⏱️ 30-Second Reviews of All 150 Books I Read This Year
Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm your host, Amelia Ruby. And this is a podcast about the pleasure of reading, where I share curated reading lists, author rankings, chats with my bookish friends and more. If you too take pleasure in reading, I hope that you will subscribe and share the show with a friend. Cheers to your next best book.
Amelia Hruby:Hello and welcome to Pleasure Reading, a podcast about the pleasure of reading and the many, many forms that our bookish lives can take. I'm your host, Amelia Frueby. I am a podcaster. I'm a producer. And on this show, I am your fellow bookworm, lover of books.
Amelia Hruby:And today I am coming to you from that beautiful portal between Christmas and New Year's to share 2 end of year episodes. This is the first of those 2 and in this episode, I will be sharing reviews of all 150 books that I read this year. I restarted my reading journey in 2021 after going through a pretty deep period of burnout and distraction and not reading for pleasure because I was writing a dissertation. So I was reading a lot of stuff, but it was all very academic. My PhD is in philosophy, so extremely esoteric and in the weeds of it all.
Amelia Hruby:And during that time, I didn't find much energy to read anything else. And then when I finished my dissertation, I just didn't want to read at all. So in 2021, I tiptoed back into reading, read a few books my friends recommended, you know, enjoyed a few romance and literary fiction novels. And then in 2022, I started tracking my reading. I read 63 books in 2022, really starting with A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Amelia Hruby:So that series brought me back into pleasure reading like it did for so many people, and it kind of really opened up this whole era of me reading romantacy and other romance books in 2022. In 2023, I read 85 books that began with the Throne of Glass series. So Sarah J. Maas really just bringing me back in to pleasure reading for real. And that year I started exploring more thrillers, more horror, and still plenty of fantasy, romance, romanicy, and some literary fiction.
Amelia Hruby:I think I also read my first nonfiction book that I had read since completing my dissertation in 2023. And all of that leads me to this year where I have read a 150 books as of the time that I'm recording this. I still got a couple in progress, so my actual total for the year will be even a little bit higher than this. But 2024 has really been a year that I prioritized reading. Now when I say this number, I don't wanna suggest that, like, we should all be reading a 150 books.
Amelia Hruby:I don't even wanna suggest we should all be reading more. I think we all have to find the right amount of reading for ourselves, the amount that can bring us pleasure and enjoyment and fulfillment with our reading. And I'll be honest, 150 books was too many books for me. So you'll hear in the next episode that I am recording for our end of year episodes, I'm gonna talk about my reading faves and flops of the year, and reading this many books was kind of a flop for me. But it is done.
Amelia Hruby:I have read all of these books and I thought it would be fun now to record this episode sharing a quick review of each book. And my goal is for this to be spoiler free, but I will say if you are like super strict about spoilers, I am not rechecking the synopsis for all these books. So while I have every intention of not spoiling them, if a detail slips through, I apologize in advance. And if that's really gonna bug you, you might just wanna skip this episode. It may not be for you, and I respect that.
Amelia Hruby:That's totally fine. But for now, I think it's time to dive in to these reviews. So please join me in wrapping up the year where I have read more books than ever before with these reviews of all 150 books that I read in 2024. Okay. So we'll begin with the first book I read in 2024 and we'll end with the last book I read in 2024.
Amelia Hruby:So this order is purely chronological. There is no ranking of any kind. The first book I read in 2024 was Daiket by Jenny Fran Davis. This was a haute femme queer sex dream nightmare kinda novel. You get some couples that go away together.
Amelia Hruby:A lot of weird shit happens. There is a lot of tension and sweetness around gender roles and a lot of camp in this book. So it is not for everyone, but it was definitely for me. I really enjoyed it. The second book that I read in 2024 was Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter.
Amelia Hruby:This was about a woman in Silicon Valley who is trying to choose between her career and her personal life in some really specific ways. This book didn't totally work for me. I thought the structure was a little bit overwrought, but I did think it portrayed the tension of Silicon Valley, San Francisco life very well, and the way that the main character really kind of deadened herself to survive her tech job, thus opening up a sort of emotional void, which gets a little literal if you read the book. So it might interest you if those are themes you like to read about. Up next, we have Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder.
Amelia Hruby:This is a book about a woman who gives up her career to become a stay at home mom and then turns into a bitch, the dog kind. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was really creative. It really dug into a lot of the feelings that the main character and narrator was experiencing, and it ended in a place I didn't totally expect. I can't wait to see the movie with Amy Adams, and I definitely recommend this for all of our feminist readers out there.
Amelia Hruby:The 4th book I read in 2024 was On the Subject of Unmentionable Things by Julia Walton. This book was about a teenager who writes a sex advice column to try to answer her peers' questions honestly. It was smart and sweet and definitely a book that I wish I could have read as a very sex curious teenager. Then I read a novel Obsession by Caitlin Barash. This book was definitely for all of my anxiously attached Instagram stalking girlies out there.
Amelia Hruby:The narrator starts dating someone and going through their partner's ex's Instagram, which leads to them meeting in person, and it really unravels from there. It was definitely, like, pulpy thriller style, not, like, high lit style, but I really enjoyed it. My next read was best served hot by Amanda Elliott. This is a fun romcom about 2 restaurant critics who kind of are up against each other reviewing New York City restaurants. I loved all of the delicious food descriptions.
Amelia Hruby:I liked the tropes they brought in. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely a really fun read. From there, I went a very different direction and read The Society For Soulless Girls by L. K. Steven.
Amelia Hruby:This is a dark You thriller that has a supernatural twist. You get a sort of grumpy sunshine dynamic from the 2 main characters and a clear dark academia sapphic setting. Not really gonna give away any of the plot or what this book is kind of based on, but it definitely gets a little dark, and I was intrigued. I don't know that I'd read this book again, but I would read more from this author. After that, I read Belladonna and Foxglove by Adeline Grace.
Amelia Hruby:These are the first two books in a series where the teenage main character, Signa, has to go live with her last remaining relatives, the Hawthorns. And in the process, she meets death, and everything unravels from there. This is definitely a romantacy and I thought it was fun and kind of interesting even if a little bit predictable. My next read of 2024 was one of my favorites of the year and that was Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bostorica. This is a short horror novella that has been translated from Spanish.
Amelia Hruby:It is set in a dystopian sort of post apocalyptic world where a virus has made animal meat poisonous to humans, so humans start eating other humans. And our main character works at a slaughtering processing plant and we follow him as he kind of confronts his grief around the loss of his wife and his father and the cognitive dissonance that he lives within at his job. This is definitely not for everyone. You have to enjoy horror and be open to reading about this really challenging topic, but I was pretty astounded at how normal the world felt as I was reading, and I was just really struck by what a skilled writer Agustina Bostorica is. So highly recommend Tender is the Flesh.
Amelia Hruby:Up next, I read Rouge by Mona Awad. I am a big fan of her most popular book, Bunny, and knowing that Rouge was a critique of the beauty industry, this was a must read for me in 2024. I loved the sort of fever dream quality of this. Our main character, Belle, has to go home because her mother has passed away unexpectedly, and she gets pulled into this sort of, like, cult question mark that her mother has been taking part in over the past year. There's a lot of cool imagery.
Amelia Hruby:There's some very cool jellyfish stuff. Highly recommend Rouge by Mona Awad. If you're willing to read some fiction that strays from reality a bit. Going even further from reality, the next book I read was Come Closer by Sarah Gran. This is a very short horror novella that questions whether the main character has been possessed by a demon or just gone through a psychotic break.
Amelia Hruby:This is truly, like, a perfect horror novel to me. We get so deep into the main character's head that we start asking ourself so many questions. I am not gonna give anything away, but if you can handle horror and you like possession themes or setups, you really have to read this book. Okay. Now we go into a few romances that I read in 2024.
Amelia Hruby:I think after all that darkness, I needed a little bit of lightness. The first of those was Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg. This was a very fun queer romance set in the New York City queer magazine scene. I was a fan and also I don't totally remember what it's about, so obviously it didn't stick with me throughout the year. After that I read Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon.
Amelia Hruby:I had read her other book, The Ex Talk, because I liked the public radio setup of that book, so I thought I would give this one a try as well. Business or Pleasure has a pretty bonkers setup, which is that a ghostwriter and a struggling actor kind of meet and sleep together, and then their hookup is very awkward. And she tells him that he's actually not that good in bed, and maybe they should have sex lessons. I can't even say this with a straight face. The premise is really wonky.
Amelia Hruby:I definitely felt like this had like every romance trope under the sun in it, but somehow it kind of worked for me. It was like a solid 3 star romance read. And then finally in this little run of romance books, I read You Again by Kate Goldbeck. This is a sort of when Harry met Sally retelling where the genders are flipped, and I really liked it. It was a fun romance read, but I'm not sure I have much more to say about it.
Amelia Hruby:After my romances, I read Big Swiss by Jen Began. A ton of people had told me that I was going to love this book, and I don't think it was for me. So the setup is essentially that this woman lives in upstate New York. She works as a transcriptionist for a therapist there, and she becomes obsessed with one of his clients. And so she kind of sets things up so she meets that client in person and befriends her, and it's a little uncomfortable in the process to say the least.
Amelia Hruby:It didn't totally work for me, but it worked for a ton of other people, so maybe you will be one of them. My next read was A Far Wilder Magic by Alison Saft. I really wanted to love this book. I liked the main characters, Wes and Maggie. I liked the magical competition set up.
Amelia Hruby:They are competing in a magical fox hunt together. But the world building really fell flat for me in this book, and there was some, like, heavy religious allegory stuff that just did not land for me personally. So I gave it, like, 2 stars and don't know if I'd recommend it beyond that. Up next, I read one of my favorite books of the year, Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang. In this book, our narrator is an amazing pianist, and she stops playing piano because her parents are in an accident.
Amelia Hruby:And so she quits music and starts working for a job in this high end beauty store in New York City called Holistic. And there is some unsettling stuff happening at Holistic that our narrator has to uncover and go through throughout the story. This is definitely, like, a dark, surreal, page turning sort of thriller light horror novel, and I loved it. Highly recommend Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang. After that, I read a random Christmas romance in, like, March, and that was A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone.
Amelia Hruby:I love this Christmas Notch series. It is sexy. It is silly, and I'll talk about it a little more when I review the final book in the series toward the end of this list. My next read was a hiking memoir by a dear friend of mine, and that is What We Owe to Ourselves by Nicole Antoinette. In this book, Nicole hikes the Colorado Trail and takes us along for the journey and everything she underwent along the way.
Amelia Hruby:I love Nicole's books, cannot recommend them highly enough. I hope that you go get your own copy. Two romances up next. First, I read Love at First Spite by Anna e Collins. This has a sort of funny setup where a couple is moving into a home together and then they break up, and the woman buys the lot next to their house and builds this sort of, like, monstrosity on it to mess up her ex's view.
Amelia Hruby:It's a little predictable. It's pretty silly. It was an okay romance kinda read. After that, I read Hello Stranger by Catherine Center. To not give away much of the plot here, this is a sort of face blindness romance where a woman cannot see and recognize these people and she starts dating and hijinks ensue.
Amelia Hruby:It was, again, another fun, light romance read, not super memorable, but the setup is kind of clever. After that, I read These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall. This book really took me on a ride. I enjoyed following the main character, Helen, as she returns to her ancestral home, Harrowstone Hall, but Helen definitely has no clue what's happening for the first half of the book and neither did I. So if you like a sort of creepy haunted house book, this could be a good read for you, but I don't know that it was necessarily for me.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read a few memoirs in a self help book. The first was What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo. This is a really beautifully written memoir about complex PTSD and childhood abuse and trauma, and I really appreciated how the author wrote about her own experiences with clarity and even some, like, brevity and lightness at times, even though these are really dark experiences. Stephanie Foo is also a podcaster, and there were some ways that she put the book together that as a podcast producer myself, really felt like they had this sort of, like, beautiful narrative weaving that I think podcasts do. So I highly recommend What My Bones Know by Stephanie Fu if this is a topic that you feel like you're interested in reading about.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read another memoir, Joy Enough by Sarah McCall. Sarah is a friend of mine, and this book is so beautiful. It explores the grief of losing her mother and of her marriage dissolving, and it's written with just such beautiful, profound prose. I can't recommend it highly enough. I read the whole thing on a flight and just, like, wept quietly in public, so obviously a good read.
Amelia Hruby:Up next, I read this self help book called Why Won't You Apologize by Harriet Lerner. I was reading this one for some, like, personal family reasons that I will not get into, and it was fine. That's my assessment. From there, I went back to the world of romance with This Spells Love by Kate Robb. The setup for this romance is that a woman tries to heal herself from heartbreak by casting a spell that erases her ex from her past, but as you might expect, it does not go as planned.
Amelia Hruby:And, once again, hijinks ensue. This is a fun, magical romance, if that's your sort of thing, and I had a nice time with it. Solid 3 star read for me. After that, I read Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliott. I had read another one of her romances, best served hot, earlier this year, and Sadie on a Plate is set in the same universe.
Amelia Hruby:This time, we're back in the New York City restaurant scene with chefs instead of restaurant critics. And there's a really fun setup here that these chefs are competing on a sort of top chef esque show, and there's a forbidden romance trope. Again, so many delicious food descriptions. I am just really into these Amanda Elliott food romance books apparently this year. After Sadie on a Plate, I read The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary.
Amelia Hruby:This is a romance that I had been meaning to read forever, and I finally got around to it because I wanted to watch the TV show version. So in this book, Tiffy and Leon share an apartment, but Tiffy works days, Leon works nights, so they're literally sharing the same apartment just, like, every 12 hours moving back and forth. And over the course of this shared apartment ish living, they fall for each other, as you might expect. It's a romance. And even if you know that upfront, which I did and now you do, it's so satisfying to read the whole story.
Amelia Hruby:I think this is, like, beautifully written and plotted and I really enjoyed The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary. After that, I read Where the Wild Ladies Are by Ayoko Matsuda. This was a collection of feminist retellings of traditional Japanese folk tales. It was full of fables and ghost stories and just a really, I don't know, pleasant read. Some of the imagery has really stuck with me throughout the year, and I found myself watching a few horror films I really enjoy and thinking about this book and things that were brought up there.
Amelia Hruby:So that is Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda. From there, I took a left turn, went a totally different direction, and read Ali Hazelwood's new romance, Bride. This is a vampire werewolf romance, and I don't think I need to tell you too much about it because it was one of the Goodreads' top romances of the year. It is a wild romp of a time and really brings in some of LA Hazelwood's fanfic credentials. We have some omegaverse stuff here.
Amelia Hruby:We have Nodding. I didn't know what any of that was till I Googled it reading this book, but I had a great time with Bride by Ali Hazelwood. After that, I read The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena. This was a domestic thriller that I do not have that much to say about. There's a couple, they go next door to have dinner with some friends, they leave their baby at home, take the baby monitor with them, and the baby disappears, and we have to figure out what has happened to the baby.
Amelia Hruby:It was fine. That's my take on this thriller. Up next, I read The Wishing Game by Meg Schaeffer. This book has such a great setup. This group of young adults gets invited to Clock Island, which is this place that their favorite childhood author lives, and they have to kind of go through this magical competition for a chance to read the 1st clock island book written in years.
Amelia Hruby:I love, like, a competition setup, but these characters just did not land for me, and the stakes were, like, never very clear. So I wanted to like this book so much. I just didn't in the end, but I know it is, like, widely loved. So if that sounds fun to you, you might enjoy The Wishing Game by Meg Schafer. Up next, I read The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew.
Amelia Hruby:This is a sort of dark academia ghost story. The main character, Delaney, goes to Godbold University for their controversial new age program. She has this ability to cross between worlds, and she meets this teaching assistant, Colton, who has a secret, and that all unravels and goes together by the end of the book. I enjoyed this, but I liked the other Kelly Andrew book I read this year better, so I will talk more about that one. After that, I read a rare nonfiction book for me, Witches, Midwives and Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English.
Amelia Hruby:This talks about how the medical profession was sort of stolen from women, and now men get to be doctors and women are relegated to these lesser paid, lesser established positions and the sort of political economic effects of that. It's a fantastic read, super short, really appreciated this kind of refresher on patriarchal power in our society. Up next, I read In My Dreams, I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead. This was a sort of campus thriller. The setup is that these characters are coming back to Duquette University for their 10 year reunion.
Amelia Hruby:There was a murder 10 years ago, and now they are going to resolve that at this reunion. It was a really fun read. All the characters kinda suck, but I liked that. So so if you like a campus murder mystery thriller kind of book, in my dreams I hold a knife might be for you. After that, I read the Fable series by Adrienne Young.
Amelia Hruby:So the series begins with a sort of duology, fable and namesake. This is a fantasy series about pirates, about falling in love, about different powers on magical islands. I'm not really gonna tell you the plot because I went in kind of blind, and it was a blast. But I highly, highly, highly recommend the first two books, Fable and Namesake. And then there are some novellas, Drift and the Last Legacy, that I also read and a follow-up book, Saint, that talks about the main character's father.
Amelia Hruby:So I really had a great time. It's one of my best, like, periods of reading of the year, was reading through all of these books in the spring. After that, I read one of my only books of poetry for the year, Instructions for Traveling West by Joyce Sullivan. These poems are so beautiful. They're told from the perspective of a woman making her own way in the world and I can't recommend them highly enough.
Amelia Hruby:My next read was No Meat Required by Alicia Kennedy. This is a punk feminist exploration of vegetarianism and what it means to live a plant based life in our world. I really appreciated how political this book was. I think that it had some really good takes on sort of artificial meat products and the ways that vegetarianism is talked about in our society, and I can't recommend it highly enough if those topics are interesting to you. From there, I read Yellowface by R.
Amelia Hruby:F. Kuang. This was such a popular book. I felt like I finally had to read it. It explores this story where a white author publishes a book written by her Asian American friend.
Amelia Hruby:The book is about Chinese laborers during World War 1, and people really question if this white girl could have written that book or if that is appropriate. And the sort of story unravels around the book theft and everything from there. So I thought this was really interesting, and it was the 4 star read for me. Highly recommend if you love Internet drama, publishing industry insider stuff, and critiques of racism in our literary world. Definitely my kind of read, and I had a great time with it.
Amelia Hruby:Up next was Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter. This was a saccharin You romance that was fun. I really, like, don't have much more to say about it. This was a good time. It was very sweet.
Amelia Hruby:There is some cringey dialogue, very Hallmark movie style, but if that's for you, you'll probably love all of Lynn Painter's books. After that, I read The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shawna Robinson, another romance that didn't totally work for me. I love a bookish setup, but the characters' actions didn't totally make sense to me in this one, so not the highest on my list for the year. In contrast, the next book I read, Bodywork by Melissa Febos, was one of the best books I read this year. This is a series of essays on the craft of writing.
Amelia Hruby:Melissa Febos is a brilliant writer, and I just can't recommend this book enough if you are a writer yourself. It is a must read. Bodywork by Melissa Febos. My next read was a memoir of sorts called Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House by Megan Daum. This was an interesting sort of review of the different houses that the author has lived in and this sort of very, like, Gen X sense of, like, I must own a home to be an adult in the world, I think that, like, it fell a little flat for me.
Amelia Hruby:It felt very, like, of a time that I am not of, but great title, right? Such a good title. After that, I read 2 romances by Annabelle Monahan. I read Nora Goes Off Script and Same Time Next Summer. I think that Annabelle Monahan really writes these female leads that are so real, so funny, they're imperfect, they make bad jokes, they do weird things, but I am so on board with it.
Amelia Hruby:And I also appreciate that her characters are a little older, they're a little more established, they often have kids. I would definitely recommend both of these books if you are a romance fan. My next read was selected right off of the $5 table at the Barnes and Noble cafe, and that is Liar's Beach by Katie Contugno. This is a sort of Agatha Christie esque You mystery set in the Hamptons. Somebody dies, and these 2 teenagers are gonna figure out what happened.
Amelia Hruby:It was a pleasurable, pulpy sort of summer read, if that's your thing. After that, I read The September House by Carissa Orlando. This is a haunted house story about a woman who is determined to continue living in her dream home even after it becomes this, like, haunted nightmare. There are ghosts everywhere. Weird stuff happens.
Amelia Hruby:Her daughter comes to try to see if she's okay and also find out what has happened to her dad, and a lot happens from there. This book didn't totally land for me. There were some plot lines that I thought were underdeveloped, but it's an interesting read, for sure, if you're a haunted house fan. After that, I read Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew. This was the Kelly Andrew book that really stuck with me this year.
Amelia Hruby:The premise is that our main character, Wyatt, has just inherited the farmhouse she grew up in because her father has died, it's hers now, and she is going back there to burn it to the ground. She doesn't want this place to exist anymore. And when she's doing her final walk through of the house, she finds her childhood best friend, Peter, chained up in the basement, which is wild. Like, woah. And this is definitely a supernatural horror book, so I don't want you to think that this is just, like, a weird true crime setup.
Amelia Hruby:It's not. We go a whole supernatural direction with this. And this book is technically called You, but it was the darkest thing that I read this year, and definitely a propulsive plot. So one of my favorite reads, but definitely only for you if you are into a dark supernatural thriller horror vibe. After that, I was really craving, like, an urban fantasy mass market series, so I read Night Mist by Yasmin Gailorn.
Amelia Hruby:This was like a fun book with fairies and vampires. It's part of her Indigo Court series, and I proceeded to read all 5 of them, even though at this point I'm not sure I could tell you what happened in any of them. There's a cool house in the woods, there's some winter, they go on a quest to find the heart of a fairy or something. That's what I remember. It was very pleasurable, but definitely that sort of, like, early odds mass market fairy urban fantasy vibe.
Amelia Hruby:While I was reading those, I was also reading Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. I took a really amazing course with Megan Leatherman this year where we read this book together and explored how capitalism was established in our society. It's a super powerful read. Highly recommend if you're interested in understanding the ways that the this world has come to be and the many many many many many many problems with capitalism. My next read was a totally different flavor, and that was Funny Story by Emily Henry.
Amelia Hruby:I'm a big Emily Henry fan, and I was always going to read this book. The setup is that the 2 main characters have recently been dumped because their exes decided to date each other. There's a little more nuance than that, but as a result, these 2 main characters move in together because one of them is out a place to live and needs somewhere to go. It's a fun setup, it's a funny story, and all Emily Henry reads are 5 stars for me, at least the first time around, so this fell into that. After I read Funny Story, I wanted to reread a little more Emily Henry, so I went back to Beach Read, which is one of my favorite books of hers.
Amelia Hruby:We have 2 authors who are in the same MFA program that are kind of rivals, end up in next door beach cottages as they're writing their next book, and they are grieving some different things in their lives and they fall for each other, as you might expect. My next two reads were by Katie Roberts. I read Hunt on Dark Waters and Blood on the Tide. I read these because I saw a description of a vampire selkie romance, and I was like, I have no idea how that's ever going to happen. And that was the second book in this series, so I went and read the first one so I could get to that one.
Amelia Hruby:This is a super fun, supernatural, sort of mythical world where all these different creatures exist and travel around these boats to different islands, and there is a sort of revolutionary plot that moves the story forward, and I really liked it. If you like Katee Robert and you like smutty fantasy, this series could be great for you. Up next, I read Cleat Cute by Meryl Wiltzner. This was recommended to me by my friend, Rosie, and it did not disappoint. Probably the sexiest romance I have read this year, and it's about sports.
Amelia Hruby:I never read sports romance. So the premise here is basically that we have 2 soccer players, one who is brand new to a professional team, one who is established there, and they meet and things get really sexy pretty fast. There's more to the story, but you really only need to know that. And for me to give you my 5 star recommendation, go read this immediately if you like sapphic sports romance. Or honestly, even if you don't like sports romance, just read this book.
Amelia Hruby:I don't care about sports, but I loved Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner. After that, I read The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner. I have noticed Jennifer Weiner's books around for so long. Maybe you say her name whiner as I'm looking at it more. But I feel like her prose is, like, really well written.
Amelia Hruby:She kind of writes romance like it's literary fiction, and there are ways that worked for me in ways that it didn't in this book. The premise of which has something to do with these characters going on this bike trip and one of them falling for each other along the way. So that was The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner. It was fine. That's my take.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read Georgie All Along by Kate Claiborne. This was another sort of fun, forgettable romance for me. The main character of this one, Georgie, has to return home from LA during a sort of confusing time in her career, and she rediscovers this diary she'd written in high school with this sort of possible life she imagined for herself with her high school crush, and, of course, that leads her back toward her high school crush in the present. So that is Georgie All Along by Kate Claiborne, 3 star romance for me. Okay.
Amelia Hruby:We are almost halfway through my reading for the year. Thanks for being along for the ride. My next book I read was Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. I decided that I wanted to read all of Riley Sager's books this year, and this was one of the ones I had missed in the past. So the premise of this book is that the main character Jules has just gotten a job apartment setting at one of Manhattan's most high profile buildings, and there are a lot of weird rules and some weird stuff happens.
Amelia Hruby:And this was like a 3 star read for me. I have other Riley Sager favorites, but I think this one is good for you if you're a fan of his work. Then I read another Annabel Monahan book, Summer Romance, which was her new release this year. I don't remember much of anything about it except that I still love Annabel Monahan as a romance writer. So I think I just really like her tone and the way she writes romance more than I remember any of the particular plots of the books that she writes.
Amelia Hruby:So there's that. My next read was another fun romance called 1 night on the island by Josie Silver. I'm a big fan of Josie Silver's Christmas romance, 1 Day in December, and this seemed like the same sort of vibe. We have 2 people who travel to this remote, I think, Scottish island to stay in this cabin, and they realize it has been double booked and they have to stay there together and the book happens from there. After that, I read The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez.
Amelia Hruby:This is her first really popular book, I think, and it did not work for me. It was just so hetero. I don't know a better way to say that. But, like, the main characters were like firemen, and they were very macho. And the main lead was like a sort of girl boss building her own business from home.
Amelia Hruby:There was a subplot around, like, her experiences of, I believe, like, fibroids and PMDD that I thought was, like, honest, but also wasn't very interesting to me. So I don't know. People love this book, but it was not for me. Up next, I read 2 books by Rachel Hawkins. The first was The Villa, which I loved.
Amelia Hruby:I love thrillers where there's like a book within a book, and this book delivered. There's literally like a book within a book within a book, and the setup is sort of like these two writer friends go to this villa together. 1 of them is, like, very famous for her more like self help writing, and the other, I think, does, like, cozy mystery writing. They go to this villa that the self help rich friend has booked for them in Italy and are trying to write a book together, but there's this mystery at the house and things that happened there in the past. And I really liked this.
Amelia Hruby:Like, I liked it enough that I read it from the library and then bought a copy of it for myself, and I'm not even sure how it why it landed so great for me, but that's the villa by Rachel Hawkins. After that, I wanted to read another Rachel Hawkins thriller, so I read reckless girls. And this is more of like a deserted island thriller. I liked it, but I liked the villain more, so I want you to go read that one. Or if you read both, compare and let me know what you think.
Amelia Hruby:My next read was The Summer Job by Lizzie Dent. In this book, our down on her luck main character poses as her best friend to go take a job as a sommelier at a very fancy resort in the Scottish Highlands, and there are some funny hijinks, there's some romance. It's a good time, 3 star romance kind of read for me. My next read was Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar. This was a really nice love story with a fake fiance trope and I would read more of her books.
Amelia Hruby:I thought it was really fun. After this, I read the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson. This is a You detective thriller set at a school for incredibly smart teenagers. It was really fun. My friend Nicole recommended this to me, and I sprinted through the 5 books in this series.
Amelia Hruby:So I went in without knowing much, and I wanna recommend that you do the same. It's a really great read, and I'm not even really a mystery reader, but I loved it. I will say especially the first three books where we have this sort of mystery unfolding around the school. The others travel a little more, and I don't know if that was for me, but I really enjoyed this series as a whole. That's Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.
Amelia Hruby:While I was reading those, I also listened to an audiobook, Burn the Place by Elena Reagan. This is a beautiful memoir about a chef in Chicago, and she kind of tells you the story of her upbringing and her coming out as queer and how this happened in both, like, her childhood and these Chicago kitchens. I did not have a chance to eat at her restaurant when it was in Chicago, but I loved the book and highly recommend it. My next read was The Daydreams by Laura Henkin. This is definitely giving, like, Daisy Jones but make it Gossip Girl TV show vibes.
Amelia Hruby:It was, like, catnip for me, and I ate it up. Highly recommend The Daydreams if you are into a sort of, like, pop culture reality show novel kind of vibe. After that, I read One Star Romance by Laura Henkin. This has a really fun setup where our main characters meet because their respective best friends are in a relationship, and they have, like, a very flirtatious relationship. But then one of the main characters finds out that the other has written a one star review of her first book.
Amelia Hruby:So now they're feuding and this has to play out over the course of the book, which was super fun to watch happen. And then, oh, I forgot that I did this, I read another Laura Hankin book. So I read 3 Laura Hankin books in a row. I was really intrigued by the fact that she wrote these really sort of different types of books. We have the Daydreams, which has more of, like, a group of friends, pop culture sort of vibe.
Amelia Hruby:We have 1 Star Romance, which is much more attempting to be an enemies to lovers romance. And then I read A Special Place For Women, which I included in my Girlboss influencers episode, the very first episode of the show, because it's about this sort of the wing esque coworking space for women in New York City and this woman who infiltrates it as a sort of undercover reporter and what unfolds from there. Okay. Moving right along, my next read was Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. This is a very popular and, I think, very, like, deservedly read queer horror about this woman whose wife goes on these undersea expeditions.
Amelia Hruby:And one day she goes missing, and the whole crew is missing for weeks, and then they return. And her wife is not how she used to be. And so we get this sort of dual point of view of, we're back in the past seeing what was happening with the crew underwater, and then we're in the present and the wife's point of view seeing what she's experiencing with her wife who has returned changed. So this one's pretty short, and it's a great read. Highly recommend Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.
Amelia Hruby:Up next was another You series recommended by my friend, Nicole. I just read the first book, and that is called Scythe by Neal Shusterman. I really enjoyed this. I should go back and read the other ones now that I'm thinking about it. But the basic premise here is that humans have become so technologically advanced that they don't die, and scythes are required to kill certain people so that the population can stay steady and stable across earth.
Amelia Hruby:And we have these 2 teenagers who have been sort of tapped to become scythes, and that is the setup of the story. I thought it was a great read, really fascinating, asked a lot of interesting questions, but just, like, kinda kept the plot moving, and I do recommend it. My next read was an incredibly, like, a book talk popular book, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. The setup here is that this student has been selected sort of similar to, I think, The Wishing Game. She's been selected to go to her favorite author's home to redesign his estate, and there's this really sort of like dark mystery effect here.
Amelia Hruby:People love this book, but it did not work for me, like not even a little bit. So that's really all I have to say about A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. Next up, I read Becky Chambers' series, A Psalm for the Wild Built, or that's the first book in the series, and I also read A Prayer for the Crown Shy. I think it's the monk robot series these two books are in. These are beautiful speculative fiction set in a world where humans created robots who then gained sentience and agreed to leave human society and go live in the wilderness of Earth.
Amelia Hruby:And we have this sort of first ever encounter between a human and a robot since that had happened, and they go on this journey together. It's a really, really beautiful speculative fiction, dystopian book, and I highly recommend the Monk Robot series by Becky Chambers. Up next, I read Riley Sager's 2024 release, middle of the night. This one really falls, like, right in the middle for me among Riley Sager releases. The basic setup is that this man goes back to his childhood home, where when he was young, his best friend went missing and never returned.
Amelia Hruby:So that's the setup for the book, and then the plot goes through, like, how the adults uncover what has happened. And it's sort of a thriller. I don't know if it was my favorite, but it was a solid read, and I didn't guess the end at the beginning. So I think that's a success. My next read was my favorite romance of the whole year, and that was The Pairing by Casey McQuiston.
Amelia Hruby:I did not expect to love this based on the synopsis, but I could not get over how, like, fun and queer this was. The basic setup is that this couple is set to go on a European food and wine tour, but they break up on their way there and abandon the tour. And then because they had canceled, they can rebook anytime within the next, I think, like 5 years, and they both rebook for the last possible tour they could take, and they end up on it together even though they hadn't spoken since their breakup. So they go on this tour and they have these relationships with other people along the way. There's all of these amazing descriptions of the food and the wine and the meals.
Amelia Hruby:Like, as somebody who loves, like, restaurant culture and traveling and queer relationships, like, this book was just made for me and I adored it. 5 out of 5 stars for The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. After that, I read Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adeje Brinya, And I had read their short story collection, Friday Black, previously and loved it. And the premise of this novel is basically, like, what if prisons had a sort of gladiator meets wrestling setup where people could compete to the death and potentially be released from prison. That's the setup of the book, and it is a hard hitting political commentary.
Amelia Hruby:It's a fantastic novel and I can't recommend it highly enough. It was recommended to me by my friend Lily and I'm so grateful that she got me to read it this year. Okay, friends. We are 2 thirds of the way through. Fifty books left.
Amelia Hruby:Let's see how quickly I can get through these. My next read was This Summer Will Be Different by Carly Fortune, and my 10 second review of this book is that it's a perfectly pleasant summer romance, 3 out of 5 stars. Would recommend if you're looking for something that really hits that summary. I think this is specifically Prince Edward Island romance style, and I don't know if there's much more I need to say about it. After that, I read Cursed Bread by Sophie MacIntosh, and this was a really fascinating fictionalized story of this village where everyone died of poisoning and nobody quite knew how, And we sort of get this point of view around the baker's wife.
Amelia Hruby:And I read this in an afternoon and just remember being really struck by how novel this novel was. I really enjoyed it. It was different than anything else I read this year. My next read was American Mermaid by Julia Langman. In this book, a writer and teacher named Penelope writes a novel that becomes really surprisingly successful, and so she moves to Hollywood to write the screenplay so that the book can become a movie.
Amelia Hruby:And she unravels while she is in California, and it's a little bit surreal. I enjoyed it, but I kinda wish it had been, like, 30% shorter. I think it could have been tightened up overall. After that, I read the sequel to Liar's Beach, which I had read earlier in the year, and that was called Hemlock House by Katie Contugno. I was just really interested in the main characters.
Amelia Hruby:We have this sort of teen detective named Holiday and her sort of more like preppy, jockey friend, and they go off to college in the second book and they have a new mystery to solve. And I liked it, but I don't think I'll keep reading the series. It just wasn't quite for me. I kind of got my fix of You early in the year and was ready to move on by this point. Although I say that, and I'm about to tell you about another You series I loved, so who knows?
Amelia Hruby:After Hemlock House, I read a novel love story by Ashley Poston. I love her brand of, like, magical surreal romance. The setup for this book is that a woman finds herself in her favorite fictional town from this romance series that she loves, and she falls for somebody there. And that is just, like, such a perfect book idea, but I'd say, like, the execution of it only kinda worked for me in this book. So I adore the 7 year slip.
Amelia Hruby:That's definitely my more favorite read from Ashley Poston. Up next, I read Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. She is such a beloved writer, and she's local to me being from Omaha, and I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. And I liked how honest this book was. Like, it felt like how 2 people would actually fall in love, but it also just, like, didn't quite sing for me.
Amelia Hruby:I think I gave it, like, 2 out of 5 stars, but I saw a ton of people love it this year. So it could be the right romance for you if you're looking for just a book about 2 adults falling in love and the challenges they face along the way. I was just so honest. That's the best word I have to describe Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. My next read was a book I read for my business book club called Beloved Economies.
Amelia Hruby:This is a sort of social experiment where these two writers really explored, like, different businesses and how they take care of the communities that they support. And it definitely, like, gave me some good ideas for my business. So I think it's good if you're a business owner and you're interested in thinking about how to better embed care in what you do and the way you work, you might enjoy Beloved Economies. And they also have a great website that walks through a lot of the stuff in the book if you wanna check that out first. Up next is another Carly fortune romance, Every Summer After.
Amelia Hruby:Think the reason I'm, like, I don't have much more to say about these books is because I cannot remember the difference between these two books. They make a great pairing if you're like, I need summer romance. Go read every summer after, and the summer will be different. They're great. I just don't know that they're super memorable.
Amelia Hruby:Sorry, Carly Fortune. I really like your work. I just can't remember it. My next read was Invincible Summer by Alice Adams. I was trying to do a whole summer romance theme that you might catch onto here.
Amelia Hruby:This one follows a sort of group of college friends and the different sort of summer trips they take together over the years. It's very, like, one day meets Reality Bites and maybe like a dash of industry thrown in. We have some, like, London finance stuff. I liked this, but I think I wanted a summer romance and it didn't, like, live up to the summer of the title. Like, Invincible Summer was more about, like, their youth, not about, like, summer itself, which is, like, nothing against the book.
Amelia Hruby:It just meant that it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Up next, I read 2 thrillers. The first was First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. This is definitely one of the most popular thrillers of the year, and I really enjoyed it. This setup is basically like this woman is living under a false identity, and her boyfriend fiance doesn't know, and she has to figure out how she's going to move forward from there.
Amelia Hruby:And it had a twist that I did not guess, so that's always a plus. And I normally don't like fake identity books, but I kinda got into this one. So would recommend First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston as, like, a popcorn thriller anytime you're looking for one. After that, I read The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Again, I was trying to get through all my Riley Sager this year, and this is, like, one of the few I had not read.
Amelia Hruby:The premise for this definitely has to do with an older woman who is kind of the town outcast for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with her family dying, and she is living in this house by herself. And we have our main character who is sort of also a town outcast, live in nurse that goes to live with her, and a whole lot of drama unfolds from that. Like, I did not expect where this book was going. I don't know that it totally landed for me, but I like reading Riley Sager books even if I don't love every one of them. So that was the only one left by Riley Sager.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read The Natural Series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and I loved this series. Let me tell you. If you want Criminal Minds to be a You series of 5 books that you can devour in a weekend, this is what you want. That was not something I ever thought I wanted until I read the naturals, and I was like, please, please, And I was like, please, please, please give me more of this. So the basic setup is we have these teenagers who are kind of recruited by the FBI to solve these serial mysteries.
Amelia Hruby:And that's all you need to know, plus my glowing 5 star recommendation, particularly for the first three books. This series made me convinced that I want to read everything Jennifer Lynn Barnes writes, and I will be doing more of that in 2025. Up next, I read Honey by Isabel Bonta. This book is kind of about a pop star. This was this continued my sort of pop star celebrity culture reading trend of 2024.
Amelia Hruby:It follows the rise of this fictional singer, Amber Young, as she navigates fame in the, like, late nineties, early aughts. If you are a Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson fan, you will probably like this book. I felt like the 3 main characters were directly mapped onto those people, essentially. So fun read if you're into that nostalgia. Next up, I read another romance by Lizzie Dent.
Amelia Hruby:This one was called The Sweetest Revenge. It felt pretty similar to The Summer Job, which I had also read. It's another, like, fun romance that centers around people's work, and both of them have alcohol on the covers for some reason. I don't know why. But I'll be honest that I think because Summer Job had that beautiful Scottish Highlands setting, I remember it more than I remember The Sweetest Revenge.
Amelia Hruby:So I'd probably recommend The Summer Job over this one. My next read was Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks. I also talked about this one in my first episode of the show on Girlboss influencers, so I'm gonna recommend you go there to hear what I thought about it. After Under the Influence, I read The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. I have been such a Lucy Foley fan, but this book just did not land for me.
Amelia Hruby:I felt like the twists were too convenient. The characters didn't hook me enough. I don't know. This one just didn't quite land. Sorry, Lucy.
Amelia Hruby:I love your work. The Midnight Feast was just not for me. In contrast, my next read was a mystery thriller by an author I had never heard of, and I thought it was fantastic. So up next, I read The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocum. This is a book about a violin prodigy, this young black man from, I believe, Central North Carolina, and he discovers a family heirloom, which is this incredibly expensive violin, and there is this legal battle about who owns it and what goes on, and then the violin goes missing, and that's the sort of propulsive point of the plot.
Amelia Hruby:So I thought this was so well written and really well done, and it is a fiction novel, but some of the details draw from the author's own life, which I really appreciated. My next read was a very, very, very popular, well loved book that I did not like at all, and that was A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. This series is so beloved, and I read the book because I wanted to watch the show, but I think true crime is just not for me, even like fictionalized true crime like this was. So basically the setup is that, like, these teenagers have died and this girl who is a few years younger than them is creating a podcast to uncover what has happened, and I just didn't feel it. I didn't like it.
Amelia Hruby:I don't have any critique of the book. It just wasn't for me. So that's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Maybe it's for you. I didn't like the show either, so I really just think the story did not land with me.
Amelia Hruby:It has nothing to say about the author or anything else. My next read was Truly, Madly, Magically by Hazel Buck. This is a continuation of a series that I talk about in my magical series for romantic witches episode, so I will let you go listen to that to hear how I feel about it. Then I read There's No Way I'd Die First by Lisa Springer. This book is such a love letter to black horror.
Amelia Hruby:It's a You thriller where we have a group of teenagers who come together for a Halloween party, and it's meant to be the event of the year, the most Instagramable event of the year, even, but people start getting murdered, which is a problem. So I just found this a very fun Halloween time read, and I would definitely recommend There's No Way I'd Die First by Lisa Springer. Up next, I read I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Su. I never thought I could enjoy a book about office culture. Like, I don't even like the show The Office, but this was so fun watching our main character hate her job and then find herself with this really snarky voice along the way.
Amelia Hruby:And, I mean, the setup of it is also great. Like, she has been writing emails to people, and at the bottom of the emails in white ink, putting these, like, snarky notes at the bottom, like, making the text white so people can't see them, and she gets found out and everything unfolds from there. So highly recommend, I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue. I didn't read anything else this year quite like it, which is great among a 150 books that I did read. My next two reads were both Sally Rooney novels for my Sally Rooney ranked episode.
Amelia Hruby:I read her new book Intermezzo and then I went back and read Beautiful World, Where Are You. I am a Sally Rooney fan. I thought Intermezzo was her best work yet, and you can go listen to that episode to find out why. From Sally Rooney, I moved on to another really beautiful book by Rivers Solomon, and that is The Deep. This book is about a sort of myth that enslaved African women who were thrown overseas on the Atlantic slave trade were rescued by whales to some degree and gave birth to a new race of essentially mermaids.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. There's a nuance there that I'm glossing over, but the story is about ancestral lineage. It's about memory. It's about humanity, and it is so, so profound. So I highly recommend The Deep by Rivers Solomon.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read The Woods All Black by Lee Mandello. This is a historical queer horror that I did not know what to expect, and for the first 2 thirds of the book, I thought I was just reading this spooky historical story, and I was yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine, fine, fine. Okay. And then it went off the walls.
Amelia Hruby:I talked about this a little bit in my creature features episode, so you can go here more there. But let me tell you, I did not expect where this book was going. And by the end
Amelia Hruby:I was like, yeah, give me more. I need to go read everything Lee Mandelo has written because I just love to be surprised by a story. Even if I was like also a little confused, a little overwhelmed, grossed out even at times. And I was like, all right, this is just what we're doing. I'm going to keep reading.
Amelia Hruby:So that's The Woods All Black by Lee Mandello. After that, I listened to maybe my first audiobook of the year, and I guess my second audiobook of the year, and that was 2 Can Play by Ali Hazelwood, which is a Spotify exclusive audiobook about these 2 video game designers and the romance that they have. It was super fun to listen to. It's pretty short as far as audiobooks go. And let me tell you, I was walking my dog listening to these sexy, smutty scenes, and it felt like inappropriate to be in public.
Amelia Hruby:So that's my warning before you listen to Toucan Play by Ali Hazelwood.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read 2 very different vampire books. The first was So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, and the second was Night's Edge by Liz Kieran. I read these for my creature feature episode, which you can go listen to. I would say So Thirsty is for you if you want a sort of funny Thelma and Louise vampire esque story, and Night's Edge is for you if you're more into a sort of like 28 days later, mother daughter vampire virus story. I enjoy them both for different reasons, and you can hear about those in the creature feature episode.
Amelia Hruby:After that, I read An Academy For Liars by Alexis Henderson. I was the first person on the holds list for this when I came in at the library and I was very excited to read it because I was a big fan of House of Hunger by Alexis Harrison. And this book was included in my dark academia episode. It was not my favorite dark academia read. The general setup is that you have a school where everyone is being trained in the magic of persuasion, which is where you persuade people to do things that you want them to do with some more nuance.
Amelia Hruby:Like, you can also persuade people to not realize a certain space exists or, like, it's much broader than simple manipulation. But I think that the plot was a little meandering. I don't know that it landed, and I've seen the the general consensus of people did not like this book. I liked it, but it was a sort of, like, 3 and a half star read for me this year. My next read was You Belong by Sabineh Selassie, who is a friend and colleague of mine and someone I really admire.
Amelia Hruby:I had owned her book for a while, but I read it on a flight in the fall and just really appreciated her approach to meditation, to Buddhist philosophies, and to understanding the structures and systems of oppression that we live in and how we can still work for, like, interpersonal liberation among that. And I really enjoyed what her writing about love and belonging throughout the book and definitely highly recommend You Belong by Sabineh Selassie. Up next, I finished 3 series that were witchy romance series, and I have to tell you, I did not like the endings of any of them. It was so disappointing. So I read Rise and Divine by Lana Harper, Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher, and then The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling.
Amelia Hruby:And these were the final books in 3 of my favorite witchy romance series, and I I didn't like any of them. So I'm not really gonna talk much more about it. I highly encourage you to go read the first books in those series, Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper, Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher, and The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling. I loved those books, but I don't know if you need to complete the series because these just did not land for me at all. They were all like 1 and a half or 2 star reads.
Amelia Hruby:After that sort of romance letdown, I read a few creepy books to get me in a different mood. I read The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher, which I loved. I love, love, love, loved this book. It was so dark. It was so spooky.
Amelia Hruby:And I will admit, maybe part of the reason I loved it so much is because it's set in this sort of haunted house space, Eldridge Horror vibe, that is named or meant to be about 30 minutes from where I grew up in North Carolina. So when t Kingfisher describes the setting, I'm like, oh, I know this area, like, no know this area. And I think that just gave me this, like, personal buy in to the plot, which is essentially that this main character has to go to her grandmother's house to clean it out after her grandmother has died. And her grandmother was, like, very mean, and they were did not have a good relationship. So she, like, doesn't really wanna go.
Amelia Hruby:It's a lot of work. She's, like, basically a hoarder. And while she's there, these, like, spooky things start happening, and she, like, uncovers this whole other, like, supernatural world. And she works with the neighbors, and they have to go there, and, like, a lot of cool stuff happens. So that was The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher, 5 star read for me.
Amelia Hruby:I read another 5 star read right after that, We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kluwer. This has been one of the most popular books of the year. I've seen it everywhere. And the setup is, basically, you have this queer couple who has bought a house as, like, a fixer upper. They're gonna flip it, and they're living in it and working there.
Amelia Hruby:And this family arrives in the middle of a snowstorm and or the beginning of a snowstorm, really, when they get there, and the father's like, I grew up in this house. Can I come in and look around? Would that be okay with you? And only one of the main characters is at the house at the time, and she tries to say no, but eventually she relents. And once they come in, they don't really leave.
Amelia Hruby:And I thought it was gonna be like a spooky domestic thriller vibe, but this was so much more than I expected. So highly recommend. We Used to Live Here. I don't wanna tell you anything else because I don't wanna spoil anything about it. After that, I took a slight dip in romance again, and I read role playing by Kathy Yardley.
Amelia Hruby:I really liked this romance because it featured a empty nester mom, a single mom whose child has just gone off to college, and she meets somebody playing video games and they come to find out they have some mutual friends. And it's just a really heartfelt, fun romance that kind of takes place in this age range and this discussion of sexuality that I don't see in a lot of contemporary romance. So I really liked role playing by Kathy Yardley and would recommend it. After that, I read the Deadly Education series or I read the Sholomance series that starts with A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I love this series.
Amelia Hruby:It was probably my favorite read of the year. I talked a lot about it in my dark academia episodes, so I'm not gonna get into it here, but go read this series.
Amelia Hruby:I can't believe it took me so long to read
Amelia Hruby:it, and I loved all of the books. I'm obsessed with the main character, Elle. I'm obsessed with her powers and how she grapples with them. I'm obsessed with how they try to bring a sort of democratization of magic across the world that this is built in, and I plan to reread it. So highly recommend the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik.
Amelia Hruby:It starts with A Deadly Education, then The Last Graduate, then The Golden Enclaves. After that, I read Snow Place Like LA and A Jingle Bell Mingle and finished out the Christmas Notch series by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. I love this series. It is so smutty. It is so silly.
Amelia Hruby:The general premise across the series is that you have this sort of Hallmark esque channel has hired this director and these actors to make a series of Christmas movies, but it turns out through some hijinks that they are all adult film stars. And we have these different relationships that unfold this Christmassy setting. There are 2 novellas. So Snow Like Snow Place Like LA is actually a novella, and the novellas I really, really recommend. I listen to them on audiobook, and they are much more like queer main characters and stories, and I really enjoyed them.
Amelia Hruby:So highly recommend the whole Christmas Notch series if you're looking for something fun to read over the holidays. I also did some as, like, a Christmas in July reading, which I really enjoyed. So, you know, you can do these any time of year. Up next, I finally read the 4th Wing by Rebecca Yaros and the follow-up, Iron Flame. These books are so hyped and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this sort of Basgiat War College Dragon stories, but I really enjoyed them.
Amelia Hruby:They were such a fun read. I read them with my sister-in-law, Michelle, shout out to you. We had such a good time talking about them together, and I don't really feel like I need to recap them for you. You can go watch like a 1000000 YouTube videos if you're interested, but I did talk about them in my dark academia series. So that is 4th Wing by Rebecca Yaros.
Amelia Hruby:I am super excited for Onyx Storm to come out. I'm actually going to a midnight release party at my local bookseller, Sewer Books, in Lincoln, Nebraska. So I look forward to being there and celebrating the 3rd book in the series. Like, it's just fun to be a part of a super popular series like this. I don't need to be a hater.
Amelia Hruby:I don't need to claim this is a 5 star perfect read, but it is so fun to be around this big group of people loving a book together. Why wouldn't I wanna do that? Okay. We are down to my last 10 reads of the year, I think. Last 12 reads, sort of.
Amelia Hruby:So up next, I read Vicious by VE Schwab. This is the first book in a duology about these college roommates who discover superhuman abilities and some really bad things happen after that, and it just didn't quite land for me. I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. I didn't finish the duology, and I will be moving on to some other VE Schwab reads in 2025. I also read the Atlas 6 as a part of my dark academia series reads, and I read the follow-up, the Atlas Paradox, and then I DNF'd the last book, the Atlas Complex.
Amelia Hruby:I loved the Atlas 6 so much. I, like, raved about it in my dark academia episode. I loved it, but I did not like where it went from there. I I have to admit, this series really let me down. I was not a fan by the end, so that was a real bummer to discover.
Amelia Hruby:And at the same time, I will be reading more all of the Blake in the future. Up next, I have 2 Christmas romances that I talked about in my Christmas romance episode. The first was set the record straight by Hannah Bonham Young and the second was make the season bright by Ashley Herring Blake, and I liked them both and you can hear about it in the Christmas romance I actually like episode. After that, I read some spookier books. I read Night Watching by Tracy Sierra, which is a winter thriller.
Amelia Hruby:I'm working on a winter thriller episode for the start of 2025, so I don't wanna say too much about this book. I had mixed feelings about it, and I will talk about them in a future episode. I also read horror movie by Paul Tremblay. I really like this book. I love books about films.
Amelia Hruby:Just like I love a book within a book within a book, I love books about making movies. So it felt like this was really set up for me, and I was pretty on board until we got to the end. I don't know. It did not land the plane for me. I was pretty disappointed.
Amelia Hruby:And I hate when that happens. I hate when you're loving a book and then you don't like the ending. Like, what do you do with that? So I don't know. If you've read it or you do read it, I'd love to hear from you.
Amelia Hruby:What did you think of horror movie by Paul Tremblay? After that, I finally got off the holds list for the Magnolia Parks series from the library, and I read Magnolia Parks and Daisy Hates by Jessa Hastings. This is a series that was, I guess, all over BookTok because then some of the BookTubers I watched started talking about it. And it's basically being described as, like, Magnolia Parks, the first book, is basically like Chuck and Blair's story on Gossip Girl. And I think that that's a pretty correct comparison and one that I enjoyed.
Amelia Hruby:I liked the first book. I thought it was a fun romance if you're into a sort of, like, toxic vibe. Like, if you were toxic vibe. Like, if you were secretly a teenager who wanted, like, every boy you met to be in love with you and for everybody to be rich and hot all the time, you will probably like this book. I think there's a lot of, like, fantasy fulfillment for readers with this one.
Amelia Hruby:It was fine for me. I thought it was an okay read. I thought I'd keep going because people just keep talking about the series. So I read the second book Daisy Hates, but that brings in more of like a mafia romance thing, which is really just not my style. I don't get into the violence of it.
Amelia Hruby:It's not appealing to me. And then I started reading the 3rd book in the series and it really turned me off. I did not like this book. It really brought in an SA plot line and it brought in a sort of abortion plot line that I really did not like. I thought that they were poorly handled.
Amelia Hruby:They were not well explained or justified. There was no reason they needed to be in the books. They were just kind of dropped in, and I quit reading. I was like, nope. Not for me.
Amelia Hruby:So that's my take on Jessa Hastings and the Magnolia Park series. And we're down to my last three books. So I just happened upon my next read while I was scrolling through Libby, and I really liked it. So that was daughter of the bone forest by Jasmine Sky. I really liked the magic system in this book where you have people with different elemental magics, but it's not just like earth, wind, fire, water.
Amelia Hruby:It's like bone magic and glass magic. And you also have, like, witches and then familiars, people who can turn into different creatures with these different magics. I thought the shape shifting was really interesting. I liked the sort of relationship that builds between the two main characters, Rosie and Shaw, but I did feel like it was a bit underdeveloped. And I also felt like the pacing of the book was a bit off, so I don't know.
Amelia Hruby:I gave it, like, 3 and a half, almost 4 stars. It was a fun read for me. I will definitely read the the second one when it comes out, but I think maybe part of the magic is just that, like, I found it unexpectedly and enjoyed it, which is, like, kind of fun for me when that happens as opposed to a lot of these books I, like, heard about forever before I read them. Okay. Last two books of my year.
Amelia Hruby:Just this past week, I read The Astrology House by Corinne Jade. This is a debut thriller, and it is for all of my astrology loving girlies out there. Like, if you want a a popcorn thriller that's going to talk to you about rising signs and bring in some tarot cards, I was really all in for the first two thirds of the book. I think the big reveal fell kind of flat for me, but this was still like a 3 star read and it was a very fun time. And then finally, my reading year wraps up with a Christmas romance and my favorite Christmas romance of the year, and that was All I Want Is You by Fallon Ballard.
Amelia Hruby:The premise of this book is that we have 2 writers who were in, like, a critique group together and fell in love and then broke up the year that their debut books come out. And the guy in this relationship becomes super famous and the girl, like, continues writing romance, but, like, does not have as much success. And years later, she is asked to give him an award at their shared publisher's, like, gala, holiday gala. And so she goes to give them him this reward, and as you have it, they get snowed in at the place the award ceremony is happening, and this, like, rekindles their romance. It's a pretty quick read, but I love books about writers.
Amelia Hruby:We all have figured this out by now, and I love a holiday romance setup, and I just had a really nice time with this book. It was like a perfect note to end my reading year on. So thank you for joining me in my reviews of all 150 books that I read this year, and I look forward to another great reading year to come. Up next, I've got an episode about my reading faves and flops of 2024. I'm gonna talk a bit more about a few of my favorite reads of the year and a lot about some of the different, like, reading things I tried that just did not work for me.
Amelia Hruby:And I'll share a bit more about what's coming up in 2025. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you happen to have one more spare moment for me, I would love if you could leave a 5 star rating and review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And until next time, here's to your next best book.