Happy holidays and happy almost-new-year, folks! Candy and I are going to be away at separate times so you’ll get our answers at different times, but I’m looking for your replies to our year-end survey. I don’t care who had the most brutal celebrity break-up or who was best or worst dressed.
2005 will certainly be remembered for a variety of reasons, not the least of which as the year of the birth of this here web site, and the year in which my awareness of good romance authors expanded to include some great writers, both current and backlist.
But what are your memorable books and reads of the year? Let’s hear it:
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? (Feel free to -gasp!- pimp your own, but please don’t link as the HTML often wonks the comments)
Best cover?
Worst Cover?
Here are a few of my answers:
Best author I discovered
Lani Diane Rich and PC Cast PC Cast is gifted beyond my ability to gush in reworking detailed mythology into hot romance. And Lani Diane Rich writes phrases that stick with me, like how family has the ability to juggle knives over your heart like no other people on earth.
Emma Holly Rwor! Romantic erotica and mythological retelling! Whoo damn!
Scott & Scott’s Romentics – gay romance that is hot, happy, and sexy!
Worst book I read this year
While I picked her as one of the best authors I discovered, I was not at all taken with Emma Holly’s steampunk Yama series, particularly The Demon’s Daughter, which, of course, Candy thought was rather great.
But we both agree: Linda Howard books are to be avoided. Especially when the novel in question features a hero who puts on the condom abou 45 minutes before the action starts. Because they are so comfortable, you know.
Best new books I read
Time Off for Good Behavior and Brighid’s Quest are among best books I’ve read in 2005. No question. Both stuck with me and I could describe the details of each story, and the secondary characters months after I read them – and if I pick them up I start reading them again without skimming.
And if I read the ending of Goddess of Spring again I’ll cry some more.
More coming soon, between diaper changes and naps!
Woohoo! First comment
Best new author: Marianna Jameson. Her My Hero is just fabulous, with a first sex scene that goes bad and is fixed in such a sexy way!
Michael Haldeman-Time, found at a website of the same name. He’s got incredibly m/m short stories and I can’t wait to read his book, but I don’t have it yet. Didn’t get if for Christmas.
Stephanie Vaughan’s great too, also with her own website. She’s got a great femme domme story (Cruel to be Kind) and some smoking m/m stories (Crossing the Line and Jumping the Fence), too.
Best new book: Um, Jenny Crusie’s latest. SEP’s latest. If they were published this year—don’t remember. The books of the above authors, of course.
Book I wish I’d skipped: all the anthologies I still buy but then hardly ever read. They shall remain nameless.
Covers, I don’t care, really. Just keep that snark coming!
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope your families are less….well, just less than mine right now.
Best author you discovered this year – 1.Jennifer Crusie (I know she’s been writing a while, but this year was the first time I read her books)
2.Angela Knight (ditto)
3.Joshilyn Jackson (more general southern fiction than romance, but you said “author”, not “romance author”)
Best new book you read this year –
1. “gods in Alabama”, Joshilyn Jackson
2 & 3. “Faking It” and “Bet Me”, tie for my favorite Crusie books
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead – “Crimson City”, Liz Maverick. It got great reviews, but I got to page 125 and gave up. Maybe I’ll try again someday.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006 – only one?? Ok then, I’m in an Austen mood and will soon reread “Pride and Prejudice”.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
“Between, Georgia”, Joshilyn Jackson
Best cover?
“Bet Me”, Crusie
Worst Cover?
Nothing’s coming to mind. Nothing I’ve read this year has a cover anywhere CLOSE to as bad as the stuff y’all have come up with for the cover snark features.
Best author you discovered this year
JR Ward
Best new book you read this year- Dark Lover (JR Ward) and Robin Schone’s “The Lover” and “Gabriel’s Woman”
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead-The entire “Ghostwalker” series from Christine Feehan and anything that I bought of Suzanne Brockmann and Emma Holly.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
“Dark Lover” (JR Ward), “Dark Highlander” (Karen Marie Moning) and “It Had to Be You” (Susan Elizabeth Phillips)
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? “Eternal Lover” (JR Ward) “When You Love Somebody” (Susan Johnson) and “Dark Side of the Moon” (Sherrilyn Kenyon)
Best cover?
Karen Marie Monings “Highlander Series”
Worst Cover?
I think any Loose ID beats out Changeling Press as far as the suck factor goes.
best books and new author I discovered – Juliette Marillier (her Sevenwater’s trilogy was stunning)
books I wished I’d skipped: the Charlene Harris vampire series – I bought the whole thing after reading the reviews and snoozed through it…everyone loves Sookie – except me.
keeper shelf: All my Jennifer Crusie books – will re-read them with delight in 2006!
Looking forward to: Forbidden Magic by Cheyenne McCray – haven’t read it yet!
Best Cover: Forbidden Magic – it looks so evocative
Worst cover: There are too many to mention – but who judges a book by its cover? LOL!
Best author you discovered this year:
MaryJanice Davidson, PC Cast, Jeff Lindsay (not romance, but I loved his books)
Best new book you read this year: Mr. Impossible, A Brother’s Price, The Perfect Rake.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
The Lady Lies by Samantha Saxon.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Venetia, by Heyer.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Gotta pimp my own, since it is the book I’m looking forward to the most: Captain Sinister’s Lady by Darlene Marshall, March 2006.
Best cover? The Secret Pearl, by Mary Balogh. I like the KISS principle for covers.
Worst Cover? The blow-job one y’all snarked.
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
New Author—J.R. Ward
Old Author I just discovered—Connie Brockway, Loretta Chase
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)—Dark Lover (J.R. Ward), Sex, Lies and Vampires (Katie MacAlister), My Pleasure (Connie Brockway)
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.—Really unusual bad boys—MaryJanice Davidson—I literally shook my fists at the sky and wailed “Whhhhyyy” afterwards (I only work part time so I am very stingy about what I’ll spend my $$ on. To add to it, it was a trade pbk., so it was like 13 bucks in the toilet.)
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006—Published in ‘05, Dark Lover; Older Titles, As You Desire or Dreaming of You
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? Lover Eternal, The Devil in Winter (both March, I’ll be at the Borders door) and Broken (Kelley Armstrong)
Best cover? Undead and Unappreciated or the other one…Unreturnable
Worst Cover? Fish Man and mullet girl from a couple of weeks ago’s snark.
It haunts me.
Best author you discovered this year
Lydia Joyce
Shannon McKenna
Mercedes Lackey
Best new book you read this year
Does new mean a 2005 book or just new to me? If the latter:
Fallen From Grace, by Laura Leone
Shadowheart, by Laura Kinsale
Slightly Dangerous, by Mary Balogh
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
This Is All I Ask, by Lynn Kurland. Actually, I paid nothing for it, because I borrowed it from a friend, but I still resent the hours lost reading it.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
I think Shining Through, by Susan Isaacs. I’ve been meaning to reread it for some time now.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Two, actually. Mary Balogh’s next in the Simply series, Simply Love and the next in Lackey’s 500 Kingdoms series, One Good Knight.
Best new author (to me): Kim Harrison, a good solid writer who gets better with each book. Laura Kinsale, Carla Kelly (I’m that slow…).
Best new book: Lydia Joyce, The Veil of the Night. Bloody brilliant – just what a historical should be and rarely is.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that
$9
£7/$14(yergh) on
a pair of Payless shoes
ingredients for raspberry fudge chocolate cake and baking time instead:
This was the year that so many of my reliable auto-buy authors just didn’t cut it, it’s ridiculous. Or possibly hormones. I’ll spare you the list. Instead, my most recent didn’t-live-up-to-expectations (even though it was more of a meh than dreadful, with flashes of good and a smattering of “that-is-just-so-dumb”s): Cheyenne McCray, Forbidden Magic.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006: CS Lewis, Prince Caspian (already on nightstand), an early Julie Garwood.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? Mercedes Lackey, Wizard of London. Would also love something new by someone I’ve never read that makes me happy to love reading.
Best cover? Dragonwyck by Anya Seton (new edition)
Worst cover? Beyond the realms of Poser it has to be Dark Secret, Christine Feehan. Usually UK editions of la Feehan’s books mercifully save this sort of nonsense for a step-back, but for some reason the editorial powers-that-be decided this time to give us the full-frontal glory in rainbow glitter. Then some romance-despising joker in the bookshop decided to do such a blatant promotion display of this book in the romance section that my normal shameless self was forced to hide in sci-fi/fantasy until they took it away.
Best author you discovered this year:
Wendy Wax (smart up to date, realistic romances featuring women who grow up and find a dishy man to love the new them), Maria Snyder (fantasy), Laura Ann Gilman (urban fantasy – very neat).
Best new book you read this year:
Mr. Impossible
Match Me if You Can
Sharon Shinn’s – Mystic and Rider – I’ve read that one about four times this year.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
The Seduction of an English Scoundrel by Jillian Hunter. Ugh.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006.
Mystic and Rider in preparation for Thirteenth House and followed by Bitten and Stolen in preparation for Broken. Wee
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Best cover? Maria Snyder’s Poison Study. Looks like a painting to me.
Worst Cover? Anything by Zebra. Seriously, enough with the naked men.
Authors – No new romance authors. Outside of the genre – Neal Stephenson, Philippa Gregory – but while I enjoyed them, I haven’t rushed out to buy everything they’ve ever written.
New books – really liked Brockmann’s Hot Target, and it probably is my most reread book this year. Laurie R. Kings’s Locked Rooms. Harry Potter – it’s hard to distinguish the book from the shared experience – but it did what I wanted it to do, and it and the King book contained my two top romantic moments of the reading year.
Book I wish I’d skipped – Evanovich’s Eleven on Top.
Book most likely to be reread – I’ve just started rereading Sayer’s Clouds of Witness, so I might still be on a Sayers kick by the start of the year – I’ll probably reread Locked Rooms and Pratchett’s Thud! at some point, once I’m far enough from the original read.
I’m not sure there’s anything in 2006 I’m eagerly anticipating – I’m useless at knowing what is going to be released when. I like Stephen’s blog (Wenlock) so I’m hoping he’ll be published soon, and I’ll buy whatever Terry Pratchett publishes.
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
JR Ward, PC Cast
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
Dark Lover, JR Ward
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
The Christine Feehan one set on a ranch. Can’t remember the title.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
JR Ward’s new one.
And my first novel, Fallen to Earth comes out in March from Triskelion(but that kind of makes me feel terrified so I’m not sure it qualifies as something I’m looking forward to)
Best cover?
My cover on the Winter Wishes Anthology, WCP Torrid
Worst Cover?
That one with the little Christmas elf girl freaked me out.
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
This was really my year to discover the contemporary. Until August, I’d read pretty much only historicals.
1. Thanks to this here site, I discovered Jennifer Crusie! How do I love her – there are too many damn ways to count!
2. Mary Janice Davidsen – yes, I love the Betsy books. They’re hilarious and Sinclair is divine.
3. Jennifer St Giles – one of my few new finds in historicals. American setting, slightly Gothic – it was a nice change.
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
I’ll assume this is published in 2005 …
1. Kiss Me, Annabel – I’m really glad that Eloisa James is writing historicals. This book was so much fun and really avoided the world of clichés that has become historical romance.
2. Undead and Unappreciated – As I said, I like my Betsy books! I enjoyed this one since Betsy had to come to Sinclair
3. After Midnight – Teresa Medeiros always writes something fun and sexy, and this was a great twist on the vampire legend.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
Sin and Sensibility by Suzanne Enoch – I hated this book. The heroine was an idiot, the hero an ass – they deserved each other, but I didn’t need to read about it.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
I’ll definitely reread Welcome to Temptation (my favorite Crusie) and most of Connie Brockway’s – definitely All Through the Night and My Pleasure
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? (Feel free to -gasp!- pimp your own, but please don’t link as the HTML often wonks the comments)
Don’t Look Down – Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Best cover? I like the cover to SEP’s Match Me if You Can, though I haven’t read it yet.
Worst Cover? Nothing can compete with what I’ve seen here.
Best author you discovered this year
Andre Dubus
Marcel Proust
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(I know, I know only one of them is even alive I think.)
Best new book you read this year
(I’m also assuming you mean 2005 published books.)
The Angel of Forgetfulness – Steve Stern
Pigtopia – Kitty Fitzgerald
The Hummingbird’s Daughter – Luis Alberto Urrea
Book you wish you’d skipped over
Hero’s Song: The First Song of Eirren – Edith Pattou
Nothing but a badly plotted re-tread of LOTR as a YA fantasy novel. Riddled with cliches and eye-rolling contrivances. Blech, blech, blech!
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Just about any Lisa Kleypas. Then Came You maybe. Even her bad ones are on my keeper shelf. (romance)
Most anticipated 2006 release
It’s a toss up between Memory in Death by J.D. Robb and Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. (romance)
Best Cover
Elphame’s Choice – P.C. Cast (romance)
Worst Cover
The Guardian of Eternity – Belinda Palmer (romance)
Sends me into fits of laughter, even now.
Best new book(s):
Right now I’m reading and loving a YA by Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty
I love MaryJanice Davidson and her Undead books, so any new Betsy book is fun
It’s not romance, but Kris Radish’s Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn is magic
Book I wished I’d skipped:
I think it’s incredibly bad Karma for an author to trash another author, so I will not name names, but I will say that I’m incredibly tired of heroines who try too damn hard to be funny and end up sounding silly and way too young. I’m also so done with virgins who manage to lose their virginity while having multiple orgasms and fucking multiple times during the deflowering, and then get up the next day and go on about their business like they feel just fine, or are maybe a little ‘sore in a special place.’ Please. Just please.
Book off my keeper shelf I’ll reread:
Definitely Tanith Lee’s Sliver Metal Lover. I know it doesn’t have a traditional romance HEA, but I still think it qualifies. The ending is satisfying. And I do snot cry over it. Every time.
Book(s) I’m looking forward to being released:
I can’t wait to read Jeri Smith-Ready’s new series for LUNA, Eyes of the Crow (anyone read Requiem for the Devil?? Amazing book!)
I’ll also pimp my own – I can’t wait for my February Goddess Summoning Book, Goddess of the Rose. It’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which is my favorite fairytale. I’m also looking forward to The House of Night, my new YA series I’m coauthoring with my fab daughter.
And, Sarah F, I give my solemn word that the Mysteria anthology I’m in (Berkley, July 06) will NOT disappoint you. This is the first Berkley anthology that has ever been author driven and author created. It does not suck. Promise. If you don’t like it email me and I’ll personally refund your money.
Best Cover:
Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty
Worst Cover:
You Bitches always find covers that burn my retinas. That last fairy one scared the shit right out of me. Well done.
Best author I discovered this year: Robert Ruark
Best new book I read this year: The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper
Book I wish I’d skipped over: N/A (I’m picky about what I read and even pickier about what I buy, so I never regret)
Book off my keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006: something by Jane Austen
Book coming out in 2006 I’m most looking forward to: actually, unless it’s my boyfriend’s yet unfinished war novel or the next Harry Potter book, I’m not looking forward to reading anything new next year; I’m bent on reading every book on the banned list, and they’re mostly old books.
Best cover? As a cover artist, I recuse myself from answering this question.
Worst cover? See above.
*Correction* Best book of the year: Did I say Veil of the Night? Oops. Meant Music of the Night. Veil was the first book Lydia Joyce published and while it has a lot of promise, Music really delivers.
Clearly, eating my bodyweight in roast potatoes, parsnips and bread sauce has done nothing for my brain function.
And yay! for this quiz which has given me more names to hunt down and read.
best new author: Madison Hayes
best book: Miss April by Madison Hayes
book I wished I’d skipped : The Davinci Code
best cover: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
worst cover: Anything with poser on it
Best author you discovered this year
Philippa Gregory
Vicki Lewis Thompson
Yeah, they’ve been around a while, but I’m a little behind on my reading. And I have the tbr mountain to prove it.
Best new book you read this year
Tough call. Probably “The Borgia Bride†by Joanna Impossible-Greek-Last-Name-Beginning-With-K.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless Shoes instead
A tie:
“The Tiara Club†by Beverley Brandt.
“What to Keep†by Mary Schramski
And it sickens me to say so, too. I like both these authors pretty well, but I hated both of these books.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
I just found an old copy of Scruples and will probably pull it out for a Billy Ikehorn fix.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
That Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer joint project. Also Bella Andre’s novel—I read a novella of hers that melted my panties.
I got a lot of B&N giftcards in my stocking this year and, at this rate, you bitches are going to help me spend them all.
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
Lyda Morehouse
Linnea Sinclair
Christie Golden
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
The World Before by Karen Traviss
The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
In Camelot’s Shadow by Sarah Zettel
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Imajica by Clive Barker
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to? (Feel free to -gasp!- pimp your own, but please don’t link as the HTML often wonks the comments)
Matriarch by Karen Traviss
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best new author:
Only 3? OK: PC Cast, Lynn Kurland (not new, but new to me), and Katie MacAlister would be the top three.
Best new book:
Sins of the Night – S. Kenyon
Goddess By Mistake – PC Cast
Black Dahlia – Nora Roberts
Book I wish I paid the $ for a new pair of shoes:
Temptress – Lisa Jackson (I shudder to recall it and I just read it)
Best cover:
Most assuredly Karen Marie Moning’s Spell of the Highlander
Worst Cover:
Everything you guys put on this site and anything published by Ellora’s Cave usually has a hideous cover.
What I’m Looking Forward to Reading in 2006:
The next Sherrilyn Kenyon
Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton (every time I swear I’ll stop reading them and she just sucks me back in)
Whatever Nora has planned for ‘06
Keepers I Plan to Re-Read:
That’s a tough one. I’ll probably skim through my Sherrilyn’s after reading the new one. I tend to grab Holding the Dream by Nora whenever I need a fix from an oldie but goodie.
Very cool survey, y’all! My shopping list runneth over. 🙂
Best Authors I Discovered This Year: Sarah Zettel, Susan Carroll, Anne Kelleher
Best New Book I Read This Year:
In Camelot’s Shadow, by Sarah Zettel
For Camelot’s Honor, by Sarah Zettel
The Dark Queen, by Susan Carroll
Book I Wish I’d Skipped Over: Top honors go to Savannah Russe’s Beyond the Pale. Unfortunately, far too many books I bought this year run a close second.
Book Off Your Keeper Shelf Most Likely To Be Read in 2006: Lord of Scoundrels, by Loretta Chase
What Book Coming Out in 2006 Am I Most Looking Forward To?
The Silver Rose, by Susan Carroll
Under Camelot’s Banner, by Sarah Zettel
The Barbed Rose, by Gail Dayton
Best Cover: Susan Carroll’s Dark Queen series & Most LUNAs.
Worst Cover: More than this site could post.
Best author: Jane Austen…I know, I know. I’d never read her, though. Also, Val McDermid for the psychological thrillers.
Best book: For romance, it was something Scottish by Jude Devareaux that I can’t remember because it was the library’s. For not romance, it was Oranges Aren’t the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.
Worst book: Improper Pursuits by Dawn Ryder. It was like they took a 400 page book and took it down to 150 pages for all of the jumping around with no consistency. If it weren’t an ebook, I would have sworn it was a printing error.
The one that rides again? Most likely something out of Chyenne McCray’s Wonderland series. I liked all of them but the last one.
Best cover: Every Breath You Take by Judith McNaught
Worst cover: The Huntress that y’all snarked. The octopus sex with the clammy-looking lizard man is just so very wrong. Added to that, the printing with little balls on the end looks like they let the sorority gift shop lady do it the way she does acrylic picture frames.
Best author you discovered this year
Loretta Chase
Robin Schone
Suzanne Brockmann (I surprised myself. I thought I’d hate her but I found her books rollicking good reads)
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
Mr Impossible
The Ladies Tutor
Non romance and non fiction Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation (literary true crime, same same style as the Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. Moving and enraging.)
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
Addicted by Zane (about as erotic as a dead fish)
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich (read like an outline she hadn’t fleshed out)
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Faking it Jenny Crusie
Miss Wonderful Loretta Chase (already read Mr I twice)
Someone mentioned reading Dorothy Sayers which would be good to do along with Margery Allingham and her Mr Campion series.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Another in the Death series, a couple mentioned here I didn’t know about like Mary Balogh’s latest, anything by SEP, Anne Gracie’s follow up to The Perfect Rake called the Perfect Waltz.
Best cover?
I like the Cruise covers with the litte dogs and cup cakes. Generally I like non figurative covers. So much can go wrong with figures as you so vividly display.
Worst Cover?
Most of what you have here but I particularly hate the about to get a blow job pose. All I can think about is sore knees.
Best author I discovered this year:
Emily Giffin
Best new books I read this year:
If published before 2005:
The Safe-Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn
Again by Kathleen Gilles Seidel
“A House East of Regent Street” by Pam Rosenthal (a novella that apppeared in Stangers in the Night)
If published in 2005:
Black Ice by Anne Stuart
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
[Disclaimer: I have been hoarding Sharon Shinn’s The Truth-Teller’s Tale since it came out, though I plan to read it soon. Based on past experience with Shinn’s books, and especially given how much I loved The Safe-Keeper’s Secret, there’s a good chance that The Truth-Teller’s Tale will end up being my favorite book of the year.]
Thanks to paperbackswap.com and review sites like this one, I don’t waste money on bad books these days… not that there’s any book bad enough to make me wish I’d spent $9 at Payless Shoes.
Book off my keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006:
Too many to choose from. I’m a big rereader.
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Too hard to pick just one, but here’s the short list:
Cold as Ice by Anne Stuart
The Dream-Maker’s Magic by Sharon Shinn
Sex as a Second Language by Alisa Kwitney
Best cover?
The Dark Queen by Susan Carroll
Worst Cover?
I try not to look at them.
Best author you discovered this year:
3 is a terrible limit, because I’ve discovered more new authors this past year than in the 3 previous combined . . . so picking almost randomly amongst the dozen or so . . .
Nancy Martin (former romance author turned mystery writer), Jennifer Cruisie, Barbara Cleverly
Best new book you read this year:
Laurie King’s Locked Rooms, hands down. This book sang to me.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
I can’t seem to get into the Kelley Armstrong paranormals, sadly enough.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
Heyer’s The Grand Sophy and Frederica (I read them at least once a year).
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
Laurie R. King’s new Kate Martinelli, The Art of Detection
Best cover? No opinion there
Worst Cover? I’ve never seen anything as bad as what y’all post here, except for one m/m gay romance cover that was really just very funny.
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3) <- Good thing!
Jennifer Crusie
Jasper Pforde
Kim Harrison
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
The Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Pforde
Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
Minion, LA Banks
It’s like a negative appeal checklist: 22 pages of I’m wearing, he’s wearing, she’s wearing… Check!
Politically correct? Check!
Inconsequential chatter? Check!
Purple prose, obscurity, and cliches? Check!
Lots of hype, little or no action? Check!
A non-sexual vampire mythology and interaction? Check!
Do I have a new least fave book? Check! I only finished it to see if it could possibly stay that flat and bland throughout.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
I’m a chronic re-reader, but definately Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
The Cell, Stephen King
the next Kim Harrison
Best cover?
Fantasy: Christine Feehan et al (collection)
Worst Cover?
The Dara Joy cover of That Familiar Touch was horrifying, but I stumbled across one that I truly believe is the worst yet: Blood & Soul 1 Vampire Master by Kate Hill. The guy looks dead from a combination of jaundice and mange, and his cardboard cutout vixen seems to have given him papercuts. (what can I say? I majored in art. Visual graphics are important to me.)
Best author you discovered this year (Ok, you can name up to 3)
– Marsha Canham
– Celeste Bradley
– Anne Stuart
Best new book you read this year (again, top 3)
* Nice – Jen Sacks
* Midnight Harvest – Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
* Heart of Deception – Taylor Chase
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
Book off your keeper shelf most likely to be read in 2006
*Dark Lover – JR Ward
*As You Desire – Connie Brockway (yes, it’s terribly old)
What book coming out in 2006 are you most looking forward to?
* new Kim Harriosn
* Broken – Kelley Armstrong
* Memories in Death – JD Robb
* new Anne Stuart
* Kushiel’s Scion – Jacqueline Carey
And I won’t name anymore, ‘cause you’re likely bored by now.
Darn it, I missed this one.
Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.
I can’t decide between L. A. Bank’s “Minion” and Christine Feehan’s Dark Secret