Best books you read during 2016? (They don’t necessarily have to be published in 2016)

[Charissa]

Some of my favorite reads this year were:
The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister ,
The Last Messenger of Zitol by Chelsea Dyreng ,
The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon ,
From Sand and Ash by Harmon ,
Walk of Infamy by Sheralyn Pratt ,
Pimpernel by Pratt ,
Chasing Fireflies by Taylor Dean ,
Christopher and Jaime by Jennifer Peel ,
King of the Friend Zone by Sheralyn Pratt ,
How to get over your ex in ninety days by Peel ,
If We were a movie by Kelly Oram ,
How I met your brother Janette Rallison ,
and Mark of the Thief by Jennifer Niesen

[A.L.]

Here are my five-star fiction reads from 2016 by LDS authors:

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Fool Me Twice by Stephanie Black

No Peace with the Dawn by E.B. Wheeler

Eleanor and the Iron King by Julie Daines

[A.L.]

Charissa wrote: "Some of my favorite reads this year were:
The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister ,
The Last Messenger of Zitol by Chelsea Dyreng [bookcover:The Last Messen..."

adding some of these to my to-read list. Thanks, Char!

[Laura]

Miss Burton Unmasks a Prince by Jennifer Moore, Royal Brides by Traci Hunter Abramson, Faith and A Life Jacket by Ben Bernards, The Sacred Gift of Childbirth by Marie-Ange Bigelow, and several general Christian romances like A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer, The Cactus Creek Challenge by Erica Vetsch, and the Wild at Heart series by Mary Connealy.

[Charissa]

Laura wrote: "Miss Burton Unmasks a Prince by Jennifer Moore, Royal Brides by Traci Hunter Abramson, Faith and A Life Jacket by Ben Bernards, The Sacred Gift of Childbirth by Marie-Ange Bigelow, and several gene..."

Great list, Laura. I loved Miss Burton Unmasks a Prince. That was a fun one.

[Laura]

Thanks. I need to add Courting the Countess by Donna Hatch. Loved it! I noticed that you have a lot of Jennifer Peel's stories on your list. Did you feel like How to get over your ex in ninety days was pretty clean? It looks like a fun story.

[Charissa]

Yeah, it was clean. I thought it was a fun one.

[Alisa]

Great lists! I have read (and loved) a lot of these books so I'm definitely adding the ones you girls have listed that I haven't read yet to my "To Be Read" pile!

As I was making this list, I realized that I have some very favorite authors so I'll divide them by author:

Jennifer Peel:


Sheralyn Pratt:


Kasie West:


Janette Rallison:


Others:
- by Nancy Campbell Allen
- by Traci Hunter Abramson
- by Julie Wright
- by Taylor Dean

[Charissa]

Awesome list. Our tastes are similar. You have a couple I haven't read on here, but for the most part, you have all my favorites this year.

[Cathy]

I loved The Orphan Keeper, How I Met Your Brother, Mischief and Manors by Ashtyn Newbold, Winter Sky, Love and Fat Free Cheese by Crissy Sharp, and Walk of Infamy. Probably way more too! I was wondering about Jenifer Peel's new one as well. I have read lots of hers and sometimes I wonder if she's walking a line between clean and not clean to win an award. When I reviewed her Pianos and Promises collection, she specifically asked me not to use the word clean because she wanted to be considered for an award. I don't know how anyone else feels, but I want to read a clean book, not find stuff in it that I don't like or wouldn't want me kids to read if they happened to glance over my shoulder. Anyway....getting off my soapbox now!

[Charissa]

I always feel Jennifer's books are clean. I have the Orphan Keeper on my table waiting to read. I'm glad you loved it. That makes me more excited to read it.

[Laura]

It's interesting that you mentioned this about Jennifer Peel's books, Cathy. I only tried one of her books but some of the language and subject matter of the characters' bantering made me uncomfortable. I guess I'm hoping it was just that one book. However, I've had an author ask me to edit my review of her book to reflect a certain level of purity and feel that an author shouldn't try to manipulate things that way.

[A.L.]

Laura wrote: "I've had an author ask me to edit my review of her book to reflect a certain level of purity and feel that an author shouldn't try to manipulate things that way."

Agreed. I've always thought it bad form for an author to ask the reviewer to change the review.

[Cathy]

Laura wrote: "It's interesting that you mentioned this about Jennifer Peel's books, Cathy. I only tried one of her books but some of the language and subject matter of the characters' bantering made me uncomfort..."

I have felt the same way about a few of her books, especially the more recent ones. I don't think I would have used the term clean to describe her book I read anyway, just because there were a few mild swear words and some innuendo. For me, if I'm going to call something clean, it's going to be something I can hand to my 16 year old with no worries about what she's going to read. And I wouldn't be editing my review for an author that asked me to, that seems wrong!

[Laura]

Agreed, Cathy. I wasn't expecting my 10-year-old daughter to start reading books from my personal collection, but that's exactly what she did when she was being bullied at school and church (we've since dealt with that problem). I was glad that my books were appropriate for her as well.