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.
