When we started this blog two years ago, we had no idea where it would lead us. We had no real expectations to have actual readers (other than close friends and family members), nor did we expect publishers and authors to contact us (or to reply to us when contacted), and we definitely did not expect it to become such a huge part of our lives. Last year when we celebrated our first anniversary, we talked about how The Book Smugglers began, but this year we thought we could do something different. For our second year of Book Smuggling, we’d like to celebrate by taking a retrospective look at the past year, month by month, to revisit what we loved about blogging this year.

Don’t get us wrong, we do love everything about blogging and running The Book Smugglers: the reading, the thinking about books, the books that get a “10″ rating, the books that get a “1″ rating, the chats with authors, the guest bloggers, the events, the comments, the lurkers. But there are also those truly special moments that remind us why we got started in this consuming hobby to begin with – and we are going to take a look at those such events, closest to our hearts…

January

• January 7th, we celebate our first anniversary with a Big Move: we move our blog from Blogspot to Wordpress and unveil our new blog design (the one that you are seeing right now)
• Soon after the Big Move, what we have come to call the “Grand Statistical Collapse” happens and almost sends Ana (a.k.a. the stats whore) to an early grave. With the move, our Google Page Rank plummeted and our RSS Feed went AWOL – feed subscribers fell from more than 300 to a meager 45. We basically have to rebuild our readership almost from scratch. But it’s ok, we love a challenge!
• While Ana freaks out about a loss of showy statistics, Thea tears out her hair trying to fix the myriad problems that are inevitable when switching from a public platform to a (more) private web host. Thea nearly goes certifiably insane trying to consolidate RSS Feeds, setting up 401-redirects, switching and archiving posts/images/comments from Google’s Blogger platform to the shiny new Wordpress platform, installing the new web design, and manipulating HTML/CSS code, amongst other headaches
• We have our first Official Event of 2009 with Manga Appreciation Week (January 12 – 16)
• Ana (finally) reads her first Juliet Marillier novel on a Dare from Thea, tackling Ms. Marillier’s first Sevenwaters book, Daughter of the Forest. Ana promptly falls in love with this author.

February

• For the release of Bone Crossed we are offered the opportunity to interview Patricia Briggs, one of Thea’s favorite authors since middle school, IN PERSON. We are still wondering how Thea managed to survive the experience.
• Thea somehow manages to convince Ana to allow and participate in our second Official Event of 2009 with Zombie Appreciation Week (February 22 – 28)…and Ana actually likes it.
• We make the Preditors and Editors Top 10 Review Sites of 2008 list, thanks to all that voted for us!

March

• One of our favorite Official Events of 2009 happens when the movie adaptation of Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’s classic comic, Watchmen comes out in theaters. To celebrate the on-screen debut of what is commonly hailed as the best graphic novel ever written, we Book Smugglers hold our official Watchmen Long Weekend – a crazy weekend event during which we went all out by analyzing the book and reviewing the movie. Basically the post went unread (the only two comments for our dissertation of a post are our own). But hey, “Remembering The Watchmen” remains one of our favorite posts EVER. We just love geeking out like that.
• We participate in our first Blog Tour of 2009 with an author guest post/giveaway and joint review of Ann Aguirre’s Blue Diablo.
• We take part in an internet-spanning event hosted by the good folks at Alert Nerd (who – since this first, serendipitous meeting – have become one of our essential ‘go to’ websites and blogging buddies) with our “That’s Our Scott and Jean” post (in which we finally came out as the Great Geeks that we are to basically moan about Jack from Lost)

April

• Ana reviews fantasy novel The Painted Man by Petter Brett, which sparks a great discussion about Rape in Fiction, which leads to another great discussion concerning whether an author’s comments in reviews (especially in less-than-favorable reviews) are welcome or not
• In honor of the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine in theaters, we hold our official Wolverine Weekend – in which we geek out over our own X-Men reading origins, our love for Wolvie, culminating in our review of the movie on May 3rd.

May

• We learn that Joel A. Sutherland’s debut horror novel Frozen Blood makes the final ballot for a 2009 Bram Stoker Award! Since Joel is the first author to ever have contacted The Book Smugglers for a review, we are very excited for him…
• The Name of the Wind Incident occurs – in which Ana goes rogue and reads the book before Thea does (and Thea had the book and had been dying to read it for much longer than Ana). To inflame matters, Ana falls desperatly in love with Patrick Rothfuss and his writing and cannot shut up about how wonderful The Name of the Wind is. Thea is not pleased.
• Thea geeks-out hard core in anticipation for the 2009 adaptation of Star Trek with a countdown of her Original Series favorite episodes.
• Ana goes apoplectic when she learns that “Patrick Rothfuss Loves Ana” back
• Thea reads Flood and finds Stephen Baxter – a hard science fiction author that has since become one of her favorite writers.
• After months of anticipation and hype, Thea watches Terminator: Salvation and is devastated by how terrible the movie is. But, she IS impressed with Aussie newcomer, Sam Worthington (whose name you might want to remember…)

June

• We review our shared Worst Read of 2009: Night’s Rose by Annaliese Evans. The review sparks another great discussion about genre mis-marketing.
• One of Thea’s favorite authors of all time, fantasy novelist Jacquelie Carey, agrees to write a guest post for us. This, naturally, causes Thea to hyperventilate for two hours.
• Thea drives out to the Dark Delicacies signing in Burbank to meet author Joel Sutherland, who is in town for the Stoker Awards. Thea embarrasses herself by becoming a starstruck, babbling buffoon in the presence of all the heavy-hitter authors of the horror genre.

July-August

• Our very first Young Adult Appreciation Month lasts over 5 weeks (July 15 – August 22) and marks a turning point for The Book Smugglers. Thea already had been reading loads of YA novels prior to this event, but Ana is a newbie to the genre and falls in love with the spectrum of YA reads. The blog is now more eclectic than ever. Great authors and bloggers stop by for guest posts, and the event is a resounding success (at least, it’s a huge success in Thea’s mind since she can now say to Ana: “I told you so.”)
• Total Numbers for Young Adult Appreciation month are as follows: 49 Books Reviewed (31 by Thea, 13 by Ana, 5 Joint Reviews). Insanity.

September

• It’s 2009’s annual Book Blogger Apreciation Week (September 14 – 18) takes place, and more than 1000 blogs participate. We devote hours to blogging for the week and become award judge panelists for Best Thriller/Mystery Blog and Best Diversity Blog. We then learn that we have been nominated for 16 awards, and we win 2: Best Collaborative Blog and Best Graphic Novel Blog!
• On the curtails of our victory, we write our Website Manifesto and make our sinister blogging agenda known to the world (mmmwahammmuwahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!). In the words of Dexter Morgan, “Presto Manifesto.”
• We participate in another Blog Tour with a guest post/giveaway from Kristin Cashore and a review of her new release, the Young Adult fantasy novel Fire

October

• The Revised FTC Guidelines, with new blogger culpability/regulations are officially released – and they cause D-R-A-M-A! We put up the requisite disclaimers, but make our own position on the matter very clear.
• Ana reads Hush, Hush and hates it with a passion. The post is one that still gets many comments. A common theme amongst these comments are that Ana must be old and therefore should not be readng these books. Ahem.
• Thea reads Ark – her favorite flippin’ book of 2009 and her first (one of only TWO) 10 rated book of the year. Her obsession with the science fiction of Stephen Baxter reaches new highs.
• Halloween Week 2009 takes place and Thea makes Ana submit to Horror-genre torture once again in the form of anthology reading and movie marathons. Amongst our favorite highlights of the week include authors Diana Peterfreund & Carrie Ryan’s guest post (a.k.a. fangirl love-fest) about Christopher Pike, Thea’s favorite sci-fi/horror films post, and Ana’s Alien/Aliens movie marathon (in which she FINALLY discovers the wonder that is Ellen Ripley).
• Ana is invited to attend the Gollancz Autumn Party where she mingles with awesome authors (where she did NOT do any of the following: attack Alex Bell because she loved Jasmyn so much; make a fool of herself in front of Sam Sykes; make Mark Chadbourn take a Book Smuggler business card or else; have an anxiety attack when standing next to Joe Abercombrie; attack the waitress when she came around with those wonderful mini-burgers. These are vicious lies spread by our enemies!). She did have an amazing, unforgettable time and loved meeting everybody and spending time with cool bloggers such as Graeme, Gav, Liz, and Mark. (Meanwhile, Thea sat at home turning puke green with envy)

November

• Thea is invited to an early press screening of New Moon three weeks prior to the official release date – and boy, was that a comical experience! (The review explains all)
• We are officialy invited to become bloggers for the amazing Tor.com. THAT email causes both of us to go catatonic.

December

• Our official month-long year-end celebration, Smugglivus 2009 begins with all its ensuing MADNESS! Smugglivus this year includes more than 60 guest authors and bloggers, multiple reviews, myriad giveaways, and, most importantly, loads of fun.
• The Hacker Situation occurs. Repeatedly. Someone continues to hack our Wordpress (probably via some plugin, or maybe it has something to do with the recent crappy Wordpress Version 2.9 upgrade) and our feed becomes repeatedly spammed. Thea gets a month-long headache and must manually fix the feed on a daily basis, and she comes to dread the inevitable email from Ana every other morning informing her that the feed problem is back. We change passwords, email our hosting provider, but so far no solution is in sight and Thea resorts to manually fixing the feed code every day (an aside: IF anyone has a similar problem or knows how to fix this, permanently, PLEASE HELP!).

So that’s our month-by-month recap of 2009! In addition to these highs (and lows), we also initiated a ton of new Smuggler Features last year, including: Inspirations and Influences, in which authors talk about the ideas/inspirations/influences behind their books; On the Boob Tube, because we are such couch potatoes and we love to share the love for our favorite TV shows every week (in addition, Ana started her insanely long, caps-ridden Lost Recaps every weekend too); On the Smugglers’ Radar, in which we pimp upcoming books we are dying to read; and finally, What She Said, in which we read & review books that the other Smuggler has already reviewed (this came after the fallout surrounding The Name of the Wind Incident back in May).

Phew. 2009 was undoubtably a busy year. But we feel like we’ve only just started! And so, to our 1200+ daily visitors, to our 930 feed subscribers, to the publishers and authors that support us, to all of our friends, acquaintances, regular commenters, and lurkers, we say THANK YOU! Book Smuggling wouldn’t be half as fun without you all.

And with that we declare Smugglivus officially finished! Until next year, we remain…

~ Ana and Thea, your friendly neighborhood Book Smugglers

The Feats of Strength are an integral part of our annual Smugglivus Tradition. In the Feats of Strength, we each dare each other to read a book that we know is so far beyond the other’s comfort zone as to put it in another galaxy altogether. It is more than a mere Dare – it is a Feat of Strength.

Title: Practice Makes Perfect

Author: Julie James

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Berkeley (Penguin)
Publication Date: March 2009
Paperback: 304 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Bought

Summary: (from amazon.com)
When it comes to the laws of attraction, there are no rules The battle between the sexes is about to make these two lawyers hot under the collar. Opposites collide when two lawyers try to make partner at the same firm. Payton Kendall is a feminist to the bone. Cocky J.D. Jameson was born privileged. But when they’re asked to join forces on a major case, they gain a newfound awareness of each other’s personal assets. The partnership spot will be offered to only one of them, though. The competition heats up. Sparks fly. Let the games begin.

Review:

I’m always a little leery of starting a romance novel.

Don’t get me wrong – I love a little romance as much as the next person. But, more often than not, my forays into the romance genre for books have ended in disappointment. True, there are the outstanding Diana Gabaldons, Lisa Kleypases, and Loretta Chases of the world – but if we’re being perfectly frank, I find myself much rather preferring romance as a subplot; something ancillary to a more dominant storyline. So, it was with trepidation that I began Practice Makes Perfect…

The story is straightforward: Payton Kendall is a senior associate at one of the most prestigious law firms in Chicago. After slaving away, billing thousands of hours over eight years as a litigator, Payton is finally up for her hard-earned partnership – but there’s a catch. Because of a recent suit aimed at law firms for discrimination against their older partners (forcing them out of jobs to make cap room for younger associates), the firm has decided that it can only justify making ONE litigator a partner. For Payton, this means she has just come into direct, head-to-head competition with J.D. Jameson – a gorgeous, infuriating, silver spoon-in-his-mouth, bentley-driving, super-republican, old-money, squash-playing type. As J.D. is a workhorse (just like Payton), has never lost a case (just like Payton), and is one of the best attourneys in the nation (just like Payton), the competition becomes intense. When both J.D. and Payton are assigned on the same big-time anti-discrimination case, the two are thrown into close quarters, only intensifying the tension between them. After witty banter, intentional and unintentional stunts, and a whole lot of unresolved sexual tension, you can guess what happens next.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a little nervous going into Practice Makes Perfect – but from the first page of this delightful book, I found myself immersed and entertained. Ms. James’ novel is romantic comedy at its finest, featuring the always entertaining “enemies” falling in love storyline. Yes, there is a degree of safety and predictability in terms of plot, but when the banter is this much fun, it’s easy to put cynicism aside and allow yourself to get caught up in the happy-ever-after magic. If the plotting is somewhat straightforward and the characters cliched (the feminist/idealist female from the public school system versus the old money/legal legacy Ivy Leaguer male), the relationship that sparks between them is genuine and – did I mention? – oh so fun. The greatest strength of the novel lies in this spark between J.D. and Payton, and Ms. James shines with her quick, sharp dialogue – the witty repartee, if you will, between her two main characters. As top litigators, Payton and J.D. exchange some pretty good verbal barbs and engage in a number of entertaining power struggles. For example, my favorite scene would have to be in the law library, shortly after both discover that only one of them will get the partner gig. Observe:

“Are you saying that I don’t deserve this?” he demanded. “I’ve billed over twenty-nine hundred hours for the past eight years!”

Payton whipped around. “So have I! And the only difference between you and me is that statistics say you’re more likely to keep it up. The firm doesn’t worry that one day you’ll decide you want to leave at five to kiss your kids good night.”

J.D. stepped closer to her. Then closer again, literally trapping her against the bookshelves.

“Spare me the feminist rant, Payton. It’s getting a little tired. I’ve had to work my ass off to get where I am, while you had your ticket written form the minute you stepped into this firm.”

Payton felt her face flush with anger. “Really? Well, you know what I think, J.D.?” She jabbed his chest with one of her fingers. “I think that you are an uptight, pony-owning, trickle-down-economics-loving, Scotch-on-the-rocks-drinking, my-wife-better-take-my-last-name sexist jerk!”

J.D. grabbed her hand and pulled it away. “Well, at least I’m not a stubborn, button-pushing, Prius-driving, chip-on-your-shoulder-holding, ’stay-at-home-mom’-is-the-eighth-dirty-word-thinking feminist!”

Witty, intense, and fun stuff. The ‘I-hate-you-but-I-like-you-but-you-make-me-so-ANGRY’ dynamic charges every scene between these two characters, and it’s delightful. Additionally, Payton and J.D.’s thoughts are revealed throughout the novel to the reader, and there are many scenes involving their inner dialogues – in which they refuse to admit, even to themselves, that they are falling in love with the competition. And all of these scenes are delectable good fun.

Furthermore, there’s a decided lack of mush in this book, which was an immense relief. The number one turnoff to romance novels for me is the uncomfortable level of mushiness. Well, that and the gratuitous, embarrassing, play-by-play sex scenes. Thankfully, neither of these are present in Practice Makes Perfect. There’s a healthy dose of sexual tension, attraction, and build-up – and when the sex does happen (which, inevitably, it does), it’s tasteful and non-cringe inducing. Ms. James balances romance with realism, which makes the novel even more effective.

Speaking of realism, it’s also worth mentioning that Ms. James captures the life of an associate in the legal profession in a completely convincing manner – and considering she is a former attorney and alumnus of the University of Illinois School of Law (as is her protagonist Payton), it’s no surprise that she writes with such authority.

In short, Practice Makes Perfect is a sweet, traditional rom-com, and one that will undoubtably have readers grinning as the pages fly by. I highly enjoyed it, and certainly recommend it to romance readers, and reluctant romance readers alike.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read an official excerpt from Chapter 2 online at Julie James’ website, HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Ana LOVED this book, and we’ve had author Julie James over for a number of guest posts. Check out her post about her Inspirations & Influences for Practice Makes Perfect, or her Smugglivus Guest Post for more information!

Verdict: Fun, witty, escapist entertainment at its best. I definitely enjoyed Practice Makes Perfect, against my own biases and prejudices! Julie James is a romance author that, to this reluctant romance reader, has just made the publication watch list.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Moonseed by Stephen Baxter

The Feats of Strength are an integral part of our annual Smugglivus Tradition. In the Feats of Strength, we each dare each other to read a book that we know is so far beyond the other’s comfort zone as to put it in another galaxy altogether. It is more than a mere Dare – it is a Feat of Strength.

Title: Naamah’s Kiss

Author: Jacqueline Carey

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing/ Gollancz
Publication Date: June 24, 2009 / January 2010
Hardcover: 656 pages

Stand alone or series: Book one of a new series set in the same world as the Kushiel’s Legacy books, though following a completely new heroine. Naamah’s Kiss stands on its own, but fans of the two prior trilogies will feel at home with Ms. Carey’s new series.

How did I get the book: An ARC from Gollancz

Summary: (from amazon.com)
Once there were great magicians born to the Maghuin Dhonn; the folk of the Brown Bear, the oldest tribe in Alba. But generations ago, the greatest of them all broke a sacred oath sworn in the name of all his people. Now, only small gifts remain to them. Through her lineage, Moirin possesses such gifts – the ability to summon the twilight and conceal herself, and the skill to coax plants to grow.

Moirin has a secret, too. From childhood onward, she senses the presence of unfamiliar gods in her life; the bright lady, and the man with a seedling cupped in his palm. Raised in the wilderness by her reclusive mother, it isn’t until she comes of age that Moirin learns how illustrious, if mixed, her heritage is. The great granddaughter of Alais the Wise, child of the Maghuin Donn, and a cousin of the Cruarch of Alba, Moirin learns her father was a D’Angeline priest dedicated to serving Naamah, goddess of desire.

After Moirin undergoes the rites of adulthood, she finds divine acceptance…on the condition that she fulfill an unknown destiny that lies somewhere beyond the ocean. Or perhaps oceans. Beyond Terre d’Ange where she finds her father, in the far reaches of distant Ch’in, Moirin’s skills are a true gift when facing the vengeful plans of an ambitious mage, a noble warrior princess desperate to save her father’s throne, and the spirit of a celestial dragon.

Review:

First things first. I guess I should start by explaining why reading this book is a Feat of Strength. A few months ago Thea dared me to read Kushiel’s Dart, a book set in the same world as Naamah’s Kiss and one of Thea’s most favourite books ever. Although I liked the writing and enjoyed the political side of the story, for most part I felt deeply disturbed because the heroine of that book was an anguisette (almost a sort of religious calling), someone who takes pleasure from pain. I just didn’t feel comfortable at all with that aspect of the story which I realised had more to do with me as a reader, than with me, as a reviewer. So, I was scared to face another book set in the same world, in Terre D’ange where people live by the motto “Love as Thou art Wilt”. Another thing that makes this a Feat of Strength is the pressure I feel to like the book, because not only do I want to share this with Thea but also with the rest of the world: the reviews for Naamah’s Kiss have been overwhelmingly positive.

I open Naamah’s Kiss and encounter the heroine and narrator Moirin as she grows up in Alba across the sea from Terre D’ange. She is a child of two worlds: daughter of one of the few remaining Maghuin Dhonn, one of the peoples from Alba and a D’Angeline priest. Moirin is touched by both cultures, having small gifts of magic from her mother and Naamah’s touch (that would be a Goddess of Desire) from her father. She spends her childhood living in the woods with her mother, never knowing her father. When she reaches a certain age, she is tested by the Maghuin Dhonn, and the great bear -goddess shows her that her future lies in Terre D’ange where she needs to find her Destiny.

It is in search of this Destiny that Moirin leaves everything she has ever known behind and embarks on a journey , falling in love and in lust on the way, meeting pivotal people (including her father), always following her diadh-anam, the spark of spirit within. She travels from Alba, to Terre D’ange and then to lands faraway to save a princess under a curse, always and forever listening to her diadh-anam.

This is an extremely difficult review to write. I am never more aware of the separation between being a reader and being a reviewer than when I read a Jacqueline Carey novel. Usually both are intrinsically connected but my reaction to Naamah’s Kiss (as my reaction to Kushiel’s Dart) is as conflicted as it can be.

I don’t think anyone could deny that the writing is lovely, the world building impressive, the overall story interesting, compelling and far-reaching in scope. I absolutely loved the first part of the book, set in Alba and the last part of the book set in Ch’in. Both worlds are imbued with magic and history and stories that were exquisite. It is the middle part, when Moirin is in Terre D’ange that I couldn’t bring myself to like. And I came to the conclusion that I simply can not stand Terre D’ange and the D’Angelines. It seems to be all that they do with their time is to scheme and to have sex. Seeing as how Moirin is sort of out of the loop when it came to scheming, all that was left to her was to have sex. In all fairness, it is not exactly like this, but it sure felt like it. There were endless sex scenes (as hot as they might be and hell, can Jacqueline Carey write sex scenes) between her and her lovers (three whilst in Terre D’ange) and it was plain.boring.

Plus, the “Love as Thou Art Wilt”, is a lovely concept, amazing in theory but when it comes to the practical side, it is when I wonder. Because Moirin suffers losses. Terrible loss, a person she loved when she was a kid, her friend and first lover, for example. But how could I possibly grieve with her when she is already falling in love with the next person? How can I miss a character when Moirin seems not to be missing them at all. She may say she is , but I just don’t see it. How she finds comfort in sex is understandable , if only it didn’t happen continuously. The whole lifestyle of the D’Angelines seems so indiscriminate. It makes me wonder: when everybody is special, then no one is? It is important to note another thing: I am fully aware than I am coming from my own comfort zone of reading Romance with strictly monogamous relationships.

I also can’t help but to compare Naamah’s Kiss to Kushiel’s Dart seeing as it is set in the same world. Even though I wasn’t crazy about the first one, I actually missed the more political aspects of that novel and all the intrigue that made it fascinating to me even tough I was disturbed by the sexual side of the story. Reading Naamah’s Kiss where Moirin does not have the pride and duty of a D’Angeline and the need to make sacrifices in the name of her Country , makes it less of a grand story. In fact, Moirin’s story is a very private one, everything that she does is in the name of her own spark of goddess-life. And I KNOW, that this sounds crazy coming from me, who am always asking for simpler stories based on character development, but I wished that there was more to the story that Moirin’s search for her Destiny and her answers to Naamah’s calls, which seems to be more reactions than actions. This is part of why I am so conflicted as well.

In the end, it is at a more personal level, the emotional connection with the story that may vary from reader to reader, that I seem to be out of the loop. Because to me, as a reader, this connection is missing when I read Carey’s books even though the reviewer in me, says, “hey this is a good book, what the hell are you on about?”.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: I really enjoyed the first chapters of the novel when Moirin was still in Alba.

Verdict: Objectively speaking, Naamah’s Kiss is a wonderful book that I simply did not connect with.

Rating: I am going to go with the same thing said when I read Kushiel’s Dart: 7, because it is well written and the world that the author created was believable and complex. No more than 7 because my level of enjoyment varied from chapter to chapter.

Last year, I moaned about the crap-fest that was Heroes season 3. This year, Supernatural takes the cake. I started watching the show in 2009, when I borrowed the first three seasons from a friend and watched all of it in just about two weeks. I fell in love with the brothers and with their relationship. Most of all I fell in love with Dean Winchester.

I then watched season 4 and all caught up, started to watch season 5. I have to admit that season 4 wasn’t all that good, I decidedly prefer monster of the week episodes mingled with character-driven arcs but the whole thing with the apocalypse did not sit well with me. Then, season 5 started and OH MY LORD, how ridiculous the whole thing is! So, Supernatural earns the “Worst TV Show” award of 2009 for the lame story arc, for the sheer amount of Deus Ex Machinae, for the craptastic acting by at least one protagonist (come on, Sam has TWO facial expressions: one to say, “Dean!” , the other to say, “Woe is me,” the rest are minor variants) and overall sucky-ness. This is why,

Smugglivus Presents:

Illustrated CrapFiesta (2009 Edition) – Supernatural Season 5

Warning: SPOILERS!

So, season 4 ended with the brothers, after a few episodes on opposite sides , coming together to defeat Lilith and realising it was too late, Lucifer was about to RISE MUWAHAHAHA.

Season 5 starts right at that moment and after a build up of light, sound and magic.

…the kids are rescued at the eleventh hour, only to learn that

Meg is back and she tries to kill them, then the angel dude tells them that Castiel is dead, the apocalypse is nigh, it’s all Sam’s fault…

Sam: *woe is me*

and that the only thing they have is this Michael’s Weapon thingy who turns out to be … Dean.

Dean: *excuse me?*
Ana: *ha?*

Sam: *Dean!*

Things get really bad then:

Bobby: *Wheelchair*

Lucifer: *Here*

The Antichrist: *present!* *goes away*

War – Horseman of Apocalypse: *here me roar* *goes away*

Apocalypse: *now*

The Brothers: * on a break*
Ana: *ha?* *What?* On a break? NOW? YOU decide to go on separate ways NOW? BUT BUT THE DEVIL IS AFTER YOU!
The Show: *goes mental*

The ToothFairy : *oh hello there*

Castiel : *goes hippy*

Dean: *old* *lame jokes*

Dean: *young* *lame jokes*

Future!Dean! x 2 : * I am SO hot*
Ana: *agrees*

Supernatural: *Convention*

Paris Hilton: *cameo*

Sam: *Dean!*

Dean: Shut up, Sam. For I am Teh Vessel

Sam: actually I am Teh Vessel too!

The Trickster: (AKA Ana’s fave secondary character) *Actually you are both the vessel like my the two brothers from The Bible and From Old and bla bla*

Ana: *Oh the trickster!* Wait! what is he saying?

Trickster: bla bla bla I am an Archangel

NotTheTrickster: *preens* *my greatest con ever*
Ana: *Deus Ex Machina much?*

Stupid secondary character: *knows where the Colt is*
Ana: *WTF? Deus Ex Machina much?*

Colt: *does not work*
Ana: *Deus Ex Machina much?*

Helen and Jo: *die*

Dean: *GAAH*

Sam: *woe is me!*
Ana: *quits*

Yeah, not the best season ever. What about you? What did you think of Supernatural this year? Do you have another show that let you down in 2009? Do share!

2009 is over, 2010 has begun, and Smugglivus is nearly complete! Which means that we must also undergo another very important ritual…

The Airing of Grievances
(in which we air out any dirty laundry from 2009)

In ascending order, these are the things that really pissed us off this year.

5. The Birth of “SyFy”

There’s no excuse for the name change. Really. It’s just embarrassing.

4. FlashForward (and other really disappointing TV shows)

We don’t know what’s more insulting – the fact that a turd like FlashForward is expected to take over for LOST after its final season, or the fact that ABC and The Powers That Be think that we LOST fans are so blind and pathetic that we’ll settle for their blatant pandering (ex.1: OMG a KANGAROO! It’s JUST like a WTF!POLARBEAR!) (ex.2: The casting of (dead) former Losties, like Penny and Charlie. Maybe even Libby and Eko will show up at some point.) Add to that how ridiculously cheesy and overly-dramatic the whole thing is, and, well, we LOST fans are so not impressed. This is NOT a worthy successor. Simply throwing together a shitty ensemble cast show with integration of “flashes” does NOT a good show make – especially if you couple that with bad acting and yawn-inducing/eyeroll-worthy plot.

And it’s not just FlashForward we’re looking at – there’s also disappointments from formerly good shows *coughSUPERNATURALcough* *coughHEROEScough*. There are also the really, really bad new shows – the continued celebration of idiot, vapid, privileged, asshole pseudo-celebrities on shows like I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (or anything on E!, MTV or VH1 for that matter); the trend of not being able to think of anything new so rebooting shows from the ’90s (Melrose Place, 90210)…the list goes on.

3. Poor Marketing Choices

This is one thing we feel we complained a lot this past year. We had two really bad experiences with books being marketed one way, which in turn created reader’s expectations, only to find something else entirely when we started reading. Example number 1, was Night’s Rose by Evangeline Evans which was marketed as “Historical Urban Fantasy” (and what the hell is that anyway?) and was supposed to be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty but turned out to be Erotic Romance with the heroine running around with “cream” pouring down her legs. We have nothing against Erotica or Erotic Romance but it just isn’t our cup of tea and to find it when we were not expecting it (nothing in the cover, the blurb or the marketing material suggests it) put us off reading the book.

Example number 2 was Soulless by Gail Carriger, a book both of us had been anxiously expecting. The marketing material and the spine clearly estates the book is Horror/Fantasy with Steampunk but really , the story was a Paranormal Romance with very little Steampunk elements. Our impression is that these choices are attempts to ride a “wave” but the mismarketing ends up backfiring because it simply doesn’t hit the right public.

And speaking of Poor Marketing Choices, what is up with the amount of the Sameness in Romance covers and Titles. The sheer amount of books with “duke”, and “wicked” in their titles last year was mind-blowing, or more like, mind-numbing. It just makes all books look the same, sound the same, when in fact they are not.

And then we have to mention YA and the current tendency of comparing all books to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. We received quite a few ARCs and promotional materials last year, describing a book like “The New Book for Twilight Fans,” or “The Next Twilight,” or “Like Twilight, Only Better.” To be honest, this is a sure way to make us NOT want to read the book. We actually both enjoyed Twilight when we first read it, but that train needs to leave the station now.

And speaking of Twilight…..

2. The (Twilight) Curse of Stupid Heroines (especially in YA books)

We get that a large part of the appeal of Twilight is that Bella is such a bland, undefined character – allowing for readers (and moviegoers) the power of self-insertion. There’s nothing about Bella that stands out or makes her much of a heroine, or a character for that matter – she’s thoroughly ordinary, with no defining passions or hobbies, beyond of course omg loving Edward (for obvious reasons). She’s an “every-girl.” Actually, that’s a misnomer. She’s actually a “no-girl.” She doesn’t exist on her own – she only lives and is willed into reality by Edward’s love for her.

Sarah Rees Brennan wrote a blog post about this in 2009, about the “blank page heroine.” Justine Larbalestier also wrote her own post about the archetype she calls “The Girlfriend.” (Please note in both cases, no names are named for examples of these types of heroines – any opinions concerning heroines expressed here are ours and ours alone as Book Smugglers)

And this is something that drives us positively batty. This is a rant we know you’ve heard from us throughout the year (and over the two years since we’ve started this blog) – but this model of heroine, the Bella no-girl, is not only insulting and sends out something of a damaging message (Hey, I’ll give up EVERYTHING about myself – family, friends, my very soul – because that’s what I have to do to be with Edward. He doesn’t have to do anything. But it’s ok. Because that is what love and life is all about! I will be with Edward FOREVER! SPARKLE!!). But even more disturbing than this is how WIDELY ACCEPTED the Bella no-girl heroine has become. She’s all over the place. Most noticeably she’s in YA fiction (take, for example, Grace from Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver – a character that exists to be protected by her werewolf boyfriend) [**AN ASIDE: Also, creating one or two "character quirks" for these heroines does NOT a fleshed out character make. Bella being clumsy or Grace liking to cook is great. But the half-hearted creation of a single throwaway hobby does not constitute character definition or development. Sorry.]. But this type of character also rears her nondescript vanilla personality in other genres too – romance, fantasy, horror, heck, even in movies.

And frankly, we’re sick of it. We want characters, we want heroines, we want people with texture and color and dimension.

1. Jack. Jate. The Jacksus.

Ok, while we love LOST, we do take issue with certain aspects of the show (especially recently). The nuke (presumably) going off and “resetting” the timeline feels like a copout, and the actual motivation for setting the bomb off is the MOST IDIOTIC MOTIVATION WE HAVE EVER SEEN IN OUR LIVES.

What was the reason the writers decided would make it OK to nuke the island, kill everyone and “reboot” the storyline (possibly)? What seasoned reasoning would make this all work? Would it be the logical reasoning – taking into account all the people who died on/because of the island (Boone, Shannon, Libby, Ana Lucia, Michael, Eko, Charlie, probably Claire, Naomi, Big Red, Danielle, Alex, Karl, almost Sayid, innumerable redshirts and Others and OTHER Others, so far as we know Locke…)?

No. NO. Of course not. NO, rather, the plot and character motivation that the writers come up with is….

Seriously. SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! Are you freaking kidding us!?!?!?!?!

Doc “I-wanna-fix-you-and-cry-and-count-to-five-because-my-daddy-drank-a-lot” wants to blow up the island with a freaking hydrogen bomb…

BECAUSE THEN HE MIGHT ‘WIN’ KATE BACK????

Never mind the fact that this is IMPOSSIBLE even if the nuke plan works in the first place since she’s heading straight to prison, seeing as she’s a fugitive and all? Never mind the fact that he already “had” Kate and blew it with his usual twitchy, yell-y, cry-y, baby behavior?

Seriously. Stupidest character motivation EVER.

And that’s it! Our 2009 grievances are aired, and our 2010 slates are clean. Are there any gripes y’all have had for the past year that you want to get off your chest?

And don’t forget, later today, we Air our Grievances with Supernatural….quite possibly the show that took the WORST turn in the history of TV, totally jumping the shark.

Olá! Ana here, writing from Brazil where I am spending the holidays with The Family ( I only packed books as you can see…this photo was taken by my sister, horrified that I brought 30 books but forgot to bring a bikini!)

to give you the rundown of our last days and official rites of Smugglivus (sniff).

Anyways, a couple of announcements:

Giveaway Winners:

Last week we announced the three winners of the ARC giveaway courtesy of Little, Brown (US).

Unfortunately, one of the winners was based outside the US/Canada and as per the rules we need to pick a new winner:

Caitlin Usignol (comment #83)!!

Deadtown Giveaway

The winner of Deadtown by Nancy Holzner is: Lisa B!!

Flash (aka She Hulk) New Year Giveaway:

The winner of the She Hulk giveaway is Virginia C (comment 15)!!

Congratulations to all the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail addresses, and we will get your goodies out to you as soon as possible.

This Week on Smugglivus

On Monday, we start the official Rites of Smugglivus with the Airing of Grievances and a couple of posts where we announce the Douchebag of the Year (if you know us, you KNOW who this is. It is easy) and talk about the things that did our head in last year.

On Tuesday, it is time to kick start the Feats of Strength. Ana reads Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey and

then on Wednesday, Thea reads Practive Makes Perfect by Julie James

To learn why reading these books constitutes a Feat of Strength, you will have to wait and see! *wink*

Finally, on Thursday 7th, we celebrate our second blog anniversary, officially closing Smugglivus 2009 with a retrospective of our blogging year. Like for example, do you remember this:

Zombie Smugglers

Finally, on Friday we resume our regular schedule with our first guest author of the year. Lavie Tidhar, author of the  Steampunk novel, The Bookman, writes about Inspiration and Influences.

Other news:

Our buddy Harry from Temple Library Reviews has kicked-off a Comic Book Appeciation Month which promises to be a mega-ultra-cool event. Check it out, it starts here.

And that’s it from us today! Have a great week, folks!!

~ Your friendly neighborhood Book Smugglers

Seeing as Ana and I met through LOST boards (we are ridiculous geeks), it should come as no shocker that both of us are huge couch potatoes. Television, movies, sports, you name it. So, given our advance stage of couch potato-ness, we have decided to enumerate our favorites of 2009!

We invite you to sit back, pop open a cold one, and enjoy. Here are my picks for The Best of the Rest 2008 (check out Ana’s HERE).

The Best of the Rest: TELEVISION

**A warning–if you’re currently catching up or haven’t seen a show, be prepared to be spoiled. We’re only talking about episodes that have already aired, but if you don’t wanna know, you’d best look away!**

Well, as Ana has usurped the first post, this may seem a bit redundant. But whatever. Here we go! I’m counting back from 10 to my absolute favorite TV moments of 2009.

10. Castle (ABC) – The Delicious Sexual Tension

This show is a book nerd and scifi geek’s dream – first, you get the charming, delightful, hot Nathan Fillion in a primetime starring role (complete with witty quips, silly humor, and general adorableness). Add to that the fact that he plays a bestselling thriller author named Richard Castle that knows his mystery tropes, who currently works as a “consultant” with the NYPD in a completely implausible plot-twist, and you’ve got a party. His new source of inspiration, Detective Kate Beckett – beautiful, confident, damaged and deadly – makes for a wonderful leading lady. And the CHEMISTRY between these two! It’s hot stuff. This is a silly show, but it’s so much fun. If you’re not watching it yet – what the hell is stopping you!? It’s all about Castle.

9. V (ABC) – The Pilot

After the craptastic, LOST-wannabe disappointment that was FlashForward, I was pleasantly surprised by ABC’s V – a remake of the 1980s series about invading aliens, called Visitors, who charm and manipulate us poor earthlings for their own nefarious ends. Of course, as V stars Elizabeth Mitchell (aka Thea’s Biggest Girl Crush Since Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully), I was predisposed to like this show – but it genuinely is a strong new entry from ABC. The pilot had surprisingly GOOD special effects, expert plotting, and has so much potential for growth. Add to that Firefly alumni Morena “Inara” Baccarine and Alan “Wash” Tudyk as Vs, and I’m a happy camper. Also, Morris Chestnut branching out into mainstream TV is ALWAYS a welcome thing (I’m a huge fan of Morris Chestnut). Heck, even Scott Wolf (who is freaking me out with his resemblance to Michael J. Fox as he grows older) who usually annoys me is winsome in this new scifi-thriller. Even though the last two episodes faltered a bit, I still have very high hopes for this series, and cannot wait for its return in 2010.

8. Modern Family (ABC) – Dysfunctionally Wonderful

I got Ana to start watching this show, and OF COURSE she loved it. It’s certainly the best, funniest new show of 2009 about a real modern family – an older rich man and his hot, much younger, Colombian wife (and her son); a gay couple with their adopted Vietnamese baby; a yuppie couple and their three very different children. I mean, just check out the clip:

7. House (Fox) – The Looney Bin

I have to agree with Ana re:House – I started watching this show when it first came out and loved it. But, come season 4-ish, I stopped watching. The dissolution of the original team of Cameron, Foreman and Chase and the increasingly formulaic nature of the show (with House NEVER suffering really any consequences for his actions) bugged me. I’d still watch the show occasionally, but it was demoted from my Season Pass on my DVR. But…then came this season. House *finally* has to get clean – and he finally realizes that he is NOT ok. The pilot, with House in the Looney Bin, was one of the FINEST episodes I have ever seen. I loved it, and I love that House is still working through his issues, and that he is staying clean. (I’m so not happy about Cameron leaving and the return of Thirteen *gags* but nothing’s perfect)

6. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FX) – “Oh my God, was that piss?!”/”Like, little Green Ghouls, man!”/”Kitten Mittons”/”Dear Chase Utley”/”Salt the snail!”

Oh God, Sunny. Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. How much do I love thee? Let me count the ways…Almost EVERY episode this season was a winner. Every Thursday, I look forward to being simultaneously entertained and repulsed by these Philly assholes – and I mean that as an endearment. I love this show. I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. And here are my favorite clips:

Kitten Mittens

Charlie and the Pear

Dear Chase Utley

Charlie’s Profile

Gail the Snail

5. Glee (Fox) – “Defying Gravity”

I am an official, proud Gleek. Glee is the best new show of 2009, combining sweet tunes, High School tropes, and breaking down barriers between “cool” and “loser” like nobody’s business. Smart, touching, hilarious, this show has it all. My personal favorite song has to be Kurt’s rendition of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, so I’ll leave you with that clip.

Defying Gravity

The fall finale, “Sectionals,” was all kinds of awesome – and I am scared of what Sue will do when she comes back after the mid-season break!

4. The Office (NBC) – Niagara

One of the things I love the most about The Office is how the show GROWS. The characters adapt, they change, they move on – and in this case, after five seasons of angst and pining for Jim and Pam, finally, FINALLY they tie the knot. This is one of the best pairings on TV. Jim and Pam rule the effing universe. The entire wedding episode, “Niagara,” was one of the finest hours of television this year.

3. Battlestar Galactica (SciFi) – The End

BSG, what am I ever going to do without you? On the one hand, I can appreciate and respect RDM’s decision to tell a definitive story with a beginning, middle and – most importantly, especially for TV shows – an END with BSG. But I am a selfish, selfish girl and I want more. I want more Kara and Lee and Adama and Roslin and Six and Baltar! But even selfish ol’ me has to admit, the sendoff for the show was brilliant, and I think perfect in every way (I know many fans were disgruntled with the series finale, but I loved it and wouldn’t change a thing). It makes my heart hurt to know that the show is done with…but god, what a ride it was. Farewell BSG. You will be missed.

2. LOST (ABC) – The Death (and resurrection) of John Locke

GASP! LOST doesn’t take the top spot on my list! It’s a close call, but even though Lost may have lost out to another show, it’s still my favorite currently running TV series (albeit only for one more season). I wasn’t pleased with the nuclear bomb/reset timeline thing that seems to be going on, but I loved the futility and pain of John Locke’s storyline, culminating in his murder by good ol’ Benry, and his resurrection as Not!Locke on the island. OMG HE KILLS JACOB! I cannot wait to see what the final season has in store for us. I mean, have you seen the trailers? The poster that has EVERYONE on it?! And how about this new official art – squint to find spoilers…

Please, please, please, Darlton, be good.

1. Dexter (Showtime) – The Finale

I discovered the joys of Dexter earlier this year (finally!), and I have never been happier. A twisted show with a vigilante-type serial killer as its protagonist, Dexter is dark and messed up and wonderful. And holy shit, season 4 was another awesome one. John Lithgow’s Trinity was terrifying, and Dexter is forced to come to grips with a LOT of tough decisions – what it means to be a husband, father, employee, friend, brother, and still keep his “Dark Passenger” in check with routine murder. Dex crosses some big lines in this season (his first murder of an innocent man – inadvertent, but it still happened), and that finale left me in shock. I saw it coming, but I didn’t, you know?? Holy hell. What will happen next season!?!?! What does this mean for Dexter in the future? I cannot wait. Absofreakinglutely BRILLIANT.

The Best of the Rest: MOVIES:

Aaaaaaand, here are my top 10 movie picks of 2009…

10. Inglourious Basterds

Ok, as a film I think it wasn’t exactly the best. A draggy plot and the ridiculous casting choice of Eli Roth as a main character really bothered me. BUT, then there was Hans. Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa is THE reason to watch this movie – comical and terrifying, Hans steals the show.

Quentin Tarantino is still an over-exuberant director with camera ADD and a tendency to rely on way too much dialogue, but I cannot find anything wrong with his period setting and his direction of Waltz. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

9. Watchmen

Yes, this wasn’t a perfect film, and yes, I had major issue with the movie adaptation’s ending and its significant deviation from the book. BUT, I think Zach Snyder did a freaking fantastic job adapting such a dense, iconic graphic novel into film form – probably the best job anyone could have done with Watchmen. And oh sweet jesus, were the casting choices for Rorschach, The Comedian, Silk Spectre I, and Nite Owl fabulous!

Especially Eddie Dean and Rorscach – the sociopaths rule in this film. Definitely worth purchasing the bluray directors cut, without a doubt.

8. Zombieland

Ah, the virtues of the Double Tap. The importance of checking the bathroom before pulling your pants down. The essential need for A G.D. TWINKIE! This, and so much more, were lessons I learned from the hilarious Zombieland. Emma Stone is gorgeous and awesome, as usual, as is Abigail Breslin, and Woody Harrelson is made of win. The Bill Murray cameo had me in tears. Even the shitty Michael Cera kid, Jesse Elsenberg, was solidly hilarious!

7. Drag Me to Hell

Hey, good Raimi is back! Yeah, Drag Me to Hell is a bit familiar, taking Raimi’s tried and true hit techniques and plot points from the Evil Dead films, but it was so much fun. And I’m happy to see that he actually IS capable of making a good movie (I had my doubts since Spiderman 2). Drag Me To Hell is horror-comedy at its finest, and Alison Lohman is again fantastic – an excellent successor to Bruce Campbell’s Ash. Love that ending, too!

6. Up

I don’t think Pixar is capable of making anything less than a spectacular film – and Up is another winner. I cried, I laughed, I fell in love with Carl and Russell. The animation is breathtaking, per Pixar’s usual. It’s not Wall-E, but Up definitely wins a spot in my heart.

5. The Cove

One of the most important films I have ever seen, The Cove made me physically ill in the theater. I cried my eyes out with the final footage, and with Ric O’Barry’s triumphant, defiant stand against the systematic slaughter of thousands of dolphins each year in the small village of Taiji. This is a film EVERYONE should watch, and should take to heart.

4. The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow is a director with an eye for action and male characterizations – her iconic action flick, Point Break has been a staple in my family since it first came out (seriously, know most of the film by heart). So, when I heard she had a new film coming out this year with The Hurt Locker, I was stoked. Then, all the rave reviews began to flow in – and I immediately ran out to see the movie. And…wow. Jeremy Renner’s performance as a special unit bomb diffuser in Iraq is frakking beautiful. This is an adrenaline rush of a film, but it’s also just a damn fine movie. Kudos, Ms. Bigelow.

3. District 9

Neil Blomkamp’s film debut, presented by Peter Jackson, is even better than I hoped. It’s a science fiction film with heart – a parable for apartheid, using alien “Prawns.” Beautifully executed in its sort of docu-drama style, with special effects that are jaw-dropping cool, this is a film worth buying and watching again and again.

2. Star Trek

For a very long time, I thought Star Trek would take top billing as my favorite film of 2009. JJ Abrams finally proved to me that he is actually capable of making a Good Movie with this reinvented Star Trek. I loved this film. The casting, with Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, is spot on, the character nuances are perfect. Even more impressive, however, is how the film appeals to both oldskool Trekkies (like myself), and newbies alike (such as the boyfriend, who hated Star Trek by his own admission, and ended up loving the movie). Smart plotting, humor, excellent special effects…Star Trek is amazing.

1. Avatar

And here’s the film that unseated Star Trek as my favorite film of 2009. Watching Avatar in the theater made me feel the way I did when I was a wide-eyed kid watching Star Wars and Lord of the Rings for the first time. Avatar is a film that redefines the genre – it is Epic with a capital “E.” The technology, first off, is mind blowing. James Cameron wins big with this Science Fantasy film that plays on genre tropes and blends familiar story elements with a technology unlike any we’ve seen before on the screen. This is a beautiful film visually, and also it is impeccably acted. Zoe Saldana goes balls out with her role as the Na’vi warrior woman, and Sam Worthington is brilliant as Jake Sully, the marine who comes to Pandora to fill his scientist brother’s shoes.

Avatar makes you remember why you fell in love with movies in the first place, and for a scifi/fantasy geek like myself, it’s pure heaven. If this doesn’t get nominated for a zillion awards, I’ll eat my hat. Avatar deserves it.

Notable Mentions: I watched a lot of good films this year, and here are a few more that deserve special mention! The terrifying Paranormal Activity is the real deal, and will have you waking up at 2am, scared for your soul. I also loved Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (yeah it was flawed and missing the OOMF that my favorite HP book deserved, but whatever, screw you, I still liked it!). Disaster porn 2012 was spectacular in terms of special effects and pure movie FUN. Animated feature Coraline deviates from Gaiman’s book, but still is a wonderful film. And finally, comedies I Love You Man and The Hangover were good fun.

I should also mention a few films that I totally am behind on – I really want to see Nine, Up In the Air, The Road, Moon, and Precious – and it’s entirely possible any of these films may have made my top 10 list had I seen them before writing this. But I haven’t so…oh well!

And that’s it for me, folks! How about you? Any favorite TV Moments and/or Films for 2009? I’m all ears!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best books of the year picked and listed and now we turn to Movies and TV shows. Thea and I are both major couch potatoes (and we even came up with a new feature last year, On The Book Tube with the Book Smugglers) so it should come as no surprise that I loved more TV Shows than I loved Movies (just like last year!) . I shall start with the latter:

Best of the Rest – Movies

Looking back at the year in movies, I only really went to the theatre to watch a handful and then stuck to DVDs. And preparing this list made me realise that at the moment I am either watching Super-heroes/Scifi or Bromance/Rom com. I can’t remember watching a drama I really enjoyed last year (I thought Julie and Julia was meh) and I am fully aware that I should watch Up in the Air ASAP. Alas, I just can’t find the will to be super excited about movies anymore. Anyways, out of the ones I watched, I LOVED the following:

Zombieland

One year ago, it would have been unthinkable that I would not only watch a zombie flick but actually love it. I owe it all to Thea who taught me that the best Zombie movies are the ones not about zombies at all. In Zombieland, the story is about a lot more, about the guy who lost the family and went nuts, the boy who was unlucky with girls; I loved Woody Harrelson here (as usual) and totally have Jesse Eisenberg in my radar. The List was awesome and the surprising cameo by one of my favorite actors was hi-la-rious!

District 9

The worst of the Apartheid only, with aliens. District 9 was brilliantly realised and acted. Sharlto Copley as Wikus van de Merwe owns my soul.

Funny People

I am a huge fan of Jude Apatow so it was a given that I would be watching this one and I loved it! Adam Sandler took me by surprise and I loved how the movie is about comedians and yet it was rather sad with a lot of loneliness, doubt, old friends and new friends and lost love.

The Hangover

Funniest.Movie.Of.The.Year. The trailer alone is made of win and the movie proved to be quite clever as these guys wake up in Vegas without a clue about what happened the night before and went around town trying to find the pieces of the puzzle. Awesome.

Star Trek

Ah. Guys, I loved this movie. It took me some time to figure out that they were re-setting the whole thing but when I did have the revelation, I actually went “whoa, GENIUS”. I am hoping that this new series will go on forever and ever.

Watchmen

I think this is my favorite movie of the year. I love the Graphic Novel and I think the movie was quite faithful. I loved the art and photography and I fell in love with the Comedian and Rorschach all over again.

I Love You, Man

Another bromance. Gods help me, but I thought this movie was awesome with the story of the guy trying to find a guyfriend. Dear Partner totally loved it as well. What can I say, we are silly people, at Casa de Ana.

I also need to give shout outs to 500 Days of Summer which I thought was really clever and cute and Inglorious Basterds with my favorite character of the year: Christoph Waltz’s Landa, the “Jew Hunter”.

Best of the Rest – Television

**A warning–if you’re currently catching up or haven’t seen a show, be prepared to be spoiled. We’re only talking about episodes that have already aired, but if you don’t wanna know, you’d best look away!**

These are my favorite TV moments of last year:

1 – Lost

I need to say that I actually think last season was the best season since Season 1,especially the first say, 10 episodes even though I am prone to complain a LOT about character development. They don’t make any sense. But I only complain because I love it.

Because Lost is my favorite show (well, one of them) , I have loads of favorite moments: like when they started jumping through time and then end up being part of the Dharma Initiative! Or when Jin was alive and the he met Rousseau! Or when we found out that Sawyer was Lafleur, and that he was with Juliet! Or when Faraday came back to the island in the sub! Or that awesome scene when the O6 came back and they met with Sawyer and Sawyer looked at Kate and I was like awwww, YES! and NO! at the same time? And the revelation that OMG Jonh Locke is dead! DEAD! Gasp!

2 – Mad Men

I only started watching this show last year and after watching all seasons in a row I can safely say, it is one of the best TV Shows ever. The thing is, no other show make me simultaneously love and hate its characters in a very bipolar way. Season 3 was my favorite and my favorite scene of the year was the one where Betty confronts Don and he is forced to come clean. That was SUPER acting people.

3 – Dexter

I think I love Dexter as much as I love Lost and this season was the best one to date. Every time a new season starts I wonder where they can possibly go next and they never fail to surprise me. Last season had an amazing John Lithgow playing another serial killer and the scene where they were facing each other without any masks was AWESOME. But nothing was more amazing than the last 5 minutes of the finale. I was left staring at my tv, sobbing, completely heartbroken and surprised.

4 – The Office

There were many many awesome episodes last year but two take the cake. First there was the moment when Michael QUIT Dunder Mifflin and I stared at the TV for about 5 minutes basking in the sheer awesomeness of that scene. And the entire episode of Jim and Pam’s wedding: with all those scenes when Jim was a dear, and then all the funny moments and then the wedding itself playing with that famous youtube video, ending with Jim’s three wedding plans that made me cry like a baby.

5 – House

Another show that always surprises me – when I think they are becoming too formulaic, they turn around and show me something brilliant. My favorite episode was the season’s premiere when House said for the first time: I Need Help.

6 – Castle

Listen, I DO think that the premise of the show is SUPER far-fetched but do I care? No. It has Nathan Fillion in it and he has crazy chemistry with his co-star. Enough said.

And then there are the new shows, I started watching several but am only sticking with three:

7 – V

The Pilot of this show was so.very.cool. I loved everything about it, the special effects, the acting, the premise of the show. And the other episodes since have been pretty solid too.

8 – Glee

A musical- comedy-drama? It was a given I would watch this one and I adore it. I love the songs and I love the characters and one of my favorite scenes of the year was that one where Kurt came out to his father. The scene did not go the way I was expecting it go and ended up being one of the best father-son scenes ever. But nothing, nothing tops Jane Lynch’s Sue Silvester, I drink her every single word like a mental woman.

9 – Modern Family

It took me a while to start watching this one but once I did, I was lost. I actually think this one is as funny as The Office and has the potential for a long TV life. Phil Dunphy, the “cool dad” is the new Michael Scott. The Christmas episode made me cry. The fact that the funniest new show can ALSO make me cry, makes this the best new show on tv.

And that is it from me. You might notice that I did not include Supernatural on this list. That is because Supernatural sucked huge donkey balls and it is making my Airing of Grievances post later.

One final word: I love TV.

That is all.

And don’t forget to check back later, for Thea’s Best of the Rest.

Welcome to Smugglivus – Day 32!

Hey, it’s the New Year! Woohoo! Happy freakin’ New Year!

And in light of the fact it’s 2010, we are offering, you guessed it, another Flash Giveaway*. The New Year Edition. Up for grabs we have a mixed bag of genres. Only ONE batch this time:

You know the drill! The contest is open to mailing addresses in the UNITED STATES ONLY, and will run until Saturday January 2 at 11:59 PM (PST). In order to enter, simply leave a comment here. ONE comment per person, please! Multiple or duplicate comments will be disqualified. Good luck!

And from us Book Smugglers to you…

*Ok, so we couldn’t find a Flash New Year picture, so technically this is the Savage She Hulk New Year Giveaway. So sue us! Just don’t make us angry. You wouldn’t like us when we’re angry…

Ana: Hello, I’m Ana

Thea: And I’m Thea

Ana & Thea: And we’re…[Wyld Stallyns] BOOK SMUGGLERS!!!!!!!

*play facemelting riffs on air guitars*

We’ve brought you some of our favorite authors with their reflections on 2009 and plans for 2010… We’ve brought your some of our favorite bloggers with their own wonderful ‘best of’ lists… But now it’s finally time to get our own hands dirty! We have scoured our personal libraries, gone through all our reviews for the year, and we are happy to report that we finally have our final picks ready to go. The rules: the books in our lists are books that were published in 2009 and that we read and reviewed here.

Thus, we Smugglers are proud to present you with our Most Excellent Books of 2009!

ANA

Looking back at the books I read in 2009 and comparing to those I read in 2008, it is plain that there has been a huge shift in my reading habits.

Last year I read 134 books, out of which 88 were Romance Novels. This year, I read and reviewed 133 (OMG LESS books read in 2009???!! Shame on me!) books and only 37 were Romance novels. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to read more Fantasy and YA and I am happy to see that I succeeded: in fact, I read more YA than any other genre this year (39) and loads of Fantasy as well (36, if you count UF). I am pretty satisfied with the results, I feel like I read some pretty good stuff and discovered wonderful new authors and genres – I also read quite a few short stories and I have found a new appreciation for the format. If I have a New Year resolution for 2010 is to read more anthologies and short stories. On the down side, I read less Graphic Novels than I wanted, another fact I plan to rectify in 2010.

With all that in mind, my top 10 list was a pretty easy one to come up with and I think it reflects beautifully the genres I read the most this year.

Thus, my favourite reads of 2009 are, in no particular order:

Scandal by Carolyn Jewel

Review here.

Scandal is my favorite type of romance novel: all the focus on the main couple. Add to that, the fact that this is a historical about a reformed rake and voila, you have me interested from the get go. The thing that makes this one different though, is the fact that the story opens with the rake ALREADY reformed and completely in love with the girl trying to prove that he has changed. Via flashbacks, we see just how much of a rake he was in the past and the writing is so lovely, and the story is so amazing, I just loved everything about this one.

Ash by Malinda Lo

Review here.

I love fairytale retellings! Ash is based on Cinderella and I loved the writing, which I thought was very lyrical. Above all, I loved the main character Ash and her journey to happiness, battling depression and abuse till the very end, when she saves herself and find love not in the arms of a Knight in Shining Armor but in the arms of another kick-ass girl, the King’s Huntress.

Revealed by Kate Noble

Review here.

I found Kate Noble’s books this year and now I am a fan for life. Revealed is here because it has lovely writing, and an amazing pair of protagonists: a beta hero and an alpha heroine. In fact , in any other romance novel, the heroine would have been the Rival or the Villain: she is rich, beautiful and the most influential woman of the Ton, and she knows it and she loves it. Then there is this sentence that is their signature greeting “It’s just me” that made me melt pretty much every time they said it.

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

Review here

One of my most anticipated reads of 2009, Fragile Eternity is Seth’s book, the one character that I loved since the first book in the series, and whose point of view we hadn’t seen. I love this fairy-human world, the struggles of all characters to fit in either or both. Complex relationships and politics and amazing writing, proves to me that Melissa Marr can do no wrong in my book.

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Review here.

This one I did not see coming, it caught me by surprise and I read Going Too Far in one go, I read till I was done with it and it was well past midnight and I can’t remember the last time I did that. I was so engrossed in this love story between too youngsters in a small town : one who wanted to stay put, the other wanted to go and there were more layers to the story and to the characters than a freaking onion and the vegetable comparison is so lame and so tame when compared to the book that I am a bit ashamed of myself for using it. In any case, this is an amazing YA romance between two characters on equal footing of awesomeness and one book I loved with all my heart.

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Review Here.

Now, this one, this one is here for several reasons: Nick, the unreliable narrator (just how much, you need to read it to find out); the relationship between the two brothers, Alan and Nick, (this book is about brotherly love and devotion and it is awesome); the many cool details in the story including the Goblin Market. Above all, the main reason for loving this book is the crazy chemistry I have with Sarah Rees Brennan’s writing. Plus, it has the best opening sentence of the year:

“The pipe under the sink was leaking again. It wouldn’t have been so bad except that Nick kept his favourite sword under the sink.”

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Review here.

The best Steampunk novel I read this year, with all the elements that make it pure Steampunk goodness: alternate history, worldbuilding where the Steampunk elements are necessary and not only white noise. It has a mix of biology and mechanics, a great story and two great kids as the protagonists, especially the girl-who-pretends-to-be-a-boy. And Holy Barking spiders!, the book comes with wicked illustrations too!

Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh

Review here.

I love Nalini Singh’s books and with this first in her new series, she outdid herself. Angels’ Blood is one of those books where plot meet characterization and everything is well balanced and everything just works. Elena Deveraux is my one of the strongest, most interesting female characters I have read and I loved her every single word.

Demon Forged by Meljean Brook

Review here.

Meljean Brook is another author whose writing I have crazy chemistry with. I love everything she writes and Demon Forged is her best book to date. From the amazing romance to the awesome worldbuilding where everything matters and everything has a reason. The stakes are high and the author is not afraid of showing it. This is Paranormal Romance at its best. I dare say all the nay-sayers have not read Meljean Brook’s Guardian series.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Review here.

Liar is one of those books that speaks directly to me but not because of the characters and story (although both are really, really good) but because of the narrative itself. I love unreliable narrators and Micah is the Ultimate Unreliable Narrator because right from the first page we know she is a compulsive liar. What comes next is an exercise of writing that begs the reader’s attention and connection in order to really work as every single line makes one wonder and doubt. This book is gripping, mind-blowing and brilliant. I Loved it.

The ones that didn’t make it:

My list would have looked quite different if I could have included books not published in 2009. By now, our regular readers must know how much I enjoyed, loved, ADORED the books below. I loved them for the amazing world building, the awesome characters and above all the incredible prose. Patrick Rothfuss’ is particularly akin to “reading beauty” (tm Kris n Good Books)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

Notable Mentions:

(For other damn good books from this year, and for those not published in 2008)

Because it is so hard to narrow down to a mere top 10, we always try to mention other notable, awesome reads from 2009 or before.

For starters this was the year I discovered Brandon Sanderson, a fantastic Epic Fantasy writer, with a thing for writing kooky Magic systems. I loved his Mistborn Trilogy and Warbreaker. Speaking of Fantasy, I also loved finding out the Princess books by Jim C. Hines, they are Fantasy, fairytale retellings of the highest order with Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty as warrior-princesses. It’s a mixture of comedy and high adventure and so much fun!

Two other that totally worthy of praise are Jasmyn by Alex Bell, a modern fairytale and Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter, I loved both books with their somewhat unreliable narrators (it seems I used this excuse a lot this year, but I am a fan!).

On the Romance front, I need to mention my favourite contemporary romance of the year: Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James. James writes the best romantic comedies around. But in the romance genre, I really am a historical romance fan and this year I felt I was especially lucky with the ones I read. Eloisa James’s This Duchess of Mine, Loretta Chase’s Don’t Tempt Me, Julia Quinn’s What Happens in London and Meredith Duran’s Bound By Your Touch are the finest romance published in 2009.

Then, a couple of YA like Rampant by Diana Peterfreund and Lips Touch by Laini Taylor, and this is me totally cheating, because I never reviewed this one but I looooooooooove the writing like whoa and OMG.

Finally, I read only but a few short stories and graphic novels but the ones I did were quite memorable. The Dragon Book anthology with stories of luminaries of the Fantasy genre was amazing and One Con Gloryby Sarah Khun was quite possibly the most fun I ever had with a short story. As for Graphic Novels , I absolutely loved Madame Xanadu, The Walking Dead and Rapunzel’s Revenge.

Favourite characters:

2009 will be known as the year when I lost my heart over and over again to some amazing characters. Top of the list is Eugenides from Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief Series. Oh my word! That guy is unbelievably clever and one of the most memorable characters ever. I also fell in love with Nick and Alan from The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan and their brotherly relationship. I can’t wait to read more!

But really, this year is the Year of the Awesome Female characters. Never before, I fell in love with so many of them. First there were two kick-ass warriors: Elena Deveraux from Nalini Singh’s Angels’ Blood and Irena from Meljean Brook’s Demon Forged. Then, there are: Rapunzel from the graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge and the three princesses from Jim C. Hines books that are strong and spunky. Equally strong but in a more quiet way, is Anna from the Alpha and Omega books by Patricia Briggs. And also, any Juliet Marillier protagonist. After reading those example of awesome female protagonists, I find myself wanting more!

Love the authors:

I developed serious author-crushes this year. I always start falling in love with the books, then I follow the white rabbit to their blogs and voila, I almost feel like a stalker because I read everything they write, be it movie reviews, book reviews, writerly stuff, etc. These authors are only but a few I discovered this year and their blogs are awesome and well worth reading:

Jim C Hines, Sarah Rees Brennan, Justine Larbalestier, Diana Peterfreund, Karen Mahoney, and Patrick Rothfuss. Plus “old” favorites Meljean Brook and Nalini Singh . Gotta love the people who bring me so much joy!

2010 Books I REALLY want.

Where do I even start?

Highest on my Most Wanted list are A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (I got the ARC! I got the ARC! Ahem), The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr, the next Sevenwaters book, Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier, Demon Blood and the Iron Duke’s Steampunk series by Meljean Brook and The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan.

I also wait with baited breath for the next in the Princess Books by Jim C Hines, Red Hood’s Revenge , Forget You by Jennifer Echols, Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes, Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld, Lex Trent versus the Gods by Alex Bell, Prospero in Hell by L. Jagi Lamplighter and The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson…

plus anything by Nalini Singh, Julie James, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Loretta Chase, Meredith Duran and Linnea Sinclair.

I also reserve the right to be caught by surprise by new-to-me and debut authors. There is nothing quite as amazing as finding new treasures!

2010 is looking like it’s going to be a mighty fine year for reading! I can’t wait!

THEA

I didn’t go through such a dramatic shift in reading habits as Ana as I was pretty varied to begin with, but I did read a whole lot more Young Adult this year – so that’s something! This year, I reviewed a grand total of 159 books (holy crapoly!!!!!). Of those 159 books, the most dominant genre was YA – a whopping total of 75 books reviewed were YA! I blame our YA month for the imbalance (and just in case you were wondering, of those 75 YA titles, 27 were SF, 20 were Fantasy, 11 were UF, and 11 were Horror, with the remaining 6 YA books historical/literature/graphic novels). Besides YA, I reviewed 21 Fantasy novels, 20 Urban Fantasy novels, 15 Horror titles, and a pitiful 8 Science Fiction titles (the remaining 20 books were a mix of literary fiction – mystery, thrillers, chick-lit, even 2 romance titles – and graphic novels/manga).

Pretty GD nuts, huh?

All that said, and without any further ado, here are my top 10 picks of the year…

Flood and Ark by Stephen Baxter

Review of Flood HERE; Review of Ark HERE.

I lucked out this year, as Flood was just released this fall in the US, and then shortly after Ark hit stores in the UK – and thanks to the good folks at Gollancz (and Ana in the UK), I was able to read both books in the duology within only a few short months of each other (whereas other poor folks here in the US have to wait until next year for Ark). And holy, holy crap – I’ve discovered a brand new MUST BUY author in Stephen Baxter. Flood, which tells the apocalypse by way of subterranean ocean leaking and flooding the Earth’s surface, was an awesome good novel and one I thoroughly enjoyed (even if it was a bit clinical and cut and dry). But Ark took the series to an entirely new level – it was flat out, knock my socks off fantastic, and the first (and only one of TWO books) I gave a perfect 10 rating to this year. Let me just put it this way – If I had to pick a single favorite book from 2009, it would be Stephen Baxter’s Ark.

Ark follows a group of talented young people as they try to get a spot on humanity’s last ditch effort to survive the floodwater apocalypse – through the creation of a spaceship that can travel at super-luminal speeds, in a search for an inhabitable planet elsewhere in the universe. Part military thriller, part exploration novel, and all around a compelling, haunting, and ultimately hopeful tale about the human will to survive, Ark is one damn fine book. I loved it. And I have proceeded to glom Stephen Baxter’s scifi backlist, thanks to this awesome duology.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Reviewed HERE.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth was probably my most anticipated, lusted-after book of 2009. I had been hankering for this book since way back in 2008, when I first caught wind of the synopsis, heard the lyrical title, and saw the gorgeous cover. And wouldn’t you know it, not only did The Forest of Hands and Teeth live up to my incredibly high expectations, but it surpassed them. PLUS, author Carrie Ryan is one of the coolest cats on the web. (That’s right, I just used the phrase “cool cat” – she’s THAT awesome)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is about a village in the woods, surrounded on all sides by fences that keep the “unconsecrated” – or zombies – out, and the humans in. But one girl dares to dream of a future beyond the fences and the rules of her strict society, and when the fences inevitably fall, she has the strength to seek out life beyond in the forest of hands and teeth. I don’t think there are words to express my love for this grim, post-apocalyptic tale – it’s a zombie novel, but like the best works of zombie fiction, it’s not so much about the undead as it is about the living. I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK. And its companion novel, The Dead-Tossed Waves is – you guessed it – my most anticipated novel of 2010.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Reviewed HERE.

Like the rest of the known universe, I was enamored with Catching Fire – in fact, I loved it even more than The Hunger Games, primarily because it finally showed me that Ms. Collins can create something new and compelling (The Hunger Games was a tad too much Battle Royale meets The Running Man meets The Long Walk for my tastes). I loved the action of this second book, I loved the government complications, the surge of rebellion in the districts of Panem, and most of all, I loved how Katniss grows in this book.

And….TEAM PEETA, for the win! I cannot wait for the third book this coming fall.

Slights by Kaaron Warren

Reviewed HERE.

As I said in my review of Slights, I don’t think I have the words to properly convey the sense of shock, of depravity, of total, awesome horror that Kaaron Warren’s debut novel from Angry Robot left me with. This is one of the most disturbing books I have read in a very long time – not since Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves have I felt so unsettled (in the BEST way) by a book. Horrific, resonating, and profoundly sad, I loved Slights. This is horror at its absolute finest, and I wholeheartedly recommend Ms. Warren’s novel to all.

Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

Reviewed HERE.

It was a close call between this novel and Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs for a spot on my top 10 – but ultimately, Magic Strikes won out because of the sheer scope of the book. In this third novel, heroine Kate Daniels goes through a LOT – she finds herself in an honest-to-goodness Arena, fighting off creatures decidedly outside the usual realm of shapeshifter/vampire/fey. The action is unparalleled, and Ms. Andrews just continues to get better with each subsequent book. I cannot wait for the next Daniels novel early next year – if it’s anything like Magic Strikes, I’ll be one happy camper.

Hunger by Michael Grant

Reviewed HERE

I started this outstanding series by Michael Grant this year, and loved both Gone (published in 2008) and Hunger immensely. Michael Grant’s FAYZ books, about a seaside California town whose inhabitants over the age of 14 all disappear one day, is the stuff Stephen King fans will salivate over. Part X-Men, part Lord of the Flies, sprinkled with a healthy dose of supernatural King-style terror, Hunger is a surprisingly gritty Young Adult novel. Don’t let the YA label fool you – there is nothing juvenile about this title. It is Grim, with a capital “G.” Heck, I loved Hunger more than I did Stephen King’s Under the Dome (a similar setup to Michael Grant’s FAYZ)! Recommended for fans of violent, dystopian style novels.

Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey

Reviewed HERE.

It’s no secret that I am a Jacqueline Carey fangirl. The Kushiel’s Legacy books are among my favorites of All Time – if I’m stranded on a desert island, Kushiel’s Dart (or Kushiel’s Avatar) is coming with me. With Naamah’s Kiss, Ms. Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange, this time with a new heroine named Moirin, touched not by Kushiel but Naamah herself. Naamah’s Kiss has everything I have come to expect from Ms. Carey’s books – adventure, strong characters, breathtaking worldbuilding, love and sex, and prose so lush it makes you catch your breath in wonder. Ms. Carey takes Moirin to lands far beyond Terre d’Ange’s borders, to cultures different and familiar at the same time – and I loved every second of it. This is a no brainer for me – Naamah’s Kiss completely rocks.

Drood by Dan Simmons

Reviewed HERE.

As with Ms. Carey, it should come as no surprise that I am a huge Dan Simmons fangirl. His Hyperion cantos are among my favorite books of all time, and so when I learned he was releasing a new book this year, I was beside myself with giddiness. Drood is Simmons at his best – weaving intricate history with strong characters, solid plotting and an unmatched eye for detail. About Wilkie Collins and his jealousy and close friendship with Charles Dickens, Drood is part mystery, part horror, and captures the era and both authors flawlessly. Seriously, Dan Simmons is an author that does his homework. Another home run from Dan Simmons, as he proves again why he is one of the finest authors of ANY genre he chooses to write in.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Reviewed HERE.

Another YA novel with the word “Fire” in the title! But seriously, Fire is a book that completely took me by surprise. I had the pleasure of reading both Graceling and this companion novel/prequel this year, and both blew me away. I loved the character of Fire, the world of “monsters” and their normal counterparts. Ms. Cashore’s second novel, in fact, appealed to me more than her debut novel did. Fire is YA Fantasy at its finest, evocative of Tamora Pierce. I love the strong heroines that she writes, and urge everyone – especially young girls dissatisfied with the wishy-washy Bellas of the YA literary landscape – to read her work.

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Reviewed HERE.

Another no-brainer, favorite author of mine is Juliet Marillier, and her 2009 release of Heart’s Blood – a Celtic retelling of Beauty and the Beast – is another solid gold winner. Ms. Marillier, like Ms. Carey, is an author whose prose never fails to win me over. Lush, evocative, hauntingly beautiful, Heart’s Blood is no exception. I loved this smart, heartfelt retelling of a familiar fable.

Honorable Mentions (2009 Close Calls and Pre-2009 Published Favorites)

As the title suggests, this section is for favorite books read in 2009 – books that I loved but didn’t make the cut (barely), or would have made the cut if they were published this year.

I. 2009 Close Calls

I think I lucked out this year, as I read a number of really awesome memorable books. For organization’s sake, I’ve broken ‘em out by genre:

In the YA Genre, these 2009 close calls include: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman, Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr, The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong, Forest Born by Shannon Hale, The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison, Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines (a VERY narrow miss for my Top 10), and Going Bovine by Libba Bray.

In the Fantasy Genre: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey, Jasmyn by Alex Bell, and Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter top the list of 2009 published titles that I absolutely loved, but didn’t quite make the top 10.

In the UF Genre: Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs, Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire, Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs, and Deadtown by Nancy Holzner top my favorites. I didn’t read as much UF this year as in 2008, but the genre still holds a soft spot in my heart. Seanan McGuire and Nancy Holzner are two debut UF authors that managed to completely win me over with their first in a series books, and I eagerly await for more from them. And Patricia Briggs is Patricia Briggs – her writing is AMAZING.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Paranormal Romance Genre novel Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh, and Horror Genre novel Hater by David Moody. Both took me by surprise and managed to win me over, and are definitely recommended.

II. Pre-2009 Publication Faves

Leading the pre-2009 published favorites read this year is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go – the only other book (besides Ark) that I gave a 10 rating to. This is literary fiction, yes, but also falls into the realm of science fiction, about mysterious “donors” and their upbringing in an english countryside boarding school. Mr. Ishiguro has won numerous awards for his literary efforts, and Never Let Me Go showed me why he is so worthy of those accolades. Please, for the love of pete, read the book before watching the movie adaptation coming out next year. Please.

Along with Never Let Me Go the lightbook Goth by Otsuichi would easily have made my top 10 list, had it been published in 2009. Goth tells the story of two teenage sociopaths in Japan, and is a truly chilling portrayal. Another title that easily would have cracked my top 10 was delightful gothic/regency/romance/fantasy novel The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett. I hadn’t seen this book reviewed anywhere, but I was so very glad I took a chance on this title.

There were a slew of pre-2009 YA titles that I read and absolutely loved this year, so I’ll just list them quickly: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Pretties, and Specials), Genesis by Bernard Beckett, Exodus by Julie Bertagna, and Feed by M.T. Anderson. Also Wildwood Dancing and Cybelle’s Secret by Juliet Marillier were standout novels that deserve mention.

On the fantasy front, I also discovered the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson this year, which is one of the most inventive and original epic fantasy series’ I have read, period. There also was the beautiful The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente that blew me away. Finally, The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip was another solid winner that I truly loved and wholeheartedly recommend.

Favorite Characters:

I didn’t discover anyone as lovely as Miles Vorkosigan or Amelia Peabody this year, but I did read a number of YA protagonists that totally won me over. Perhaps most winsome of them all are Todd and Viola from Patrick Ness’s incredible/awesome/insert superlative Chaos Walking series, The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer. I love these two characters so very much; I root for them like no other pair that I can think of in an ongoing series. So, they get my vote!

New Authors:

2009 was another great year for new-to-me authors – topping the list has to be Diana Peterfreund, author of the excellent Secret Society Girl series (which I *will* get around to finishing soon) and the awesome Rampant, a new YA series about killer unicorns and the girls that slay them. Diana is not only a fabulous author, she’s also really friendly, she’s allowed us to bug her for interviews and guest posts, and she also shares the love for Christopher Pike. Another autobuy author I discovered this year is Brandon Sanderson – his Mistborn books blew me away, and his 2009 release, Warbreaker wasn’t too shabby either. He’s definitely an author I will be looking out for in the future.

Finally, there’s the ineffable Stephen Baxter. Man, I loved Ark with every fiber of my being – so much so that I am currently glomming his backlist (I just finished Moonseed which was also absofreakinglutely phenomenal – another one for the keeper shelf. Next up is Titan – I love me some apocalyptic-toned scifi!). This guy’s writing just does it for me.

2010 Books I Cannot Wait to Read:

Oh, the list is long indeed. I suppose I should set a reading goal for next year – and that is READ MORE SCIENCE FICTION. It’s a genre I love (hell, my favorite two books of 2009 were scifi titles), and there’s no excuse for my deficiency in this area. So, if there are any scifi titles you have to recommend, please let me know! I’m all ears.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness – The dramatic final novel in the Chaos Walking series. The Ask and the Answer kicked my ass – I cannot wait to see what Mr. Ness has in store for Todd and Viola in this third book.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan – Given my big love for The Forest of Hands and Teeth this is – if you’ll pardon my lame puns – a no-brainer! Seriously, love Carrie Ryan’s writing, and cannot wait for this title. The covers are gorgeous too.

Lies by Michael Grant – Again, given my love for Gone and Hunger, it should come as no surprise that this third book in the planned 7 book series is on my most anticipated of 2010 list.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs – Patricia Briggs freaking rules. Mercy Thompson is one of my favorite UF heroines for a reason, and I cannot wait for more of her in Silver Borne.

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews – Again, given my love for Magic Strikes this is an autobuy for me. Love Kate and Curran, and cannot wait to see where Ms. Andrews takes them next! (Although what is with these stupid “Guaranteed Good Read!” stickers on books? Who do publishers think they are fooling? They just look tacky)

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss – I read The Name of the Wind this year as part of our “What She Said” feature, and I loved it. So, I, along with the rest of the fantasy reading world, will be anxiously hoping for The Wise Man’s Fear in 2010.

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer – OMG. Probably my MOST highly anticipated book of 2010 – I *loved* with the force of a thousand suns the first two books in Ms. Pfeffer’s Moon Crush trilogy (Life as we Knew it and the dead and the gone were my two favorite reads of 2008), so I am on tenterhooks waiting for this third volume. EEEEEE! The cover gives me goosebumps.

Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett – I have heard nothing but Good Things about this upcoming title, and hey, I even have an ARC. I cannot freaking wait to dive in. (Plus, I hate to be shallow, but how awesome is that cover??)

Horns by Joe Hill – I really, really enjoyed his debut novel Heart-Shaped Box, and being the son of Stephen King and all, I’m partial towards Mr. Hill. Horns looks to be a fantastic read, and I have high hopes. AND I have an ARC that I am just dying to start ripping through…

The Line by Teri Hall – Talk about BUZZ, this book is all over the blogosphere. The cover is gorgeous, the title mysterious and atmospheric, and the synopsis sounds like it’s a book right up Thea Alley. I cannot wait.

Black Magic Sanction and Early to Death, Early to Rise by Kim Harrison

I was a little bit disappointed with White Witch, Black Curse, the newest entry in Kim Harrison’s otherwise near-flawless The Hollows series. BUT, I still have high hopes for the next Rachel Morgan. And I absolutely loved Once Dead, Twice Shy, Ms. Harrison’s YA entry – and I eagerly await Madison Avery’s next novel.

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead – Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy books are among my favorite YA Vampire series’ – and given the number of YA Vampires out there, that’s saying a LOT. Forget the poorly written (and brain numbingly idiotic) Twilight, because it is all about Rose. And Adrian.

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong – The Summoning (book 1 in the Darkest Powers series) didn’t really wow me, but I was pleasantly surprised by The Awakening this year. Chloe and Derek are a wonderful couple, and I am eager to see where The Reckoning takes them.

Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey – Come on. Jacqueline Carey. Book 2 in Moirin’s story. No. Brainer.

Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren – I loved Slights so very much, and was incredibly impressed with Kaaron Warren. So, it goes without saying that I will most certainly read her next book – which happens to be fantasy title, Walking the Tree, again from Angry Robot.

Prospero in Hell by L. Jagi Lamplighter – I was so delighted with Prospero Lost, and I wish everyone would run out and purchase it. Seriously, smart, funny, well-researched and impeccably written. THIS is Urban Fantasy like you’ve never seen it before – and I want more Miranda and Mab!

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson – The new Brandon Sanderson, first of a planned 10 book series, is an investment (both emotionally and economically). But it’s one I’m ready to make. Come on, The Way of Kings!

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman – I loved Eon: Dragoneye reborn very, very much. Though there were predictable elements, it reminded me of all the things I loved in Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books and Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori. This is an action filled YA fantasy that took me by surprise, and has me impatiently waiting for the next book.

The Third book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series – Seriously. Is it October yet? I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, DAMMIT!

Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier – A new Sevenwaters book!!! I am going into paroxysms of glee!

And with that we, your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers, bid you so long, farewell, au revoir, see you in 2010!

And be Excellent to Each Other, dudes!