Calendar Girl is a monthly meme now hosted by Katie@nevernotreading and Adrienne @darquedreamer
The Calendar Girls is a monthly blog event that was created by Melanie at MNBernard Books, and Flavia at Flavia the Bibliophile. It was inspired by the 1961 classic song by Neil Sedaka and created to ignite fun bookish discussions among readers and bloggers.
Each month we get a new theme and choose our favorite book for the theme. The participants get to vote for their favorite.
I voted for this theme, but narrowing it down to one book will be a difficult choice. To make this decision, I visited my reading challenge on Goodreads and reviewed what I’ve read this year so far. According to that site, I’ve read 49 books (I’m 4 behind), but I came up with a few choices.
Early in the year, I read To Best the Boys by Mary Weber. Rhen was an intelligent, compassionate, and driven protagonist. She knew what she wanted and refused to compromise her dreams to fit society’s expectations. The challenges she met while navigating the dangerous labyrinth kept me glued to this book.
I didn’t know what to expect from Killing November by Adriana Mather. The cover didn’t appeal to me, but the description was crazy good, and the book hooked me immediately. With fabulous character development, political intrigue, a complex, thrilling plot, and a main character whose life was in jeopardy on nearly every page, it was one of my best reads this year.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee was such a pleasure to read – humor, adventure, tons of quotable lines. Despite Monty being narcissistic, oblivious, and generally a danger to himself and others with his actions, he was so freaking charming, I became a confirmed fan of his.
It was a tough decision, but I’ll have to go with Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. It’s rare, but in the first several pages, I knew this was a 5 star read – seven diverse characters I fell in love with, humorous banter between them that kept me laughing, action, death-defying moments, and a tension-filled heist. The story leans heavily on themes of family, friendship, faith, and finding your crew. I can’t wait to get my hands on book two.
Books and Such 
That would be a hard one to choose. It’s good you had GR to fall back on to browse through your read selection. When multiple titles vie for the honor you know it’s been a good reading year!
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Don’t know what I’d have done without that list, Mae. And it really has been a good reading year. I can’t think of any books I’ve DNF’d. Still several months to go!
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Wow. They all sound good Teri. I can see why you had a tough time selecting one.
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And that’s such a good thing, John – to have so many to choose from.
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😁
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I wouldn’t want to have to pick a favorite, either. I remember loving the cover of To Best the Boys when you talked about it before, though. I still find it compelling.
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This has also been a year of beautiful covers, Staci. I’d hate to have to choose a favorite.
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I remember your review of Killing November, Teri. I must get around to that one.
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I’m really excited to see where the sequel takes us, Robbie. After not knowing what to expect going into this book, it was probably the biggest surprise of the year.
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Sold. My next book to read will be aurora rising.
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Yessss! You’ll love it, Jina.
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It’s right there sitting and waiting for me. I’ll be finishing my current read and diving head first.
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I’ve heard great things about this one! I need to add it to my tbr! Great choice! ❤
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Thanks, Adrienne! Think I read somewhere they’ve already optioned this one for a movie.
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Very interesting!
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I loved To Best the Boys but Aurora Rising was just fantastic!!!!!
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Wasn’t it? One of my friends in book club just got around to reading it and is still raving.
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Great pick! A lot of people have loved this book, but I just can’t bring myself to be interested in it because I didn’t love Illuminae.
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I haven’t read Illuminae, but I read Kristoff’s Nevernight, which is a wildly popular series, but just wasn’t for me. However, I love his Lifelike series. You should give this one a try.
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I might! YA is a sometimes food for me.
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I keep hearing great things about Aurora Rising and honestly, I hate myself for still not reading it at this point!
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I loved the humor and characterization, Vinny – and almost nonstop action. Bump it up your list!
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