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2013 was a stellar year for awesome books! I read 100 this year, and my goal is the same (if not more) for 2014.
As we begin a new year, I wanted to share all my 4.5-star and higher rated books from 2013. I'm looking forward to even more great books this year. (click the title to see the full review)
4.5 star
Foreplay, Sophie Jordan
Maggie's Turn, Deanna Lynn Sletten
Finding It, Cora Carmack
Supernova, Elizabeth Sharp
The Hourglass, Sharon Struth
Trusting You, LP Dover
Strength, Carrie Butler
Sisters in Bloom, Melissa Foster
Mystic ~ Melody, Jo Michaels
The Curse Giver, Dora Machado
For Everly, Raine Thomas
The Enchanted, Elaine Cantrell
Sisters in Love, Melissa Foster
Chocolate Fondue, Martha Reynolds
Lion's Head Deception, Chuck Waldron
Marked for Vengeance, SJ Pierce
After Tuesday (These Days #1), Renee Ericson
The Hunter, Monica McCarty
The Beloved Daughter, Alana Terry
The Faerie Prince, Rachel Morgan
The Keeper of Secrets, Julie Thomas
Cooper Moon: The Calling, Cheryl Shireman
Assured Destruction, Michael F. Stewart
The Long Way Home, Mariah Stewart
Traces of Kara, Melissa Foster
Primal, DA Serra
4.75 Stars
Winter Garden, Kristin Hannah
5 Stars
Bittersweet Chocolate, Martha Reynolds
Someone Else's Love Story, Joshilyn Jackson
Warrior Beautiful, Wendy Knight
Blood Draw, Melissa Luznicky Garrett
Mystic ~ Coralie, Jo Michaels
The Faerie War, Rachel Morgan
Courage, Carrie Butler
Borrowed Things, Doris Schneider
Yassa, Jo Michaels
The Disappearing Girl, Heather Topham Wood
The Day After Yesterday, Kelly Cozy
Manuscript Found in Accra, Paulo Coelho
Dark Genesis, Dave Ferraro
Wondertown, Mac Fellows
Rachel Morgan, Melissa Foster, Martha Reynolds, and Jo Michaels (all seen above) made the list more than once. Melissa Foster and Jo Michaels both made the list three times. Few things make me happier than having some go-to authors.
In the last two weeks of December, I read several books that will be officially reviewed over the next two weeks. A couple were 5-star reads. Look for appearances again by Melissa Foster and Jo Michaels (both 5-star reviews) and a new favorite... Juliana Haygert.
Here's to reading in 2014!
From Amazon: Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother?
From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and
True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the
intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the
present and the past.
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One
stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the
other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous
photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find
themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother,
Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only
connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls
at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his
life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus
begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn
Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present,
Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their
mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that
it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe
they are.
Review
Every thread in our life
tapestry is carefully woven from past experiences… love, loss, growth, fears,
and so on. In Winter Garden, Kristin Hannah masterfully weaves together pieces
of the past and present to create an amazing tapestry of one woman’s journey and
how it affected every life she touched.
When the story begins, we
meet Meredith and Nina along with their mother and father. The girls have a very
tense relationship with their mother, the only bonding moments come at night
when the mom tells them what appear to be fairy tales. Their father is the glue
that holds the family together. Before he passes away, he asks the daughters to
not give up on their mother and then asks his wife to finish her story.
And what a story it is. It’s
hard, at first, to like Anya. She comes across as cold and completely detached
from her two daughters. But as her story unfolds, she slowly takes over your
heart. The daughters are resistant and disagree on how to proceed with a mother
that seems to be cracking and disconnecting.
The three women take a
journey toward each other that’s painstaking, powerful, and heartbreaking. I
don’t want to divulge too much about the story within a story, because it has
twists and turns that each reader needs to experience in their own way. It’s
beautiful, touching, and at times draining and depressing. In the beginning, I
held little hope for this family. By the end, my hope was restored.
Poignant and powerful, Winter Garden is a must-read and bound
to be a classic. You will never forget Anya’s story and her resilience to keep
going.
Rating:
4.75 stars
Note:
On Amazon and Goodreads, I will round up to a 5-star rating. The only thing that held me back from a full 5 was the
fact that I read The Book Thief just before this book. Considering the similar
theme, I couldn’t give them both a full 5. However, comparing any book to The
Book Thief just doesn’t seem quite fair, thus the rounding. Had I read this book first, I fully believe it would have been a 5.
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