For our favorite reads, we had to choose one favorite read of 2024, but everyone is allowed two bonus picks for books not released this year. However, Sarah is ever the rulebreaker and her picks are all from this year!
Here are our favorites of the year! We’d also love to hear about your best read of 2024!
The Love of My Afterlife
Author: Kirsty Greenwood
Released: July 2, 2024 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyA recently deceased woman meets “the one” in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on earth before ten days are up…
If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. Not only did she just die by choking on a microwaveable burger, but now she’s standing in her ‘shine like a star’ nightie in front of the hottest man she’s ever seen. And he’s smiling at her.
As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise. That is until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth. And here Delphie was thinking her luck might be different in the afterlife.
When Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to earth and reconnect with the mysterious man, she jumps at the opportunity to find her possible soulmate and a fresh start. But in a city of millions, Delphie is going to have to listen to her heart, learn to ask for help, and perhaps even see the magic in the life she’s leaving behind…
Sarah: It’s emotional and sweet, and it made my day while I was reading it. It’s charming, and a really lovely mix of kindness and grief, lust and affection, and when I think of it, I grin and my eyes sting a little.
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Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Released: August 27, 2024 by Orbit
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Time of Iron #1This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain’s shoes, for an adventure that is both “brilliant” (Holly Black) and “supremely satisfying” (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue’s gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.
When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favorite fantasy series.
She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she’s not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor’s tale.
So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they’re doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor’s fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.
THIS IS A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN…
Sarah: It’s angry and emotional, violent and sometimes campy. The emotional gut punch of the first chapter moves into cathartic plotting and villainy. I’ve said this before, but this book was so absorbing and so compelling, I forgot that I need to reapply sunscreen and I got a sunburn on my inner arms and chest because I read it hanging on to the edge of a pool. It’s heavy at times, but also gleefully, fiercely unique.
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Author: Christine M. Larson
Released: June 4, 2024 by Princeton University Press
Genre: NonfictionLessons in creative labor, solidarity, and inclusion under precarious economic conditions
As writers, musicians, online content creators, and other independent workers fight for better labor terms, romance authors offer a powerful example—and a cautionary tale—about self-organization and mutual aid in the digital economy. In Love in the Time of Self-Publishing, Christine Larson traces the forty-year history of Romancelandia, a sprawling network of romance authors, readers, editors, and others, who formed a unique community based on openness and collective support. Empowered by solidarity, American romance writers—once disparaged literary outcasts—became digital publishing’s most innovative and successful authors. Meanwhile, a new surge of social media activism called attention to Romancelandia’s historic exclusion of romance authors of color and LGBTQ+ writers, forcing a long-overdue cultural reckoning.
Drawing on the largest-known survey of any literary genre as well as interviews and archival research, Larson shows how romance writers became the only authors in America to make money from the rise of ebooks—increasing their median income by 73 percent while other authors’ plunged by 40 percent. The success of romance writers, Larson argues, demonstrates the power of alternative forms of organizing influenced by gendered working patterns. It also shows how networks of relationships can amplify—or mute—certain voices.
Romancelandia’s experience, Larson says, offers crucial lessons about solidarity for creators and other isolated workers in an increasingly risky employment world. Romancelandia’s rise and near-meltdown shows that gaining fair treatment from platforms depends on creator solidarity—but creator solidarity, in turn, depends on fair treatment of all members.
Sarah: Disclosure: I’m quoted and cited but my memory is such that I completely forgot until I ran into myself while reading. That was weird.
This is a book about the romance genre and the romance community, in other words, this is an academic book about us. It was engaging and interesting and there’s chapters with data that will make all the data analysis nerds very happy. I will never tire of books that take the business of romance seriously, as well as the people working within it.
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Author: Tia Williams
Released: February 6, 2024 by Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Historical: American, RomanceLeap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.
Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.
When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.
One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.
Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.
Amanda: I still can’t believe it came out in February. It was truly something beautiful between the heroine’s personal journey, the incorporation of history, the spectacular side characters, and the “how the hell is she going to pull this off” romance. I was also lucky enough to interview Williams for BookPage and I had the greatest time talking about Prince and horror novels.
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Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Released: October 3, 2023 by Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyThe adult debut of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kerri Maniscalco, Throne of the Fallen is a seductive new standalone novel set within her fan-favorite Kingdom of the Wicked world, perfect for readers of fantasy, romance, and mystery alike.
Sinner. Villain. Ruthless.
These are wicked names the Prince of Envy welcomes. They remind him what he isn’t: a saint. And when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows he’ll be called much worse before it ends. Riddles, hexed objects, anonymous players, nothing will stand in his way. With a powerful artifact and his own future at stake, Envy is determined to win, though none of his meticulous plans prepare him for her, the frustrating artist who ignites his sin—and passion—like no other…
Talented. Darling. Liar.
The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows notorious rake—and satire sheet legend—Lord Phillip Vexley to blackmail her. And now it seems Vexley isn’t the only scoundrel interested in securing her unique talents as a painter. To avoid Vexley’s clutches and a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Waverly Green’s newest arrival, enigmatic Lord Ashford ‘Syn’ Synton, little expecting his game will awaken her true nature . . .
Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Shifting Isles—from glittering demon courts to the sultry vampire realm, and encounters with exiled Fae—while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.
Amanda: This came out in fall 2023 and I reviewed it in January. I was also very excited and preordered the second book in the series, Throne of Secrets, which dropped a few months ago. There is something about this series that taps into the over-the-top and very horny era of early 2000s paranormal romance. It gives me Merry Gentry vibes and I mean that as a compliment.
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Author: Cara Bastone
Released: March 4, 2025 by The Dial Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceGrieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not
Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of… a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.
Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.
Amanda: My second bonus pick is a wild card because it’s not a book from previous years but one that hasn’t been released yet. I sped through an ARC of Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone. It’s my first time trying a book by this author and wowee. The characters are very well done in terms of feeling real and not like caricatures. It deals a lot with grief and feeling unmoored in the face of emotional upheaval. Definitely an early contender for best of 2025 already.
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Author: Kiersten White
Released: September 10, 2024 by Del Rey
Genre: Gothic, Horror, LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/FantasyA vampire escapes the thrall of Dracula and embarks on her own search for self-discovery and true love in this epic and seductive gothic fantasy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide.
Her name was written in the pages of someone else’s Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula’s first victims.
But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula’s clutches—and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.
Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in twenty-first-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’s family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power.
Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces. Iris’s mother won’t let go of her without a fight, and Lucy’s past still has Dracula is on the prowl once more.
Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness has always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?
Carrie: I’ve always had a soft spot for Lucy from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, especially when I read a bit that he decided never to publish in which Lucy complains about having to conceal her intelligence from men. So this book, which tells the story of Dracula from Lucy’s point of view and then proceeds to explore decades of her unlife, was perfect Carrie-bait. It’s feminist, queer, and powerful.
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Author: Ed Yong
Released: June 21, 2022 by Random House
Genre: NonfictionEnter a new dimension—the world as it is truly perceived by other animals—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes.
“A stunning achievement, steeped in science but suffused with magic.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world.
In An Immense World, author and Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.”
Carrie: I re-read An Immense World by Ed Yong this year, and it was even better the second time around. Both this book and his book I Contain Multitudes are nonfiction reads that convey a lot of scientific information in a very easy to grasp way. More than that, the ideas in the books truly redefined the way I see the world around me.
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Author: Emily Habeck
Released: August 8, 2023 by S&S/Marysue Rucci Books
Genre: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction/FantasyA New York Times Editors’ Choice
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A Booklist Editor’s Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Nominee
A Massachusetts Book Awards Fiction Honors Selection
Shortlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book PrizeA “beautifully written” (Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See) debut novel of marriage, motherhood, metamorphosis, and letting go, this intergenerational love story begins with newlyweds Wren and her husband, Lewis—a man who, over the course of nine months, transforms into a great white shark.
For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this “heart-wringing” (Adam Roberts, internationally bestselling author of Salt) novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice.
A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.
Carrie: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck is a novel that isn’t a romance novel but that does include an incredibly powerful love story. This book was almost unbearably beautifully written. It doesn’t have an HEA in a traditional sense but it does carry the reader through grief into a new happiness. It’s one of the most original things I’ve ever read and I want to read it over and over again.
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Author: Erin Langston
Released: September 24, 2024
Genre: Historical: European, RomanceOne sensational love story.
American journalist Ethan Fletcher traversed the globe to claim his late uncle’s Fleet Street print shop, only to find his unexpected inheritance is shackled by ruinous debt. To save his business and finally direct his own course, he needs to raise capital, and quickly. Good fortune comes in the form of Belinda Sinclair, the eccentric daughter of a respected London judge—and she just so happens to be a beautiful failure of a novelist.
Bruised by scandal, Belle has spent years writing a gruesome courtroom mystery no respectable publisher will touch. Until she meets Ethan—barely respectable, barely a publisher, but with two broad hands that can work a press and an enterprising spirit that breathes new life into her pages. Emboldened by the prospect of seeing her story in print, Belle agrees to Ethan’s plan: she will transform her grisly manuscript into a serialized penny dreadful, and he will sell it as a means to settle his accounts.
In the close confines of the print shop, Ethan and Belle discover their partnership is conducive to far more than fiction. Helpless to deny their deepening devotion, they dare to compose a future free of his financial burdens and her social constraints. But when a series of punishing obstacles jeopardizes the story they’ve been writing off the page, they must confront how much they are willing to lose… and what it will take to save everything.
Claudia: Set in the London publishing world in the mid 19th century, this is an angsty read with working-class characters. There’s a lot about writing, publishing and literacy that were extra treats for me!
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Author: Susan Morris
Released: October 15, 2024 by Bindery Books
Genre: Gothic, Horror, Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/FantasyIn this fresh-yet-familiar gothic tale―part historical fantasy, part puzzle-box mystery―the worlds of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes collide in a thrilling exploration of feminine power.
At the dawn of the twentieth century in Paris, Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, works as a researcher for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. But no one realizes how abnormal she is. Sam is a channel into the minds of monsters: a power that could help her solve the gruesome deaths plaguing turn-of-the-century Paris―or have her thrown into an asylum.
Sam finds herself assigned to a case with Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the criminal mastermind and famed nemesis of Sherlock Holmes and a notorious detective whom no one wants to work with on account of her previous partners’ mysterious murders. Ranging from the elite clubs of Paris to the dark underbelly of the catacombs, their investigation sweeps them into a race to stop a beast from its killing rampage, as Hel and Sam are pitted against men, monsters, and even each other. But beneath their tenuous trust, an unmistakable attraction brews. Is trusting Hel the key to solving the murder, or is Sam yet another pawn in Hel’s game?
Elyse: It’s the perfect blend of (mild) horror, paranormal, mystery, adventure and sapphic romance. It’s like when you’re hungry, but you don’t know what you want, and then your partner suggests the perfect meal. It’s so immensely satisfying. My husband listened to it on audio and also loved it.
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Author: Sarah Maas
Released: March 3, 2020 by Bloomsbury
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Crescent City #1#1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas launches her brand-new CRESCENT CITY series with House of Earth and Blood: the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance.
Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. By day, she works for an antiquities dealer, selling barely legal magical artifacts, and by night, she parties with her friends, savoring every pleasure Lunathion—otherwise known as Crescent City— has to offer. But it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city—and Bryce’s world.
Two years later, her job has become a dead end, and she now seeks only blissful oblivion in the city’s most notorious nightclubs. But when the murderer attacks again, Bryce finds herself dragged into the investigation and paired with an infamous Fallen angel whose own brutal past haunts his every step.
Hunt Athalar, personal assassin for the Archangels, wants nothing to do with Bryce Quinlan, despite being ordered to protect her. She stands for everything he once rebelled against and seems more interested in partying than solving the murder, no matter how close to home it might hit. But Hunt soon realizes there’s far more to Bryce than meets the eye—and that he’s going to have to find a way to work with her if they want to solve this case.
As Bryce and Hunt race to untangle the mystery, they have no way of knowing the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the darkest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir…
With unforgettable characters and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.
Elyse: I’m not a Maas diehard and I read ACOTAR when it came out a million years ago and didn’t love it, but I read the three Crescent City books in a cold medicine haze over the course of one week in January. It takes about 100 pages to get into the first book and then all the world building falls into place. It’s got romance, mystery and adventure, and the world is so unique. There are angels, and the fey, and vampires, and so many shifters it’s gotta be like Zootopia in Crescent City. It’s also got the best use of a vacuum ever and it made me cry a little bit.
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Author: Leslye Penelope
Released: June 4, 2024 by Redhook
Genre: Historical: American, Science Fiction/FantasyA woman journeys into a submerged world of gods and myth to save her home in this powerful historical fantasy that shines a light on the drowned Black towns of the American South.
“Our home began, as all things do, with a wish.”
Jane Edwards hasn’t spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she’s found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake.
Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he’s might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river.
Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.
Shana: It has too many underwater cities to be magical realism, but is also so rooted in the real history of drowned mid-century towns that I enjoyed the book even when I wasn’t in the mood to read fantasy. I loved how it wove in healing from childhood trauma in a way that never felt retraumatizing. The writing is gorgeous, and there’s a sweet love story too.
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Author: Courtney Milan
Released: October 17, 2023 by Femtopress LLC
Genre: Historical: European, Historical: Other, Romance
Series: Wedgeford Trials #2One good fraud deserves another…
Miss Naomi Kwan has long wanted to take ambulance classes so that she can save lives. But when she tries to register, she’s told she needs permission from the man in charge of her. It would be incredibly wrong to claim that the tall, taciturn Chinese nobleman she just met is her fiancé, but Naomi is desperate, and desperate times call for fake engagements.
To her unending surprise, Liu Ji Kai goes along with her ruse. It’s not that Kai is nice. He’s in Wedgeford to practice his family business, and there’s no room for “nice” when you’re out to steal a fortune. It’s not that the engagement is convenient; a fake fiancée winding herself into his life and his heart is suboptimal when he plans to commit fraud and flee the country. His reason is Kai and Naomi were betrothed as children. He may have disappeared for seventeen years, but their engagement isn’t actually fake. It’s the only truth he’s telling.
Shana: The Marquis Who Mustn’t is my new favorite Courtney Milan book. It has all of her trademark banter, kindness, and emotional vulnerability. But the social commentary about Britain was so fun and insightful that I can’t stop thinking about it, even though I read the book back in April. Every time I pick up a sturdy teacup I remember the hero’s hilarious rant about Britain’s obsession with barely functional porcelain.
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Author: Jodie Slaughter
Released: July 12, 2022 by St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceThe first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems.
In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up.
A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this…thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored.
Jodie Slaughter’s Bet on It is a heart-stoppingly fun, emotional romance that will have readers falling in love until long after the last page is turned.
Shana: It’s a small town romance that didn’t feel saccharine or sanitized. The book has stellar mental health rep that sucked me in. Then the steamy slow burn vibe kept me reading. The main couple get to know one another over a weekly bingo game with the hero’s wisecracking grandma. I read this at the beginning of 2024 and still remember how desperate the hero was for his girl. He had it bad, and that made me want to giggle and kick my feet. I also feel like it’s unusual to have two main characters with anxiety and panic disorders who support one another as deeply as the couple in Bet On It.
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Author: Carrie Byrd
Released: July 21, 2024 by Ylva Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceAn enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract lesbian romance about daring to take a risk, even if it burns you.
Mattie Belman’s life has gone from dismal to desperate. After the loss of her acting career, her marriage, and her usual optimism, she’s back home teaching high school theater. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start.
St. Rita’s arrogant soccer coach Jillian Reed sees Mattie’s musical as an outrageous distraction for her champion players. When Jillian declares war, Mattie is far too stubborn to back down.
But as Mattie discovers there might be more to Jillian than spectacle, fire, and ego, she gets dangerously close to her iron-willed colleague. Can she avoid temptation? Or will the growing flame in Jillian’s dark eyes ignite them both?
Tara: This book is so damn special to me because it delivered an incredibly satisfying romance while somehow managing to explore religious trauma without triggering my religious trauma. Those characters have stuck with me since I read the book, and I know it’s one I’ll read at least once a year.
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Fierce Overture
Author: Gun Brooke
Released: July 1, 2010 by Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceMusic superstar Noelle Laurent refuses to record the music her producers have lined up for her new album. Prepared to break her contract if necessary, all Noelle wants is a chance to sing her own songs. Desperate, the producers bring in their CEO, business tycoon Helena Forsythe, who is infamous for not taking any prisoners. Noelle expects the CEO to be the company bitch everybody fears but she is not prepared to be so affected by Helena’s formidable presence and charisma.
For Helena, it’s all about the money, so why change a winning game plan? However, when Noelle shows unexpected strength and courage in the negotiations, Helena knows she has to change her usual steamroller approach. Trying charm instead of brute force, Helena is blind-sided by her own unexpected feelings. When Noelle responds in kind, the stakes escalate for both women, who risk not only their professional futures but everything when it comes to their hearts.
Tara: For bonus books, I loved rereading Fierce Overture by Gun Brooke. She’s one of the first sapphic fiction authors I ever read and she’s been one of my faves for a decade. This book has a lot of tropes I love (celebrity, age gap) and it felt so good to be back in that world.
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Author: Rebecca Solnit
Released: April 1, 2004 by Nation Books
Genre: Nonfiction“[A] landmark book . . . Solnit illustrates how the uprisings that begin on the streets can upend the status quo and topple authoritarian regimes” (Vice).
A book as powerful and influential as Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, her Hope in the Dark was written to counter the despair of activists at a moment when they were focused on their losses and had turned their back to the victories behind them—and the unimaginable changes soon to come. In it, she makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable.
Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argues that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next. Now, with a moving new introduction explaining how the book came about and a new afterword that helps teach us how to hope and act in our unnerving world, she brings a new illumination to the darkness of our times in an unforgettable new edition of this classic book.
“One of the best books of the 21st century.” —The Guardian
“No writer has better understood the mix of fear and possibility, peril and exuberance that’s marked this new millennium.” —Bill McKibben, New York Times–bestselling author of Falter
“An elegant reminder that activist victories are easily forgotten, and that they often come in extremely unexpected, roundabout ways.” —The New Yorker
Tara: I bought Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit on November 6 on a recommendation and have been slowly making my way through it. Although I haven’t finished it yet (my brain thinks nonfiction is poison, so I can only read a few pages a day), I appreciate this book more deeply than I can possibly express. It outlines how hope is rooted in action and gives examples of how change can happen even in what feels like the darkest of times.
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Regardless of publication date, a beautifully written emotional-nuanced journey with angsty complications and a splash of melancholy will get me every time.
Favorite books published in 2024:
PROMISES OF FOREVER by Nicky James: beautiful, heart-breaking, angsty, and melancholy book featuring middle-aged men, one of whom tries to make amends for the way he treated the other when they were children at summer camp. Beautifully written and emotionally complex. My absolute favorite book of 2024.
THE OTHER SIDE OF DISAPPEARING by Kate Clayborn: beautifully crafted story of two people who have retreated into their own pain and grief and how they connect on a road trip while recording a podcast. Lovely, melancholy, and literate in all the best ways.
THE PROSPECTS by KT Hoffman: beautiful story about life, love, and baseball in which two men—one trans, both queer—want only to be permitted to play baseball and love where their hearts lead them. Excellent trans representation.
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE by Ari Baran: two men in their forties—one, the coach of a professional hockey team, the other, his assistant, who had once hoped to get the head coaching job—move from being antagonists to being lovers. Baran exquisitely captures the process of two people learning from each other and falling in love while doing so.
SETTLE THE SCORE by Kris Ripper: a journalist finds himself snowbound with the former professional soccer player he once outed. Ripper brilliantly walks a tightrope between humor and angst as the men come to terms with what happened. One of the best representations of true remorse I have ever read in a romance.
FEN by Barbara Elsborg: slow-burn love story between a man with significant health challenges and one who is recovering from a devastating loss. Elsborg creates two characters who refuse to entertain self-pity even when circumstances might make it understandable.
Favorite books published in a prior year but read for the first time in 2024:
JUST LAST NIGHT by Mhairi McFarlane (published in 2021): brilliantly-written story of a foursome of thirty-something best friends and how they have to adjust to different dynamics when tragedy strikes. Yes, the book does deal with some heavy topics (loss, grief, uncovering secrets, moving on), but there’s also humor, love, growth, self-awareness, and eventual self-acceptance.
BEAUTIFUL HEARTS by Jax Calder (published in 2022): incredibly poignant m/m age-gap romance highlighted by stellar writing, intricate plotting, and a twist you absolutely will not see coming.
AND THEN YOU by Briar Prescott (published in 2023): hauntingly melancholy m/m about a man who uses snark, sarcasm, and deflection to avoid dealing with the grief of a devastating loss—and what happens when another man sees right through him and wants more. Brilliant juxtaposition of emotional growth, witty banter, smoking hot sexy-times, and the necessary pain of recovering from grief.
This is always a tough one. I’ll second THE OTHER SIDE OF DISAPPEARING. My admiration for Kate Clayborn grows with every book. The romance was lovely and the way all the characters stories and secrets twined together made for an engrossing read.
I’d also have to say CHARM CITY ROCKS from Matthew Norman. Surprising, since I read very few male authors and yet here we are with one of my favorite reads of the year. I loved it for the spot on setting, the inside look at music: both on the business level and how it colors our lives, the two steps forward way the romance progressed and Billy’s relationship with this son.
Favorite book of 2024 was A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd. It was totally nuts, the dialog had nothing to do with the time period, and I laughed all the way through it.
Bonus picks:
Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor (also published in 2024). The origin story of everyone’s favorite time-traveling bounty hunters. You need to read the St. Mary’s and Time Police series to appreciate it, but those are good too. As always, ALL the trigger warnings and invent a few new ones for it. Seriously, I would rate it R, headed for NC-17, for violence.
Group pick for the Charlotte Holmes series by Sherry Thomas. I normally don’t like gender-flips, but these were delightful.
I’m going to check out The Love of my Afterlife! I sounds very similar to a movie I loved from the 80’s with Timothy Hutton called “Made in Heaven”
This is tough, but if I have to pick one, let’s say UNDER YOU SPELL by Laura Wood.
My favorite reads this year have been mostly manga:
“The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today”
“She Loves To Cook, and She Loves To Eat”
For romance: Cat Sebastian’s “You Should Be So Lucky”. I can always rely on her to write a romance that makes me happy and doesn’t stress me out, and I’m really enjoying the midcentury American historicals she’s been writing.
I can’t think of any others right now; will have to look through my GoodReads list later.
Hard to narrow it down to only one 2024 favorite, so I’ll point to recent offerings from two authors whose F/F romances never disappoint me: Anita Kelly’s HOW YOU GET THE GIRL (finale of her “Nashville Love” series) and Ashley Herring Blake’s MAKE THE SEASON BRIGHT. Both mix humor and angst with thoughtful pathways to an HEA, and I find myself thinking about characters from these books often, and fondly.
Close behind are Jodi McAlister’s “Marry Me, Juliet” books. The first two were published in 2023, so I’m counting the whole series as my bonus books.
Several books I really enjoyed this year
-College Town by Lauren Gilley – a second chance romance with a side of suspense
-The Man Who Hated Clouds, #3 in the Ben Ames mystery series by Gayleen Froese – a really well done combination of mystery and continuing romance arc
-Per Sanguinem: a MM vampire romance by Ashlyn Drewek (this one came out in 2022 but I discovered it this year)
-How to Marry a Winged King by AJ Lancaster in Midsummer Nights: a limited edition romantasy anthology – a great fairy tale like short story; per the author’s newsletter, she’s planning to publish an expanded version in 2025
I have added so many books to my TBR pile thanks to this post.
DEATH IN THE SPIRES by KJ Charles – I loved this mystery and I’m not a mystery person. Even though I jumped to the end to see who committed the murder because that’s the sort of person I am, the book kept me guessing about who was doing what and why.
BANANAPANTS by Penny Reid – I will read anything Penny Reid writes, but this one is particularly good. The title is an accurate description of the plot. You have been warned! But Reid manages to keep it together and have a wonderful romance with great bipolar representation. Bonus: the MCs are children of some of the Knitting in the City characters.
YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCK by Cat Sebastian – +1 @HeatherS. Reading this book is like taking a warm bath. I don’t know how she does it because the MCs are definitely dealing with difficult things! But somehow you know they’re going to get where they need to go without too many additional problems being thrown at them.
2024 release: The Knowing by Tanya Talaga which is a non-fiction memoir/history about the generational trauma of residential schools in Canada.
Backlist: the first Kushiel Legacy trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. I hugged Kushiel’s Avatar when I finished it
Oh boy, this is hard. Goodreads tells me I’ve read 198 books this year, so narrowing it down is all but impossible.
2024 favourite is HOW TO END A LOVE STORY by YULIN KUANG. Deeply emotional and deeply sensuous, I didn’t see how she could possibly solve the problem she set up. But solve it she did and it was very satisfying.
My other two favourites, published in 2023:
IN MEMORIAM by ALICE WINN. The book that affected me most. An absolute heartbreaker. Completely immersive.
THESE OLD LIES by LARRIE BARTON. Two men meet in WW1 and do their best to be together, despite a world that considers them criminals. Gorgeous.
But many honourable mentions go to Kate Clayborn for her heartfelt stories, Chistina Lauren for their sexy heros, Kate Canterbary for the complications, Elsie Silver for her horny cowboys, Cat Sebastian for the vibes, KJ Charles for her fabulous power dynamics and always, always Alexis Hall for the mess and joy of his characters.
Let’s go 2025! Thank Dog for books.
Best book of the year for me is Death in the Spires by KJ Charles. I am surprised it’s not The Duke at Hazard, which runs a close second, because I am way more of a Heyer fan than a Gothic fan. Although I have read tons of both. And of course I do love TDaH but DitS subverted and used the conventions of its genre so incredibly cleverly that it was breathtaking. Also I got to share it with more people, because I do know fools who don’t read romance.
Additionally, Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga trilogy was an excellent discovery for me this year, just a wonderful fantasy series I can’t get enough of. Can’t recommend it enough.
Best new books: Victoria Goddard’s The Bone Harp, Courtney Milan’s The Earl Who Isn’t, or Suzanne Palmer’s Ghostdrift
Best older books: Celia Lake’s Eclipse or Grace Draven’s Eidolon
These are all good picks; The Finest Print bubbled under my top ten; As Did the Marquis who Musn’t. My personal pick is The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, but it was a solid pack of A-reads for me for the most part.
My favorite 2024 release is The Unlikely Pair by Jax Calder I can’t
recall the last time I laughed so much or so hard while reading a book; the banter in this book clearly appealed to me.
Enjoyed Gigi DeGraham’s 2024 book plus her older titles.
Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly
The St. Brendan series by Carla Kelly
Jodi McAlister’s “Marry Me, Juliet” series was a total delight. The last one was 2024 so that will be my 2024 pick and the first two will count for earlier.
I also loved Em X. Liu’s ” If Found, Return to Hell.” Really lovely relationships.
I will come back to read this and get more recommendations but I just wanted to say I have been reading An Immense World and agree that it is one of the best books out there. to learn about Umwelt and to see how there are countless Umwelts and how the human Umwelt is ONLY ONE OF MANY is eye-opening, and thought-provoking. I’ve actually pre-ordered the children’s version that is coming out in may 2025 and would highly recommend it for the bookish kid on your life.
My no. 1 read of the year is Victoria Goddard. Her characters, her worlds, the ideas, the magic, the relationships, the kindness, the depth, the breadth of her stories–her books are going to be ones I will re-reading regularly.
A big qualification for ‘favorite’ this year was how many incoherent texts I send while reading.
ALL THE WORLD BESIDE by Garrard Conley. A gay minister in early 18th century New England (the marketing calls it Puritan, but to be pedantic, it’s the First Great Awakening) forms a relationship with a parishioner. It’s not happy per se, but it is about how queer people of all stripes have existed throughout history and managed to carve out their own spaces and families, despite what society demands otherwise.
THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE by Daniel James Brown. A concise account that really gets into the psychology of the Donner party and why, against conventional wisdom at the time, women survived at greater rates than the men.
THE BRIGHT SWORD by Lev Grossman. Camelot after the fall, and frankly what I always wanted THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING to feel like when reading it. It also was biased in favor of characters I prefer from Arthuriana, so no complaints from me there.
THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley. I completely get why this isn’t for everyone and even I almost didn’t pick it up because literary sci-fi doesn’t tend to be my thing, but holy shit I’m glad I did. Doomed historical figures are brought to the present for the unnamed purposes of the eponymous ministry. I stayed up way too late texting multiple people “DID I WRITE THIS?” Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I read the ending as more hopeful than not. Then I as a result, I just had to rewatch THE TERROR and spent Christmas morning burning through the Crozier/Fitzjames tag on AO3 oops.
Not a book (yet!), but on the subject of AO3, it’s no longer listed, but WHITE BEAR, RED ROSE by theladyelizabeth. An AU where Elizabeth I does manage to marry Robert Dudley. The author’s pulled it because she’s turning it into a self-published 3 book series and I for one can’t wait to have a lovely physical copy in my hands.
THE LADY’S GUIDE TO CELESTIAL MECHANICS by Olivia Waite. A lovely easy read to tidy me over during the busy holiday season working in a bakery!
Some years I have a clear top book of the year, but this year is hard.
2024
Fiction: System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells
Non-fiction: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2024)
Bonus books:
The Old Bridge Inn Series by Annick Trent – loosely linked queer romances set in Georgian England between people who work for their living. I binged the whole series – my faves were Sixpenny Octavo (f/f) and The Oak and the Ash (m/m).
In the Key of Us by Mariama J. Lockington – beautiful young YA book about music, grief, love and summer camp. It’s a coming of age novel with a lovely, low-key Sapphic romance between two 13 year old girls.
Better late than never, my fave this year wAs Malka Older The Mimicking of Known Sucesses and the followup.
I am not a big f/f reader, but I really loved the stories and characters.
I also give a thumbs up to the Courtney Milan books from this year.
Forr nonfiction, I will give a shout out to Eve.
Sooooo I just finished MIDNIGHT NEVER COME by Marie Brennan and it’s definitely a contender for my best read of the year. Elizabethan and faerie court politics with a low-key romance between a fae and a mortal *chef’s kiss*
THE WEDDING PEOPLE was just lovely. I enjoyed historical fiction novel HAMNET. The book FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk is really unique and I’ll probably reread a couple of times to fully appreciate it. THE EXTINCTION OF IRINA REY is not for the faint of heart but is fascinating. DEMON COPPERHEAD, HOW YOU LOST THE TIME WAR and STARLING HOUSE were also great reads. And I finally read THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Colson Whitehead — fantastic!
My TBR pile has definitely increased by this post!
Looking back – no 2024 books hit 5 stars – either a reflection of my grading criteria or general mood.
My 2024 favorites (4 stars) with the caveat of ‘not part of an ongoing series’ were:
Creek by Nora Phoenix – M/M Contemporary with a discharged veteran who meets someone at physical therapy.
A Breath of Fresh Air – M/F Paranormal set in New Zealand wine country.
Several in the Subpar Superhero Series (M/M Lite Urban Fantasy Series), especially Transparent is a Color by Kaje Harper, Behind the 8 Ball by A.E. Wasp, An Ex-Hero’s Guide to Ax Murderers by Jenn Burke, and Impossible Things by Alexa Land)
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