Books I read in 2017

[haikitteh]

It wasn't an amazing year in books for me, but here's the list from 2017.

Sadly, it both began and ended inauspiciously, but there were a few highlights here & there.

• It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. I picked this up because it won Best of Romance on Goodreads, but it was more of an adult contemporary story about a family of abused women. Yikes. I certainly wouldn’t have read it if I’d known it was about abuse. It was compelling enough to keep me reading even after it became clear that was the whole thrust of the book.
• The Hate U Give - started this in April - wow, I am not reading much this year, am I? This was a good one.
• A Gathering Storm by Joanna Chambers. Decent story but not a lot of sparkle to the writing.
• An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles. Eh.
• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. So disappointing. Had all the ingredients to be a fun spin on “The Grand Tour” but just fell down at every step. The lead was uninteresting. Flawed anti-heroes are fine but they need some qualities that delight us even while they exasperate their friends. This lead was no Flashman. All his friends were fairly rote characters too, and it really fell into the social justice trap like crazy - when one of the characters called off the romance (again!) because The Lead was too ableist for wanting him to be well - I almost threw down the book in pique.
• Read all 3 of The Turner Series by Cat Sebastian. All were good but the last, The Ruin of a Rake, was certainly the best. The second in the series featured another neurotic lead, similar to that in KJ Charles’ An Unseen Attraction. An unfortunate trend in romance.
• Al Franken: Giant of the Senate by Al Franken. Fun & enlightening look into his campaign and time in office. (NB: I read this before the sexual accusations came out & he was forced to resign from the Senate.)
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Gentle science fiction about a crew of space tunnelers. No one else in book club liked it as it’s a bit YA and not terribly deep.
• Call Me By Your Name by Andre Acumen. A haunting reminder of what it’s like to be young and randy.
• An Unsuitable Heir by K.J. Charles. The mystery was well-done, with good action. She’s one of the few historical writers that writes convincingly of the time period. I could do without all the modernisms (characters with autism, transgendered, etc) but maybe she’s trying to make it feel relevant to a modern audience.
• Star Trek: Vulcan - Travel Guide to Vulcan by Insight Editions. Good to have read this in anticipation of the day I can visit.
• Kindred Hearts by Rowan Speedwell. Started well but got lost in sentimentality.
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Really fun story of Hollywood siren’s loves and losses. Especially enjoyed how the movies she made mirrored real movies, and the mystery of how she chose her biographer was well-handled. Excellent depiction of bisexuality.
• Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer. Delightful! Marriage of convenience with really good build of growing love. Excellent side characters too, funny and well-plotted.
• Wilde In Love by Eloisa James. A famous writer returns home sickened to find he’s adored by all the ladies. Except one. The writing wasn’t terrible but the characters were thin and there really wasn’t any plot, just standing around smoldering at a house party. Then a deluded fan fiction writer showed up & it really was the final straw. I only read half of it.

xx

Crossposted from my Dreamwidth account.