Last year I decided that it was far too difficult to choose a top ten books of 2016 because I had read so many which were worthy of a little more book love. This year has been just as rewarding and just as difficult, so much so that I’ve even struggled to pick a top twenty five!!!
I have to keep my choices quite strict and so to appear in my top books countdown the book needs to have been published in 2017, I have to have reviewed it this year and awarded it five stars on Amazon or Good Reads (as I no longer give stars on my reviews on the blog). Oh, and my Red Hot Reads automatically receive a place in the countdown. As I only started my red hot read award later in the year after I stopped giving stars, I have had to use a little poetic licence on books read in the first quarter and try and work out which ones I would have awarded it to, had they been released a little later in the year.
So … how did the books of 2017 fare? Well we will find out tomorrow when I begin the countdown. There is no particular order to my countdown, they are more or less in the order I read them throughout the year. However, last year I did name one book, Chris Whitaker’s Tall Oaks, my book of the year. As this is now an official CWA Dagger award winning novel, I like to think my judgment is fairly sound … However, I am having a real struggle this year in choosing just one book to take top spot and will be holding a few titles back a while to give me more thinking time. Watch this space …
Actually – to give you an idea of what might be in the running for my book of the year, I’ve decided to run a little giveaway, open to entrants from the UK. To be in with a chance of winning a selection of my favourite reads of this year and some scrummy chocolate, all you need to do is tell me which one of the following books you think deserves the extra recognition by commenting below, and then head over to my competition page to confirm your entry. For a bonus chance, you can also enter the poll over on my Facebook page here. If none of these options float your boat, then tell me which book you think should be in my bookvent countdown and why you think I should read it. After all, it’s all about the book love.
ENTER HERE
However, as it is Christmas and I am allegedly nice, I am also running a giveaway which is open worldwide. You can win a book of your choice from the list below and a selection of my favourite chocolate. Once you have told me which book should be my book of the year for 2017, just head over to my competition page to confirm your entry right here.
The books in the running are (in no particular order)
The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen
Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride
All The Wicked Girls by Chris Whitaker
Follow You by Richard Parker
High Force by LJ Ross
Block 46 by Johana Gostawsson
Broken Bones by Angela Marsons
Rattle by Fiona Cummins
Good luck everyone. The competition is open until midnight on 22nd December so you have plenty of time to think about your answers.
Have a fabulous bookvent season.
Jen