Tuesday 31 December 2013

My Top Five Books of 2013


As you probably know by now, I absolutely love to read, and 2013 gave me a fantastic opportunity to do just this, when I was asked to be a part of the brilliant Orchard Book Club.

As well as giving me justification to read lots of books, Orchard has provided me with some great opportunities.

I have been asked to beta read books for authors, which allows me to not only get my hands on stories before they are published, but I am also allowed, and encouraged even, to suggest changes and give my own opinions on how I think the story could be improved.

I am actually allowed to have some input in the stories the authors write.

Quite Fantastic!

I've also been lucky enough to interact with some fantastic authors, and have even had the privilege of meeting some - even sharing a pizza and a drink with one of my favourites.

What a fab day that was!

And then there are the Orchard Girls themselves, who are just fantastic and I class the ladies as some of my besties.

Regardless of how geeky we may be viewed, without our shared love of books I would never have met these lovely ladies.

And - contrary to popular belief - we do do more than just read, and we really, really do know how to have a good time.


And of course -  because of Orchard, I've been able to add quite a lot of fantastic books to my list of loves throughout 2013.

So here are some of my favourite reads from the past year - My Top Five - they are in no particular order - I couldn't rate them at all - they all deserve the number one spot in my opinion.

I have read way more books than this, and I really did struggle to come up with a top five, but I was very ruthless.

So - here it is:

Niedermayer & Hart
M J Johnson


This book is simply fantastic.

It is supernatural in it's own subtle way, and I loved every page of it.

I have featured this book in more detail on my blog (here) and although it is quite a long story, it really grips you and once you start reading, you really won't want to put it down.

Brilliant.


AngelFall
Susan Ee


I adore reading about anything supernatural - Vampires and Angels are right up there at the top of that list - so when my lovely friend suggested this book, I couldn't resist.

Angelfall wasn't a read-to-review book, I choose it simply because I wanted to read it.

The angels within this story are nothing like you're stereotypical, fluffy winged creations and are more muscular, more male and are a great deal more dangerous than any angel image I had in mind prior to reading.

I would recommend this to anyone, it really is a great read.

The follow up story World After is also amazing, and I read that book within a day.

This follows on immediately from Angelfall and is another definite must read in my opinion!


How To Catch Butterflies
Samantha Fontien


Samantha is an amazing lady, who I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting.
I have also beta read for her, and am currently working on her upcoming book Dragonflies, which is just fantastic!

I have posted about this book before and the follow up book "How To Catch Butterflies Part 2".
I love them both, but I chose this one to add to my top five list, rather than book two, simply because this was the story that initially introduced me to Samantha, her fantastic characters and her brilliant story writing abilities.


Eric Elmoor and The Gauntlet of Godric
Tommy Meyers


If you like all things Harry Potter and Hobbit-ish then you will love this book.  There are more to come in the series too - one very soon, which I have already been asked to beta read - *excited*!!

This book also features on my blog in more detail and it just had to feature in my top five list.
It is fantastic.


Inescapable
Amy Bartol


I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Bartol at a book signing event I attended recently in London (here), but hadn't read any of her books at that point.

Having noticed the feather on the front cover though, my supernatural radar was alerted and I just had to buy this and give it a whirl.

I wasn't dissapointed at all - another book filled with mystery, attraction, and the paranormal - I loved it.
Plus there's a whole host in this series, and I will be buying every single one.

As I said, it was very tough to choose only five of my favourites.

I really have read a lot of amazing books this year, and I want to take this opportunity to Thank the Orchard Girls - in particular Nicola, for getting me on board.
I owe you a lot lovely!

Here's to a lot more reading in 2014
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