As a Shakespeare nerd, I was smitten with Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth. However, you don’t need to know the famous play (or be a gamer!) to love this story in which two people who hardly know each other in real life begin to build a relationship through an online game. I also enjoyed the sweet romance The Ballad of Darcy and Russell by Morgan Matson, kind of a YA take on Before Sunrise–two people meet cute after a concert and spend an adventuresome evening falling for each other.

I read some awful romances this year that made me sad for society, so I’m just going to pick books about relationships for this category. Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven (it comes out in March) follows soulmates over a thousand years as they reincarnate and are forced to die together before they reach 18 each time. It’s a breathtaking, epic story that transcends gender. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is fun speculative fiction with a zany premise: anytime Lauren’s “husband” goes into the attic he’s replaced with a new one and her entire life resets as a result. It’s a great exploration of the choices we make in our search for “the one.”

Rob Delaney is a funny guy on TV, but you’ll see a different side of him in A Heart That Works, his tender and beautifully-written memoir about losing his two-year-old son, Henry, to a brain tumor in 2018. Loved this quote, “I suspect I am a glass of water, and when I die, the contents of my glass will be poured into the same vast ocean that Henry’s glass was poured into, and we will mingle together forever.”  Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher is a memoir, a chronicle of tech’s most powerful players, and in-depth history of the digital revolution. Swisher is wicked smart and has been covering tech for a long time. Her insights are fascinating and worth the read for her take on Elon Musk alone.

“Other Mother” the uninvited houseguest in Incidents Around the House would give the Babadook a run for his money in this delightfully scary book by Josh Malerman. The ending gets bogged down with parental drama, but overall this will make you want to sleep with the lights on. Creeptastic! I was very surprised by Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan, which has a cover that looks cutesy and light. It’s actually a pretty gory story of an intergenerational family of women who run a funeral home and end up fighting an army of the undead. (This really needs to be made into a movie!) Honorable mention goes to Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison. Don’t read the promo blurb. This one is more fun if you go in blind.

I read the final book in three different trilogies this year. Looking back over them, two trilogies stood out for me. The first is the Legacy of Orisha trilogy, (Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Children of Anguish and Anarchy) a West African-inspired fantasy by Nigerian-American writer Tomi Adeyemi. This series ended with a bang that nicely tidied up all the loose ends. I also really enjoyed the Ending Fire trilogy (The Final Strife, The Battle Drum, and The Ending Fire) inspired by the mythology of Africa and Arabia by Saara El-Arifi. This book focused on three women who band together against a cruel empire that divides people by the color of their blood.

Sadly I had never heard of pioneer Black aviatrix Bessie Coleman before reading A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson. I’m glad I remedied that with this fascinating account of a woman who overcame huge racial and gender barriers to fly a plane. Jodi Picoult‘s latest By Any Other Name imagines the life of a woman who may have ghostwritten all of William Shakespeare’s greatest works. (Yep. him again!) Honorable mention goes to The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (comes out in August) about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs.

First up is Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris in which Samantha Harker, (daughter of Dracula’s killer) teams up with Dr. Helena Moriarty (daughter of the criminal mastermind) to solve a murder at the dawn of the twentieth century in Paris. I read We Shall be Monsters by Tara Sim at the beginning of the year, but still remember the entire plot today! (Which is saying something since this book is jam-packed with action.) Billed as “Frankenstein meets Indian mythology,” this book is totally original and epic with adventures in both life and the afterlife.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by the masterful Erik Larson is a long, meticulously researched book, but totally engrossing and surprisingly timely–“a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink.” I also was engrossed by We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian a deep dive into the shocking 2018 murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children, as well as a searing indictment of the American foster care system.

I read some amazing dystopian works this year. One standout was Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell that imagines a world in which all white people have suddenly died and asks the question, “In a world without white people, what does it mean to be Black?” I also loved All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall (comes out January 7) where a group of survivors take refuge in New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future. Honorable mention goes to Tilt by Emma Pattee where a pregnant woman navigates a natural disaster that starts while she’s in IKEA.

When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory is one of the most unique books I’ve ever read (it comes out in April). It’s about a colorful crew of people on a bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, geographic miracles proving that humans are living in a simulation. It’s odd, touching, and absolutely delightful. I also loved Toward Eternity by Anton Hur which follows an AI (trained via poetry) as it evolves over thousands of years. This is a gently moving book with some interesting things to say about the meaning of personhood and life.

Amazon describes All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby this way, “A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.” This is a nail-biter with a Silence of the Lambs vibe. I’m becoming a big fan of Cosby’s writing. His stories are dark and impeccably written. I also loved The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf, a page turner with some twists and turns I did not see coming. This is a good one to curl up with during a blizzard. Honorable mention goes to High Season by Katie Bishop, a good book to curl up with on the beach! 

How the Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard is a sequel to a book I’ve never read, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this story which covers fifteen years (2010 to 2024) in a family’s life. There’s so much packed in here I feel like reading the prequel too would have been overkill! In The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, a four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a family, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

I do love me some whimsy. When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson has some fantastical elements but it’s rooted in reality and has lots of heart. This follows one families’ road trips, rivalries, curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation. Here Beside the Rising Tide (it comes out in late January) by Emily Jane is pretty bonkers, but in a good way. A romance author takes a trip to her childhood beach home. What starts off as a family drama quickly turns supernatural with the return of a deceased childhood friend… and sea monsters.