Reading Year in Review 2018

I think we all can agree that 2018 was a dumpster fire of a year and yet, somehow, I managed to get through 95 books.  My reading goal is always 100, so while I did fall short, 95 is the most I've managed to get through since 2014 (when I read an incredible 119).  Here's how it all broke down (and yes, I count DNFs):

5 Stars (A Grade) = 7

4 Stars (B Grade) = 27

3 Stars (C Grades, includes some "low B-") = 38

2 Stars (D Grades) = 10

1 Star (F Grades) = 3

DNF (Did Not Finish) = 10

Audiobooks = 28

My A grades were up this year (although pretty consistent from previous years - I rarely assign 5-Stars in the double digits), my DNFs were up a smidge, my audiobook numbers were down (shorter work commute after I moved last year!), and my C grades outpaced my B grades (which is not great).  But, I'll take it.  This was the most productive reading year I've had in a dog's age.

Now, for what everybody cares about: the books!  A reminder that this is a recap of what I loved and read during 2018, but not necessarily books published in 2018.  I'm perpetually behind, so most of my Best Of list will be books that will, hopefully, be lurking in TBRs already or easy to score at your local library.

Note: Title links will take you to full reviews

The Romance:

Burn Down the Night (2016) and Wait For It (2017) by Molly O'Keefe - After not a single romance garnered an A grade from me in 2017, I vowed to start off 2018 on the right foot - with an author who consistently works for me.  The final two books in a quartet series, Burn Down the Night gives me the closest thing I've read to a true Bad Girl Heroine in the genre and Wait For It is an example of an Asshole Hero done right.  I didn't read these books so much as inhale them.

Breathe (2016) by L. Setterby - My contest judging this year was largely meh, but holy hell where has this book been all my life?!  A perfect example of starting a book, reading the first sentence, and just falling head over feet right into the world.  I'm so hooked that I downloaded the Wattpad app to read the next book in the series (still being released in weekly installments as I write up this post).

An Extraordinary Union (2017) by Alyssa Cole - A historical romance with legit high stakes conflict.  I loved this heroine so much I'm thinking of taking the Gone Fishin' sign off of my ovaries.

The Tycoon's Socialite Bride (2014) by Tracey Livesay - Here it is, the best category romance I read this year.  Livesay hit all her emotional beats, right on time.  I loved the heroine's family baggage and the hero bent on revenge but not needlessly cruel (although this one does rip your guts out in parts).  Don't think you like category romance?  Try this one.  It's damn near magical.

Indigo (1996) by Beverly Jenkins - Arguably the book that Jenkins is best known for, and it's easy to see why.  She puts so much into this story, addressing racism, colorism, and sexism, without preaching from the pulpit or losing sight of the romance.  Also, I've always felt that Jenkins' strength (well, besides her dynamite heroines) is her world-building.  The community she creates in this story, using the Underground Railroad as a backdrop, was so well done.

The Soldier Prince (2018) by Aarti V. Raman - This is my cracktastic read of the year, basically a category romance about a former Black Ops-style soldier, who is really a prince, who falls in love with a struggling college student waiting tables in a New York City deli.  This one is full of ALL THE TROPES and I couldn't get enough of it.  Raman needs to publish the next book in this series, like, yesterday.

Delicious Temptation (2015) by Sabrina Sol - Believable baggage (seriously, families can be the worst), and I loved the East LA family bakery backdrop.  Is it because I live in southern California and know the area?  Maybe.  Because Sol writes it so very well.  My runner up for best category read of the year.

Not Romance, Still Awesome:

The Broken Girls (2018) by Simone St. James - It's to the point now where I'm a squee'ing unreasonable fangirl for Simone St. James, but seriously, I loved this one.  A time slip novel with converging 1950 and 2014 plot treads and a nice "romantic elements" secondary thread involving the 2014 heroine and her cop boyfriend.  

Grant (2017) by Ron Chernow - A long book (47 hours on audio!), this one is worth the time investment.  Grant's life exemplifies the old "truth is stranger than fiction" adage.  That this man, basically a failure is every other aspect of his life, defeated the Confederacy, saved the Union, and became President is simply remarkable.  This is my new Read A Book Already book.  Plus, I learned stuff.  Which is always nice when reading non-fiction.

Jane Doe (2018) by Victoria Helen Stone - The revenge thriller I didn't know I needed.  A cool, methodical heroine who exacts her revenge against the worst sort of hypocritical DudeBro.  I loved every blessed minute of it.

Charlesgate Confidential (2018) by Scott Von Doviak - A crime novel set in Boston with three converging timelines. It did take a while for me to sink into this story and I did have to read about the damn Red Sox way too much for my liking, but this one is excellent.  Excellent world building.  Excellent mystery.  Interesting characters.  It kept me guessing all the way to the end.

Comfort Read/Author of 2018:

Marcia Muller - Every reader I know has what they call "comfort reading."  Either a favorite book or author, maybe a favorite genre.  For me, that's mystery.  I fell in love with reading via mysteries.  I devoured them as a teen, so there's a really high nostalgia factor at play here.  Given what a mess 2018 was, it's probably not surprising that I read 14 books in the Sharon McCone series this year.  I got through books 3 - 15 and one short story collection this year, in a mix of audio and print.  Technically these were all rereads for me, revisiting books I first read or listened to on audio as a teenager and in my early 20s.  Yes, some held up better than others, but the world building! The character arcs! I wanted to read more in the series this year, but other obligations have kept me from them.  I plan to pick up again with book 16 in 2019.

And that's my Year In Review for 2018.  I'm quite pleased with myself, but continue to hope for bigger and better in 2019.  The goal, once again, is 100 books.  Let's see if I make it.

Review: Delicious Temptation

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Readers Are Nuts.  Case in point, despite Sabrina Sol being a local author and despite picking up this book during a 99 cent promotional sale, I let Delicious Temptation languish in my TBR because, to be honest, it features a theme I'm generally not wild about: Best Friend's Little Sister.  The big brother always thunders around like a jackass and there's a paternalistic vibe to the theme that tends to bother me.  So why, when Sol's take on this theme features some of the same stuff that has annoyed me in other books, did I inhale this story in a matter of hours?  Let's see if I can talk my way through the conundrum.

Amara Robles had just accepted a job as a pastry chef at a Chicago area resort when her parents summoned her home.  Her father has injured his back and they need Amara to run the family bakery.  Being the quintessential good Mexican-American daughter, Amara comes home to East LA.  The problem is bigger than her father's bad back however - the bakery is in trouble.  Sales are slumping, customers are few, and her parents are resistant to all of Amara's suggestions to turn the bakery around.  Why?  Because a few years ago they loaned her money to start her own business in downtown L.A. and...it flopped.

Eric Valencia was her brother's BFF in high school and the local bad boy.  The kind of boy mothers told their daughters to stay away from, the kind of boy always pulling her brother into scrapes much to her mother's horror.  After leaving town 12 years ago without a word, he's back to help his mother take care of his ailing grandmother.  A recovering alcoholic, he's also taking the opportunity to work on Step 8 ("making amends") and shows up at the Robles' bakery with a letter for Miguel.  Who he sees instead is Amara who va-va-va-voom is all grown up now.  But she's too good for the likes of him, and worse still?  Everybody knows it.  Well, except for Amara, who is beyond frustrated with her parents and feeling trapped by her good girl reputation.

With older books like this one that I'm just now getting around to reading, I'll go back and read other reviews from readers who aren't horrible procrastinators.  The general consensus by some is that the characters read like teenagers, not grown adults in their mid-to-late 20s.  I can "see" where they're coming from even though I think they missed the point entirely.  What small town contemporary fans sometimes fail to acknowledge is that you can create that "community" vibe in urban settings.  That's what Sol has done here - setting her romance in East LA, where a lot of the story takes place in a bakery that's been part of the community for generations.  Yes, it's a city - but it's a neighborhood where everybody knows everybody.  They support each other, attend church together, their kids all go to the same schools - it's exactly like a small town where once you get pigeon-holed it's next to impossible to break free.  Everybody expects you to play your role until the day you die - so once a good girl and bad boy, always a good girl and a bad boy.

This story is about two people bristling at the bonds and expectations others have placed on them, and yet they're both still too scared and vulnerable to tell everybody to go pound sand. Nice girls like Amara don't tell their parents to get bent.  When your best friend tells you not to mess around with his "nice girl" sister?  You listen.  Well, you try to listen but dang, the insta-lust is so intense and she's more than willing - I mean, a guy can only resist so much.

I woke up early on a Sunday morning, started this book, and finished it by lunch time. It all spins out the way you'd expect, with the characters keeping the relationship on the down-low and telling each other it's "just sex" until pesky feelings end up getting in the way.  Then they both have to admit to themselves, and to each other, how they really feel.  It makes for some good tension and very well done "fight scenes."

Sol does a very good job hitting her emotional beats, and for category romance fans I'd probably put this one in the same universe as a Harlequin Blaze.  There's plenty of spicy love scenes to warm you up on a cold winter's night.  But what really worked for me in this romance was the well-drawn setting, the community feel, and one of my favorite themes ever - that is characters who are stuck in their pasts, desperately trying to break free.  That's what Eric and Amara are trying to do at the start of this story, and they end up getting there, together, by the end.

Final Grade = B+