I think the most disappointing aspect of making my top ten reads list for the year was how many of them I read early on. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy several books in the second half of 2024, just that there weren’t as many compelling choices. I prefer a bloodthirsty competition from beginning to end, and this year’s list was pretty easy for me. But, that said, here’s the list of books that kept me turning pages all year long.
10. Margot’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe
I picked up this book because it’s narrated by Elle Fanning, and after watching The Great, I adore her. The beginning of the book starts with the narrator admitting that you don’t care about characters early on in a book, because you don’t know them yet. That right there is when I knew I would enjoy this book, because I’ve thought about that fact many times.
Margot was funny, quirky, and heartwarming. It was a story that I’d never heard before, and months later, I’m still thinking about Margot and her dad.
9. The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard – Natasha Lester
I love historical fiction and pop culture, and when you mash them together, it’s almost impossible for me not to like the book. This story takes place over three generations and looks at the different ways that the fashion industry mistreats women. While it was frustrating to read the struggles of the characters to be taken seriously when they’ve clearly earned respect, I needed to know what was going to happen next, and I’m so glad that I read this book.
8. Expiration Dates – Rebecca Serle
Rebecca Serle writes some books with really interesting concepts. She takes an easy contemporary fiction take and then kicks it up a few notches into something unique. In Expiration Dates, whenever a woman starts to date someone, she receives a piece of paper with the relationship’s expiration date. The story that jumps off of this premise is so much richer than I want to go into here. I’m glad I didn’t know any more than that going into the story, and I highly recommend going into it as blind as possible. It’s a worthwhile adventure.
7. Cher – Cher
I grew up way after Sonny and Cher, after she won an Oscar, after she turned back time. The Cher I knew believed in life after love. I remember when Sonny Bono died after a skiing accident. For some reason, that incident imprinted on me, and I’ve never even been tempted to go skiing.
I digress. I love memoir and autobiographies, hearing people tell their own stories, filling in facts I never would have guessed. This book is full of those. Cher is so much more complex than I ever would have known. Her relationship with Sonny was complicated and at times depressing. While this book only takes you up to the early 80’s, if you have any interest in pop culture, it’s a great read.
6. The Wedding People – Alison Espach
This book surprised me, as I expected to find the characters insufferable. I don’t know why I expected that – maybe because it was in that second half of the year and books weren’t wowing me like I wanted them to. The first part of the book is so incredibly sad. But I think, feeling the weight of the main character, feeling her come back to life becomes even more poignant. This is one of those books that I keep recommending to people, and I even gave away my copy. Still debating whether I need another. 🙂
5. The Rom-Commers – Katherine Center
Ah, enemies to lovers set in a Hollywood backdrop. That’s a Sarah siren song if I’ve ever heard one. But seriously, this book is so much fun and packs an emotional punch. The only drawback is that I feel like the conflict with the two main characters could’ve been sorted out much sooner with a good, honest conversation – but let’s be honest, we don’t always have those much needed conversations either, do we? The tension Emma feels leaving her father to pursue her dream, worrying about him relentlessly, I felt that in my gut. Great read.
4. Just for the Summer – Abby Jimenez
This book was the best of the trilogy. You don’t have to read the others, strictly speaking, but it’s so much more fun if you do. I took turns squealing in happiness and clutching my chest in this book. Everything Jimenez does hits the right emotional notes, and this book is exceptional.
3. The Reformatory – Tananarive Due
On the one hand, possibly the most depressing book I read all year. On the other, so good that it haunts me. It’s the kind of book that I put in my friends’ hands, lower my chin and say with gravity, “You need to read this.”
It can be a really rough read at times, but it’s so worth it.
2. Husbands and Lovers – Beatriz Williams
I listened to this book on audio while on a road trip. There was one point, where I was so engrossed in the story that I started yelling at my car. This book is a wonderful historical fiction – along with my number one pick, it represents some of the best of the genre.
1. The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon
This is one of the few books I managed to talk about at length last year, so I won’t go into too much. A lot of historical fiction these days has at least a two timeline structure. Husbands and Lovers and Astrid Bricard both do this – and I don’t mind it at all. You have one set of characters and maybe they’re trying to unravel a mystery, or their plot leaves you wondering how we got to this point, and the reader is trying to figure it out. The explanation often comes through the historical viewpoint. Again, it’s not a device that I dislike at all. But I think one of the reasons that Frozen River works so well for me is that it doesn’t do that. Everything is set in one timeline. You’re not pulled into the 2000’s from 1860. Nope, you live in the 1700’s the entire novel. It also doesn’t try to be a romance, or have a relatively young person as the main character. All that makes this book a little different from a lot of historical fiction that’s out there.
It’s just a really nice breath of air as far as the genre is concerned. In my opinion, any book on this list is worth your time, but at the end of the day, Frozen River is the one I keep recommending most enthusiastically, that I see on the shelf and go, “Oh, that was so good.”