 9 2014
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Top Ten New-to-Me Authors in 2014!

top ten tuesday

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I read a ton of killer books this year, some of which are now among my all-time favorites!

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors in 2014!

You might notice that almost all of them are teen books. I did read a disproportionate number of them this year, but the reason there aren’t many fantasy, sci-fi, or urban fantasies on this list is because I’ve been focused on finishing out series I’d already started. That’s not to say there aren’t still some great books here – The Girl of Fire and Thorns is easily my new favorite teen fantasy and Not a Drop to Drink is also way up on my list of dystopians. I am also in love with Perfected and The Lies of Locke Lamora and… well, all of them lol.

What new authors did you read this year?

Dec 1 2014
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Top Ten New Book Releases in Early 2015!

top ten tuesday

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

There are so many good books coming out next year that I can hardly stand it. I better ask for book money for Christmas…

Top Ten New Book Releases in Early 2015!

I am excited for all of these! The Ruby Circle is the conclusion to the Bloodlines series by my all time favorite author, so that takes priority, but all of these others will have to duke it out for 2nd place. All I can say is, 2015 is going to rock!

What books are you anticipating in 2015?

Nov 30 2014
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Stacking the Shelves: October/November 2014!

Stacking the shelves

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

 Even though I brought home some titles last month, I never got around to composing a Stacking the Shelves post, so lucky you, here’s two months in one! ;-)

 Hardcopies:

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 Considering I have just these six books to show for two whole months of book buying, I think I’m doing pretty good at moderating my spending. Oh, wait… I forgot about:

Vegas Valley Book Festival 2014:

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Hee hee. All signed! Although, I’d like to clarify that I only actually purchased four of these at the festival itself and of been slowly collecting the others over the past six months. Still, they feel like brand-new books! The two authors I was most excited to meet were Mindy McGinnis and Amy Tintera:

Yeah, I totally fangirled… It was awesome! I enjoyed meeting all of the authors and listening to them talk about their books on panel. Even though I read most of the books on my list before attending, I didn’t get a chance to read them all. Next year I have the best intentions to read them all, and I’m also getting my mom involved, so between the two of us will have talking points for everyone we meet at VVBF 2015!

 Library Books:

  I’ve hung onto Reboot longer than I intended, but I’m kind of saving it for a rainy day. I’m also super excited to pick up The Merchant Emperor by Elizabeth Haydon – it has been several years in the making.

Not too bad for a haul, eh? I have to admit that even though I’ve been more conservative this year than in any year prior, I’m still behind in my, Read 4, Buy 1 Challenge, and it’s not looking too good for me to catch up by the end of the year. The bulk purchases made at that awesome used Seattle bookstore and the ones at the Vegas Valley book Festival are what did me in. Oh yeah, and four of the six books I’ve purchased in the last two months outside of those events were bought yesterday with my nifty Barnes & Noble 30% off coupons… I’m screwed LOL. Before that, I was only four books behind (if we don’t include the bulk purchases… which I’m not). In any case, I’m still showing progress and I wager next year will be even better! 

 What books did you bring home this month?

by Niki Hawkes

Nov 26 2014
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Top Ten Books on My Winter TBR!

top ten tuesday

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

These TBR lists are easily my favorite lists we do throughout the year – mostly because I love the process of picking out which books to read next. Sometime last year I realized I was spending a lot of time on books I wasn’t enjoying and avoiding the ones I knew I would love because I was “saving them” for a rainy day. Since then, I’ve been actively working on my goal to only read the best books first – life is just too dang short to do anything else. With that in mind, I look at these lists as a helpful aid in figuring out which books I’m currently most excited for, and consider it a badge of pride if I pick up at least half of them before the next TBR list.

Top Ten Books on My Winter TBR!

Not a bad list, eh? If you can’t tell, I am in a very strong high fantasy mood, in part because they are awesome, but mostly because I have finally reached my limit on YA novels (at least for now). There are so many good ones on this list I couldn’t even tell you which one I’m going to pick up first. Right now, I’m leaning towards The Merchants Emperor, but that could easily change by this afternoon!

What books are on your list?

By Niki Hawkes

Nov 17 2014
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Top Ten Sequels on My Winter Horizon!

top ten tuesday

I know I’ve altered the topic this week a little bit (heck, I can even remember what it was originally supposed to be), but I did so with good reason – there’s another list coming up in a couple of weeks that would’ve been practically identical to this one had I not changed things up a bit. Anyway, I decided to only include second books in a series. I don’t know about you, but I rarely read books in series back to back, so I have dozens of book twos I’ve been needing to get around to – some of which I’m confident are going to be amazing!

Top Ten Sequels on My Winter Horizon!

 There’s a couple of sequels here that I’ve been sitting on for several years… I loved the first books to all of them, so I’m not really sure what my problem is. Perhaps the issue is that I was much further along in too many other series to focus on these. I do tends to want to read ALL THE BOOKS, which creates a delightful mess of reading ADD. I think I am most excited to read The Dagger’s Path coming out January 13th (my birthday!), but it looks like I have plenty of excellent sequels to keep me occupied until then. :-) 

 What sequels have you been meaning to read?

by Niki Hawkes