2017 Favorites

A few of us are here today to share our favorites from 2017. There were so many great books and it was definitely hard to choose from the ones we read and loved. (And we set a limit to five books each, or we'd be working on this all day.)

Hope we can help you find your next favorite book! And, of course, we'd love to hear what were your favorites from this past year. Please share in the comments section.

**Links are to reviews, unless noted otherwise**

Melissa A:
1. Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
2. Crimes Against a Book Club by Kathy Cooperman
3. Before the Rain Falls by Camille Di Maio
4. The Boyfriend Swap by Meredith Schorr
5. Virtually Perfect by Paige Roberts

Sara:
1. Who We Were by Lindsay Detwiler
2. G*d-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo
3. The Party by Robyn Harding
4. A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl
5. Holly Freakin' Hughes by Kelsey Kingsley

Becky:
1. The House of New Beginnings by Lucy Diamond
2. The Cows by Dawn O’Porter
3. The Good Girlfriend’s Guide to Getting Even by Anna Bell
4. The Woman at 72 Derry Lane by Carmel Harrington
5. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (review not available)


Jami:
Ordinarily I’ve chosen two books to feature – my favorite reviewed book and my favorite personal read. With a cap of five books, this year I’m expanding that list…

Favorite Overall Read of 2017 – Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere. This book landed on a lot of publication’s “best of” lists. I fell in love with every character, the setting, the examination of two different types of mothers in Elena and Mia. This is women’s fiction through and through, and to see it garnering such critical praise is a win for the entire genre.

Favorite “I Didn’t Know Who My Husband Really Was Until He Died or Disappeared” Read -- Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke’s The Good Widow. The writing duo’s first foray into suspense fiction is a winner in a crowded category, in which even gritty Bostonian Dennis Lehane has an entry. With a last-minute plot twist (true, it left a huge plot hole, but sometimes characters don’t act in rational ways) that changed everything, The Good Widow defied expectations.

Favorite “Ripped from the Headlines” Read – It’s hard to believe Alisyn Camerota wrote Amanda Wakes Up before the 2016 election. Read my review here.

Favorite Debut and Favorite YA – Angie Thomas’s The Hate You Give could also win the “ripped from the headlines” award. Dominating the New York Times YA bestseller list all year, THUG was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and has been banned by a school district in Texas. But its carefully drawn protagonist, Starr, makes this book more than a political battle cry. Torn between her family and neighborhood and her private school, Starr’s personal dilemma is the foundation of every worthwhile coming-of-age story. It may be banned in Texas schools, but other schools will someday be teaching this book in English classes.

Favorite “The World Is Ending, Now What?” Read – So many books could fall into this category, not to mention many news articles. Aussie writer Amanda Hickie penned my favorite, Before This is Over, about an Australian family coping with a virus that’s killing all their neighbors as well as everyone else in the entire world. Read my review here.