Tuesday 23 December 2014

DAY 2: The Best of 2014 Blog Hop - Our Favourite New Adult/Adult Reads




The New Adult / Adult genre is my absolute comfort zone. It feels like home to me. But to whittle down all the books I've read and let you know which ones I adored the most was very difficult. All the books that made it on to this list are on here for one reason or another. Some I've read five times, others only once.





CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE AND DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!




 


2014 started off with a dear book friend of mine introducing me to Ashley Pullo. If you don't recognize the name, I hope you rectify this VERY soon and one-click her book, The Album. The story is told from five different narratives and spans almost two decades. The characters aren't perfect yet you love them instantly. They're lives are intertwined in ways that can make you cry when you finally put all the pieces together. I would categorize this as Adult, rather than New Adult, yet you still get all the laughter, tears, and the anxiety that you secretly crave.





I finished reading Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover very early in the morning, and when I closed the covers, I decided that I liked it. Three hours later I was like 'well, okay, it was so much better than good!', and 6 hours after that, I was ready to declare my undying love to it. It's kind of funny that my love for this story snuck up on me. But when it hit me full force a week later, it was almost immobilizing. I couldn't wrap my head around it. I wasn't expecting it to still pummel me full-force. The subtle surprises and the painstaking fall constantly replaying in my head in 1080p. So I randomly laugh, gasp, and cry when I think about this book.







Love, In English by Karina Halle shocked me. Not because the subject matter was so out there, but because I honestly wasn't expecting this from her. I've read her other books, and while I really liked them, I never thought she would one day write a book that detailed love, heartbreak, and sacrifice so beautifully. I always thought of her as a Javier-ish author, rather than a Mateo-ish one. I'm so glad that I jumped on the LiE bandwagon early on, because Karina Halle has become an author I will blindly one-click going forward.





I FINALLY read The Unidentified Redhead series by Alice Clayton. All three books in three days, and I still couldn't get enough. And then about two months later, I needed a pick-me-up, so I read them again. This author knows how to write the funniest dialogue, and it never seems to fail me.









And then I read the Temptation series by Ella Frank (Try is Book 1, Take is Book 2). Ummm. Yeah. These two books made my list. They were my first ever m/m. Yeah. HOLY HELL THE CHEMISTRY! Logan and Tate can give any non-m/m book couple a run for their money. Heck, even with a head-start, these guys would probably win. This is definitely NOT New Adult. The cover actually says "An Erotic Series" which I've decided can be grouped with Adult, and therefore it's okay to be on this list. Because these books were SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD! And it's my list!







And then I picked up a book because of the title. It was so weird, that I had to give it a shot. After Take, I decided to venture out a bit and read Bear, Otter, and the Kid by T.J. Klune. I'm not going to lie - the cover is very cheesy. Like processed cheese melted in the microwave on top of a chunk of mozzarella. But this story? AMAZING! I haven't laughed this hard in a very long time while reading a book. I also haven't cried and wanted to inflict bodily harm like I did while reading about Bear, Otter, and the Kid. Here's another thing: these ebooks were not cheap. In a world of $0.99, the $7 (mind you Canadian) I spent on EACH BOOK IN THIS SERIES (there are 3) will be chalked up to some of the best money I've ever spent in the past 22 years of living in Canada. Oh - and there's an eco-terrorist in-training that manages to steal the limelight from already perfectly written characters. Who We Are is Book 2 in the series, and The Art of Breathing is Book 3. I'd give up whatever vice you have for a week, and buy these books NOW!







Burying Water by K.A. Tucker had me reaching for my non-existent prescription of Xanax by page 3. And then for the rest of the book, I kept asking myself who the f**K wrote this book and how come I'm only now discovering this author. It's odd to say, but for me, Burying Water was such a departure from anything I've read by K.A. Tucker, or anything I was expecting to read. I loved to be taken off guard, and this book is on the list because it achieved that perfectly.






Everyone has that one (or two or three, or four) author(s) that they'll one-click as soon as the pre-order links are live, or the moment midnight strikes. Jamie McGuire is one of my authors. Beautiful Oblivion is on this list because as hard as I try, I can't step away from the Maddox brothers. I started with Travis and continued with Trent in this book. I'll probably by 80 years old, and my reading copies of her books will be held together with tape and staples, but as long as their first name starts with a T and their last name is Maddox, I'll be there until the very end.



4 comments:

  1. Try (and Take as well) are my absolute favourite books!

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  2. Maybe Someday and Burying Water were some of my favorites this year as well!!

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  3. I also loved Maybe Someday and Love, in English. And really liked Beautiful Oblivion. :)

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