The Best Books I Read in 2024...

Happy first day of 2025! Can't believe we're at the start of another year. I'm excited about what the next year will hold, and truthfully, I'm not sad that 2024 is gone. It was an up and down year for me—I had some health issues early on, plus I got laid off from my job and was out of work for a few months, and because of that I struggled with my depression. But through that difficult time, I kept reading.

Despite not having any real goal for reading in 2024, I wound up surpassing my highest number of books read. In 2024, I read 375 books (three more than I've ever read since I've been tracking this), so needless to say, whittling that list down was tremendously difficult. At first pass, I identified 68 books I really loved, but I knew that wouldn't fly. So I narrowed it to a top 25 and then 15 more that were still too good to leave out.

As always, I'd love to know your thoughts on this list as well as your favorite reads of 2024!

The Top 25

1. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune: As difficult as narrowing my list down, there was no contest for my favorite book of the year. I never thought Klune would write a sequel to one of my most favorite books, The House in the Cerulean Sea, but it was an absolute home run. It’s a book about love, courage, overcoming trauma, the power of family and friends, and it is populated with some of the most incredible characters.

2. Funny Story by Emily Henry: Emily Henry is an absolute auto-buy author for me. Her books have an incredible way of making me feel multiple emotions simultaneously. They fill my heart (and often fill my eyes with tears) and they definitely make me smile, if not all out laugh. Her most recent book is no exception.

3. The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison: I tend to love Sliding Doors-type books, and this one really wowed me. It's a book about friendship, love, found family, loss, guilt, and second chances, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since I read it. To be released 6/3/2025.

4. The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean: Tension-filled and twisty, this is fantastic. The characters were really complex and will stick in my head. It’s quite dark, and it may be triggering for some, but Emiko Jean has written a thriller with a heart, a book which makes you think.

5. Four Squares by Bobby Finger: What an absolutely fantastic, moving, hopeful book this was. It’s the story of friendship, love, loss, chosen family, fear, and hope, as well as the power of connection. The book shifts back and forth between the 1990s and 2022-23. It’s sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and just absolutely beautiful.

6. What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan: This was one of my most anticipated books in the first quarter of 2024, and it blew my expectations out of the water. McTiernan ratchets up the suspense and tension little by little until you need to race through the book to see how everything gets resolved. It’ll make you sad and angry, and keep you on edge.

7. Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: Clove (which may or may not be her real name) has some secrets about her life that she has kept hidden from nearly everyone. But when she receives a letter from a woman’s prison in California, her carefully built façade starts to crack. What will she do if her secrets are revealed?

8. Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa: As many of you know, I love a good retelling, and boy, did I absolutely love this one! Elizabeth Bennet chafes under the expectations of society and her mother, who want her to choose a suitable man to marry. But Elizabeth would rather live her life as Oliver, and cannot imagine life married to someone who wants to suppress his true identity and his spirit. This "remix" hit all the right notes!

9. Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer: This had everything I love in a rom-com: emotional depth, banter, terrific supporting characters, even a little steam. It had me laughing at times and crying at others, and having lost one of my best friends nearly 3 years ago, it hit close to home in parts. What a fantastic book.

10. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian: Much like her last book We Could Be So Good, I love how Cat Sebastian built a slow-burn romance between two men despite the fears and possible repercussions of the 1960s. This was such a fantastically moving story, full of emotion, hope, fear, and far more acceptance than I would’ve imagined.



11. Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun: I was a complete puddle of emotions after reading Alison Cochrun’s most recent book. The story of two women forced on a road trip with their dying teacher worked for me on so many levels. It’s sexy, funny, complicated, sad, and hopeful, but it may be triggering for some who have recently experienced loss.

12. The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer: Sometimes books make me tear up or cause me to get emotional. Sometimes they make me sob; at times it’s happy sobbing. This one had me happy sobbing really hard. I honestly cannot say enough about how much I loved this story. It’s a bit of a fantasy, but it’s also a beautiful story about love, friendship, blood and chosen family, and coming to terms with things we’ve kept hidden.

13. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez: Abby Jimenez is one of my absolute favorite authors. I can never get enough of the incredible way she balances humor, emotion, romance, and steam with amazingly vivid characters. Once again in this book, she made me smile and cry, and I’m there for it every time.

14. The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella: That feeling when an author whose two previous books have been on your best-of lists writes a new book that surpasses them all. The richness of this story, the depth of the characters, the emotions and images it evokes, all blew me away. This is a gorgeous story about family, friendship, love, loyalty, regret, hope, and possibility.

15. Anyone's Ghost by August Thompson: I really love coming-of-age novels, particularly when the main character is profoundly changed by someone or something. August Thompson’s debut novel is utterly fantastic—it’s thought-provoking, poignant, funny, and it felt so incredibly real.

16. The President's Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins: I don’t read a lot of legal thrillers because I feel that they are often too slow or too melodramatic. But this—amazingly, a debut novel—kept me hooked every step of the way. It definitely kept me guessing and rapidly turning the pages. This could be adapted into a television movie and be as riveting as the book itself.

17. Marshmallow Mountain by A.J. Truman and M.A. Wardell: An M/M romance that’s part of a series called “Big Boys, Small Spaces,” and the characters are both Jewish? I couldn’t have loved this any more than I did. Both authors are great on their own, but this first collaboration hit the spot. It’s super steamy, emotional, romantic, and funny. I’m ready for Book 2 in the series!

18. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera: Several years ago following a wedding, Lucy is found wandering around, covered in blood, and her best friend Savvy is dead. Lucy has no memory of what happened but her family and much of her hometown is convinced that she murdered Savvy. This was such a fantastic book. There were so many times that I really had no idea what the ending would be.

19. Sandwich by Catherine Newman: In case you’re wondering, this book is not about sandwiches (although the characters do eat a bunch of them). This is a quiet, character-driven book that is so full of funny and emotional moments. It draws so much of its power from not only the beach trips, the conversations, the random meals, but also the glimpses of how the passage of time affects each of us.

20. Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino: It’s 1962, and Beverly is the perfect wife, taking care of the house and making life easier for her husband, Larry. She even makes cookies for his office once a week. But when she drops by with the cookies on a different day than usual, she finds him, umm, entangled with his secretary, so she decides to get even. Since Larry is the campaign manager for one of Maryland’s senators, she decides to work for Michael Landau, the young candidate running against the incumbent.

21. How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica: I honestly hadn't heard of this book until shortly before I picked it up, and I'm so thankful for that! This was gorgeous, emotional, and so moving. It’s incredible that this is a debut novel. I fell in love with everything it made me think and feel.

22. First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston: This was one of the first books I read in 2024. I started the year not that big on thrillers, but I absolutely devoured this! What's amazing to me is that this is Ashley Elston's adult debut—she's previously only written YA novels. But the plotting, the twists, the tension in this book all were spot-on.

23. Please Come to Boston by Gary Goldstein: This was an absolutely fantastic book. It so perfectly captures the emotions of figuring yourself out for the first time, and what it’s like to meet friends who get you completely. It’s a romantic, funny, and emotional book that really grabbed hold of my heart.

24. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: I love when one of your auto-buy authors knocks it out of the park with their latest book. This was just so good, and it couldn’t have been more up my alley. Emma has dreamed of being a screenwriter for as long as she can remember, but she's sacrificed her dreams so her younger sister can pursue hers. When she gets the chance of a lifetime to rewrite a rom-com script with her idol, screenwriting legend Charlie Yates, she discovers that not only wasn’t he aware she was hired, but he adamantly refuses a rewrite, especially with an unknown like Emma.

25. The Last Boyfriends Rules for Revenge by Matthew Hubbard: I wish that this book existed when I was in high school. It would have given me courage, and the foresight to know that it was okay to be who I was. I loved it for the unapologetic way it allowed the characters to be who they are, for those who supported them, for the friendships and the sweet romance, but also for the message that you should never be afraid of being yourself and standing up for what you believe in.


Too Good Not to Miss

A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison: he book is nearly 450 pages yet I flew through it, and couldn’t get enough. There were lots of twists, some I saw coming and some that surprised me, and I didn’t want to stop reading at all.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler: I’ve been reading Anne Tyler’s books for a very long time, and I’m always dazzled by the quiet power of her words. No one can write about irritating or irascible people—and make them endearing—than she can. This book packs a bit more of a punch than I expected. I’d love to know what happened to the characters after the book ended. It will publish 2/11/2025.

Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart: Mark was a hired assassin. Known as the Pale Horse, his reputation invoked fear and admiration in other assassins as well as those his victims left behind. But after he loses control of a situation, he walks away from his life, and joins a 12-step support group for former assassins, where they vow to channel their energies in different directions to keep them from killing. This was a fast-moving, whip-smart, intense thriller that I absolutely devoured.

Until Next Summer by Ali Brady: For 10 summers I went to a sleepaway camp in the Catskills Mountains. With that in mind, I am Jessie, the main character in this book. Jessie first attended Camp Chickawah when she was young, and it was the best part of her life. She is now the camp director. This captured my heart from page 1 and never let go. It’s sweet and funny and pretty steamy in places.

Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan: Ali has been a mess since her mother died two years ago. On the first anniversary of that loss, Ali’s husband Pete told her he didn’t want to be married anymore, and a year later he’s ready to file for divorce. I loved everything about this book—the characters, the banter, the way it so beautifully captured grief, as well as the need to find yourself and find hope again.

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy: This beautiful little book got me all choked up while on a plane. This was such a beautiful, sweet story of second chances, realizing you’re more important than you think, and, of course, the power of hope. It definitely requires a little suspension of disbelief, but this felt like a gigantic hug.

What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange: When Kyle’s father suffers a stroke, he has to make his way across the country to his hometown in upstate New York. He’s upset about his father’s condition but also is dreading returning home, since he left unexpectedly nearly three years ago. He’ll have to face those he left behind—friends, coworkers, family, and his ex-wife, Casey, whom he’s loved since he was 18. There are so many beautiful moments in this book, so much grief, emotion, and hope.

Lies He Told Me by James Patterson and David Ellis: If I have whiplash, I blame James Patterson and David Ellis for packing so many twists into one book! Given the teaming of these two authors, my expectations were fairly high, and this book exceeded them all. I really loved this collaboration.

The Brothers Kenney by Adam Mitzner: I loved this book. It was a combination of family drama and mystery, and I really was drawn into this story of regrets, second chances, and forgiveness.

The Prospects by KT Hoffman: I am obsessed with hockey romances, and now I can add this baseball romance to the list of books I love. I seriously found myself grinning like an idiot while reading this. I couldn’t love this more if I tried. It’s sweet, sexy, funny, and hopeful, and although this situation is more fiction than possibility right now, it’s fun to dream of this kind of world.

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns: This was so good! As I've said numerous times before, I love stories about family relationships and dynamics, and this book definitely fit the bill. While this is definitely a slow-burn story, I was hooked from the very start. There was a richness to the book that definitely will keep it in my mind for some time.

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave: This was one of my highly anticipated books of the year. Although it’s marketed as a thriller, it’s definitely more of a slow-burn family drama with a bit of mystery mixed in. If you go in knowing that, you may love this as much as I did.

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang: Emotional, steamy, funny, and hopeful, Yulin Kuang’s debut novel is a second chance romance with so much heart. The chemistry and banter between the characters was truly fantastic, and their story was just so beautiful. Even though I knew how this story would end, I still cried like a baby as it unfolded.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue: There’s nothing quite like the angst and stress of your early 20s, navigating love, sex, relationships, career plans, and family. This book so accurately captures those emotions, the drunken nights, the arguments over nothing, the fear you’ll be left behind by life and love. It’s so beautifully written, and though it is more of a slow-burn, character-driven novel, I felt very invested in the story.

All Friends Are Necessary by Tomas Moniz: This gorgeously written, character-driven book is about the family we choose and the family we’re born into. It’s about resilience and recovery and finding your own way. And it’s a beautiful tribute to the power of belonging, of love, of being seen.