December - Pick it For Me! Challenge

[D.G.]

Wow, Diane! You rock!

We have repeats in the top honors for two years in a rwo...

[Melanie (Moviemavengal)]

Finished Make Me Yours this morning. I love historical romances, and this was a nice break from Regencies. It's set in Edwardian times, and Bertie, the Prince of Wales wants our heroine to be his mistress. But she'd rather marry Jack instead. It's interesting because Bertie did want all his mistresses to be married so that he had no royal bastards.

[Isabella]

I just love these stats I see every month and now for the whole year.
It makes me wonder how the first author on the list J.R Ward got his books distributed, and in the titles list only appears with one book "Dark lover".

[Dee]

JR Ward is a huge PNR/UF author who has been writing for numerous years - so it doesn't surprise me that her name tops the list...lots of people got into PNR from BDB (maybe with a detour via twilight)

I think you'll find that while DL, which is the first in the series, shows up the most frequently - we had several months where a category was continue a series, or something like that - and the other books in the series probably showed up (since there are 9 others)...plus she has another series out with 3 books in it

[Alyssa]

Just read Sister of the Bride. It was cute. Short and sweet. Was kind of down when I read it so it kinda make me feel worse >.< BUT it was a cute story.

[Fran, Moderator]

Hi Pam,

I finished another rec you gave me, Murder Game. I love the Ghostwalkers series and this next one has been sitting on my tbr for awhile. I really liked it. Thanks for the push to continue with the series :)

[Elke]

Suzanne,

Finished another one of your recs- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Can't wait to see the movies!

I am also going to probably finish/up to date with the Night Huntress series:This Side of the Grave and One Grave at a Time! I will let you know if I do!

[Christine]

Cool stats! Kudos for putting them together. I'm so happy to see some of my personal favorites in the top twenty. Now to see to that Nalini Singh edges out JR Ward next year!!

[SandyC]

I finished my pick, The Bride. Easy to see why this one's a classic!

[~Leslie~]

Lethal Lovely, just finished this morning and I'm so glad that I finally read it. I have read other Ilona Andrews books but never this series. I loved it and now I get to add more books to my never ending TBR pile! Thank you for all your recommendations this month. It has been great and I loved all 3.

[Christine]

Leslie wrote: "Lethal Lovely, just finished this morning and I'm so glad that I finally read it. I have read other Ilona Andrews books but never this series. I loved it and now I get ..."

Love, love, love this series. I just adore the exchanges between Kate and Curran.

[Kimberly]

I finished my pick of and loved it :) Thanks Larissa!

[Nancy H]

I've finished another pick, Crawlspace by Sarah Graves, and it was quite good. It is in my catch-up-on-the-series category, although I still have one more to go in this one. This is one series that stays consistently good throughout.

[Alexis]

Hey Emily! I finished this morning. It was a great book! I love that series. I started it last night planning to just read a couple chapters, then I'd get a good nights sleep before my long drive today.. that was silly of me. I ended up staying up till 3 in the morning reading and waking up early so I could finish it before I leave :/

Thank you so much for your recommendations this month! I have really enjoyed reading some great books. I only have 3 more books that I HAVE to read this month, so with my choice reading I'm going to try to find some of the other books you recommended that I haven't heard of. Thanks!

[Erin]

Mounika wrote: "I just completed and it was pretty good. I loved it.
Thanks for the picks Erin. :)"

Glad you liked it. I think it's my favorite of that series.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

I finished my buddy read of All I Want for Christmas is You with Fran. It was a cute story - cute kid, too good to be true hero, and even an oversized, turkey-stealing dog thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed it, but if you're not a sucker for sappy sweet Christmas stories (like I am) it would probably be best to avoid it! :D

[Christine]

~KarenH~ wrote: "I finished my buddy read of All I Want for Christmas is You with Fran. It was a cute story - cute kid, too good to be true hero, and even an oversized, turkey-stealing dog thrown i..."

LOL! I like this mini-review.

[Tiffanny]

Fran wrote: "Kat, I agree, all good and some great. I can't wait to read Cowboy Casanova!

Hope you are feeling good!"

I just finished Cowboy Casanova. I liked it. I just love this whole series! I don't think it's the best one, but I really like Bennett.

[Erin]

Hi, Reetuparna. So I finally got a hold of and hope to read it this weekend, or at least early next week. This holiday shopping business really takes up a lot of time!

Reetuparna wrote: "Here are my Picks for Erin B:


Nice -
1. Winter Solstice - Recommend a book from your partner's to-read list that is short
The Vampire Kiss by Cynthania Eden

2. Summer Solstice - Recommend a lo..."

[Irina]

Erin wrote: "Hi, Reetuparna. So I finally got a hold of and hope to read it this weekend, or at least early next week. This holiday shopping business really takes up a lot..."

sounds great! hope you enjoy it.. i sure did :D

[Pollyanna]

Hey MountainKat, I finished Lover Awakened and I gave it 5 stars. My favourite of the series so far, I loved Zsadist and Bella's love story. Also I think this is the sexiest one so far, I love these brothers!

[MountainKat, Moderator]

Pollyanna wrote: "Hey MountainKat, I finished Lover Awakened and I gave it 5 stars. My favourite of the series so far, I loved Zsadist and Bella's love story. Also I think this is the sexiest one so far..."

I am so glad you liked it! It was one of my favorites too!

[Ana]

I've finished "Dark Lover" - JR Ward. It was a 3 star for me: the story is nice, but I didn't appreciate the her writing style.

[Dee]

felt the same about CC - I liked it but wasn't my favorite...going to be interesting to see how she rounds out the series...the next one is Tell...will Dalton get a book (FWIW, I wanted to hit him) and then Gavin maybe?

Tiffanny wrote: "Fran wrote: "Kat, I agree, all good and some great. I can't wait to read Cowboy Casanova!

Hope you are feeling good!"

I just finished Cowboy Casanova. I liked it. I just love this whole series! I..."

[Christine]

I finished Glory in Death and really enjoyed it. I didn't figure out "whodunnit" as quickly as with the first in the series and I enjoy the developing relationship between Eve and Roarke.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

I'm trying really hard to put off reading Cowboy Casanova for a while, just because the next one doesn't come out until may. And speaking of that, it looks like the books after Tell's are Gavin and then Dalton.

Dee wrote: "felt the same about CC - I liked it but wasn't my favorite...going to be interesting to see how she rounds out the series...the next one is Tell...will Dalton get a book (FWIW, I wanted to hit him)..."

[Dee]

i keep saying i'm going to put off reading her books and that always lasts like a week..lol! but then i've been playing the waiting game since book 6

[Nancy H]

I finished another pick, Bones of a Feather by Carolyn Haines. It was really, really good, but since Sarah Booth's fiance was in California for this one, there weren't any hot scenes with him in. The story line was great, though, so the author is forgiven for not showing us more of Graf.

[Iris]

Ok, so after finishing Spying in High Heels I had to pick up the second one in the series Killer In High Heels. The heroine, Maddie Springer, cracks me up. Kind of a female version of Mr. Bean who solves the crime but purely by chance and of course lots and lots of accidents. lol If you enjoy reading humorous whodunits with a bit of romance tossed in for good measure, you definitely should pick this up.

Almost to be moved to my done pile are Staying Home is a Killer and Getting Away is Deadly. They were both pretty good. Although I'm likelier to pick up the high heels series.

Sex, Lies, and Online Dating was great. Again another one that actually made me want to go pick up the others in the series once I was finished.

Still working on A Discovery of Witches. Trying to pace myself so my buddies can keep up with how fast I tend to read. It's a work in progress. In thre meantime, I also started Garden Spells this weekend. That's four down. Let's see how many more I can get in before the month's out. lol

[Jim son of Jim (formerly PhotoJim)]

Did I mention that I really liked my Naked Werewolf book? Thank you so much for it.

[Dee]

see, we told you jim...lol!

[Macwolf01 [Elise]]

finished working on 1 other in my list.

[Macwolf01 [Elise]]

Macwolf01 [Elise] wrote: "Sue wrote: "I would also like to read 1225 Christmas Tree Lane as well as a buddy read, but I don't have the book yet. I've put it on hold at the library and I'm next in line for it. So if you don'..."

Hey Sue, I was wondering if you managed to get 1225 Christmas Tree Lane yet?

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Photojim wrote: "Did I mention that I really liked my Naked Werewolf book? Thank you so much for it."

That is such a cute, fun book!

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Hi Ana - Quick update. I'm still hoping to read Fifty Shades of Grey but, if not, I'll read The Great Gatsby as it also fits one of my challenges :)

[Desperado]

~Megan~, I ended up reading since I was in a YA kind of mood...& OMG was it good! How the hell did this book manage to stay off my radar?!? I'm extremely stingy with my 5-star ratings (have only given 9 books that rating this year) but with Divergent, it's now 10! Thank you so very much for the rec! ^_^

[Lacy]

Valerie

Just wanted to give you an update. My library got The Peach Keeper in and I am on page 101. I am really loving this story! I just had to tell you. All I want to do is read today, but I have to tear myself away to do stuff! So I wanted to thank you ahead of time for a great pick. I'll let you know when I finish...

[Penney]

Hi Roxy, I just wanted to let you know that I chose and finished The Night Circus. What an entertaining read! I wouldn't have chosen this on my own and I'm glad I read it. Thanks for the rec :-)

[Lacy]

Hi Valerie, I finished The Peach Keeper last night and I loved it! My only complaint is that it was too short! I wanted to read more about these characters. A great read. Thanks again. ~Lacy

[Elke]

Ok, finished my 2nd pick, This Side of the Grave! I am now reading my 3rd pick, One Grave at a Time and will be caught up with the series! Love it!

[Amanda]

I finished . I thought it was ok. It wasn't the best but not the worst I've read. It could have been more about Christmas, but other than that it was ok.

[Tiffanny]

Dee wrote: "felt the same about CC - I liked it but wasn't my favorite...going to be interesting to see how she rounds out the series...the next one is Tell...will Dalton get a book (FWIW, I wanted to hit him)..."

I was thinking the same thing about how she's going to finish the series as a whole. I was thinking that she would do a book for Tell, Dalton, and Gavin and then that would probably be the end of the series. I'm also thinking that Gavin might end up Rielle after reading CC. We shall see though =)

[Tiffanny]

I finished Tempting the Fire and Taken by Fire and thus finished up the ACRO series by Sydney Croft. I loved this whole series!! I was kind of leary that the series would start to stink come book 4, 5, or 6. BUT it didn't. I really liked the whole series, and I LOVED how she wrapped up all of the book and concluded the series as a whole.

[Dee]

she has said that there are only going to be 15 books and that is the end... I think she mentioned it when she did Ask an Author earlier this year

[Iris]

Finally finished A Discovery of Witches! 4 Stars

That was one very looong book! lol I probably would have given it 5 stars, except that I fell asleep twice reading the first few chapters. However... if you can get past the first 250 pages, it's a great book. It actually gets much better. It was definitely worth the read. lol So to all of who took the time to encourage me to keep at it because I would actually enjoy it... thank you! You were so right. The only problem now is waiting for the next book in the series

[Alexis]

Valerie ~Varuca~ wrote: "Finished 2 books this month:


Small Town Christmas-3*, liked the Jill Shalvis story, didn't really care for the other 2
His Christmas Wish-3*, cute story, will conti..."

I'm glad you've had time to read a few Christmas stories! Sorry you haven't been able to enjoy them as much as you had hoped though :(

[Kami]

I finished Stray by Rachel Vincent, my buddy read with Grace. I liked it a lot and gave it four stars. I still have On the Edge and The Twilight Before Christmas to read this month. Luckily I have vacation time the week after Christmas since this month and this year are quickly coming to a close.

[~Megan~]

LethalLovely~Just Stole Shanwow's Fake Hispanic BF wrote: "~Megan~, I ended up reading since I was in a YA kind of mood...& OMG was it good! How the hell did this book manage to stay off my radar?!? I'm extremely stingy with ..."

Yay!! It's on my top books of 2011 list. So glad you enjoyed it, too!

[~Megan~]

Finished my buddy read of North of Need with Heather, and enjoyed it as a starter to a new series. Also read the next In Death book and loved catching up with Eve and the crew.

Thanks for awesome picks, Heather....let me know if you want to tackle either of the other two buddy reads you suggested!

[Sue]

Macwolf01 [Elise] wrote: "Hey Sue, I was wondering if you managed to get 1225 Christmas Tree Lane yet? "

Yes, I was able to pick it up finally! Sorry I didn't answer sooner. I was away wine tasting for my anniversary!

I'll start it tonight after I finish the book I'm reading.