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“The longer you put something off, the harder it is get done” was basically the story of my life in 2021. From job hunting to blog posts, I was great at putting things in my personal life on the back burner until the last minute. Especially when it came to my blog series. I love sharing the books I’ve read, but once I missed September 2021, it became harder and harder to catch up. It didn’t help that while my reading was slow at the beginning of the year and then SPED up towards the end. At this point, going back and trying to do all the books I read August to December seems like too high of a hill to climb (especially since I’m close to 140). So I decided that I would share my favorite books of 2021 instead. If you want to see the full reading list, check out my Goodreads or my instagram where I’m working on catching up (it’s much easier to do a star rating there now and I have a highlight where I save all of the lists).
My Favorite Books of 2021
Mystery
Prior to the pandemic, I was all about thrillers that you just couldn’t put down. Now that we’re almost two years in, I’ve shifted my reading into cozy murders that might have a bit of comedy to them. Same genre, but less terrifying.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
A mystery meets comedy with a little romance thrown in. Honestly, it’s like they wrote this book just for me. A for Aunties is about a family run wedding business and what happens when a bad date produces a dead man and that body just keeps reappearing during one of the biggest weddings of the year. The sequel comes out in 2022 and I can’t wait to read it.
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
Finlay Donovan is a struggling mystery writer who can’t seem to catch a break. That all changes when an overheard conversation in a Panera turns into Finlay being hired as a professional killer. Like A for Aunties, this mystery novel also has a bit of humor to it and I promise you won’t be able to put it down.
The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman
I love novels about adults in retirement homes acting ridiculously. Well in this novel, the retirement home happens to also have a club that likes to meet and review cold cases. It’s all just talk until they get pulled into a real murder case. This is the second book in the series and it’s even better than the first!
Romance
It’s no secret that I love a good romance. In fact, the majority of the books I read are romances. So it was super hard to narrow down my favorites from this year. I think I did a decent job of picking my top three, but honestly, I could write a whole post of my favorite romances of this year.
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
What do you do when all of your relatives keep hounding you about getting married? You ask your childhood crush to pretend to be your fiancé. Even if you kind of hate him and he needs to get married in order to get his inheritance. It’s a fun play on the trope and you won’t regret reading it (especially when you learn that there are two other books in the series).
Age Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
This is the third book in the Brown Sisters series, but this was by far my favorite. I loved reading about Eve, who just can’t seem to get her life together when it comes to her job. When she gets hired as the chef at an inn though, her luck seems to be changing. If only the hot manager wasn’t so set on firing her.
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
Can identical twins still swap places when they’re older? Charlie and Cass seem to think so, when both of their lives are going a little off of the rails. But it’s not as easy as they expect, especially when attractive men come into the picture.
I read a LOT of holiday romances this year, but this was by far the best of them all. It’s perfect to finish out the year with.
Young Adult
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
I love Marissa Meyer, so any novel she writes is highly likely to make my top ten lists. Gilded was a play on the Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale (a genre Meyer excels at). Even though I didn’t think I would be interested in the novel because I’m not a huge Rumpelstiltskin fan and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out.
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
I picked up this audiobook from the library on a whim and I LOVED it. In it, Izumi, a high school senior in California, finds out that her mystery father is the Crown Prince of Japan and, surprise, she’s an actual princess. When she travels to Japan to meet him, things aren’t exactly what she expects. I’m not kidding when I say that I fell in love with this book. Izumi is so lovable and you just want to keep cheering her on.
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
The Box in the Woods is the surprise fourth book in the Truly Devious series. It’s the only standalone mystery in the series, but it’s still just as enjoyable, with a great mystery. I can only hope that this book isn’t the final book of the series!
What were the best books that you read in 2021? Let me know!
