While the AAR staff each shares a list of books published last year they love, every year they are asked to come up with their FAVORITE read. This year, after being informed that “No, you cannot pick an author or a series,” most of our reviewers did indeed pick just one. Here are their choices. Enjoy! […]
Here, in no particular order, are the books I enjoyed the most this year.
The Searcher by Tana French
I’ve been stanning Tana French since reading her first book, In the Woods, although her last, The Witch Elm, wasn’t to my taste. I was worried that I might not love The Searcher either given that it too is apart from her wildly brilliant Dublin Murder Squad books. My fear was for naught. The Searcher is a meditative tale about Cal Hooper, an American cop who impulsively retires to a small Irish village and becomes entangled in a missing person case. French’s writing has never been better–even the rooks who haunt Cal’s yard have more personality than the leads of many a lesser book. The plot is a slow burn tour de force and you’ll […]
This has been a Year to Read, and spending a lot of time stuck in the house, making minimal contact with the outside world, has resulted in a bumper crop of Good Books popping into my hand. Here, in no particular order, are my favorite reads of 2020. […]
2020 was a strange year for so many of us, and I’m beyond grateful for all the phenomenal books that helped me make it through the chaos. Below, I’m highlighting a few of my favorites in no particular order.
The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon
This was an utter delight from start to finish. I honestly don’t know if I loved the romance or the strong female friendships more. It was one of those books I just sort of fell into, and I would have read it in a single sitting if I could have.
Narrowing down my best books of the year is always a challenge (and don’t get me started on trying to pick THE best book of the year). Despite the strangeness of 2020 and the fact that I didn’t read as much as a I usually do (opting for stress free TV comedies and baking shows more often than not), I had some really great books cross my path and am delighted to share them with you! […]
This year was feast or famine for my reading life. I could barely pick up a book for most of the spring – instead losing myself in repeats of Top Chef and my umpteenth playthrough of Stardew Valley. I then spent July binging every happily ever after I could get my hands on, and when August hit it was back to video games. This lead to a shorter list of favorites, but no less robust, than in previous years. But there is definitely no pattern beyond “and they all lived happily ever after”. […]
The hardest part of any Best of list is frantically trying to read all the books on everyone else’s list to make sure you didn’t miss something. This is not helped when certain authors release fantastic books well into December (AHEM Ms. Alyssa Cole…) which you have to frantically get to before your deadline for list submission! […]
Probably the most surprising thing about my Best of 2020 list is that it does actually include some books NOT written by Gregory Ashe! I know – What a Shocker: P He’s published a phenomenal TEN books in 2020 – I’ve read nine of them and every single one of those has received DIK status, which is, surely unprecedented; I’ve never given so many A grades to a single author in a single year. But every one of those DIKs is absolutely deserved; his books are clever, funny, insightful, gritty, angsty, and romantic – and no one – NO ONE – does rip-your-heart-out-and-stomp-on-it slow burn romance quite like he does.
Ideally, I’d just put “Everything Gregory Ashe has published this year” on the list, but I can’t*, so instead I’ve just made two random choices (random because I could […]
My best book of 2020 was not a romance, though it did have a romantic subplot. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James was perfection in book form and was the highlight of my reading year. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which also had a sweet romance running through it, was a close second. If you like mystery, suspense and a touch of horror combined with your romance, these are the books for you.
If not, you’re in luck! I also found several absolutely fabulous romance reads and they are as follows: […]
This year turned out to be one in which I was extra thankful for a good book to lose myself in. January 2020 began horribly (COVID aside), and things didn’t improve much until July. Now I can happily say that 2020 was a year of miracles for me – a year that forever changed my perspective on life. Reading time was rare in 2020 so I was happy to spend it with some excellent books. […]
