Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.9.22)

Happy Wednesday, friends! I know I promised to re-start my weekly reading recaps on Monday, but I needed another day to finish the two books I’m reviewing below. One of the reasons I stopped doing my weekly recaps is that sometimes I felt like I was rushing to finish books so I would have something to write about on Mondays. I’m going to try not to do that, which means these recaps may be later in the week than I planned. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dig into the books I just finished. Both were 5-star reads for me!

Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope by Megan Phelps-Roper (★★★★★)

This memoir from a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church (she’s the granddaughter of the founder) is our February selection for book club, and it was fascinating. I’m sure everyone knows about WBC and their horrific picketing outside of events and military funerals, even the funerals of the children killed at Sandy Hook. Their signs are upsetting so I won’t repeat any of them here, but suffice it to say that WBC believes that any terrible event (like a mass shooting at an elementary school) was from God because we have gravely sinned. Megan Phelps-Roper left the church when she was 26 after spending her entire life entrenched in the cult-like atmosphere of WBC—she started picketing at a startlingly young age and eventually became WBC’s premier voice on social media. It is through social media and meeting people who wanted to genuinely converse with her and challenge her beliefs that she started to really question WBC’s mission and what she truly believed. I truly commend Megan for leaving the church because that takes a level of bravery and courage that most people don’t possess—not only to change what she believed, but also to lose almost her entire family in the process. (Those who leave WBC can no longer be in touch with people inside WBC, so Megan hasn’t spoken to her parents and many of her siblings since she left a decade ago.) In the book, Megan talked a lot about free speech and how even hate speech is protected under the First Amendment (she’s firmly in the camp that hate speech should be protected). It was reallllly uncomfortable for me to read this part of the book, to recognize that even people spewing truly hateful rhetoric are essentially protected under law. I’m still gathering my thoughts about what I think about this because, on the one hand, I can see where Megan is coming from and understand the slippery slope that can happen when we start placing limits on free speech. On the other hand, hate speech can lead to serious violence and cause serious harm to those who are being talked about. That is also a slippery slope. In any event, I think this will make for a very lively book club discussion!

A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy (★★★★★)

Self-published romance novels are usually a miss for me, but I gave this one a chance because Anne Bogel raved about it on her podcast. The cover is completely ugly, haha, but this is a good lesson to never judge a book for its cover! This book was phenomenal! I just loved every minute I spent enmeshed in the worlds of Joshua and Cassandra. Their banter was perfectly written and the way they moved from enemies to cautious friends to lovers to husband and wife was so beautiful. There was something so sweet about their love for one another, especially considering they both had their own demons to face before they could fully commit to each other. Their meet-cute was also something I’ve never seen in a romance before: what if you had married a man and only spent one night with him before he left you for months… and the next time you see him, neither of you even recognizes one another? AHH! So good! This is one I want to press into the hands of every historical romance lover I know!

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (audio) – I have just a few hours left in this YA novel about two gay teenagers growing up in the late 1980s and how the AIDS epidemic affects their love story. I am really worried the ending is going to rip me apart.
  • Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (print) – I just started this novel (another YA!) yesterday and I’m flying through it. It’s so well-written!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I Read in January

Happy Wednesday, friends! I had a very good reading month to kick of 2022 with 11 books read. There were a lot of 3-star reads in the mix, so it wasn’t a total knockout month, but I’m okay with that. Hopefully, things will get better as the months go on.

Also, to the surprise of maybe nobody, I’ve decided to bring back my weekly reading recaps. I know, I know. How many times am I going to stop doing them, only to bring them back? One of the reasons I stopped doing weekly reading recaps is because I wanted to do a monthly reading wrap-up post and thought it might be overkill if I did weekly recaps and a monthly wrap-up. But… so what if it is? This is my blog and I get to write about what I want! So starting next week, you’ll start seeing weekly reading recaps on Mondays and at the end of every month, I’ll post a wrap-up post where I’ll reflect on what I read and give some updated reading stats.

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s dive into my January reviews:

Overall Favorite Read of January

The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger (★★★★★) – This thriller was phenomenal! It was smartly written, propulsive, and filled with characters who were easy to root for. (Who else is tired of the unreliable female narrator? *raises hand*) When the novel begins, Annabel has just been informed that her husband has been killed in a plane crash, but the more she learns about the crash and her husband’s life as a banker, the shadier things seem. Meanwhile, Marina is working on the story of a lifetime with her mentor when tragedy strikes, and she has to decide if the truth is worth the pain. It’s a fast-moving thriller that taught me a lot about offshore banking and the secret business dealings of the supremely rich, and the conclusion was super satisfying. Give it a try!

Favorite Romance of January

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker (★★★★☆) – Lucy Parker is probably my all-time favorite romance novelist. All of her books have been 4- or 5-star reads for me. She just knows how to write funny banter, great characters, and hot sexytimes. And there’s just a way she writes her male characters that just makes me fall head over heels for them. This book was no different! In Battle Royal, Dominic and Sylvie are enemies who have competing bakeries located across the street from one another. When Princess Rose announces her engagement, Dominic and Sylvie are now not only fighting in their bakeries, but also for the most lucrative cake-baking contract of all. I loved every single thing about this novel: the banter between the characters, all of the fun baking anecdotes, and how Dominic and Sylvie fell in love. These two crazy kids are going to make it, I think.

Other Favorites of January

Columbine by Dave Cullen (★★★★★) – I have never been so happy to finish a book than I was to finish Columbine. This book was hard, heavy, and I firmly believe contributed to my anxiety spiral early in the month. (As a highly sensitive person, books can affect me on a deep level.) It’s also insanely well-researched and well-written. Dave Cullen takes readers through the entire Columbine massacre, using police reports, journals and videos from the killers, and interviews. From the days leading up to the massacre, to what it was like to be in the school during it, to how the students, teacher, police, public, and media reacted in the days, weeks, and months after the shooting. It’s not easy reading in the least, but the subject matter is important and necessary, and I appreciate all of the hard work that went into researching and writing this book.

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny (★★★★★) – What another fascinating mystery from Louise Penny. This series is just so good. This book is the sixteenth in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and I know it can be intimidating to start a series with so many books in it, but man, I really recommend it. I’ve been very slowly working my way through the series (I read the first novel in 2017!) and I really enjoy them on audio. I don’t like talking too much about the plot because I feel like it can give away specific details that people who are reading earlier in the series may not want to know. Suffice it to say that there was so much to love here: a complicated father/son relationship, a sweet godson/godfather relationship, and a thrilling mystery with an ending that totally surprised me!

Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas (★★★★★) – Another mystery series! This one’s backlist isn’t as extensive as the Chief Inspector series. This book is the sixth—and latest—in the Lady Charlotte series. It reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman, and I have loved every single book in the series. They’re historical mysteries, so they have a really unique element to them that you don’t always get from the mystery genre. Also, this book had such a surprising twist near the end that made me want to speed up my audiobook listening speed so I could get to the conclusion faster. Whew!

More January Reads

  • While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory (★★★☆☆) – You guys, I’m just not a Jasmine Guillory fan. I read her first book and didn’t love it, but had heard good things about this book, so I gave it a try. And I was just mostly bored by the plot and spent more time editing the writing than enjoying the reading experience. I’m happy that Jasmine’s books are so popular because we need more Black romance writers, but she’s just not for me.
  • The English Wife by Lauren Willig (★★★☆☆) – This literary mystery had such a sense of place and I loved how everything was revealed, but it was verrrrry slow-moving and could have been at least 50 pages shorter.
  • The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood (★★★☆☆) – This book was fine, but nothing outstanding. I found both of the main characters hard to root for, though I did enjoy the humor that was slipped in between some of the heavier moments.
  • A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria (★★☆☆☆) – Oof, I usually enjoy Alexis Daria’s romances, but this one was not good. I never felt a real connection to either of the main characters, and there was a fanfiction element that I could have done without.
  • A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi (★★★☆☆) – I was excited to read this YA love story, but it just fell a bit flat for me. I loved the Muslim representation, but the whole time I was reading this book, I felt annoyed with the main character and the choices she was making.
  • My Cone and Only by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆) – This was such a fun, best friends-to-lovers romance! The chemistry between the two main characters was sizzlin’ and I couldn’t get enough of them.

January Book Stats

  • # of books read: 11
  • Fastest read: While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory (6 days)
  • Slowest read: All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny (13 days)
  • Star average: 3.7
  • % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 55%
  • Sources: Libby (6), library (2), Book of the Month (2), Target (1)
  • Formats: print (5), e-book (3), audiobook (3)
  • Abandoned books: 1 (I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson—I feel really guilty for abandoning this book, but it was just not working for me.)
  • Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 1 book ahead of schedule!

What was the best book you read in January?

Categories: Books

What I Read in December

I read 13 books in December. !!! One of my highest reading months in a really long time. I credit having the last week of the month off work and listening to more audiobooks than usual (4). I’m not going to give you detailed reviews of all of these books, but I picked out 5 to discuss. The other 8 will get a short review snippet. 🙂

Overall Favorite Read of December

Writers & Lovers by Lily King (★★★★★) – You guys, I am shocked by how much I loved this book. I honestly expected to hate it because it gets mixed reviews and is a character-driven novel. Character-driven novels don’t always work for me, but this one most certainly did. I think listening to the audiobook definitely helped, as I could just dip in and out of it while I was driving around and doing things around the apartment. This book is about Casey, who is an aspiring novelist. She spends her mornings working on her novel and her evenings working as a server at a restaurant. Her life is in upheaval, following the sudden loss of her mom and an unexpected breakup. She’s just trying to keep her life together, and she doesn’t always do a great job of it. Some reviewers mentioned that Casey is a hard character to like, but I found her to be so fresh and relatable and easy to root for. I could see so much of myself in her, between her writing aspirations, her money woes, her relationship with her mom. When I finished this book, I just let out a happy sigh because I enjoyed it so, so much. I’m glad I gave this book a try because it ended up making my favorites list in 2021!

Favorite Romance of December

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren (★★★★★) – The fact that I read this book a few days before Christmas was probably the main reason I loved this book so much. I was deep in my holiday feels and this book gave me everything I was looking for. In this novel, Mae is leaving her annual Christmas celebration with her family and the two other families that have been celebrating the holidays together since Mae was born. She’s in a funk, so she sends a plea to the Universe: “Please. Show me what will make me happy.” And the next thing she knows, she wakes up on a plane and it’s as if the last week never happened. She continues to loop back in time, again and again, as she tries to figure out how to get out of this Groundhog Day scenario and find her true love. It’s a really sweet, sappy romance with a truly amazing setting (a snowy cabin in Utah!) and great characters. I just loved it so much! It’s not going to be for everyone, but it gave me the holiday romance magic I was looking for.

Other Favorites of December

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (★★★★☆) – A prequel to Thomas’s smash hit, The Hate U Give, Concrete Rose tells the origin story of Star’s father, Maverick. When he’s 17, he finds out that he’s the father of a 3-month-old baby—a baby from a woman who is not his girlfriend. Maverick tries to juggle new fatherhood (he becomes the sole caretaker of the baby), finishing his last year of high school, and life in a gang, but he’s drowning fast. Then, tragedy strikes and he’s not prepared for what comes next. This story is a difficult one, a hard one, but a hopeful one, too. I know from reading THUG that Maverick gets his life together and becomes an all-around amazing dad to his kids. I know that his girlfriend eventually forgives him, marries him, and gives him a few more babies. I listened to this book on audio and it was excellent. I could really feel Maverick’s emotion and heart in that format. As another reviewer said, I don’t know if I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did if I hadn’t already developed a fondness for Maverick from THUG, but it was still a great read that I’m glad I got around to in 2021.

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy (★★★★☆) – For some reason, I thought this was going to be a book about pregnancy, but it was more a study on the history of the obstetrics field. And it was fascinating. It delves into how women’s bodies developed to be able to push a human baby out of them (fun fact: that’s why babies are so helpless in their first few months of life; their brains can’t grow any bigger or else women wouldn’t be able to push them out!), the history of the C-section (stay for the story of the woman who performed HER OWN C-SECTION AT HOME), and how the obstetrics field evolved throughout the years (there was a time when a doctor would go from patient to patient without washing his hands, leading to lots of disease and death that was blamed on women). I was utterly enthralled by this book and everything women had to go through before an actual obstetrics field was developed and standards put in place.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (★★★★★) – What an astounding collection of essays. I listened to this on audio, read by the author who has such a lovely, soothing voice. In this collection, Villavicencio talks about the plight of undocumented Americans—and not the ones you might expect. She spends time with day laborers, learns about 9/11 volunteers, and forms relationships with undocumented children and teenagers. I found the essay about the Flint water crisis to be particularly hard-hitting. There is so much about Flint that we don’t know about, and I think the author did an exceptional job of drawing us into the plight and the reverberating effects. I was also touched by the essay on the difficulties faced by the aging undocumented population. While I don’t have an aging parent yet (my mom is only 56), I do think about what it will mean to be her caretaker when she is elderly. Those with undocumented parents face an array of difficulties, though, that I won’t need to worry about and many children find that their parents want to move back to their home countries during this period of their lives. This book was truly excellent. It taught me so much, revealed some of my own biases, and renewed my fervent desire for immigration reform.

More December Reads

December Book Stats

  • # of books read: 13
  • Fastest read: Paperback Crush by Gabrielle Moss (3 days)
  • Slowest read: An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn (12 days)
  • Star average: 3.9
  • % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 23%
  • Sources: Libby (5), Amazon (5), library (1), Thriftbooks (1), Book of the Month (1)
  • Formats: print (6), e-book (3), audiobook (4)
  • Abandoned books: 0
  • Goodreads goal check-in: I did not make my goal of 150 books, but that was a huge stretch goal. My Goodreads goal for 2022 is set at 135.

What’s the last great book you read?

Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2021 | Reading Stats

Happy Monday, friends! It’s time for my last “Best of 2021” post. Today, I’m digging into my reading stats. As a reminder, I keep a very detailed spreadsheet of everything I read. 2021 was the seventh year of keeping this spreadsheet, and it’s truly become a regular part of my reading life. Each book has its own line where I list the title, author, start and finish dates, format, rating, diversity metrics, genre, source, publishing date, and a few other stats. It makes it really easy to pull together this post every year, and it’s just a fun way to look back on my reading!

So, let’s dive in to my 2021 reading stats!

Nitty-Gritty Details

  • Number of books read: 133 (-20 from 2020)
  • Number of pages read: 46,653 (-4,566 from 2020)
  • Money spent on books I read this year: $502.24 (+29.83). This amounts to $3.78 per book.
  • Percentage of books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community: 49, or 37% (+11% from 2020)
  • Number of books abandoned: 8 (-3 from 2020)

Format Breakdown

Last year, e-books were my most-popular format, but my e-book reading seriously fell to the wayside this year! Print reading was up 9%, e-books were down almost 17% (!), and audiobooks were up 7.5%. With the libraries closed and then functioning at greatly reduced capacity for most of 2020, I relied on e-books a lot more heavily than usual. Things are mostly back to normal now with the library, which is why my print reading bumped back up. In 2020, I also lost my commute in mid-March when we started working from home, which is when I mostly listened to audiobooks. But I’ve readjusted myself to this “new normal,” so I was able to get my audiobook listening time back in. I try to listen to at least two audiobooks a month, more if the audiobooks are short.

Genre Breakdown

Like every year, romance was my most popular category, although the percentage keeps falling every year (2% from 2020, 4% from 2019). My fiction reading took a real beating this year, so much so that my fiction/nonfiction reading is nearly neck and neck! My fiction reading was down 7.6% from 2020 and nonfiction also fell by a little over 1%. I read a bit more YA (up 3% from 2020) and mysteries/thrillers (up 4% from 2020). And this year, I added two new categories to my list that weren’t there in 2020: middle grade (1.5%) and science fiction/fantasy (3.7%). I can’t believe I read nearly 4% of the SFF genre. WHAT IS HAPPENING!

Source Breakdown

The majority of my books came from the library—around 59%, but that percentage is down 2% from last year. I read wayyy more print books from the library (+7.7%) than e-books from Libby (-9.1%). My next highest category is Amazon, which was up 2% from 2020. Coming in third is Book of the Month, which was also up 2% from 2020. Barnes & Noble, Thriftbooks, Target, and my local indie (Tombolo Books) followed behind (last year, I listed all of my bookstores as one line item, so I’m guessing I read slightly more books from bookstores). And rounding out the list are books I read using the Serial Reader app and that I got from a Little Free Library.

Month Breakdown

For the most part, I read 10-11 books per month. I had two months where I “only” read 9 books (as opposed to 2020, when I never read less than 11 books in a month). My best reading month was February—I read 15 books (it was also the month I did a readathon, so that helped!)

Ratings Breakdown

My 4- and 5-star ratings went up by 4% this year to 68.4%! Was I just more lenient with my ratings? Or am I getting really good at picking books I know I’ll love (and quickly abandoning those that aren’t working for me)? Who knows. My 5-star ratings went up by nearly 7%! My 4-star ratings stayed about the same, as did my 3-star ratings. My 2-star and 1-star ratings went down a bit. My average rating was 3.9 (last year, my average rating was 3.7).

Days to Read

Seven days is about my sweet spot when it comes to finishing books these days, mostly because I’m usually reading multiple books at one time. Twice, I was able to finish a book within 24 hours, but that’s very much an anomaly. I don’t consider myself a particularly fast reader (and I can easily get distracted by my phone); I just devote a lot of time to reading.

New Releases vs. Backlist

Last year, I read about the same number of new releases vs backlist books. This year, I read way more backlist! That feels much more normal to me, as I’m not the person always reading the latest new releases. I love backlist books!

Publishing Years

I like to keep track of publishing years, but I’m still not exactly sure how to use this info. This year, I listed out the past 5 years and then combined anything 2016 or beyond into one data point. The biggest number of books I read was from 2020, which makes sense, and 2021 books weren’t too far behind.

Odds and Ends

  • Oldest book (by pub date): The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (1844)
  • Newest book (by pub date): The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (August 31, 2021)
  • Author I read the most: Louise Penny (5 books)
  • Book I spent the most money on: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune ($25)
  • Time spent listening to audiobooks: 247 hours, 35 minutes (but since I listen at 1.5x or 1.75x speed, my actual listening time is much less than that!)
  • Longest book: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (1,275 pages)
  • Shortest book: White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (178 pages)
  • Book that took me the longest to read: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (214 days)

How many books did you read in 2021? Did you read more e-books, audiobooks, or print books?

Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2021 | My Favorite Reads

Happy Friday, friends! Did everyone make it through the first official week of 2022 with their sanity intact? We made it!

Today, I’m continuing my “Best of 2021” series by recapping my reading year. I used to list my favorite reads of the year in a “top 10” format, but last year, I opted to break down my favorites by category and do some superlatives (a la Sarah’s Book Shelves Live). It was a super fun way to recap my reading and I was excited to bring back this format again. Let’s dive in!

Overall Favorites

Favorite Overall Book

Know My Name by Chanel Miller – This book is a masterpiece. It is Chanel’s story about being sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, the ensuing trial, and the aftermath. During the trial, Chanel was known as “Emily Doe” and then her victim impact statement (<– give it a read, if you haven’t) went viral after it was posted on Buzzfeed. In this book, Chanel takes back her story and speaks her truth. It’s a hard, harrowing book, but I am so grateful to her for writing it and bringing us into the nightmare she endured. I listened to this one on audio, which I highly recommend, as Chanel has such a soothing voice. Naming this book as my overall favorite of the year was a no-brainer, truly.

Favorite Fiction

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune – I adored this book. I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did, as fantasy normally isn’t my jam. But everything in this novel just worked for me. The magical elements, the characters, the love story. It was all so sweet and with a message I can fully get behind. In this novel, Linus Baker, a case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youths, is sent to Marsyas Island Orphanage where six magical youths (who have been classified as highly dangerous) live. He must inspect the orphanage, meet the youths, and determine whether or not to shut down the orphanage. There are themes of acceptance and diversity and inclusion woven throughout the novel, and it was just one of those books that made me happy-sigh when I finished it. This book has definitely earned its place on my all-time favorites list, for sure.

Favorite Nonfiction

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – This book is a stunning work of research, depth, and thoughtfulness. In it, Isabel Wilkerson posits that the United States is a caste system where Black people are at the bottom and white, wealthy people are at the top. Any Black person trying to scale into a higher caste is frowned upon, degraded, and sometimes even killed. Wilkerson deftly outlines how the U.S.’s caste system is similar to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany with stories and facts and history. It’s a long read and I recommend taking it slowly, as there is so much to digest, but it will be well worth your time.

Favorite Romance

Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis – Oh gosh, what is there to say about this sweet love story? I tore through this book, reading the second half in one sitting, which is something I rarely do these days. Emmie completely stole my heart and I was so invested in her love story. I just wanted her to get her happy ending! She most certainly did (this is a romance, after all) and the journey to getting there was not without its tears or triumphs. The next time you need something light-hearted and sweet to read, pick this book up.

Favorites by Category

Favorite Literary Fiction

Writers & Lovers by Lily King – What a surprisingly wonderful read! I wasn’t expecting much from this book—literary fiction doesn’t always work for me—but it was an easy 5-star read. I listened to the audiobook, which was likely the way to go, and found myself completely immersed in Casey’s life. Her struggles with dating, jobs, writing, and money were something I could highly relate to, and her grief over losing her mom was so well-done. This one won’t work for everyone, but it was definitely the right book at the right time for me.

Honorable mention: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Favorite Contemporary Fiction

The Guncle by Steven Rowley – I didn’t love this book while I was reading it. I liked it a lot! But I came into it with very high expectations—I was expecting a really silly but fun novel about a single gay uncle (Patrick) who has fun adventures with his young niece and nephew. While it has a cheery cover and title, this novel is not exactly cheerful. It is actually very heavy. It’s a story about grief, after all. The young niece and nephew are with Patrick because their mother has just passed away after a rough battle with cancer. Their father is in rehab. And their uncle is grieving not just the loss of his sister-in-law and best friend, but also a lover he lost years ago. There are moments of levity. Patrick is ridiculous in the best possible way. The setting is magnificent (Palm Springs!). When I finished this book, I felt like I had just been through an emotional journey. It made me laugh, it made me teary. Did it live up to my expectations? Not exactly. But the more I sat with this book, the more I realized what a phenomenal read it was. I read this book over the summer and I still think about Patrick, those kids, and their story. And that’s the mark of a truly great novel.

Honorable mention: One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Favorite Historical Fiction

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – This book was phenomenal. It was originally published in 1979, about a Black woman who is married to a white man and is celebrating her 26th birthday in 1976 when she is suddenly thrust back in time to the antebellum South. She continues to travel back and forth in time and the reason why is revealed within the pages—and it’s very compelling. This book was a hard read, as any book involving slavery is, but so well-written and poignant. One of those must-read books!

Honorable mention: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Favorite Contemporary Romance

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez – This book surprised me! I have not been a huge fan of Abby Jimenez’s writing, but this one was the exception. It follows Sloan, who is grieving a significant loss and suddenly finds herself face-to-face with a puppy who jumps into her car one afternoon! The owner, Jason, is out of town and his girlfriend is supposed to be watching the dog. Jason doesn’t find out that Sloan has the dog until a few weeks later. Thus begins the sweetest meet-cute ever of Sloan not wanting to give up the dog and Jason wanting his dog back and some seriously flirty phone calls and text messages. I just adored this romance. I loved Sloan and Jason’s bantering. I loved Tucker, the dog. And I loved the way everything came together in the end.

Honorable mention: Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

Favorite Historical Romance

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite – What a beautiful sapphic romance! I loved the emphasis on healing from trauma, women in science, and standing up for what you believe in. Lucy and Catherine were so much fun to read about, and my heart grew ten sizes as they realized the love they had for one another. There wasn’t a single thing I’d change about this book, even all of the astronomy sections.

Honorable mention: A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

Favorite YA

This Is My America by Kim Johnson – This was a stunning debut, and I honestly cannot believe it is Kim Johnson’s first novel! It was so well-written, propulsive, and poignant. The novel centers around 17-year-old Tracy who has been sending letters to Innocence X (a law firm that specializes in exonerating people who have been wrongfully convicted) since her father’s wrongful conviction seven years ago. He has less than a year before he will be executed, so her pleas are becoming more and more desperate. Meanwhile, a white teenager is found murdered, Tracy’s brother becomes the prime suspect, and he goes on the run. It’s a novel filled with twists and turns with an explosive finish, and I just couldn’t get enough of it! (Note: Bahni Turpin reads the audiobook and she’s excellent!)

Honorable mention: Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

Favorite Mystery/Thriller

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – This book was so fascinating and I finished it completely awed by what the author had accomplished. The story is about a man named Aiden who has been tasked with solving the death of Evelyn Hardcastle. The only problem? Every day he will wake up in the body of someone else, reliving the day over and over again until he learns who the murderer is. I loved the setting of the novel—a creepy mansion—and all of the unique characters. It felt like real-life Clue! The novel was filled with twists and turns, and I’m still not sure how the author connected the dots as perfectly as he did.

Honorable mention: Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh

Favorite Memoir/Essay Collection

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Novel by Patrisse Khan-Cullors – It’s hard to describe how important this book is. How essential to understanding what it is truly like to be Black in America, to be Black and queer in America. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, takes us through her past—the painful moments, the horrifying ones, the traumatic memories—that led to where and who she is today. This book impacted me on a deep level, and it’s one you should definitely add to your antiracism reading list.

Honorable mention: The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Superlatives

The Most Disappointing DNF

The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary – I abandoned this book around page 100, unable to handle the silly characters or over-the-top plot. Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare was one of my favorite reads last year, and I had such high hopes for this book! It was such a disappointment. (It has a 3.64 rating on Goodreads, compared to The Flatshare’s 4.08, so I guess I’m not alone in my dislike!)

The Most Disappointing Book I Read

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry – Ughhh, this book. I honestly do not understand it’s 4.08 Goodreads rating (which is higher than Beach Read, a book I much, much prefer to this one). I didn’t love the characters, hated that the entire plot centered around miscommunication (my least favorite trope), and felt like the entire reading experience was a slog.

The Book I Was Most Surprised to Love

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – I was so delighted by this book! I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, considering it’s a fantasy novel and pretty long (450 pages). Perhaps it was just reading a book at the right time, but I was fully invested in the plot, the characters, and even the fantasy elements.

The Book I Thought I Would Love More Than I Did

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – This book is clearly beloved. So many of my trusted sources gave it 5 stars and I expected to love it just as much! But it just didn’t work for my reading taste. While it is a fantasy novel, so a suspension of belief is a given, there were parts of this novel that felt too far-fetched (how does one woman have SO many fascinating “other lives”?). I also didn’t love the ending. It felt very, “Just be more appreciative of your life and your depression and suicidal ideation will go away!!!” Bleh.

Most Deserving of the Hype

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – I am forever a Kristin Hannah stan, and this book was exceptional. I learned so much about the Dust Bowl era and what people had to do to survive during the Great Depression. While I wish she had ended the book differently, this is still a novel I am happy to recommend over and over again.

Least Deserving of the Hype

The Push by Ashley Audrain – This book was everywhere early in 2021 and I was glad to get my hands on a library copy quickly. But I just didn’t love it the same way other people did. Maybe the book was less impactful because I’m not a mother or maybe my expectations were just too high. Who knows!

The Book I Loved That Other People Hated

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware – This book has a low rating on Goodreads (3.54 on 137,000+ reviews) but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a solid thriller and the creep factor was high. I was really satisfied with the ending, too, which isn’t always a given with thrillers.

The Book I Hated That Other People Loved

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson – I am pretty amazed at how much I disliked this book because it gets rave reviews from so many people! The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes covers the same topic (in fact, there is some plagiarism controversy with the two books, which I don’t personally buy into it) and I found that book to be so much more compelling and better written. This one just wasn’t for me!

The Underrated Gem of the Year

American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures, edited by America Ferrera – With less than 5,000 ratings on Goodreads, this book is an easy option as my underrated gem. This collection of essays brings together so many wonderful voices—immigrants, children of immigrants, indigenous people, etc.—to discuss what it’s like to be living between two cultures. Not every essay is a masterpiece, of course, but all of the stories deserve to be told and listened to.

Best Audiobook Experience

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – This book is a novel in verse, so listening to it rather than reading it was really the way to go. It’s read by Jason Reynolds who is a spoken-word poet, so he really knows how to read the book in the way it’s meant to be read. It’s a powerful story of family and honor and trust, and so uniquely written, and I just had to give it my top audiobook spot this year.

What books were most and least deserving of the hype for you?