Not in any order, just listing ’em out.

Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett. I love, love, love the Nac Mac Feegle! More Feegles, please, three books is not enough. (side note: my toddler says Ach! Crivens! It’s hysterical.)

Lord Perfect, Loretta Chase. Just as good as Mr. Impossible and Miss Wonderful. Really, if Loretta Chase writes it, I’m there, and I’m so glad she keeps writing historicals.

Life Expectancy, Dean Koontz. Suspense, action, philosophy, romance, the meaning of family…and food. I loved this book.

Size 12 is Not Fat, Meg Cabot. Funny, good mystery, hot guy, dead bodies and a heroine I really rooted for. Can’t wait to read the next Heather Wells mystery, Size 14 is Not Fat Either. (Yes, Mom, that B&N gift card is going to good use!)

Bitten, Kelley Armstrong. Not an 06 release but that’s when I read it. I also read Stolen and Broken and am working my way through the series. Great stuff.

A Hunger Like No Other, Kresley Cole. Also had to read the novella in Playing Easy to Get and No Rest for the Wicked. This is a terrific series, although I loved the novels more than the novella. I think there’s too much world to fit into the novella format or something, but the novels are just right.

The Bargain, Julia Templeton. Yes, this makes my list of year’s best, I am such a sucker for smoking hot historicals and there are so few of them. There is great conflict, great angst, a guy to really detest, a hero to melt for, and a sigh-worthy happily ever after. Ahhhh.

Red by Jordan Summers. No idea what the final title will be when this releases from Tor, but watch out for this one. I predict it will fly off shelves and you will want to get your copy reserved! (No, not an 06 release, but I got to read it in 06, hence it makes my list. Feel free to hate me for getting a sneak peek.)

The Return of Patrick O’Rourke, NJ Walters. Oh, what a book. It’s horrible that this book is not eligible for a Rita because it is one of the best romances I’ve read not just this year but in many years. This is the kind of meaty romance you can sink your teeth into with conflicts that are real and believable, not manufactured and superficial. There’s action and suspense, there’s a lot of emotion and sizzling sex, and three dimensional characters and a subject rarely seen in romance (spousal abuse) handled in a sensitive, intelligent and sympathetic light. Oh, and one of my books appears in cameo which made me laugh out loud when I read it. She didn’t tell me she was doing that. I’m delighted to have a cameo appearance in such a phenomenal book.

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, Lois McMaster Bujold. Fantastic fantasy, wonderful romance. This a great book that should appeal to a huge cross-over readership. The world-building is phenomenal and consistent as always, the characters are vivid and sympathetic, well, the ones who are supposed to be. The idiot man in Fawn’s past is a very true-to-life jackass. I love how Bujold’s books all have that something larger going on, the characters’ lives part of a bigger whole. I cannot wait for more to be revealed in Part Two of this duology!

I’ve read more good books than I can list but those are some of the highlights. I always try to mention good reads as I read them and there are authors I consistently buy and read because they consistently deliver the goods. Mostly I don’t mention a book that didn’t work for me because chances are if it wasn’t my kind of book I didn’t buy it or read it in the first place. (I have picked up a few I didn’t finish but I’m pretty good at picking books I’ll enjoy.)