Wednesday, December 30, 2020

2020 Reads

Each year I try to read as many books as I possibly can. I always seem to get busy with work, taking care of the house, my son etc. This year though was a little different in a lot of ways. When the pandemic started and we were in the mandatory stay at home period we found ourselves with tons of free time. Thankfully I had a stack of books that were waiting to be read. Then teleworking started and I found that on my breaks and lunch I was at home with the stack of books too! I would have to go back into a lot of my older blog posts but honestly this is probably my highest count in books that I’ve read in an entire year. I guess that’s what 2020 will do for you. Ha!

Here is what I read in 2020 and with my small reviews of them. 
These books are all in the Owen McKenna Mystery Series by Todd Borg. I love his books and I love this series. There are several after these that I haven’t read yet but I’m making my way through them. If you start them you’ll need to start at the beginning because they do build on each other. I also really like this series because I’ve been to several places he mentions in the books because they all take place in Lake Tahoe. 
This is one of the books in the Dana Girl Mystery Series. These were written many decades ago. I like them more than Nancy Drew and almost equally as I like the Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew was never my taste because her dad was always bossing her around. These girls however, do what they want and get the job done! 

I’m a big fan of the Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly. I also love the Amazon Prime show which is initially what got me into these books. This was the latest one in the series that I’ve read and as always I enjoy them. 
I started reading these books once again because of Amazon Prime. I loved the Jack Ryan series they did and when I realized it was based off the books by Tom Clancy, I dove right into them. This is the second book in the series. I’ve started the third one but their very long and while I enjoy them, I have to pace myself on these because of the sheer knowledge that goes into the reading of these. 

I literally stumbled upon this book. I remember years ago when the writer did a sneak peek of the Edward POV from Twilight but I had no idea she finished this year. Maybe due to Covid I was just out of the loop but I found it the week after it came out and was thrilled. I liked Twilight (there I said it) but I liked Edward way more than Bella so to have this book come out in his point of view, I was very excited to read it. It also set me off on re-reading the twilight series. 

This series literally had me reading nonstop. I couldn’t put them down! I loved the books and it’s one of those book series that I wish they would make a tv show or movie with but hey maybe they will!?! I just know that it was so good for me that I read the entire series twice. 

I love, love loved this book. I couldn’t put it down and it was 500 pages so that should tell you something. I also read it in like 2 days. So when I started the second book and was about 90 pages in, I was devastated because to me the second book was so horrible with how I loved the first book, I stopped reading. That isn’t something I ever do. I have yet to finish book 2 and book 3 comes out soon. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back and finish it because I loved how the story ended in book 1. Now if I find a spoiler for book 3 and everything with my favorite character is OK. Then maybe I’ll finish book 2. 


Crash Into Me (Shaken Dirty Series)

I went down this rabbit hole on amazon kindle once I read Crave. These were written by the same author and I thought they would be like Crave and they were similar but totally different. I loved the series and I’m usually not one for these kinds of books but they were so good! I think it’s the author who just did a great job. And then I went down the rabbit hole some more with another one of her series....
 

At this point my kindle was like here is all things written by Tracy Wolff so I figured why not?! I actually really liked this series. 
Then I read this one shot by her and it was just ok. It wasn’t anything to write home about and I felt like some of the story was pulled from others considering one scene literally was a copy and paste job. 

I started another series and when I read book one I had no idea it was a long book series or I might not have started it. I don’t mind series’ like that but I’ve already got enough that I’m reading, I don’t want to add anymore. However, the books are good and I want to know what happens to the characters so I’ve been reading them. I think I have another three to read in the series but if I’m correct she’s also still writing this series. 





Then I read another series by Helen Hardt but I’ve only read the first volume. It’s ok but I didn’t think it wasn’t anything fantastic hence why I haven’t read the others in the series yet.
I stumbled upon the Addicted Trilogy by S.Nelson and I really loved this series. I think book one and two were my favorites but it didn’t fizzle out in book three either. I was so worried it wasn’t going to end well, I almost went to the end of the book to check before I read it! 

I read the entire James Hunter and Penny Series by Ivy Smoak. It was so good I think I burned through it in a week and then started to re-read it again! I loved the first two books the most! 




 




Then that led me into another series by her called Made of Steel. This series was far different from her others but I enjoyed it none the less.


The next book I read was also by Ivy Smoak. It was a short story that was written due to one of her other books. 

I also re-read the following books:

That brings me to a grand total of 66 books for 2020! I also want to mention that I’m currently in the middle of a book and I’ve read several of the books above more than once! It I counted more re-reads I would probably be at 85. This year was by far the most I have ever read in a year!