My Best of 2015

One thing I really love about this time of the year, are the "Best Of" lists.  The radio is counting down the best songs of the year.  MTV and VH1 are playing the best videos of the year(Wait?!? Do they still play videos on these channels?).  The news is showing the top stories of the year in varying categories.  Facebook is giving you your "Year in Review".  Instagram and Twitter show you your most liked, retweeted and shared content.  My favorite by far though is the lists made by my fellow book lovers, publishers and writers on the Best Books of 2015.  There hasn't been a book that I have given a 5 star rating on as of yet this year, so this list is comprised of my highest rated books.

I have reviewed several lists that have come across my email, Oprah's Bookclub, Goodreads, BookRiot.com, and The New York Times; and I have compared their list with my Goodreads Read 2015 list and here are my best of 2015.

First, I'm going to start with Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman.  This was one of the most anticipated works of literary fiction for the year.  We hadn't heard anything from Ms. Lee since To Kill A Mockingbird some 55 years earlier.  For me this book was just alright.  I gave it three stars.  It didn't live up to all of the hype that it has been receiving up until its release.

Next, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins another highly acclaimed book for this year that didn't disappoint, but wasn't as great as I was anticipating. Think about how many pictures you saw this year with girls on a train reading The Girl on the Train.

Another book that made the top of my list this year is The Murder House by James Patterson.  James Patterson is one of my favorite authors.  Every year he releases several new books and this one by far is one of my favorites by him in a very long time.  It is a standalone and an outstanding read.

This year I was introduced to several new authors, thanks in part to this blog and groups I am a part of on Goodreads.  Here are some that I highly recommend:

H.N.Wake--I was given her book, A Spy Came Home in exchange for my honest review.  This is the first book in her Mac Ambrose series.  Deceits of Borneo is #2 in the series and that is waiting patiently for me on my Kindle now for a read and review.

Vince Milam--His book Evil Runs was a very interesting religious themed thriller.

Libby Fischer Hellmann-- She has written several books, but she is a new author to me.  I was given her novella, The Incidental Spy as a part of her Review Crew and I am looking forward to reading all that she has written.

This year, I also was much more involved with NetGalley and First To Read(a program through Penguin).  Here are some of the books, I received from these services that are on my best list:

Don't Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche
In Search of Sam by Kristin Butcher
The Mask by Taylor Stevens -- This is #5 in her Vanessa Michael Munroe series, but this is the first one I read.
Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
The Underwriting by Michelle Miller
The Sound of Glass by Karen White
Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge
The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango

So here is my list.  Some of these books are included on the lists mentioned above.  But this is what I liked.  Please share with me your favorite books of 2015 and/or what you are looking forward to reading in 2016(I will have a blog post of that at the beginning of the new year).

Review--The Underwriting by Michelle Miller

The Underwriting by Michelle Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hook is the hottest new dating app.  It's location based and as long as two users match each other they can "hook" up in a matter of minutes.
Jost Hart, Hook's creator, believes it's time to follow in the steps of Facebook and other apps and take his public.  He enlist Todd Kent with L.Cecil to help with the IPO.  Todd barely knows Josh, having just met him briefly at a strip club months before, but is grateful for the opportunity seeing the potential in the app since he is one of it's users.

Kelly Jacobsen is also a Hook user, one of about 500 million.  She has just accepted a position at L.Cecil after interning there over the summer.  Now, back at Stanford, she reaches out to Tara Taylor, her mentor during the internship, letting her know of the decision.  Tara is very excited for Kelly, this along with being named as part of the IPO team for Hook is really making her week.  But after making this decision and spending a night out with friends, the next day, Kelly is found dead, with a drug overdose as the explanation.  Her friends and family are baffled by this as this is something she would never do.

The death of a young co-ed and the introduction of a new company going public.  Could these events be related in any way?  Could Hook somehow be involved with Kelly's untimely demise?  As the buzz for the IPO grows so does the speculation of the security of the app and it's users.

With so many changes happening so quickly, what will be the outcome?  This book is filled with sex, lies, and billions of dollars, never a great combination when dealing with murder!

When first reading this book I was shocked at the number of different characters introduced so quickly.  The book was fast paced from the start.  ou meet the team of L.Cecil bankers in charge of the underwriting.  From the guy at the top, to the little-a analyst who is crunching all of the numbers.  You meet the guys in Silicon Valley from the creator of the app, to the engineers, that help to keep it running.

Everyone has their own agenda in this deal.  To be bigger, better, and more powerful than before.  And with billions of dollars on the table, the deal would do just that.  This was an intriguing book, that thoroughly kept my attention.  After reading one night I had very vivid dream about the book.  I was sitting at the table with everyone, trying to make the deal work.  It was a bit crazy for me.  There are parts of this book that leave you with your mouth hanging open as you can't believe what you just read.
**I received an uncorrected advanced proof of this book from FirstToRead in exchange for my honest review.**

View all my reviews

What I'm Readin' This Spring!

What I'm Readin' This Spring!

I receive lots of bookish emails from Authors, Publishers, Goodreads, Oprah, and others.  I love the emails that give you the upcoming books for the month or for the season.  I've decided to compile the lists I have received, and give you a list of my own.

The first book on my list is The Underwriting by Michelle Miller.  "In this sexy debut novel a high-stakes deal pitches the power of Wall Street against the savvy of Silicon Valley—until a young woman’s death threatens to topple it all."  I've gotten a copy of this book from FirstToRead and am looking forward to reading this next month. 

Next we have The Shell by Jenni Boyd  I have read and reviewed a couple of Jenni's books in the past.  She is bright and upcoming author and I'm excited about this new read.  Check out my reviews of her other titles Missing and Steel Justice.

These next two books, I believe, will get the wheels in my head turning:
Ghettoside:A Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy. With so many issues going on with police brutality and killings, I am very interested to hear this authors take on the situation. Murder D.C.: A Novel by Neely Tucker I live very close to the nation's capital and I enjoy most books that have to deal with this area.  They always keep me on my toes.

Here are the other books I have added to my TBR:

The Fixer by Joseph Finder, At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, I Take You by Eliza Kennedy, The Deal by Elle Kennedy, Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton, The Stranger by Harlan Coben, The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler, A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton ,and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

As always, there are so many good books to read out there and not enough hours in the day to get them all read.   What do you plan on readin' this Spring?