This is a list of my ten favorites because I tried five and that just wasn’t enough. Now, to be clear, these are not necessarily books that were published within 2013, but they are books that I read or listened to in 2013. For space, I won’t list the descriptions, but I’ll link you to the Good Reads pages for further detail of each. If you are looking for where to purchase your books from, online retailers like alkeyTAB are really convenient.

Oh, this was hard, and I had to leave so many good ones out because I had to draw the line somewhere. But here goes, and in no particular order:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green & David Levithan
This is a story of the intersecting lives of two boys named Will Grayson, each author having taken on a Will Grayson. I completely fell in love with the story of W.G.2 (written by David Levithan). The so unfamiliar and compelling story of this boy who was miserable in life outside of one secret relationship made me smile like an idiot through the sweet moments, and ripped my heart out of my chest during the tumultuous one. David Levithan has the uncanny ability to make you fall in love with a character who you should otherwise dislike profusely. I’m in awe. I’m jealous. I’m going to read many more books by him. Thank you, John Green, for introducing me to another awesome author!

Metro Girl – Janet Evanovich
Laugh out loud funny does not begin to cover the hilarity of this book. We all love the Stephanie Plum series, but this book surpasses even those. I listened to the audiobook on this one, and C.J. Critt was a phenomenal narrator. At one point, I seriously thought I was going to have to pull the car over and get the laughter out so I wouldn’t have a wreck. Oh my goodness. Read it. Or better, listen to it next time you need a good hard laugh.

The Boys Next Door – Jennifer Echols
I downloaded this one to my Kindle from a recommendation I saw on Facebook from a fellow contemporary romance writer. The main character, Lori, is hilariously self-deprecating and somehow full of confidence all at the same time. I loved the combination, and I loved her…as well as her relationship with the two hunks next door. Cute book. I look forward to reading the sequel Endless Summer, which was the book I thought I was reading. Turned out I’d purchased a two book set for my Kindle, so the sequel awaits me as soon as I have time to continue on with the story. Bonus!

Safe Haven – Nicholas Sparks
Now, don’t throw tomatoes at your screen, but I was not a fan of The Notebook movie. I don’t tend to have that girly gene that is required to love such things, but I still watched Dear John because, well, Channing Tatum. I liked it a little better. Then I saw the preview for Safe Haven, and the cozy coastal town sucked me in…and, well, Josh Duhamel. So I watched the movie, and liked it…kinda a lot. I liked it so much that I downloaded the audiobook. Though I knew what was going to happen, I really enjoyed hearing it through a second time around because we all know that books are always better than movies…and of course, this one was no exception. It was really interesting being in the mind of a deranged lunatic much of the book, feeling his push and pull, his love and hate for his wife. It was fascinating to me. It is clear to see why Mr. Sparks is hailed as a master of his craft.

Archetype – M.D. Waters
While the rest of the world awaits the Feb. 6th release of M.D. Waters’ science fiction masterpiece, I was loaned an advanced reader copy of the book and asked to give an honest review. I refuse to give away one delectable detail, so I will just shut up but not before ordering you to right this minute preorder this book. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. I take that back. You will be greatly disappointed when you reach the end and realization sets in that you have to wait until July 24th for the sequel Prototype to be released.

The Devil’s Backbone – Rae Ann Parker
This book was extra special to me because my son and I read it together. It was his first chapter book, and it inspired him to start reading chapter books all on his own. He now is neck deep in the Wimpy Kid series and I bought him his first James Patterson book at the book fair this year-I Funny. Backbone was not only a special experience for my son and I to share, but also a great and highly educational book written by a really sweet and kind person.

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
After being torn apart by Gone Girl, I finally got up the nerve to read Dark Places, which I liked even better, so I wanted to read Ms. Flynn’s only other available book. (Please hurry up with your next, Ms. Flynn!) I started a book club in my neighborhood this past Spring, and I offered the girls about ten or twelve selections to choose from to get us started. They collectively picked Sharp Objects as our first read and I pumped a fist in the air and began reading. Ms. Flynn took me to a dark, frightening place, and I loved every single page of it, reading 100 pages consecutively one night, into the wee hours of the morning until it was finished.

Warning: Ms. Flynn’s books are not for the faint at heart or for ones who care not to have their minds deeply disturbed.

To Have And To Hold – Jane Green
Ms. Green is one of my favorite authors, and this year alone I listened to eight of her books. While I loved each in their own unique way, this one most definitely was my favorite, and I’ve been itching to listen again. This book splits the difference between metropolitan London and suburban Connecticut, and with Ms. Green’s spectacular descriptive scene setting abilities, you always know exactly where you are. And she is the only author I’ve ever seen successfully pull off third person, omniscient, present tense. She’s exceptional, and I seem to have run out of novels of hers to drink in. May we please have another, Ms. Green?

Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins
I happened upon this novel while searching young adult contemporary authors for study. I gave it a shot, and fell so in love with this simple but engaging story of a high school girl spending the year at a Paris boarding school. The hero of the story is probably one of the most captivating characters I’ve seen in a young adult novel, which may or may not have had to do with the narrator’s excellent job with her English accent for him. I picked up a second of Ms. Perkins’ novels after this one, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

Never Love a Highlander – Maya Banks
I first was introduced to the incredible Maya Banks at the end of 2012 when I downloaded my first ever historical book, which was the first in this series. I immediately downloaded the other two and flew through both of them. This third one in the series features Rionna, a woman who prefers to wear men’s clothing and fight alongside the male warriors. Ms. Banks does an incredible job making her strong and forceful, yet gentle and loving…and not at all obnoxious like so many characters similar to this one can become. This series hooked me, and I have downloaded many other books by this author, and will continue to do so.

What will 2014 bring?

Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas — This is the fourth in the Travis series which inspired me to write a series of my own. I adored the other three books in this series, and can’t wait for this one! Looks like I’ll have to wait until September, but it will be so worth it!

Gone by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge — This is the sixth installment in the Michael Bennett series. It released this year in September, but somehow I missed it, so it’s on the list for 2014.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding — I’m baffled how I let 2013 pass without reading this book. For sure on my list for next year.

The One and Only by Emily Giffin — Not a lot of info yet about this one, but I list Ms. Giffin in my top five favorite authors, so it doesn’t matter what it is…I’ll be reading come May 2014.

Yet to be titled release from my writing partner Greg Howard — My friend Greg and I have been on this writing journey together for several years now, holding each other accountable every single day with word counts, craft tips and emotional support. He typed “The End” on his manuscript two weeks ago, and there is no doubt that it will be published, and it will be incredible. While I read the first draft, and LOVED it, he has completely revised it, and I can’t WAIT to get it in my grimy little hands.

If you’re anything like the Chambers, each morning between now and Christmas day you will wake up in a panic at 4:00 in the morning, in that foggy state, your mind racing to remember if you’ve moved the elf. If you’re like me you fall asleep on the couch around 8:00 most nights before the kid even goes to sleep and you have to depend on your husband to move the g@# d#$%&! elf. So you drag your ass out of bed in the middle of the night (yes, 4:00 is still the middle of the night) and clump around your house, praying you don’t wake up the kid before you locate the little bastard, who blends in with all the Christmas decorations.

But for me, every sleepless night that I dream that we forgot to move the elf and the magic of Christmas and the belief in everything we’ve lied to our child about for years is over is worth it. See, this year may be the last year that our little one still believes. He’s getting to that age where other little ones are learning that it’s all a ruse, and love spreading the joy of the truth through the classroom, effectively ruining Christmas for 22 families. So while my sweet angel is greeting his elf, Christmas (yes, his name is Christmas—I said my kid was sweet. I never said he was uber-creative) every time we come or go from the house, and writing him precious little letters to give to Santa, I will gladly toss and turn and wake up panicked for the next month. Also, I’m a creative liar.

REASONS YOU CAN GIVE YOUR KID FOR WHY THE ELF DIDN’T LAND IN A DIFFERENT SPOT:

1. He drank too much boiled custard and got a tummy ache, so he stayed here last night.

2. He must really love hanging off the ceiling fan, so much that he wanted to do it again today!

3. He moved. I actually saw him out of the corner of my eye. Then he saw that I saw him, got paranoid and crawled back to that same spot. I swear.

4. The dog touched him so he lost some of his magic and couldn’t fly. But don’t worry. I read on the internet that if we leave him some **insert whatever remedy you like here** he will be well enough tomorrow night to head back. But you can only do this once a season, so this is not license to touch him now. Well, maybe twice a season. Three times possibly. Just don’t touch him.

Cleopatra Giancarlo is different from your average twenty something career girl. For one thing, she knows when people lie because she can see the truth in their shadows. For another, she doesn’t use her power for good. Or evil. After repeated failures to help others, she mostly just uses it to get deals at Bloomingdale’s. She fears what the government would do if they discovered her ability, yet she longs to find out if there are people like her out there. If there’s anything more she could be.

Know how authors write these books and they’re really long and the books take forever to finish? Maybe you don’t, so I just told you. Well, I write novels sometimes, and it takes forever. So that’s how I got into crocheting.

It came about, as do so many of my novel ideas, as a short story. Needless to say, it swelled from there. I thought about what types of paranormal powers I’d seen characters possess in books and movies and what magic or science had been used to explain those powers. What powers, I wondered, would be the most exciting for humans to have? Strength? Agility? Flight? Invisiblity? And then I said, to heck with it, and made some stuff up about supersensors. They don’t have anything different than normal humans–they just have the ability to access their senses in more enhanced ways than we do.

How much research I did was directly proportional to how much I wanted to procrastinate each particular scene. I researched a huge variety of items for this book. Management consulting, accounting practices, kaizen, burglar alarms, those bug zapper things, people who test perfumes, telepathy and telekinetics, potato salad, Nolensville Road in Nashville, what a “river cooter” really is…that didn’t make it into the book, though. But did you know some turtles can breathe through their butts??

There is romance. There is flirtation, sexual tension, at least one date, and some hot guys who take off their shirts. The story is written as the beginning of a series about Cleo, though, so …SPOILER!… it does not have a traditional romance genre HEA where Cleo gets married to the man of her dreams and rides off into the sunset on a Segway. I think she’d like a Segway.

I plotz my pants on a regular basis.

Reviews are for readers. I read them. I do not comment on them publicly. Meankitty even writes reviews sometimes. She’s not very nice. Once she got hate mail for one of her “Bad Libs” reviews where she just takes a bunch of random adjectives and adverbs and such and sticks them in a fake review form. I treasure that almost as much as my 3 pieces of fan mail.

Right now I’m reading Lyndsay Buroker’s newest book Torrent, Part 1 of Rust & Relics. I love her stuff. Favorite authors include Ms. Buroker, Linnea Sinclair, Natalie Damschroder, Ilona Andrews, Clyde Edgerton, Sandra Boynton, Marion Chesney, Carla Kelly, JK Rowling and Charlaine Harris. Among others.

I don’t. I suck. Just don’t tell my family. I think I have them fooled.

I write when the kids are in school, in my recliner, in complete silence. The only sound allowed is the purring of a cat. Let’s just say I’m not very flexible. I don’t remember how I managed to get anything done when kids were at home. It’s like a bad dream to me now. Which isn’t to say I dislike my children. I don’t. I think I wrote a lot when they napped and after they went to bed.

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