These Are A Few Of My Favorite...Books! My Favorite Books of 2016

I wasn't going to do a top books or best of books post this year but, on a whim, I changed my mind. These aren't necessarily the best books I read this year but they are the ones I liked the best. They made me happy when I read them and they make me happy re-reading them; they call to me, stay in mind and I think about them from time to time. I've recommended and talked about them until people run and hide when they see me coming.  😁 Most, but not all, were released this year.

The links go to my reviews, some on the blog and some on goodreads.

Bea Reviews Silver Belles: An Over-40 Holiday Anthology by Sarah M. Anderson, Ros Clarke, Laura K. Curtis, Yasmine Galenorn, & Suleikha Snyder

Publisher: River Hills Press
Source: a gift from author Laura K. Curtis
Release Date: November 10th, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Modern women can have it all, they say. But "they" don't ever explain how. All too often, love gets sacrificed to careers, to children, to art. In these five brand new stories, women from all walks of life discover love long after having given it up for lost.

This anthology contains:

“The Christmas Pony” by Sarah M. Anderson
What’s Alice supposed to do with a pony? The teacher only knows the animal was left on her porch right before Christmas. Then handsome Animal Control Officer Kirk Douglas shows up, asking questions that Alice prefers not to answer. But even the mystery surrounding the animal’s origins can’t stop the holiday spark that ignites between Alice and Kirk. Can their attraction survive ugly-sweater parties, well-meaning relatives and the Christmas pony?

“Midnight Clear” by Ros Clarke
A year ago, Alison had it all: a husband, a family, and a purpose in life. But now, following a painful divorce, everything’s changed. She doesn’t know where her life is going, and her faith is as wobbly as her lopsided Christmas tree.

When she’s bowled over by an enthusiastic Irish setter in the park, and the rather gorgeous older man on the end of his lead, she’s not expecting more than a quick coffee and the mud brushed off her coat. Certainly not a Christmas like she’s never had before, full of peace, joy, and maybe even love?

“Sparks” by Laura K. Curtis
Kate Bellows has no room for weakness if she’s going to pull JanCo Moving out of the hole its in and create a solid career for herself. Her carefully-laid plans, however, are no match for the fire that burns her house to the ground. With few options, she accepts an offer to spend Christmas with the volunteer firefighter who’d injured himself trying to save her house.

But there are two major problems with staying in Adam Miller’s spare room over the holidays. First, he works and JanCo and there’s a good chance she will have to fire him. Second, he’s entirely too attractive, and Kate Bellows has neither time nor taste for romance.

“The Longest Night” by Yasmine Galenorn
The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, and the past few years have been dark for Merilee Johansson. After an acerbic divorce, Merilee moved to Starwood, a small mountain town devoted to the arts. Here, she hopes to heal from the wounds life has left on her heart and her self-esteem. What she doesn’t expect is for Chris Hunter to enter her life, bringing the promise of love on the darkest night of the year.

“A Taste of Blessings” by Suleikha Snyder
For Tiya Chatterjee, coming home for one of her community’s most joyous celebrations, Durga Puja, means coming home to her mom’s disapproval, nosy aunties…and a crush on a man who shouldn’t even be on her radar.

For divorced father-of-two Arnav Biswas, the three-day festival is a chance to keep his culture alive for his kids — not an opportunity to flirt with a beautiful woman who isn’t meant for him.

Fortunately, fate has other plans for Arnav and Tiya, who must learn that giving thanks to a powerful goddess means acknowledging the unstoppable power of love. 

Bea Reviews Mind Games by Laura K. Curtis

Series: Harp Security #2 
Publisher: InterMix 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 17, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series | NetGalley and Edelweiss ARCs
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Mind games turn fatal in the second Harp Security novel...

The daughter of a schizophrenic, Dr. Jane Evans prioritizes order, control, and—above all—her work in a psychiatric research lab. When an attempted kidnapping threatens to derail the project she’s on, her boss hires a bodyguard. He’s everything Jane is not, and if she can survive, she may even learn to like the difference.

Eric Sorensen owes Jane a debt he can’t possibly repay. Without her tutoring, he would not have made it through college, would not have the life he does. But none of his memories of college Jane prepare him for adult Jane. When she suddenly disappears, he follows her trail to a secret lab in a cartel-controlled Mexican jungle. Rescue seems impossible but Eric’s not the type to give up, even if it means trading his own life for hers. 

Bea Reviews Gaming the System by Laura K. Curtis

Publisher: River Hills Press
Series: Goody's Goodies #2
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Challenges: COYER Summer Scavenger Hunt |  Finishing the Series | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon*  | ARe* | Smashwords*  | iTunes* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble Nook | Barnes & Noble print
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

As the punk-goth manager of Las Vegas’s premiere adult toy store, Kai Tyler changes her hair color, nail color, and eye color the way some people change socks. In fact, she’s even changed her name. She owes no one, depends on no one, and stopped believing in happily ever after before she reached the age of ten. All she really wants out of life is a few good gadgets and the occasional day of pampering once in a while.

Luke Clarke loves his family, but he has no desire to fulfill his parents’ dream by getting married and going into politics. So when he’s invited to his sister’s week-long wedding gala, he asks Kai along as a decoy. Having a date will squelch his mother’s matchmaking attempts and Kai’s outrageous appearance might—just might—convince his family once and for all that he’ll never have a career in politics.

But as stress, desire, and close quarters eat away at the masks both Luke and Kai wear, their easy arrangement begins to transform into something neither expected. Will they cling to the stable roles of the past, or bet on an uncertain future together?

REVIEW and EXCERPT: Echoes by Laura K. Curtis

Publisher: Berkley Intermix
Series: Harp Security #1
Format Read: Kindle galley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review 
Release Date: March 17,2015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | ARe* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Who is she?

A single photo of herself as an infant on a beach, taken before the date on her birth certificate, throws everything Calliope Pearson knows about herself into question. Hoping to find answers, she takes advantage of her job as a travel writer to make a reservation at the Caribbean island resort in the picture.

Resort security chief Mac Brody distrusts Callie on sight. After all, she looks exactly like his deceitful missing wife, Nikki, who owns half the resort. But when Nikki’s found dead, Mac's facing murder charges, and he’s sure that Callie must hold the key to proving his innocence.

The deeper Callie and Mac dive into the mystery of her past, the more bodies surface. And they’ll have to learn to trust each other, or become victims of a dark danger neither could've imagined.

EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY - Toying with His Affections by Laura K. Curtis

Today it's my pleasure to have author Laura K. Curtis here today, sharing an excerpt from her newest book, "Toying With His Affections". While she's best known for writing romantic suspense, she also writes straight up romance as evidenced by this story. I have followed Laura for a while now on Twitter, she's interesting and lots of fun. I have "TWHA" in my TBR pile and I've read and enjoyed her RS, "Twisted". I hope you'll enjoy this excerpt from "Toying With His Affections".

Laura K. Curtis does everything backwards. As a child, she was extremely serious, so now that she’s chronologically an adult, she feels perfectly justified in acting the fool. She started teaching at age fifteen, then decided to go back to school herself at thirty.

Laura has taught middle school social studies, high school literature, and college-level rhetoric, all with relative success. She’s also a full-on Mac geek who spent years as a consultant and running an academic computing lab. The only thing she completely failed at in the field of education was attempting to teach obedience to her pack of Irish Terriers. Currently, she lives in Westchester, NY, with her husband and two insane Irish Terriers who have taught her how easily love can coincide with the desire to kill.

Laura wrote her first book in first grade. You can see it right here:

It was released (in paperback, naturally) to rave reviews, and she’s been trying to achieve the same level of success ever since.

Bloggers! Authors! Get Your Own T-shirt!

Yes, you can get your own shirt. Author Laura K. Curtis was inspired to make a shirt with a name tag on it that said 'Author' and had space for someone to write their name on it. Then after a Twitter conversation, she made one for bloggers too. Both shirts were done through TeeSpring but a minimum number of shirts has to be ordered before they will be printed. So, Ms. Curtis put them on Cafe Press too and there's a wide variety of styles, colors, and sizes. She also has lots of other cool merchandise, including crankypants, which apparently started the whole crazy exercise. That was inspired by a Twitter convo also. :D Check them out, and make sure you have your credit card handy!