This year, reading and I were like distant cousins at a family reunion. We said hi, had a few good things to say to each other and then sort of left it at that. I don't know why, but for me this reading year has been strange.

According to Goodreads I have only read approximately a little under 50 books not counting my many rereads this past year, visiting old favorites. Still, it is a low number for someone who took three books out at a time to return them within a day or two to the library in high school. It is jarring.

It does not mean that I do not have a few favorites of the year to share with you all however...

New to 2017

Looking back over my reads for the year, I knew this one was going to be on the list since the moment I finished reading it, and here it is. The Red by Tiffany Reisz was beautiful gorgeous artsy porn and I loved every minute of it. I have a review up as well if you need more convincing.

The Upside of Unrequited

I was not expecting this book in the least. While in a reading rut this past summer, I picked up this book that I got from the OwlCrate stand at Book Expo. Going in, I knew pretty much nothing only to be laughing alongside quirky and interesting characters finding first love. And you know what? I loved it. It was just the happy making sort of book I needed and I definitely think that a reread may be in order for this contemporary YA soon.

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

If you have not read A Court of Thorns and Roses, you definitely need to get on that. The third book in this trilogy? series? was amazing and I love all the characters so much that they are practically my much cooler fae family. Though this book was great, the second, A Court of Wings and Fury still holds my heart the most.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

After reading Laini Taylor and her strange musings in Daughter of Smoke and Bone I knew that I was going to have to pick up this pretty thing of a series starter and go in to reading it just as confused as her other novels. I was not dissapointed by the Strange in the title. It was strange and a magical fantasy I didn't realize I needed in my life to take a break from reality. Laini, I am not sure how you do it, seriously I don't, but don't stop.

The Night Mark by Tiffany Resiz

Another Tiffany Reisz novel, you ask? Why of course! It deserves it. Time travel romance with great banter, historical lighthouse content, some sauciness thrown in, it the least erotica of all Tiffany's books, but still absolutely fantastic. Tiffany can do it all, folks!

New to Me 2017

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I have been wanting to read this book for some time. Whenever I went to get it at the bookstore however, I was with someone who reminded me how ugly the cover was and did I really need that ugly covered book? I can answer the question now. Yes, yes I did. This is a coming of age epic about two friends in Neapolitan Italy who take very different paths in their lives. This is the first book of the four book series that spans through child, young adulthood, through when our main characters have children themselves. This book is simply life and hardship and I loved the so much and now plan to devour all of Elena Ferrante's work.

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

This was my first book of the year! It always seems to happen that my first book of the year manages to make its way onto my favorites list. This year was no different. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is what this story captures through a morally compelling and beautifully told story. I loved this one so much I even have a review to go along with it.


The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

When I forget my love of reading, a need a really good, fun, and fast pace read to help me through. This was the book that did that for me in the spring this past year as I was finishing up my first year at college while undergoing the process of transfer papers. This was a magical young adult fantasy-esque novel loosely based on 1001 nights. Our main character is snarky and strong and I immediately needed the second book in this duology right after.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I bought this one a think a year prior and finally got to this massive fantasy. I will tell you what I was told about it. It is great. One of the best true fantasy novels I have read. If you like fantasy, read it.


A recent read and add in, The Secret History beguiled me much like everyone else who read it- and not just because the fictional school sounded strangely like the one I was hoping to apply to when I was searching for colleges two years ago. There was a mystery surrounding the words and characters that made you want to join into the story with Richard Pen who believes that his fatal flaw is longing for the picturesque at all costs.

Honorable Last Minute Mentions...

Usually when I am in a reading rut I stay there. I stay there and mope, or read really terrible online romances to fill the void of whatever it may be on that particular day. Something soft. Something sweet, and usually pink.

Well, now all I see is Red.

And I am quite pleased about it.



Never make a promise you don’t intend to keep… 

Mona Lisa St. James made a deathbed promise that she would do anything to save her mother's art gallery. Unfortunately, not only is The Red painted red, but it's in the red. She soon realizes she has no choice but to sell it.

Just as she realizes she has no choice but to sell it, a mysterious man comes in after closing time and makes her an offer: He will save The Red if she agrees to submit to him for the period of one year.

The man is handsome, English, and terribly tempting...but surely her mother didn't mean for Mona to sell herself to a stranger. Then again, she did promise to do anything to save The Red...

Let me begin by openly admitting that I will read anything Tiffany Reisz writes. Novels, series, novellas, saucy short stories of all shapes and sizes. I would probably read her grocery list and wonder at what kind of cereal she is fond of. Tiffany Reisz is part of my soul now, if that is not a totally creepy thing to say...I sound a tad bit off my rocker, don't I?

Apparently this new erotic (and I found out just before beginning to read) paranormal novel, The Red, is rubbing off on me.

Tiffany did warn me though when I began and announced such on Twitter about how excited I was to get my hands on another one of her erotic, light on the romance, works. She replied to me with, "It's insane pornography. How you like that sort of thing!"

All I can say is why yes. Yes, it is absolute filth, and thank you.

"Art should be dangerous, you know. It should say something to society that society doesn’t want to hear." -The Red, Tiffany Reisz

It was also somehow absolutely beautiful in a type of story telling that somewhere inside me I really needed as of late. My soul filled with great stories is telling me this as I type.

I can easily see now why in her Original Sinners series, sweet cinnamon bun Mick from The Angel was willing to trade covers in the bookstore for it. The Red is a book of sexy filth that made my week. Who would have thought that days after reading a straight up erotica that I would still be thinking about it? From the art, the plot that lead me on to the very end, and of course the sex scenes that were vivid and situations for all to enjoy while reenacting famous paintings, The Red made me wish I had an art gallery to save.

It also really made me want to meet our main character Mona's mother who previously owned the gallery. She sounds awesome.

Tiffany- or shall I say, Mistress Nora Sutherlin from the Original Sinners, outdid herself with this intense and wonderful erotica that still managed to hold a strong story line that promised to reveal a one sinful and captivating end. Of course I am not too surprised.

This was a novel that I went in knowing not a whole lot but the words Red, Erotica, and Art. I loved it as I sat down and read it deep into the night even after my kindle beeped of how its battery was low. There was nothing stopping me on this mysterious and slightly weird journey of Mona and all the stories of The Red that swept me away into its pages and famous paintings tied in a red velvet bow that only now makes me question if such wonder was only a dream.

Or something greater.

I'm going with greater.