2015 Reading Wrap-up - Part III

Consider this 2015 Reading Wrap-up - Part III. (You can click to read Part I and Part II if you missed it.)  I thought I was done with my 2015 Reading Wrap-up. But as I read other blogs, I realized that I’d never told you about my favorite books! So today, that is what I am doing.

Here are my best (and worst) of 2015!

Favorite reads of 2015

I could list a lot of books here but I will just give you my 5-Star reads for 2015.

A Sister To Honor by Lucy Ferris

I liked this one so much I read it twice!

Lone Star by Paullina Simons

This one left me with extreme book hangover! I still miss Jonny Rainbow!

When The Moon Is Low by Nadia Hashimi

I read this one just before the Syrian refugee crisis made headlines when a toddler washed up on shore. It left quite an impact on me.

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

Another re-read. I first read it about ten years ago. I enjoyed it just as much this time.

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

I recommend this one to my book club and we will be reading it  in 2016.

Biggest Surprises

These are books that were pleasant surprises for me; they turned out to be better than I expected

In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

This is one that I had on my list when it first came out because it sounded interesting. But then I kind of lost interest in paranormal fiction and took it off my list. Then last fall it was chosen by Overdrive for Big Library Read. It still didn’t seem that interesting, but I decided to download it and read it if I had time. It turned out that I liked it quite a bit. It was paranormal, but it was also historical fiction, a bit of mystery, and a bit of romance!

The Sound of Glass by Karen White

This is another one that was more than I expected. I thought I was getting a light ‘chick lit’ type read, but it turned out to be more. It was a surprise and I enjoyed it.

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

This is another I was gifted with by the publisher. I don’t read a lot of suspense / thriller stories and I expected to trudge through this one. But I raced through it and enjoyed it very much.

Biggest Disappointments

The opposite of a pleasant surprise, these are books that left me disappointed in some way.

After You by Jojo Moyes

This was not a bad book; it’s just that I expected so much more. Me Before You was a pleasant surprise for me, and I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it was quite a let down for me after anticipating it with so much enthusiasm.

The Ocean At The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

This was a book club pick and not one I would have normally chosen because of the paranormal storyline. So it shouldn’t have been such a disappointment when I didn’t enjoy it. However, there was so much hype around the book and so many in my book club were excited to read it, that I’d hoped for a better reading experience.

The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve

This one has been on my shelf a long time. I picked it up off an exchange shelf because I’d seen a few minutes of the movie while scanning channels several years ago, and it seemed to be a story I wanted to read. However, it turns out that the part of the movie I’d seen was the climax; near the end of the story. Rather than learn what happens next, I only saw what led up to the moments I’d seen. That was disappointing.

Best Book Club Reads

These are the books I read for my book club this year that I most enjoyed

A Sister To Honor by Lucy Ferris

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

Best covers

I could add a lot of covers here but these are the ones I like best. I’ll just say it with pictures!

Here are the links in case you want to read more! **Letters To The Lost by Iona Grey
**Moloka’i by Alan Brenner
**The Race For Paris by Meg Waite Clayton
**The Sound of Glass by Karen White
**Sisters of Shiloh by Kathy and Becky Hepenstal

Well, NOW I think I am done with my wrap-ups and ready to look at my 2015challenges….I think. I guess you’ll have to check back here to see if I think of anything else!