Happy (almost) New Year! I want to wish all of you a blessed year. I’m so thankful to be celebrating a new year and being partway through my fourth year of blogging. It’s a pleasure to “meet” with my readers and chat about books and the grace of Jesus.
I can’t believe it’s time for another year-end recap! Though much has transpired in 2015, this post will focus on books. It seems like just a couple months ago I was considering my books from 2014 and looking forward to new releases in 2015. In this post I want to share my favorites I read this year. Hopefully you’ll find some titles to add to your TBR — and share your thoughts in the comments!
I came really close to my goal of 50 books — I made it all the way to 46 books. (46 and a half if you count my current read). And, I checked off all but 3 books from my personal 2015 reading challenge.
These are in no particular order, but they are kinda grouped by genre: classics, historical, contemporary. (I’ve linked each title to its review/related post here on the blog or to its Goodreads page)
Classics
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
This one is a classic for good reason. Plus there’s the BBC miniseries adaptation that is wonderful. The best part about the novel, in my opinion, is seeing both Margaret’s and Mr. Thornton’s side of the story.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
I really enjoyed this one! Participating in the read-along made this one even better with all the analyzing that went on.
Historical
The Captive Imposter by Dawn Crandall
A great finish to this series! I was caught up in the intrigue and romance from the very start.
The Wood’s Edge by Lori Benton
Lori is just awesome. She writes beautiful characters and prose with great depth. I’m super excited for the sequel in 2016!
“Price of Privilege” series by Jessica Dotta (Born of Persuasion, Mark of Distinction, Price of Privilege)
Ah, Jessica Dotta is amazing. This is possibly my favorite series of all-time! (And I don’t say that lightly). I have more plans to discuss these on the blog in 2016. Look out, world.
The Mistress of Tall Acre by Laura Frantz
Laura always delivers with a fantastic story. This one might be the best to date! (And my mom really liked it, too)
Contemporary
The Wonder of You by Susan May Warren
I was so glad to read Amelia’s story! The Christiansens feel like my own secondary family at this point.
The Brontë Plot by Katherine Reay
A story for book lovers. Enough said.
Told You So by Kristen Heitzmann
SOOOO good. And unexpected. And comical. And deep.
Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano
This one made me want to go to Scotland!!!! Fun, emotional, and characters with great chemistry.
Isle of Hope by Julie Lessman
An epic romantic story focused on the importance of family, redemption and the choice to forgive. Move over, Nicholas Sparks!
While You’re Awake by Amber Stokes (novellete)
This one was a delightful twist on a fairy-tale that had me hooked! And craving coffee.
One Enchanted Christmas by Melissa Tagg (novella)
I literally laughed out loud at this one. But it’s more than a comedy — it’s a sweet story of family and learning to trust God.
Whew! That was fun to put together. If you’re interested in what other books I read in 2015, check out my Goodreads challenge page.
What made it onto your list of favorites in 2015? Did you read any of these? What is on your TBR for next year?
The Green Mockingbird 
COURTNEY, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Thank you SOOO much for putting IOH on this FABULOUS list with some of my favorite authors — I am beyond blessed, my friend, and SO grateful our paths have crossed.
I wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and holy new year!!!
Hugs,
Julie
Absolutely my pleasure!!!! Thank you so much, and blessings for you in the new year, too!
Love your list of favorites, Courtney! I have to say, when you hinted at discussing Jessica Dotta’s books in the new year, I immediately became intensely interested and can. not. wait. I love her books so much!!! 🙂
Thank you, Cassie!!! Ah yes. After reviews for the last 2, I have a fun idea. I’ll just have to keep you in suspense a little longer! 🙂
I look forward to it, Courtney! 🙂
Oh, wow! I have a lot of books to discover this year. 🙂
I’ve only read North and South and Persuasion among the books in your list, but the other ones look very interesting!
Thanks, Alyssa, for visiting! I hope you enjoy whatever books you do read this year 🙂
Such a fun list, Courtney!! Thank you SO much for including While You’re Awake. ♥ I’m thrilled you enjoyed it! (And I love that it made you crave coffee…my coworkers would get a kick out of that, I’m sure, since they’ve unsuccessfully tried to get me to like coffee, haha! I’m a hot-chocolate drinker, myself. 😉 )
Told You So, Isle of Hope, The Wonder of You, and The Wood’s Edge are all on my TBR, and they sound fabulous! I also have the first two in Jessica Dotta’s series that are long overdue for a read and reviews! They sound amazing. 🙂
One Enchanted Christmas and The Captive Imposter were great! And I love that you included Persuasion with a reference to our read-along. That was so fun! 😀 I hope to do more Jane Austen read-alongs this year, Lord willing!
~Amber
I hope you enjoy all of those on your TBR! The Wood’s Edge, Told You So, and the whole series by Jessica are some I wish I could read for the first time again, if you know what I mean. They are just THAT great!
Happy reading!
Thanks for sharing your favorites. I added a link to your list at my Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon so that I could come back to it. If you want to check out more lists of favorites, that’s the place. Also, I think I need to read something by Katherine Reay.
http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=24983
Thank you for the link! And I’d recommend any of Katherine’s books. Personally, I started with Dear Mr. Knightley.
What an amazing group of favorites, Courtney. Love your awesome photo too.
‘The Bronte Plot’ was fabulous as was ‘Mistress of Tall Acre’ and of course, I cannot say enough about these Indie novelists. Melissa’s, Amber’s and Kristen’s were all great in their respective genres. I love what you say about ‘Told You So.’ How true that is.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed some of them, too! And it WAS a good year for these indie authors…. I’m so happy they have had much-deserved success.
What a great list, Courtney. Of course, many of these were among my favorites too!
‘The Bronte Plot’ and ‘Mistress’ were amazing; both authors continue to improve their craft and make amazing strides in their genres. All of the Indie novelist/book love is always fabulous to see. Melissa’s, Amber’s and Kristen’s were all great in their respective genres. In particular I love what you said about ‘Told You So.’ How true that is!
Ps; sorry if this comment is coming through a second time. It disappeared the first time through. Trying again…
No worries! I’m glad it came through….thanks for visiting!
Thank you so much for including Told You So. I’m blessed to the tips of my toes. I can’t wait to check out the other titles. Have a wonderful new year of reading, my friend. ❤
Thank YOU for penning such a story! Grace and Devin are quite the pair. I love them so much! Happy new year to you, as well!
Such a great list of books! Firstly, I’m happy to see N&S on here, as well as Persuasion!!! Definitely two of my faves. But you knew that already. 😉
I have book one of Dawn’s series on my kindle currently, so I’m hoping to get to it really soon. I have your enthusiasm to thank for that!
I need to read Lori’s and Laura’s newest. I don’t know why I haven’t yet! I love both authors dearly.
The Bronte Plot – YES. Yes, yes, yes!!
Told You So – So different than I expected, but yet SO good!
While You’re Awake – I concur with everything you said. Amber’s writing is just getting better!
Thanks for sharing, Courtney! (And excuse the late comment. 🙂
I’m happy my enthusiasm has inspired you to read The Hesitant Heiress by Dawn! That whole series gets better with each book!
Lori’s and Laura’s are both excellent. 🙂
I’m still not over Told You So.
And yes, Amber is becoming quite the storyteller!