Annual Round-up of Books 2019
Dec. 22nd, 2019 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyIt's that time of year again. I suppose I might manage another book, maybe even two between now and New Year's Eve. If I do, I'll edit and add. I managed 80 books this year, a figure I'm well pleased with, having only pledged to read 50 in the Goodreads Challenge. I bounced off a further 9, but it wouldn't be fair to list them here as it's probably just because of the mood I was in at the time. A couple are by authors I really rate, so I'll go back and try them again when I have time.
This year's standout books for me get a special mention. I loved Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon. I loved all the Sebastien de Castell books, particularly the four Greatcoats volumes. On the strength of those I finished his Spellslinger series as well, which I liked, but not as much as Greatcoats. As always I grabbed all Jodi Taylor's new St Mary's stories (novels and shorts) as they came out, and there's another due on Christmas Day. These are about a bunch of disaster-prone historians travelling in time to verify historical facts. There was Fallen, a new Alex Verus book out by Benedict Jacka. These are also buy-on-sight for me. I was looking forward to the new Leigh Bardugo's first adult novel, Ninth House, but I didn't find it any more 'adult' than Six of Crows, which I adore. I think the American college campus setting didn't sit as well with me as her second-world fantasies. Kaz Brekker in Six of Crows is complex and fascinating. That book deserves to be 'adult' if anything does. Juliet McKenna followed up her excellent Green Man's Heir with Green Man's Foe, which was an engaging read. Jamie Lee Moyer's Brightfall was a gripping Robin Hood story with a difference, told from the point of view of Marion. I got suckered into Breanna Teintze's Lord of Secrets almost by accident, but I couldn't put it down.
So here's my full list for 2019. You can see the individual reviews by clicking on booklog 2019 in the 'most popular tags' list. Scroll down thew left hand column here..
This year's standout books for me get a special mention. I loved Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon. I loved all the Sebastien de Castell books, particularly the four Greatcoats volumes. On the strength of those I finished his Spellslinger series as well, which I liked, but not as much as Greatcoats. As always I grabbed all Jodi Taylor's new St Mary's stories (novels and shorts) as they came out, and there's another due on Christmas Day. These are about a bunch of disaster-prone historians travelling in time to verify historical facts. There was Fallen, a new Alex Verus book out by Benedict Jacka. These are also buy-on-sight for me. I was looking forward to the new Leigh Bardugo's first adult novel, Ninth House, but I didn't find it any more 'adult' than Six of Crows, which I adore. I think the American college campus setting didn't sit as well with me as her second-world fantasies. Kaz Brekker in Six of Crows is complex and fascinating. That book deserves to be 'adult' if anything does. Juliet McKenna followed up her excellent Green Man's Heir with Green Man's Foe, which was an engaging read. Jamie Lee Moyer's Brightfall was a gripping Robin Hood story with a difference, told from the point of view of Marion. I got suckered into Breanna Teintze's Lord of Secrets almost by accident, but I couldn't put it down.So here's my full list for 2019. You can see the individual reviews by clicking on booklog 2019 in the 'most popular tags' list. Scroll down thew left hand column here..
- Heather Graham: When We Touch
- Tanya Huff: An Ancient Peace – Peacekeeper #1
- T Kingfisher: Swordheart
- Gaie Sebold: Shanghai Sparrow
- Suzanne Palmer: Finder
- Stephanie Burgess: Thornbound – Harwood Spellbook #2
- Jaine Fenn: Broken Shadow – Shadowlands #2
- Nancy Holder & James Lovegrove: Firefly – Big Damn Hero – Firefly #1
- Leigh Bardugo: King of Scars
- Ben Aaronovitch: Lies Sleeping – Rivers of London #7
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Knife Children – A Sharing Knife novella
- Genevieve Cogman: The Lost Plot – Invisible Library #4
- Laura Lam: Pantomime – Micah Grey Trilogy #1
- Liz Williams: Phosphorus – A Winterstrike story
- Lucinda Brant: Midnight Marriage
- Sebastien de Castell: Traitor's Blade – The Greatcoats #1
- Sebastien de Castell: Knight's Shadow – The Greatcoats #2
- Sebastien de Castell: Saint's Blood – The Greatcoats #3
- Sebastien de Castell: Tyrant's Throne – The Greatcoats #4
- Jonathan French: The Grey Bastards – The Lot Lands #1
- Sarah E Ladd: The Governess of Penwythe Hall
- Sebastien de Castell: Shadowblack – Spellslinger #2
- Sebastien de Castell: Charmcaster – Spellslinger #3
- C. E. Murphy: Seamaster – Guildmaster #1
- Michael R. Johnston: The Widening Gyre – Remembrance War #1
- Suyi Davies Okingbowa: David Mogo, Godhunter
- Adrian Tchaikovsky: Walking to Aldebaran
- Andre Norton: Year of the Unicorn – Witch World #3 (High Hallack)
- Jodi Taylor: Hope for the Best – Chronicles of St Mary's #10
- Jane Ashford: Earl to the Rescue
- Cate Glass: An Illusion of Thieves
- Sebastien de Castell: Soulbinder – Sprellslinger #4
- Mary Jo Putney: Once a Scoundrel
- David M Barnett: Calling Major Tom
- Sarah M Eden: The Lady and the Highwayman
- Sebastien de Castell: Queenslayer – Spellslinger #5
- A.C. Crispin: Time Horse
- Ben Bova: Earth – Grand Tour #23
- Breanna Teintze: Lord of Secrets – The Empty Gods #1
- Erica Ridley: One Night for Seduction – Wicked Dukes' Club #1
- Diana Pharaoh Francis: The Witchkin Murders
- Trimboli, Wendy & Zaloga, Alicia: The Resurrectionist of Caligo
- Gaie Sebold: A Hazardous Engagement
- Georgina Clarke: Death and the Harlot
- Patrick S Tomlinson: Starship Repo
- Jane Ashford: Brave New Earl
- Alyson McLayne: Highland Captive – The Sons of Gregor MacLeod #4
- John Scalzi: Redshirts
- Paolo Bacigalupi: The Water Knife
- Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man's Foe
- Kari Sperring: Serpent Rose
- Lois McMaster Bujold: The Orphans of Raspay – a Penric and Desdemona Novella
- Scott Lynch: A Year and a Day in Old Theradine
- Charlotte Davis: The Good Luck Girls
- Paul Kane: The Red Lord – A Robin of Sherwood Novella
- T Kingfisher: Minor Mage
- Joe Abercrombie: A Little Hatred
- Jodi Taylor: When Did You Last See Your Father? – Chronicles of St Mary's
- Laura Anne Gilman: Heart of Briar – Luna
- C.E Murphy: Siryn
- Georgette Heyer: Lady of Quality
- R.J. Barker: The Bone Ships – Tide Child #1
- Jamie Lee Moyer: Brightfall
- Leigh Bardugo: The Witch of Duva – Grisha #0.5
- Leigh Bardugo: The Too-Clever Fox – Grisha #2.5
- Leigh Bardugo: Ninth House
- Rod Duncan: The Fugitive and the Vanishing Man
- Jodi Taylor: Doing Time – Time Police #1
- Benedict Jacka: Fallen – Alex Verus #10
- Sebastien de Castell: Crownbreaker – Spellslinger #6
- Karen Traviss: Galaxy's Edge – The Best of Us
- Leigh Bardugo: Little Knife – Grisha #2.6
- K.J. Parker: Devices and desires – Engineer Trilogy #1
- Mary Jo Putney: Thunder and Roses – Fallen Angels #1
- T. Kingfisher: The Seventh Bride
- Paul Cornell: The Lights Go Out in Lychford – Lychford #4
- Patricia Briggs: Storm Cursed – Mercy Thompson #11
- Carrie Vaughan: The Immortal Conquistador – Kitty Norville
- Elizabeth Chadwick: To Defy a King – William Marshal #4
- Elizabeth Chadwick: Templar Silks – William Marshal #6
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