Good Morning fellow Janeites,
Welcome to From Pemberley to Milton’s first post of 2017!
I hope you all started this new year with your right foot and that you are as excited as I am to discover which new books our dear authors will present us with this year.
2016 was a particularly hard year for me in terms of time. I had an increase of activity at the office in the middle of the year that consumed much of my free time, so I could not dedicate as much time as I would like to From Pemberley to Milton. On the other hand, the increase of work stress led me to take reading as a refuge that allowed me to relax, so I pretty much read in every single moment I had free, meaning I ended up reading more than I thought I would.
I’m probably not a fast reader, and certainly I’m not capable of reading as many books as most of you, but I’m quite proud of myself for finishing 2016 with 45 new books read. I re-read some great books this year, but I’m not including them on this list.
Just like last year, I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to some of my favorite books from 2016. This list is not based on published books in 2016, but on the books I actually read in 2016. I thought this would be fair because I don’t always read books on their release year, and it would not be fair not to include them amongst my favorite just because their publication year was prior to the year I read them. Unfortunately I decided I would only select 10, or I would have no criteria whatsoever, but it was hard and some books that are not in this list come immediately to my mind as The Coming of Age of Elizabeth Bennet, Northern Rain, Miss Darcy’s Companion , Shadows Over Longbourn and A Fine Stout Love and Other Stories. But I should stop, or I’ll just continue mentioning books I loved… So, without further ado, my favourite 2016 reads are, without no particular order, the below:
Darcy’s Hope – Ginger Monet
Publication year –2015
Number of Pages – 278
What I loved about it – The writing, the surroundings, the historical aspects, the romance, the intensity, Darcy and of course, Thornton 🙂
Mr. Bennet’s Dutiful Daughter – Joana Starnes
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 322
What I loved about it – The growing stout love, the intimacy, the intensity, Darcy and of course, the angst!!!
The Courtship of Edward Gardiner – Nicole Clarkston
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 182
What I loved about it – Little Lizzy, Little Fitzwilliam, Little Bingley and Madeleine! Overall the entire feeling the book transmitted 🙂
Review link – Coming soon…
Darcy By Any Other Name – Laura Hile
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 662
What I loved about it – The humour, the complicity and intimacy, the romance, Darcy and angst! OMG, the angst!
The Elizabeth Papers – Jenneta James
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 210
What I loved about it –The writing, the writing and the writing! I love the tone Jenetta James transmits in her books and this one was just breathtaking!
Love Never Fails – Jennifer Joy
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 348
What I loved about it –The intensity and sadness of the first chapters, the humour in the next chapters, Elizabeth and Mrs. Bennet!
Remembrance of the Past – Lory Lilian
Publication year – 2011
Number of Pages – 432
What I loved about it – ODC’s journey throughout the book, Darcy’s honour, Darcy himself and Elizabeth’s jealousy 🙂
When Mary Met the Colonel – Victoria Kincaid
Publication year – 2016
Number of Pages – 98
What I loved about it – Mary, Mary and Mary! And the Colonel of course 🙂
No Such Thing as Luck – Nicole Clarkston
Publication year – 2015
Number of Pages – 326
What I loved about it –The entire journey, but the ship scenes…sigh… They were worth the entire book! I should say that this is a favourite “in exequo” with Northern Rain, but I could only add one 😦
Review link – Coming Soon
The Best Part of Love – Amy D’Orazio
Publication year – 2017 (I read the ARC copy)
Number of Pages – To be disclosed
What I loved about it – The stout love, the intensity and the angst!! I’m ready to re-read this book and I just finished it last week 🙂
Review link – Coming soon
Amazon link – Coming Soon
Are any of these amongst your favourites too? And which amazing reads am I missing? I have seen some people talk about their favourites in the last days and I know for sure that I probably didn’t read some truly good books that are amongst the hearts of my fellow Janeites, so any suggestion is welcome 🙂
2017 will be a true challenge because I don’t think I will be able to read as many JAFF books as I did this year, especially because I do want to read other genres this year, but I’m also very curious to see what is coming, and which books will carve my soul 🙂
I have a TBR pile that keeps growing, particularly because every time someone suggest a really book I tend to read it leaving my TBR pile exactly as it was, so this time I decided to make it public! Maybe this way I will feel obliged to stick to it and actually read the books I had chosen to read 🙂
So, you are all my witnesses, this year, I must read these books:
To Be Read JAFF & NSFF
Darcy and Elizabeth – A Promise Kept – Brenda Webb
Sketching Character – Pamela Lynn
Pulse and Prejudice: The Confession of Mr. Darcy Vampire – Colette L Saucier
Love Letters from Mr. Darcy – J. Dawn King
Master of Her Heart – Julia Daniels
The Rainbow Promise – Lory Lilian
The Darcy’s of Pemberley – Shannon Winslow
The Sheik of Araby – Lavinia Angell
***
To re-read JAFF & NSFF
Disappointed Hopes – Cassandra Grafton
The Second Chance – Joana Starnes
Mr. Darcy’s Diary – Amanda Grange
A Heart for Milton – Trudy Brasure
***
Non JAFF:
The BookThief – Marcus Zusak
The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill – Julie Klassen
The Little Paris Bookshop – Nina George
Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
Bucky F*cking Dent – David Duchovny
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
What about you? What are your reading plans? Would you like to suggest anything, JAFF or Non-JAFF?
I know this was an extensive post, but I hope you have liked it and that you’ll keep visiting and talking to me about JAFF 🙂 I have some news that I’m looking forward to share with you, so speak to you soon 🙂
From Pemberley to Milton 