2013 Year End Wrap-Up

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. I know we're cutting it a bit close but we couldn't ring in the new year without a small wrap up post for 2013. Below are some of Thuy and Liv's favorite reads of 2013. Thanks for making 2013 at Nite Lite a great one. We hope to have more posts and fun things to share with you all in 2014. :)

From Liv

2013 was a year of taking my love a reading to a new level.  I started blogging at Nite Lite and started keeping track of what I was reading. I managed to read 37 books over the course of the year and I hope to log in more next year.

Since I am still catching up with books/authors/series, not all of the titles below are from 2013.  However, here’s the breakdown from my year of reading (you can see all that I read on GoodReads, click here):

* 17 paranormal novels (vampires, shape shifters, angels, and more)

* 9 novellas (contemporary romance - 6 were holiday novellas)

* 8 Contemporary Sports Romance

* 3 New Adults (Contemporary Romance)

Favorite Holiday Novella:  A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton - I loved the relationship between Wyatt and Calliope.  A wonderful holiday story with just the right amount of sexy.

Favorite Novella: Try Me (Take a Chance #1) by Diane Alberts - Jeremy is one of those guys who can quickly become a book boyfriend.  And he was so perfect with Erica.

Favorite Sports Romance:  Playing to Win by Jaci Burton - Considering that I watch one football game a year, it seems odd that my favorite sports romance would be about football but I guess football players are hot?! I seem to enjoy the “not really a bad boy” story and Cole and Savannah were perfect for each other.

Favorite New Adult: Long After by Cheryl McIntyre - I loved, loved. loved Chase.  I think I could have read this one over and over again for a week.  Such a sweet love story.

Favorite Paranormal Romance: 

Obsession by Jennifer Armentrout - Hot alien sex?! I loved Serena’s snarkiness and the way she took on Hunter with all of his domineering arrogance.

Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood #2) - One word - Rhage!

Favorite Book Boyfriends: Chase from Long After or Rhage from BDB.

Favorite Series: Play by Play from Jaci Burton and the Sometimes series by Cheryl McIntyre

Five (early) 2014 Releases that I am waiting on:

Hope Flames by Jaci Burton (January 7, 2014)

Fighting for Irish (Fighting for Love #3) by Gina L. Maxwell (January 13, 2014) 

The Cowboy’s Mail Order Bride by Carolyn Brown (February 4, 2014)

All You Need is Love: Green Mountain Book 1 by Marie Force (February 4, 2014)

The King by JR Ward (April 1, 2014)


From Thuy

2013 was a crazy year for me. I read a lot of books though I fell short of my goal of 100 books (I think I made it somewhere in the 80s). But I read a lot of really good books this year and found some new to me authors and series. It was a good year.

Favorite Holiday Novella:  A Kiss Before Midwinter by Courtney Milan - Milan consistently writes well thought out, emotional novellas.

Favorite Novella: Beautiful Bitch by Christina Lauren - Loved this short follow up to Beautiful Bastard.

Favorite Sports Romance:  Seducing Cinderella by Gina Maxwell - I read very few sports romances in 2013 but this one was a fave. Great characters and very sexy.

Favorite New Adult: Losing It by Cora Carmack - This is the only NA book I read this year but I really enjoyed it. It's a very sweet story. I have a huge list of NA books to read next year, including more of Carmack's books.

Favorite Contemporary Romance: Love Irresistibly (FBI #4) by Julie James - I am not a huge contemporary romance reader but I am a big fan of the FBI series. Finally got to see Cade get his HEA.

Favorite Paranormal Romance: 

Lover At Last by JR Ward - I have been waiting for Quinn and Blay's story for so long, and this did not disappoint.

Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan - I love all of Callihan's but especially loved Poppy and Win's story.

Favorite Book Boyfriends: Lord, so many. I'll go with Adrian Ivashkov from the Bloodlines series and Jack Talent from the Darkest London series. Oh - and Curran from Kate Daniels. What can I say? I like moody book boyfriends.

Favorite Young Adult: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - I don't know how she did it but Scarlet is even better than Cinder. Runner up is Dark Triumph by RL LaFevers.

Favorite Audiobook: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - Fantastic story and narrator. Kristine Hvam really brought the book to life and I am itching to listen to Days of Blood and Starlight.

Favorite Urban Fantasy: Magic Rises by Kate Daniels - Gah. Love this series so much and I devoured this one after snagging an early copy at Comic-Con.

Favorite Series: Definitely the Kate Daniels series. I waited so long to start this series and it was just as good as everyone said it would be.

Five 2014 Releases that I am waiting on:

The King by JR Ward (April 1, 2014)

Cress by Marissa Meyer (Feb 4, 2014)

Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews (July 29, 2014)

Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh (June 3, 2014)

Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd (Jan 28, 2014)

Those are some of our favorite picks for this year. Did any of your faves make our list? Have a safe and happy New Years, everyone. We'll see you in 2014!

Hello 2012: Goals for the New Year

Happy New Year, friends!  I am not a big celebrator of New Years. I don't like big crowds so I hate going out NYE but I do like fireworks and the possibilities that each new year brings. 2011 wasn't a great year for me but I'm putting it behind me and am looking forward to bigger and better things for 2012.

I don't really believe in resolutions but I do believe in goals. They may seem like the same thing but to me, a goal is something that I can strive for and hopefully achieve, whereas I feel like I fail a resolution the first time I veer off the track. I don't know if that makes much sense but I call them goals so let's just leave it at that. I have several reading goals this year.

• Read 100 books - Last year I read about 130 books so this is totally achievable. I went down to 100 because I feel like I raced through a lot of books last year and didn't really stop to enjoy all of them. I am also hoping to start some longer books series this year, which will take longer to read. Hoping that slowing down a bit will let me savor my reading more than just trying to find out what happens at the end.

• Read from the giant stack of books that I own (or have borrowed from friends) - I love buying books and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, there's not much use in filling my library with awesome books if I never actually read them. I have a giant pile of books I've gotten this year and another giant pile that I borrowed from my friend Alethea that really need to be read. I also have a boatload of Kindle books that I haven't read that I need to get to.  I went a little crazy over Christmas and am going to try really hard not to buy any more books for awhile and read what I have.

• Read my Netgalley books - I LOVE Netgalley but they have so many great offerings that I often can't keep up with my requests. Goal this year is to keep up with my NG reads, or at least get it under control. Starting it off by joining Netgalley Month, hosted by Red House Books. 

• Read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Game of Thrones - I have the first book in both series and want to read them this year. Hopefully I'll like both enough to continue with the entire series.

• Reading Challenges - I've joined a few challenges this year. On the YA side, I've joined the Debut Author Challenge and the Standalone Challenge. You can see what I plan to read in my post on our YA site here. I've also joined the Krazy Kleypas Challenge for more Lisa Kleypas fun. See my original post here. 

• Write reviews in a more timely manner - My reading speed far surpasses my writing speed and I am way behind in my reviews. I'd like to try to catch up a bit and review books I've read within a week or a couple of weeks of reading them. Pretty sure this is going to be the hardest one to achieve. :)
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Those are my goals this year. I don't think I've bitten off more than I can chew, but we'll see. I'd love to hear what everyone else's goals are for 2012. Comment below or leave a link and I'll visit. Happy 2012! (I hope that world doesn't end this year. I have so many books I want to read before the apocalypse.)

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