Year In Review 2012: The Honorable Mentions

Rounding out the good reads I encountered in 2012 is this batch of what I'm calling Honorable Mentions.  To devise this list, I went back through the books I rated a B or B+ and jotted down the titles that jumped out at me.  Sometimes a book gets a B because it's a good, solid read that I enjoy while I'm reading it - but it doesn't necessarily "stick" with me months after the fact.  These were the titles that "stuck" as I was cruising through my spreadsheet.

Title links will take you to full reviews

Edge Of Night by Jill Sorenson (2011) - Romantic suspense

•  I don't read a ton of romantic suspense mostly because I recognize I can be hypercritical of the genre.  This book by Sorenson was a really good read.  It had a solid suspense thread, interesting characters, and enough grisly bits to keep me flipping the pages.  I also really appreciated that she wrote a Southern California setting in a factual, recognizable way.  Yes folks, there are ::gasp:: characters who aren't white in this book (including the heroine)!

Unexpected Family by Molly O'Keefe (2012) - Contemporary category romance

•  Talking about O'Keefe's single titles was the new black last year, so I'm tossing this one in not only because I really liked it - but to remind everybody that she also writes really good category romances too!  This is book two in a duet, and it was great to revisit the characters I fell in love with over the course of book one.  Sassy heroine hiding a secret, an overwhelmed hero who inherits the care of his three nephews and is failing in the Super Surrogate Dad department, and a lovely secondary romance featuring an older couple.

Forward Passes by Jami Davenport (2012 - digital only) - Contemporary romance

• Damn, I'm really hooked on this series featuring a fictional Seattle-based American football team.  This second book features the team's star quarterback, a hero who has built his reputation around the fact that he's seemingly a cocky asshole.  Although turns out our bad boy really has a mushy, vulnerable soft side.  He's paired up with a heroine who has a notoriously unpleasant track record with "jock" men.  The author is working on a third book in this series - can't wait!

Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain (2012) - Suspense

•  Fifth book in the suspense series featuring a female serial killer and her twisted relationship with a homicide detective.  Cain is a spare writer, which is honestly how I like my suspense reads these days (God, I'm beginning to loathe "filler") and the back-story tidbits she teases out about Gretchen over the course of this story were really great.  Also loved Claire and Henry in this book, although I swear Archie made a "relationship" choice in this book that has me questioning his sanity.

The Gin Lovers (serial - Part I &II, III, IV, V, VI) by Jamie Brenner (2012) - Note: print version of entire serial due out in February 2013 - Historical soap opera with some eroticism fiction

• OK, so I might have started screaming as I finished the final installment of this serial, but up until that point I was hooked on this sudsy soap opera set in New York City in the 1920s.  Jazz music, Prohibition, an unhappy society wife, a unfaithful husband harboring a Big Secret, and a reckless flapper sister-in-law.  In hindsight, and time to adjust to the way the serial "ended" - I realize that this really was one of my more memorable reads of the year.  I really, really, really wish romance publishers would get on board with early 20th century settings.  It's an amazing time period not only in history, but specifically women's history.  (And yes, I realize that World War I was a downer - but I'm talking social history folks....)

And those were some more memorable reads I encountered in 2012.  My final Year In Review post will be a recap of my TBR Challenge reading, with another chance to remind you all that it's never too late to sign up for the challenge in 2013!