Angieville

It's New Year's Eve and, as always, I have a list of my favorite books of 2014. Twenty titles this year, my friends. Five less than last year and five more than the year before. And that sounds about right to me when I reflect on the sort of reading year it was. Which is to say generous. And beloved. Best of 2014 (in the order in which I read them) Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen Broken Blade by J.C. Daniels The Chocolate Temptation by Laura Florand Live by Mary Ann Rivers It Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning Cruel Beauty and Gilded Ashes   by Rosamund Hodge Landline by Rainbow Rowell Redemption by Ruthie Knox Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater A Grave Matter by Anna Lee Huber The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins Jackaby by William Ritter The Year We Hid Away by Sarina Bowen I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Magg...

I have Allison over at The Allure of Books to thank for this recommendation. I believe I had heard the title of this Victorian mystery bandied about some and never did chase it down on account of the title itself. Something to do with a proliferation of the so-and-so's wife titles at the time, I would imagine. But. I'm so very glad I listened to Allie and gave it a shot. Anna Lee Huber 's series (which stands at three novels at the present time with a fourth due out this summer) is excellent. As you might have guessed, this series is a straight shot for you Deanna Raybourn  and Tasha Alexander fans out there. While the Lady Julia Grey series is a touch more dramatic and the Lady Emily Ashton one quite a bit lighter, Kiera Darby is compelling entirely on her own merits and I can't wait to further my exploits with her in future installments. Lady Kiera Darby wants only to hide away and lick her wounds. Gone to her sister's estate in Scotland to recuperate from t...

So you heard, right? You heard Rainbow Rowell is actually writing a Simon Snow book?! Guys, it's like I woke up and Christmas came early. It's like I'm the Grinch and my heart just grew three sizes this day. She announced it via Twitter last night. And it is Simon & Baz's story. And it is due out next October. And it is her first fantasy. And there was this (along with a summary) on her tumblr : Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters. Take my money, Ms. Rowell.

. . . a book closet as an early Christmas present! I came home yesterday to this at the end of my hall, and I'm still a bit giddy over the whole thing. We're going to add a French door in the near future, and then I will have to force myself to leave the hall each day. 

So the lovely Tundra Books recently issued these utterly swoonworthy paperback editions of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, and I literally cannot look away. This is a series that is very near and dear to my heart as my mother read them all aloud to me as a girl, but which strangely I've never really set about collecting pretty editions of (or even matching ones). I know. I shock myself. And it seems they may only be available in Canada at present. But these? These are the ones, guys.

Because I have never—not once—cried at a move trailer and I literally burst into tears when the Millennium Falcon appears. Apparently I am that fan .