Happy New Year to everyone.  I enjoyed a fantastic year in books during 2017 and really struggled to pick my favourites of the year, in fact, I’ve had to go for 11 books this year rather than 10.  My last read of the year was John Gwynne’s A Time of Dread and it was so good that it had to go on here too even though I’ve not yet published the review.

1. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
2. The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
3. The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams
4. Skullsworn by Brian Staveley
5. The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark
6. Blackwing by Ed McDonald
7. The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
8. A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne M Harris
9. The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear
10. The Nine by Tracy Townsend
11. A Time of Dread by John Gwynne

And here are the lovely covers:

If you’re interested in a few statistics from last year:

1. Last year I read 104 books (probably a couple more but I’ve not listed a few of my reads.
2. I completed the first half of the SPFBO competition.  The ten finalists are here.
3. At least 50 of my books were by female authors – possibly more.
4. I have written 91 reviews.
5. I have completed four series – not very impressive is it!
6. Books bought 45
7. Bought books read – 0 – eek!  Need to start reading some of my own books methinks
8. One author has been on my ‘best of list’ for the past 7 consecutive years: Mark Lawrence – that definitely deserves a little shout out.