My Favorite Reads in 2021

Hey, remember once upon a time when I wrote for a bunch of bookish places? Sadly most of them are gone, and one thing I miss terribly is talking about my favorite books of the year somewhere. Anywhere! On a spot that isn’t just Twitter.

So, here I am, rambling on my website. In a blog post that I’ll share. On Twitter.

This year, I mostly read books to be comforted and to inform my writing, and sometimes, I’m lucky enough to pick up a book that does both.

So! Here are those comforting and powerful reads that taught me something this year. And might teach you something too.

Young Adult Novels:

• You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

• Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zae Kemp

• It’s Kind of a Cheesy Love Story by Lauren Morrill:

• Fresh by Margot Wood

• Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler

• The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin

• Vampires, Hearts, & Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston

• Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn

• The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland

• Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough

• In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

• It All Comes Back to You by Farah Naz Rishi

• Everything Within and In Between by Nikki Barthelmess

• Journey to the Heart of the Abyss by London Shah

• Blackout by Angie Thomas, Nicola Yoon, Ashley Woodfolk, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Nic Stone

Adult Novels:

• The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon

• Shipped by Angie Hockman

• The Love Hypothesis By Ali Hazelwood

• The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

• Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

• Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

• Float Plan by Trish Doller

• Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett

• Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor (Short Stories)

• Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

• Sword Stone Table by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington (Anthology)

• For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

When it comes to other categories, I really didn’t read as much Middle Grade as I would have liked to, but. absolutely inhaled Alex London’s first installment in the Battle Dragons series the day it came out. And every Preeti Chhibber project is an auto-buy for me, so I loved The Sinister Substitute, the latest in her Marvel Avengers series.

And in the graphic novel space, I devoured Wendy Xu’s latest, Tidesong and Whitney Gardner’s Long Distance. Both of those authors are insta-buys for me, and these books were wonderful.

Treat yourself to these titles. They were all wonderful.