The Best of 2020 – Kristen’s List
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”.
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
My colleague Caz calls this “quite possibly the best romantic comedy I’ve ever read” and I completely agree. This book is in my permanent Hall of Fame, cemented next to Red, White, and Royal Blue as my favorite m/m contemporary tales. Just… I love it with my whole heart.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Check, Please! By Ngozi Ukazu
Had you told me that this would be the year I got into comics and graphics novels, I would not have believed you, but holy cripes, was it! My favorite was absolutely this gem which follows a college hockey team and focuses on home baker and YouTube vlogger Eric Bittle. We follow as he navigates love (with the seemingly stoic Jack Zimmerman), baking in shared housing, and charming the living socks off this reviewer. If you’ve read any m/m hockey romances in the past, I can’t encourage you enough to give this a go.
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer
Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan
I have no idea why this book isn’t on more Best-of lists because it’s easily the hottest thing I’ve read this year.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
An Heiress to Remember by Maya Rodale
If you’ve followed my Historical Romance reviews over the years, you know I’m not particularly fussed by detailed accuracy. I’m aware Ms. Rodale’s work rubs many the wrong way, but I’m simply not among them. I adored Beatrice’s journey in this book – how she comes to understand herself as a business owner, how she grapples with being a woman in a definitively male world. Plus, the bed stunt is just so cinematic I could basically see it in my head.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
One to Watch by Kate Stayma-London
I gave this one a DIK back in August and I stand by it. One I’ve pressed into several hands and implored them to read it.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
I was charmed by this! I loved the build of the romance (enemies-to-lovers was my most read trope this year and this one stands out), I loved Lucie’s spark, I loved Tristan in totality. I loved the flaws they both had and I just… y’all, I really loved this book.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein
There are books we love no matter when we read them and books we love because of when we read them, and I think this is one of the latter. I missed the Olympics a lot this year and was glad this novel existed in a world where COVID never happened so that we could have them. The romance was well built and felt very, I don’t know, adult to me? There was a silly miscommunication that I didn’t completely care for, but humans are routinely idiots. This one brought me valuable escapism on a day I needed it most and I will be thankful to it and think fondly of it for a long time to come.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
The Roommate by Rosie Danan
This is a fabulous example of a book that will not work for everyone, but for those of us for whom it works – IT WORKED. I don’t always love the uptight/virgin heroine being taught by the lothario, at least not outside of Regencies, but everything about this book just drew me in. I read it in one sitting and have recommended it frequently since.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Because this is classified as ‘women’s fiction’, you may quibble with my definition of this having an HEA. For me, however, Lakshmi does. The ending of this book gives her more power over her life than she’d ever had before and, Lord, if that’s not an HEA…
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed
YA was one of my favorite genres this year and I caught up on a lot I’d missed the past several years during my absence from it. A lot stood out, but this was absolutely my favorite published this year. Activism and politics are common themes in a lot of YAs, but this one felt fresh. I liked following their friends-to-something more story, while also living life with people who aren’t as cynical about change as I am was a true delight.
Read and enjoyed several of these, with some new things to explore. I read One to Watch based solely on Kristin’s review and while not my favorite book this year, it did make my own best of year list (which is no small feat, given that I’m not a TV watcher and have zero interest in the reality TV setting). Great list Kristin!
you are so welcome! i’m glad you gave it a shot and it worked for you!
Thanks for your list. Boyfriend Material is the only one I’ve read,but I’m adding a couple to my list! I read somewhere that the subject matter of Queen Move, being political, probably hurt it this year instead of helped. A lot of people didn’t want politics in their reading, even fictional politics, including me. I remember reading about this book months ago and dismissing it because of that. Of course, It doesn’t mean I’d never read it, and with your endorsement I’ll add it to my to-read-maybe list. I go through that list every so often to see if I’m ready to move any over to my TBR list.
The heroine works in politics as a campaign manager and her career is central. But this is minimally about elections themselves – it’s more centered on her proving to a candidate that she’s right for his campaign, and also struggling to balance her intense career with her new health issues and her interest in Ezra. I read it during a year when just opening a news website gave me a heart rate spike and it never made me anxious. Just more detail if that helps.
That’s fair, I craved reminders that there were good people in the system. But I agree with Caroline – it didn’t feel like the focus of the book.
Thank you, CarolineAAR and Kristen for the clarification. Perhaps I misunderstood the review I read and the reviewer was talking more about the level of angst in the book.
Kristen, I did see this on another Best Of list just yesterday, and that reviewer also thought it was perhaps the best of the year for her.
this is one of the reasons I love reviews – so many of us pick up on different threads. The politics didn’t hit me at all as memorable, but I know others besdies yourself who couldn’t take the risk.
Queen Move yesssssss.
I really enjoyed One to Watch but I’m not plus-sized and wasn’t confident that someone who was would find it equally enjoyable? There’s a lot of trauma in that book.
I mean, I’ve never *not* be a fat lady, so I have no idea how to answer that. I don’t think of it as trauma, because it just sounded like my life. *shrug* So I’m not sure.
Yikes. Sorry to hear that – she goes through some real sh#t.
I binge-read all year, reading some things multiple times … including ‘Boyfriend Material.’
Definitely needed happily-ever-afters to offset real life!
Agreed. With the way things are right now, it shouldn’t have been so surprising that 57% of my 2020 reading has been comprised of romances- maybe a bit higher if I were to count historical fiction that surprisingly had an HEA. This year, I also read a record number of books since I started counting: 45. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to some avid readers around here, but I’m amazed I read so much considering how much time I spent writing and cleaning out my home office among other business tasks.
Probably 90% of my reading this year has been romancesor books with romantic subplots, and the ones that weren’t were mysteries and such where at least the bad guys get theirs.