read 100 books in 2007

Well it looks like 100 books will be an ever elusive goal for me. I only managed to read 73 books this year.

My best year was 2005 where I managed 87, but even in 2006 I read 78. So this year was my worst yet. Though with the house hunting and stuff going on, I did have to spend a lot of my reading time doing research and other stuff related to moving cross country. :)

In any case, to catch up through year end, book numbers 71 thru 73 are listed below:

#71 Glass Houses: The Morganville Vampires, Book 1 by Rachel Caine

#72 Cirque Du Freak #7: Hunters of the Dusk by Darren Shan

#73 Cirque Du Freak #8: Allies of the Night by Darren Shan

#68 Sugarplums and Scandal by Dana Cameron, Mary Daheim, Lori Avocato, Cait London, Suzanne Macpherson, Kerrelyn Sparks

#69 Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn

#70 Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery by Charlaine Harris

It appears I won’t make this goal again this year, but the bummer of it is, I seem to be doing worse than previous years, where I at least hit in the 80s. :( I had started off looking good too, on track in the first couple months, but must’ve been all the traveling, house hunting, and basically just my mind in so many other places between April and August that really cut into the goal.

I also had to cut out on all the “updating” I did, in a zillion different places, when I finished a book. I still keep BookCrossing, my book reviews blog, and my local Book Collector software up-to-date.

Reviews on all of the below can most easily be found on my blog:

67) The Julius House by Charlaine Harris
66) Dead and Loving It by MaryJanice Davidson
65) Nightlife by Rob Thurman
64) Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel by Ronda Thompson
63) Unmasqued: An Erotic Novel of The Phantom of The Opera by Colette Gale
62) Don’t Be Afraid by Rebecca Drake
61) The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
60) Demon’s Delight by MaryJanice Davidson, Emma Holly, etc,
59) Derik’s Bane by MaryJanice Davidson
58) Nymph by Francesca Lia Block
57) Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
56) Light My Fire by Katie MacAlister
55) The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
54) Midnight Pleasures by Amanda Ashley, Maggie Shayne, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Ronda Thompson
53) Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
52) Wicked by Gregory Maguire
51) Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
50) The Mysteries by Lisa Tuttle
49) Murder Under a Mystic Moon by Yasmine Galenorn
48) Vampirates 2: Tide of Terror by Justin Somper
47) Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black
46) Thunderbird Falls by C.E. Murphy
45) Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris
44) Shakespeare’s Champion by Charlaine Harris
43) Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
42) Julian’s House by Judith Hawkes

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Aislinn has always been able to see faeries, as could her mother and grandmother. But she’s always lived by Grams’s rules: Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries; Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries; and most importantly Rule #1: Don’t ever attract faeries’ attention.

But now the rules have changed, and Aislinn is no longer safe from the faeries that have begun stalking her. What is it they want from her? And how far are they willing to go to get it? Can Aislinn continue to live by the same rules, ignoring their existence, when she seems to be their prime interest?

I found this debut novel from Melissa Marr an interesting entry into the YA urban fantasy genre. There were a few grammatical mistakes here and there, presumably because this was an Advance Reader’s Edition. Like the faeries in Holly Black’s novels, these are not your sweet, winged creatures, but reflect the true spirit of the Fae and the various courts.

BookCrossing journal page for this book

http://cheriepie.blogspot.com/2007/05/40-morrigans-cross-book-one-of-circle.html

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

See my full review here

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

See my full review here

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

I liked this 2nd book in the Harper Connelly series even better than the first. Full review at my blog.

My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

my full review on each individual story

My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

Bronwyn is a high Witch, working as a kind of one-witch secret service to the British Prime Minister. Her arsenal includes a combination of potions, spells, explosions, mind-reading tricks, and general butt-kicking skills. While she’s traveling the globe to protect the PM and a middle eastern sheik (I’m not sure that she actually ever specifies what country he’s from), she’s pining for her warlock back home, Dr. Sam… despite the fact that she’s promised herself not to fall for any man—especially a warlock.

This book is written in a diary/journal format, which in this case was actually a drawback as I don’t think that format worked all that well with this story, and didn’t add much to it at all. The storyline itself was interesting though, and I was kept in the dark about who the culprit behind all the assassination attempts was all the way to the end. I have the next book in this series, Charmed and Ready, waiting on Mt. TBR and hope to get to it shortly.

I actually hedged between giving this a 6 or a 7, but went with a 6, because of my complaint about the journal/diary format.

BookCrossing journal page for this book