9 Books to Add to Your 2017 Reading List

Way back in a time before kids I used to read… a lot.  I would read EVERYTHING I could get my hands on and I can remember getting in trouble at what felt like 1 am for staying up WELL past my bedtime reading under my covers with a flashlight. I read the entire Little House on the Prairie series, 60 of the Sweet Valley High books (then gave up because I graduated highschool before the twins did).  Unfortunately when I had kids I found it nearly impossible to read, so 10 long years went by and the only reading I did was the news, blogs and magazines.  Then I found the Kindle app on my ipad.

WOW! What an amazing tool e-readers and the kindle app is! I can read in the dark so that when my lazy bum is ready for bed I can just turn my ipad off and put it on the bedside table 🙂  This year I really got back into reading and somehow managed to read NINE books.  I know that’s not a lot, but considering everything else going on in my life I feel like this is nothing short of a miracle (and I’m finally starting to feel like my old self again).

Here’s my list of books to read:

A Mother’s Confession by Kelly Rimmer

‘He’s dead and I’m safe, but I’m still scared. Sometimes I actually miss him, but then in the very next breath I find that I hate him so much that I hope there is a hell, just so that he can be suffering like he left me here to suffer.’

Olivia and David were the perfect couple with their whole lives in front of them. When beautiful baby daughter Zoe came along, their world seemed complete.

But now David is dead and Olivia’s world is in pieces. While she is consumed with grief, her mother-in-law Ivy is also mourning the loss of her son. Both women are hiding secrets about the man they loved. Secrets that have put the family in danger.

Something was very wrong in Olivia and David’s marriage. Can Olivia and Ivy break their silence and speak the truth? A mother should protect her child, whatever the cost…shouldn’t she? Read “A Mother’s Confession” by Kelly Rimmer.

When I’m Gone by Emily Bleeker

Dear Luke, First let me say—I love you… I didn’t want to leave you…

Luke Richardson has returned home after burying Natalie, his beloved wife of sixteen years, ready to face the hard job of raising their three children alone. But there’s something he’s not prepared for—a blue envelope with his name scrawled across the front in Natalie’s handwriting, waiting for him on the floor of their suburban Michigan home.

The letter inside, written on the first day of Natalie’s cancer treatment a year ago, turns out to  be the first of many. Luke is convinced they’re genuine, but who is delivering them? As his obsession with the letters grows, Luke uncovers long-buried secrets that make him question everything he knew about his wife and their family. But the revelations also point the way toward a future where love goes on—in written words, in memories, and in the promises it’s never too late to keep. Read “When I’m Gone” by Emily Bleeker.

The Choices We Make by Karma Brown

Before you even sit down and read the first page, do yourself a favor and grab a box of tissues. You’re going to need it. From the author’s earnest opening note to the final few words, this is an incredibly sad journey. One that left me tear-stained and emotionally wrecked.

What if having a baby was the only thing that you’ve wanted for the last 6 years? What if your only hope of having that baby rested in your best friend using one of her eggs, your husband’s sperm and her uterus? Would you still go through with it?

It sound so easy, right? She has the baby, hands it over and everyone is blissfully happy. All is right in the world. But wait. There is so much more to it than that. So many things that you might not even contemplate initially. And believe me, this book will make you ponder those things.  Read “The Choices We Make” by Karma Brown.

The Lost Girls by Heather Young

In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favourite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost child.

Sixty years later Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before she dies, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person to whom it might matter: her grandniece, Justine.

For Justine, the lake house offers a chance to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the stable home she never had. But it’s not the sanctuary she hoped for. The long Minnesota winter has begun. The house is cold and dilapidated, the frozen lake is silent and forbidding, and her only neighbour is a strange old man who seems to know more than he’s telling…  Read “The Lost Girls” by Heather Young.

Boston Bound: A 7 Year Journey to Overcome Mental Barriers and Qualify for the Boston Marathon

Have you ever wanted something so badly that your own mind became your biggest obstacle?

Elizabeth Clor wanted nothing more than to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon. Dead set on achieving this goal, she found herself bound up in a vicious cycle of perfectionism and anxiety that thwarted her at every turn, despite making significant gains in her physical abilities over seven years. Boston Bound is the story of how Elizabeth discovered that her own brain was the culprit, and explains the steps she took to completely overhaul her mindset about her running and her life. Read “Boston Bound” by Elizabeth Clor

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The Sisters by Claire Douglas

 One lied. One died.

When one sister dies, the other must go to desperate lengths to survive. Haunted by her twin sister’s death, Abi is making a fresh start in Bath. But when she meets twins Bea and Ben, she is quickly drawn into their privileged and unsettling circle.

When one sister lies, she must protect her secret at all costs. As Abi tries to keep up with the demands of her fickle friends, strange things start to happen – precious letters go missing and threatening messages are left in her room. Is this the work of the beautiful and capricious Bea? Or is Abi willing to go to any lengths to get attention? When the truth outs, will either sister survive?  Read The Sisters by Claire Douglas.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

When Jessica’s dreams are shattered, she puts herself back together—and learns to dream bigger than ever before.

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She’s not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don’t know what to say, act like she’s not there. Which she could handle better if she weren’t now keenly aware that she’d done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she’s missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her. Read “The Running Dream” by Wendelin Van Draanen

Miracles from Heaven by Christy Beam

In a remarkable true story of faith and blessings, a mother tells of her sickly young daughter, how she survived a dangerous accident, her visit to Heaven and the inexplicable disappearance of the symptoms of her chronic disease.

Annabel Beam spent most of her childhood in and out of hospitals with a rare and incurable digestive disorder that prevented her from ever living a normal, healthy life. One sunny day when she was able to go outside and play with her sisters, she fell three stories headfirst inside an old, hollowed-out tree, a fall that may well have caused death or paralysis. Implausibly, she survived without a scratch. While unconscious inside the tree, with rescue workers struggling to get to her, she visited heaven. After being released from the hospital, she defied science and was inexplicably cured of her chronic ailment. Read “Miracles From Heaven” by Christy Beam

Wynn in Doubt by Emily Hemmer

Wynn Jeffries has wanderlust. Unfortunately, her life stalled somewhere between graduating from college and slinging drinks at the local dive bar. Stuck in a one-room apartment with no career, no boyfriend, no…life, she dreams of something more. Something amazing. Something like Oliver Reeves, her high school crush, who’s back in town and reminding Wynn of the way she used to be.

When a forgotten news clipping falls out of a book belonging to Wynn’s grandmother, a well-kept family secret is finally revealed. Is Wynn’s gypsy spirit the result of an overactive imagination, or did she inherit it from a woman so determined to live a big life, she gave up everything to have it? Read “Wynn in Doubt” by Emily Hemmer

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What were your favourite books of 2016?

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