2016 was my fourth year of participating in the British Books Challenge. I love doing this every year and think it’s important to support our authors here in the UK, old and new. Here’s what I’ve managed to review this year in British Books!
Frost Hollow Hall – Emma Carroll
We Were Just Driving Around – Jon McGregor
Bella Broomstick – Lou Kuenzler
The Chamois – Daphne du Maurier
Silent Saturday – Helen Grant
The Demons Of Ghent – Helen Grant
Urban Legends – Helen Grant
The Demon Headmaster – Gillian Cross
Under The Pylon – Graham Joyce
The Versions Of Us – Laura Barnett
The Quality Of Silence – Rosamund Lupton
In A Dark, Dark Wood – Ruth Ware
Duet – Kate Mosse
Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden
The Coral Strand – Ravinder Randhawa
Defender Of The Realm (Defender Of The Realm #1) – Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler
Strange Girls And Ordinary Women – Morgan McCarthy
The Samaritan (Carter Blake #2) – Mason Cross
Moving – Jenny Eclair
Enough Of This Shit Already – Tony Black
The Boy In The Dress – David Walliams
Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
Create Your Own Spy Mission – Andrew and Chris Judge
Charm For A Friend With A Lump – Helen Simpson
A Year Of Marvellous Ways – Sarah Winman
Noble Conflict – Malorie Blackman
The Girl On The Train – Paula Hawkins
The Inventory: Iron Fist (The Inventory #1) – Andy Briggs
Alfie Bloom And The Secrets Of Hexbridge Castle (Alfie Bloom #1) – Gabrielle Kent
Alfie Bloom And The Talisman Thief (Alfie Bloom #2) – Gabrielle Kent
Notes From The House Spirits – Lucy Wood
Our Endless Numbered Days – Claire Fuller
How I Finally Lost My Heart – Doris Lessing
The Bones Of You – Debbie Howells
According To Yes – Dawn French
The Borrowers – Mary Norton
Random Acts Of Unkindness – Jacqueline Ward
The Adventure Of The Speckled Band – Arthur Conan Doyle
Maggot Moon – Sally Gardner
Sweet Caress – William Boyd
The Girls – Lisa Jewell
The Oasis Of Time – Carolyn Waugh
Author Requests – Off Key by Mark Robertson, Piano From A 4th Storey Window by Jenny Morton Potts and The Death Of Danny Daggers by Haydn Wilks
The Love Song Of Miss Queenie Hennessy – Rachel Joyce
A Dictionary Of Mutual Understanding – Jackie Copleton
Garlic And Gauloises – Hemmie Martin
Looking For JJ (Jennifer Jones #1) – Anne Cassidy
If It Keeps On Raining – Jon McGregor
Reasons To Stay Alive – Matt Haig
Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense Of The Twentieth Century – John Higgs
The Lordly Ones – Daphne du Maurier
Roseblood – Paul Doherty
The Last Act Of Love – Cathy Rentzenbrink
Tiger Moth – Graham Joyce
The Widow – Fiona Barton
The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
The Puppet Master – Abigail Osborne
Under My Skin – James Dawson
Red Letter Day – Kate Mosse
Missing, Presumed – Susie Steiner
Getting It Wrong – Ramsey Campbell
Disclaimer – Renée Knight
Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild
Among Others – Jo Walton
Chinese Whispers – Ben Chu
The Last Leaves Falling – Fox Benwell
Hogmanay Homicide – Edward Marston
The Loving Husband – Christobel Kent
The Boy Who Sailed The Ocean In An Armchair
So if I’ve calculated correctly, that makes it 72 books for the British Books Challenge this year. It isn’t as much as last year but I’ve still made the target of 12 books a year which I’m very happy with, especially as I haven’t had a great blogging year with a lot of illness.😦
Highlights from this year include Disclaimer by Renee Knight which I will treasure as not only is it a fantastic book but I also managed to meet the lady herself at Crime At The Court (hosted by Goldsboro Books, London) with my blogger buddy Cleopatra Loves Books. She’s lovely and so very talented and I will probably read anything she ever writes! The Last Act Of Love was also a hugely important and emotional book for me and I loved reviewing it with my sister, Chrissi Reads in our little “Talking About” feature which we do on occasion. Other honourable mentions go to Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig, Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, the Forbidden Spaces Trilogy by Helen Grant and the fabulous Emma Carroll who wrote the beautiful Frost Hollow Hall. I could go on and on. I’m certainly looking forward to reading some more “best of British” books in 2017! Look out for my sign up post coming soon.