Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Books I Loved During My First Year of Blogging

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a throwback freebie so I'm doing one of their suggested topics - 10 Books I Loved During My First Year of Blogging.  Now I officially started this blog in August of 2013 but I didn't put much effort into it until 2014 so I'm looking at some of my favorites from that year.

1.  The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes and Fed Up with Fondue by David Sax - I loved this book!  There's a lot of talk about how food trends start - some organically and some structured - and how they grow as well as a look at why some things catch on and some fizzle out.  It was also incredibly readable and entertaining.

2.  The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson - This was an interesting Young Adult title where the main character is the 15 year old daughter of a deposed leader.  The family has fled the country and is essentially in hiding.  Suddenly Laila finds herself going from living in a very privileged but very controlled life to an American public school as the family struggles to adapt.

3.  When the Rogue Returns by Sabrina Jeffries - This book pretty much cemented Jeffries' status as one of my very favorite historical romance authors.  While one of my most hated plot devices in a romance is "the Secret" and secrets are the primary conflict in this book it was done so perfectly that I was instantly hooked.  This may be the one version of "the Secret" done right!

4.  Home to Seaview Key by Sherryl Woods - I loved this one!  It's a slow burn romance that focuses around older than usual romance novel characters (both MCs are in their mid to late 40s) and was just really wonderful.  I loved the world that Woods created and that the main focus of the story was the heroine finding her home again.

5.  The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier - So I've seen bits and pieces of Hitchcock's movie The Birds and was always a little underwhelmed.  I mean how scary can birds really be?  Than I read the short story that Hitchcock had based the movie off of and got my answer - really freaking scary.  The rest of the short stories in this collection are good too but The Birds is a must read.  I've never felt quit comfortable around birds ever since.

6.  Guidebook to Murder by Lynn Cahoon - This is the first book in a series that would come to be one of my favorite cozy mysteries series.  It was a great introduction with a great mystery though I spent a lot of time screaming at the MC to just ask this guy if he was actually married.  She did eventually but these book characters are not great listeners!

7.  City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn - I forgot all about this one but it was so amazing!  The setting is 1920s Damascus and the heroine is a famed aviatrix who happens to get a photograph in the mail of a man who looks just like her deceased husband.  It's quite the adventure!

8.  Murder on the Home Front: A True Story of Morgues, Murderers, and Mysteries During the London Blitz by Molly Lefebure - This is the memoir of a woman who ended up being the secretary for the medical examiner in London during World War II.  She followed him around to all the crime scenes and everything.  It was absolutely fascinating.

9.  Delancey: A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage by Molly Wizenberg - I loved Wizenberg's earlier book and was so excited for this one.  It was totally different but did not disappoint.  I loved seeing just how much work it takes to get a restaurant off the ground and how it affects marriage, cooking and just general life.  On a side note I will never ever ever open a restaurant.

10. The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow - I love a good historical fiction and this one was marvelous.  I can't sew but this book made me want to learn and all the talk about the sewing workshops in the castle were just fascinating.

What are some of your favorite throwback reads?