What follows is a list of EVERY book I finished in 2024 (or at least every book I logged on Goodreads; I've been known to miss a couple), along with a note or two.
1. A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL by Julia Kelly As this reading list will soon reveal, I'm kind of a sucker for a World War II historical of any shape or texture, so it should come as no surprise that I snatched this one up as soon as I saw it. Is the second one out yet?! (Yes, friends, it turns out that it is.)
2. WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS by Isabel Ibanez A lush historical with a healthy smattering of fantasy, adventure, and romance. This is just the sort of book that seems to be selling like hotcakes right now.
3. THE CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK by Jillian Cantor A fun YA contemporary from the author of IN ANOTHER TIME. I totally related to the socially awkward MC.
4. ALL MY RAGE by Sabaa Tahir I'm a few years late on this one, but I thought this book deserved every accolade it got.
5. LOVE AND GELATO by Jenna Evans Welch A charming YA contemporary romance set in the hills of Tuscany, this is the perfect book to get lost in if you need a break from real life.
6. AN IMPROBABLE SEASON by Rosalyn Eves I love historical romances, adult or YA (as long as they're not too spicy), but I also liked how this one included additional plot lines unrelated to romance.
7. THE ECHO OF OLD BOOKS by Barbara Davis I think I remember this one, but because I read so many World War II historicals, I may be remembering another book. Either way, reading the summary again made me want to read this book again, so I think you should, too:)
8. THE OTHER MOTHERS by Katherine Faulkner This domestic thriller walks the line between thriller and mystery, in part because the ending, though ridiculously intense, reminded me a bit of one of Agatha Christie's classics. (I'm not going to tell you which one so as to not spoil it!)
9. THE NEW COUPLE by Alison James Another taut domestic thriller that kept me turning pages until the very end. Maybe I just haven't read enough of these books yet, but I didn't see the climax coming.
10. REIGN by Katharine McGee To be honest, I remember the climax of book three better than most of this book four. Still, I've loved, loved, loved this series and am sad to see it end.
11. THE SPY AND I by Tiana Smith This romantic suspense is heavier on romance than suspense, so if that's your cup of tea, definitely give this one a try.
12. HAS ANYONE SEEN CHARLOTTE SALTER? by Nicci French As you're probably realizing, I got on a bit of an adult fiction kick this year, and this atmospheric mystery was a fine addition to the list.
13. THE DO-OVER by Suzanne Park I really enjoyed this rom-com, especially the absurdity of the setup. When a high-powered thirty-something misplaces her college diploma and calls her alma mater to replace it, she finds out she was actually a few credits short of earning her degree. Shenanigans ensue when she returns to college and reunites with her college sweetheart, who's still slaving away at his dissertation.
14. THE BROTHERS HAWTHORNE by Jennifer Lynn Barnes I thought this book read like two novellas squished together. It's basically a bridge book between the original Inheritance Games series and its spinoff (see below).
15. I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai I read this one really quickly. I've noticed that a lot of mysteries use an unsolved murder in the past to drive the present mystery's plot, and I appreciated that the MC in this one was a principal player in both timelines.
16. THE LOST BOOK OF BONN by Brianna Labuskes After World War II, the Allies apparently brought in truckloads of researchers and archivists to get all of Europe's misplaced books (read: all the books the Nazis stole) back where they belonged. This story follows one such woman, who gets hung up on returning a book with a poignant inscription.
17. THE TURTLE HOUSE by Amanda Churchill A deliberately paced historical that spans the lifetime of a Japanese woman whose life was upended by World War II in more ways than one. I'm a sucker for World War II historicals, as this reading list proves, but this one stood out to me. I thought it was really lovely.
18. EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW by Kelly Loy Gilbert Ms. Gilbert is a master of interweaving social commentary with compulsively readable plots, and this book was no different. It had a lot to say about the effects of influencer culture on the influencers themselves.
19. HOW TO SOLVE YOUR OWN MURDER by Kristen Perrin A fun murder mystery--insofar as any murder mystery can be fun--about a woman who anticipates her own murder and sets her great-niece up to solve it. It doesn't seem like this concept should work, but I thought it absolutely did.
20. I WILL SHOW YOU HOW IT WAS: The Story of Wartime Kyiv by Illia Ponomarenko A most insightful glimpse into the first couple of months of the Russia-Ukraine war from the perspective of a native Ukrainian.
21. THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME by Audrey Blake A novelized account of the World War II exploits of Great Britain's first female saboteur. Though the book is literally called THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME, Yvonne Rudellat deserves to be remembered.
22. THE FIVE YEAR LIE by Sarina Bowen When the love of her life disappears without contacting anyone, Ariel is understandably heartbroken. Five years later, she's recovered enough to get on with her life, if only for her son's sake, when she receives a cryptic text from her old boyfriend that sends her down an increasingly dangerous path. I liked this one quite a lot!
23. MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER by Rupert Holmes This one also sort of read like three novellas squished together, but the prose was so delightful--and the concept so disturbing--that I didn't even mind.
24. SONG OF THE SIX REALMS by Judy I. Lin The worldbuilding in this one was definitely a ten out of ten.
25. THE CAUTIOUS TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO THE WASTELANDS by Sarah Brooks Set in an alternate reality in which a large swath of the Russian taiga has become infested with horrifying monsters and hallucination-inducing flora, this historical fantasy takes the reader on a train ride through a forbidding wilderness. I ended up liking this one even more than I thought I would.
26. A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA by Christina Dodd What if Romeo and Juliet didn't die and, when their firstborn comes of age, Rosie's betrothal supper turns into a murder mystery? The answer to that question is this book.
27. THE UNWEDDING by Ally Condie Anything Ally Condie writes is an insta-read for me, and though I didn't always agree with some of the choices she made, I thought this concept was fantastic.
28. THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern If I'm a few years late on ALL MY RAGE, I'm more than a decade late on this one. Still, I found it riveting, just as I'd been led to believe.
29. ONE OF US KNOWS by Alyssa Cole A psychological thriller set on a remote island estate in which the MC has dissociative identity disorder. I'm sure that sentence alone has piqued your interest, so I'll leave my description there:)
30. THE GRANDEST GAME by Jennifer Lynn Barnes This struck me as the book Ms. Barnes was trying to get to when she wrote THE BROTHERS HAWTHORNE, as it basically resets the concept. More tightly plotted than the original, this book gets back to its roots.
31. MEDICI HEIST by Caitlin Schneiderhan A YA historical adventure featuring--you guessed it--a heist.
32. KISSES, CODES, AND CONSPIRACIES by Abigail Hing Wen I found this YA thriller a little hard to take seriously, but I could see other readers being swept up in the adventure.
33. THE ROSE ARBOR by Rhys Bowen A multilayered historical mystery that really drew me in. I enjoyed this one a lot.
34. THE COLOR OF A LIE by Kim Johnson An important YA historical that taught me, among other things, that some homeowners associations were developed to institutionalize segregation even as it was being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
35. MY SALTY MARY by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows I'm a huge fan of the Lady Janies' work; somehow, though, I didn't realize that they were publishing a Mary series. Luckily, I spotted this one at my local library, so now I know. This irreverent continuation of the Little Mermaid's story imagines that, when Prince Eric decided to marry someone else, she was like, "Whatever. See you never, dummy."
36. EVERY TIME I GO ON VACATION, SOMEONE DIES by Catherine Mack This one was just as tongue-in-cheek as the title makes it sound. An irreverent murder mystery set around a book tour through Italy.
37. TWELFTH KNIGHT by Alexene Farol Follmuth This contemporary TWELFTH NIGHT retelling was everything I wanted it to be. Two student council members hate each other in real life, but when they start playing an online RPG together, how they feel begins to change. Too bad only one of them realizes who the other is.
38. LOOK IN THE MIRROR by Catherine Steadman Of all the thrillers and mysteries I read last year, this is one of the few I really remember. I thought the nonlinear storytelling really enhanced the plot, which went in a direction I wasn't expecting.
39. THE LOST METAL by Brandon Sanderson On Goodreads, this book is labeled "Mistborn #7," which is accurate, I guess, but doesn't really tell you what the story is about. Even calling it "Wax and Wayne #4" might be a bit misleading, as this series has evolved pretty dramatically over the course of its run time. That said, I think this book is a fitting conclusion for this era of the Mistborn world, as they're clearly on the cusp of intersolar travel (which, given that their planet has already been infiltrated by people from other worlds, probably means they're also on the cusp of interstellar travel).
40. REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell I'll give just about anything Malcolm Gladwell writes a try, and this fast-paced nonfiction read was a great follow-up to THE TIPPING POINT.
41. THE BRIAR CLUB by Kate Quinn This historical mystery was one of my favorite reads this year. You know from the get-go that there will be a murder at this all-female boarding house, but then the book rewinds several years and gives you the backstory on each of the occupants in turn. Though I didn't see the ending coming, I could look back and see how Ms. Quinn had set it up, which was brilliant, actually.
42. DALLERGUT DREAM DEPARTMENT STORE by Mi-Ye Lee I love k-dramas (who doesn't?!), so when I saw that this was a translation from a South Korean publication, I knew I had to pick it up. I didn't love it quite as much as the average k-drama I watch, but that might have been because I tend to stick to the more realistic ones and this was more fantastical.
43. SUCH CHARMING LIARS by Karen McManus I'd sum this thriller up as a heist gone wrong, which already makes this story feel unique, but what I loved about this book was all the relationships and how they changed and grew. Kat and Liam were stepsiblings for about forty-eight hours when they were little kids, so when they bump into each other at an old rich guy's birthday party, they're understandably surprised.
43. THE IMPROBABLE TALES OF BASKERVILLE HALL by Ali Standish As this reading list reveals, I'm reading less MG these days, but I still enjoyed this one. It's exactly what you'd want a boarding school mystery to be for eight- to twelve-year-old readers, especially if those readers also like some fantasy.
44. HOMEGOING by Yaa Gyasi An engrossing historical that spans centuries, this one stayed with me for a long time afterward.
45. THE BITTER END by Alexa Donne What do you get when you combine a snowed-in ski chalet, a school-sponsored senior trip, and a dead chaperone? THIS BOOK.
46. A SONG TO DROWN RIVERS by Ann Liang This book kind of blew me away. It was progressing in a fairly predictable way, and then the ending happened. I thought it elevated this story from an entertaining diversion to something much more meaningful. One of my favorite reads this year.
47. FOR SHE IS WRATH by Emily Varga A sweeping YA fantasy that could probably also be considered a YA romantasy. I thought it started kind of slow but picked up speed as it went on.
48. THE AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO MURDER by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White Three novelists who coauthor books together--even though they don't really like each other--go to a brooding Scottish castle to write and research their next book but end up embroiled in a murder investigation when the man who owns the castle, also an author (who they all happen to hate), turns up dead in his own tower. Given that this book was written by three novelists who coauthor books together, is it safe to assume that this is semiautobiographical?! ;)
49. HOW TO KNOW A PERSON: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks Of all the books I read last year, this is the one that changed me the most as a person. Basically, this book teaches you how NOT to be a self-centered conversationalist--which most people are by default--and why you shouldn't WANT to be a self-centered conversationalist. I practiced some of the skills I learned at a Christmas party last month, and it was incredible how much more in-depth my conversations got. Can't recommend this one enough.
50. THE CHRISTMAS CLASH by Suzanne Park My second Suzanne Park read of the year! Because I enjoyed THE DO-OVER so much, I decided to give this one a go to get more in the spirit. Though I didn't enjoy it quite as much as THE DO-OVER, it was still a fun read.
51. DEATH AT MORNING HOUSE by Maureen Johnson I LOVED Ms. Johnson's Truly Devious series, so picking this one up was a no-brainer for me. Though it didn't end up being my favorite of Ms. Johnson's books, I still enjoyed it. Her YA voice is truly inimitable.
52. THE TREASURE HUNTERS CLUB by Tom Ryan Set in a small town in Nova Scotia, this book pretty much has it all: buried treasure, long-lost heirs, and a down-on-her-luck author searching for her next idea. Oh, and killers--lots of those. I thought I had this one figured out, but then the author threw me for a loop, which delighted me immensely. I ended up liking this one even more than I thought I would.
Have you read any of these books, and if so, what did YOU think? And what books did I miss? Would love to hear your thoughts below!
