My Favorite Reads of 2010

I can't believe 2011 is almost here! It seems like just yesterday I was trying out my new kindle and dreaming of all the new books I was going to read on it :)

2010 is the first year I've (mostly) kept track of my reading. I read approximately 195 books (my list has a few blank spots I'm not sure about, lol), and all in all it was a great year of reading. Here are a few of my favorites (they were not necessarily published in 2010, that's just the year I read them in!):

Contemporary:

Alice Clayton's Redhead series:
OMG if you haven't read them yet, what are you waiting for?!?
Witty, funny, awesome.


Deirdre Martin's New York Blades hockey series:
Between Deirdre Martin and Rachel Gibson I'm such a hockey fan,
never mind I've never actually seen a game!!


Rachel Gibson's Chinooks hockey series:
Two words: Yum, yum!!


And One Last Thing... by Molly Harper:
I love her "Nice Girls Don't" series and had high hopes for
her first contemporary - I was not disappointed, it was
laugh-out-loud funny!

Paranormal Romance:

Shift/Alpha by Rachel Vincent:
I have loved this series from the beginning,
and the end did not disappoint. One of my all-time
fave PNR series.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs:
This series just keeps getting better and better...



Lydia Dare's Werewolf series:
Overall I really enjoy this series - these wolves are sexy alphas and the ladies
are no shrinking violets! I'm looking forward to the next books in the series.



Crimson Moon by JA Saare:
I know, I know: her other novel, Dead, Undead, or Somewhere In Between
seems to be the fave out in bloglandia, but I liked Crimson Moon better.



Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews:
I thought On the Edge (book 1) was pretty good,
but Bayou Moon blew me away! Abso-freakin'-lutely amazing!

Urban Fantasy:

Carolyn Crane's Disillusionist series:
Words cannot describe how awesome these books are!
They ramp up my already abnormal social paranoia and
make me think about song lyrics in elevators :)


Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series:
It took me a bit to get into it, but I have succumbed to Terrible fever!
I cannot wait to see what happens next!



Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews:
Awesome - totally, amazingly awesome!
She gave me all I wanted in this book and more!

Sci Fi:

Gini Koch's Alien series:
Who knew I even liked alien romance?
I never would have guessed it, but I do!

Young Adult:

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater:
Loved this book - it grabbed me and held on tightly.
A fabulous read.




Perfect Chemistry/Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles:
Loved these books - I'm such a fan of the bad boy/good girl storyline
and Ms. Elkeles writes it so well!

Erotic:

Dirty by Megan Hart:
I love this book. 'Nuff said.



Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas:
I loved this book - it was so fucked up that I just
couldn't look away (trust me that's a compliment).



Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning:
This book gives a whole new meaning to the phrase
"banging out a song". So. Freakin'. Hot.

In looking over this list, I see didn't rate them all 5 stars. For whatever reason, though, they stayed with me and when I reviewed the list these are the ones I paused at and thought "yeah...." I also noticed no historical romance made the list (except Lydia Dare's werewolf books) - I haven't been able to get into a historical romance in months.


I joined several challenges this year: Vampire Reading Challenge, Erotic Reading Challenge, JD Robb In Death Challenge, Contemporary Romance Challenge, New Author Challenge, and M/M Challenge. I failed the JD Robb challenge miserably. I read the first two books and just couldn't continue. I just couldn't get into them; it was an effort to finish book 2 so I just gave up. I did finish and surpass my other challenges, but somewhere along the way (before June, I think), I quit keeping track and marking my posts with the appropriate challenge. So for 2011 I'm not joining any challenges because they're apparently too much for me to keep up with.

2011 has some great books coming up and I'm looking forward to reading as many as I can:

Wishing you all health, happiness, and fabulous reading for 2011!!!