Hey guys! Long time no see. I know I’ve said this before, but I really am going to start posting consistently now. I had a week and a half off of school for Winter Break and in that time, I’ve scheduled several blog posts for 2025 so I can keep up better once school starts. I’m really excited to get back into blogging, and I figured the best way to do that is by recapping some of my favorite reads of 2024. Without further ado, here are my top five books, in chronological order of when I read them in the past year. Enjoy!
The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter
When a woman wakes up in Paris with no memory, plenty of people trying to kill her, and footage on the news of her fighting off a dozen men, she can only assume one thing: she’s a spy. Except, she’s not. According to a very attractive, very grouchy secret agent, her twin sister is a spy. Unfortunately, he’s the only one who knows that. Everyone else still wants to kill her. So, she’s stuck traveling across Europe with him in order to outrun criminal organizations and like every intelligence service ever.
This was the first book I read of 2024 and it’s maintained the place of my favorite of the year as well. I love both of the main characters and their banter was everything. Plus, I stand by the belief that there is no occupation in the world as attractive as a spy. Try to come up with one. Spoiler alert: you can’t. Spies are cool, dangerous, and incredibly hot. I don’t make the rules. Aside from loving the romance plotline, the mystery plot kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading.
Plus this book is pretty much just written for fans of Ally Carter’s YA series, Gallagher Girls, who have grown up. If you’ve been around my blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that Gallagher Girls is one of my favorite book series of all time and I tend to never shut up about it. So, needless to say, I loved that there were a lot of tie ins between The Blonde Identity and Gallagher Girls. That being said, you don’t need to read the Gallagher Girls books in order to read The Blonde Identity. (Although you should totally read them both anyways because they’re both stunning.)
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
The Magic Fish is a beautifulgraphic novel that follows Tiến and his mother. Tiến’s mother emigrated to the United States from Vietnam and she still struggles with her English. One way Tiến helps his mother practices her English, is by reading fairy tales with her. It’s also a way for them to bond. However, Tiến has to keep something from her because he simply doesn’t know the words in Vietnamese to tell her: he’s gay.
Trung Le Nguyen tells this story in such a creative way. It was so cool. The story flips between fairy tales and the real world and the color of the drawings changes depending on which we’re reading about in that frame. Also, the fairy tales are drawn differently depending on which character is imagining them. For example, when Tiến’s great aunt is told a fairy tale, she imagines it being set in 1950s Japan as that’s the era she grew up in. However, when Tiến imagines fairy tales, he pictures them much more like Western fairy tales with anachronistic details from the 1990s, when he’s growing up. I thought these details were so cool and added so much to the story.
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
We Set the Dark on Fire takes place in Medio, a corrupt world where the elite believe in a complex matchmaking system in which each bachelor marries two women: one who is caring and nurturing, and one who is intelligent and detached. Dani was rescued from poverty when she was sent to the Medio School for Girls, where she was trained to be a good wife. She has to keep her past a secret in order to maintain her top of the class status and marry the most promising bachelor. She succeeds, but his other wife is her rival and even worse, someone knows about her secret past and is willing to use it against her. She’s forced to become a rebel spy in exchange for them keeping her secret.
This book had a ton of twists and I really enjoyed reading it. I really liked the two main characters and watching their relationship progress. I also found the whole concept of Medio really interesting and intriguing. Dani is stuck in a really tough position and I really felt for her. She had no power over the past events that were being held over her head, and yet they had the power to destroy her if others found out. Overall, it was very suspenseful and I’d totally recommend it. I really need to read the sequel, We Unleash the Merciless Storm, soon. Also I’ve heard many compare this book to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, so I’d like to read that sometime soon as well.
Only A Monster by Vanessa Len
Joan’s life is going great. She’s works at the Holland House, a historic mansion-turned-museum, which makes her nerdy, history loving side so happy and she’s finally going on a date with Nick, her super cute co-worker. This all comes crashing down when she learns the truth about her family though. They’re monsters, with terrifying abilities and secrets. And Nick? He’s a legendary monster slayer. As Joan battles Nick, she is forced to team up with the heir to another monster family, Aaron. He’s cocky, beautiful, and hates her entire family. But will they be able to work together to stop Nick from killing more monsters, more of their families?
This book is so good. I absolutely loved reading it. It’s so suspenseful and I didn’t guess any of the twists. Yes, there is a love triangle, but I think it’s done in a really interesting way. All of the characters’ relationships are so nuanced and faulted that it’s hard to imagine how any of them could end up together in the end. The book is fast-paced, fantastical, and did I mention that monsters can time travel? Cause yeah, they have the power to time travel which is super cool. Also, I read the sequel to this book, Never a Hero, and adored it too. The plot of both books are so well thought out and I just love the world of monsters that Vanessa Len has created.
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Maggie Chase hates Ethan Wyatt. They’re both mystery writers at the same publishing house, but he seems to get everything he wants and he doesn’t even know her name. They have also just been inviting to Maggie’s idol’s house for Christmas. Eleanor Ashley is a legend of the murder mystery genre so Maggie is thrilled to finally get to meet her. But, when Eleanor disapears from a locked room three days before Christmas, Maggie doesn’t know what to think. Is Eleanor in danger? Already dead? Is this all a test? All she knows is that if anyone’s going to solve the mystery, it’s her. And Ethan apparently, since he won’t leave her alone.
So, I’ve come to the conclusion that everything Ally Carter writes is perfect. I mean, I’ve never read anything that points to the contrary. I loved both of the main characters in this book and I didn’t see the ending coming what so ever. I loved learning more about the cast of characters as the book went on and I could not put it down. Well, I figuratively couldn’t put it down, since I listened to the audiobook and don’t own the physical book. I also listened to this book over Winter Break so it gave me all of the Christmas-y feels, with a touch of murder, but I’m not complaining lol.
I hope you enjoyed this post and found some book recommendations for the new year. Have you read any of the books on this list? If so, let me know what you thought of them down below. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post and, as always, I hope this post finds you well and you have a great day!
Be the first to reply