Nat's Top Ten of 2014

It's that time of year again.  Time to share our favorites of 2014.  As always, it was a difficult decision.  But I forced myself to choose and I'm pretty happy with this list.  What were your favorite reads this year?  Share in the comments below!






Here Without You by Tammara Webber 

An excellent ending to the Between the Lines series.  I've always loved how Webber made me fall in love with the one character I hated most.  In this final installment, Reid gets the opportunity to improve relationships with all the important people in his life - his dad, mom, Dori.  AND he has the opportunity to meet his very young son.









The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn

I had already read most of the 2nd Epilogues in this book.  And I won't lie.  Re-reading them was an absolute joy.  But the reason this book made it to my Top Ten is due to the included novella, Violet in Bloom.  I've always wanted to read Violet Bridgerton's (everyone's favorite matriarch) story and boy did Julia Quinn deliver. I cried and I laughed and it was so, so beautiful and heartbreaking and, and, and...So, yeah.  If you are a fan of the Bridgertons and you haven't read this one, you must.  You simply must.






The Bells of Time Square by Amy Lane

Oh, Amy.  I never think it's possibly for your books to get any more amazing. And then you throw this at me.  An exquisite story about the forbidden love between two American soldiers during the height of WWII.  You know from page one that there is no happily ever after for Nate and Walter.  But just as in the case of the Violet Bridgerton novella, the absence of a happily ever after doesn't take away from the beauty and wonder and hope of Nate and Walter's love story.






Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman

What a lovely surprise.  This one had been sitting on my TBR shelf for almost three years.  I don't know what made me pick it up but boy am I glad I did.  A captivating story about a young woman with extreme OCD and her new loo-mate that triggers her anxiety in every possible way.  They fall for each other over a mutual love of Van Morrison.  I loved that this book took the heroine's  mental illness so seriously and did not condescendingly try to make the reader believe that falling in love was a cure for her daily struggles.  Also, I learned to absolutely adore Van Morrison thanks to this author.  Thank you, Ms. Kaufman!




Take Me On by Katie McGarry

I've loved every single Katie McGarry book to date.  But I never thought I would love one more than Pushing the Limits.  I was wrong.  This was amazing.  A young, female, non-paranormal MC that is both emotionally AND physically strong.  An entitled young man that has had enough of his dysfunctional home life and makes the decision to live without the privileges he is used to.  McGarry doesn't pull any punches when portraying the lives of people that struggle daily to have the very basic of needs met.






Unstoppable by Shannon Richard

This book was absolutely precious.  The heroine, Melanie, is the kind of girl I always admire.  The one that is both driven but also very domestic.  And the love of her life was stinkin' adorable. Shannon Richard managed to take the cluelessness of a Jill Shalvis' alpha male and the steady traits of my favorite forever boys and create an extremely likable and amusing hero. This one got an immedidate re-read and will definitely be one I go back to when I'm looking for a satisfying comfort read.






#scandal by Sarah Ockler

This is a wonderful satirical look at high school and the pitfalls of social media.  #scandal was often funny and sometimes uncomfortable.  It was also fast-paced.  I found myself being anxious to see what happens next.  I would recommend this book to pretty much any reader of any age.









In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins

This was the first Kristan Higgins book I ever read.  And because of it, I quickly devoured the others in the Blue Heron series.  This one remains my favorite in the series.  Emmaline might be my favorite heroine of the year. Plenty of self-deprecating and physical humor in this one.  It was a great mix and had me laughing non-stop while still keeping me on edge with the romance.







What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Huntley Fitzpatrick has quickly become one of my favorite contemporary YA authors.  This is a realistic and thoughtful novel about how we can survive and move on from our mistakes and how those mistakes don't have to be the only thing that define us.









The Moment of Everything by Shelly King

Yep.  I saved the best for last.  This was my absolute favorite book of the year.  A story about an unemployed woman discovering herself while forming relationships with the people that all share a love of the same used bookstore.  I could go on and on about how perfect this book is.  But, instead, I will just point you to my review of what I consider to be THE BEST book of the year.

Nat's Review of The Best Book of the Year

Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman

* * * *

Oxford Messed Up is a unique literary love story that transports readers on a meaningful and emotional journey where the academic world of Oxford, the music of Van Morrison, and an old claw-foot bathtub serve as a backdrop for learning, self-discovery, and transcendent love. Rhodes Scholar Gloria Zimmerman is an academic superstar who has come to Oxford University to study feminist poetry. Yet the rigors of the academy pale in comparison to her untreated Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, fueled by her overachieving parents and manifested in a deathly aversion to germs and human contact. Her next-door neighbor (who is also, to her mortification, her loomate) is Henry Young, the appealing but underachieving musician son of an overbearing and disapproving Oxford don. Still mourning the death of his supportive mother while enduring the mockery of his disapproving and merciless father, Henry is haunted by the unexpectedly serious ramifications of a reckless and tragic youth. Gloria and Henry's relationship evolves from a shared obsession with Van Morrison's music into a desire on the part of each to fill in the gaps in the life of the other. Yet the constraints of a debilitating illness and the looming revelation of a catastrophic secret conspire to throw their worlds into upheaval and threaten the possibilities of their unlikely yet redemptive love.  


Review:

When I first started reading Oxford Messed Up, I thought it would be a story that, due to subject matter and writing style, would take me a week to complete.  But I couldn’t put it down.  Less than 48 hours later I was done reading.  And after 8 hours of dreams containing a continuous Van Morrison soundtrack (from my limited Van Morrison repertoire), I HAD to put my thoughts to paper (or in this case, a word document that would be cut and pasted to Blogger).

The story starts out with Gloria traveling from Chicago to Oxford.  As her parents drive her to O’Hare we quickly learn about Gloria’s musical love affair with Van Morrison, her unhealthy friendship with her best friend Oliver and her obsessive use of hand sanitizer that has turned her hands into a raw, red, dry mess.  We also quickly learn that Oliver is not a person.  Oliver is the name Gloria has given her OCD.  I know this is fiction but I had a hard time containing the rage I felt toward the psychiatrist that convinced Gloria to give her OCD a name and in turn give it even more control.  I gathered the advice was given not yet knowing how severe Gloria’s OCD truly was or would become but you could tell it caused so much more damage that it was hard to contain my anger.

When Gloria arrives at her flat in Oxford she immediately runs to the loo.  No person with Gloria’s germophobia was going to use the airport or airplane bathrooms, which means that her need to use the loo in her private flat was absolute.  But she runs into the surprise of her life when she finds she shares a loo with the flat next door.  And that flat’s tenant is happily sitting on the toilet while playing his guitar.

Henry Young is everything Oliver hates.  He’s a perpetually unkempt musician with no desire to take his nepotistic doctoral work seriously.  An unshaven, non-hand washing, dirty clothes wearing musician with a filthy room – but Gloria (despite Oliver’s protestations) can’t help but accept Henry’s offer of friendship when she finds they share an obsession with all things Van Morrison.

Henry has his own demons, his own history and his own illness to contend with.  But none of those things can bring down the wonderful new friendship he has started with his “loomate.”   Henry immediately recognizes Gloria extreme OCD but it takes an unexpected breakdown to make him truly understand the severity of her disease.  At a time when many people would give up on Gloria, Henry does the opposite.  He enlists the help of his sister, a psychiatrist working at Oxford, to teach him what he can do to help Gloria combat her OCD.  But this is not a one-sided relationship.  Gloria, in return, has something to offer to Henry in exchange for his help. She helps him build the confidence he needs to realize that not only is he a doctoral student worthy of his position within the university but he also has the ability to live up to his own expectations.

This was different from most books I read.  You all know that I have a special obsession with all things romantic and angsty.  Although you might be able to argue that this book has its share of angst, I would argue back that, unlike other romances, it does not use that angst to manipulate the reader’s emotions.  The writing was very methodical and informative which fit Gloria’s narrative perfectly.  But it was never too technical or boring.  Kaufman switches seamlessly between telling the reader what is happening and showing the reader the dialogue and action.  There were times when I felt that I was being bombarded with unnecessary information but in the end this wasn’t a bad thing.  There wasn’t a word or sentence that I skipped or regretted reading.

This is a very special novel.  It would translate beautifully to film. If that ever happened, I can guarantee it would be one I would watch over and over again.  And to think it has its own amazing built in soundtrack.  Absolute perfection.

Thank you, Andrea Kayne Kaufman, for showing people how debilitating mental diseases can be.  For teaching people to understand that it’s not as easy as just turning it off.  For helping readers realize that no matter our struggles we still have the power to choose happiness; to be fatally optimistic - to steal from Henry’s dissertation on Van Morrison.

But most of all, Ms. Kaufman?  Thank you for tempting me to begin my own Van Morrison education.  For me, his music will always be entwined with Gloria and Henry’s story and I think that is a wonderful thing.

Nat