The Best of 2020 – Lisa’s List
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.
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Hibbert is the queen of contemporary romance and a master craftperson of character writing and romance. There is no better love story than Dani’s and Zaf’s available this year. It’ a wonderful, heart-gladdening trip, and I enjoyed every second I spent with them.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Fabulous contemporary romances have been a theme for me this year. Also: books set in the entertainment industry. Parker made a hell of a debut with Act Like It, and Headliners is more than its equal.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent bookstore
Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
Loretta Chase is BACK, and this is a terrific historical has spice, wit, a toasty love story and a great sense of humor.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthon
This was a heck of a year for YA novels – I could have made a top ten entirely of them (For those who want extended recs: Deep breath: Thorn by Intisar Khanani, Girl Serpent Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust, Charming as a Verb by Ben Phillipe, 10 Thing I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon and Early Departures by Justin A Reynolds. All are good, all will enrich the lives of the teens in your world, or folks who like YAs.) But at the top of the heap is this transcendent story about a girl coming into her powers and falling in love for the first time in the middle of the Jim Crow era south. A stunner, with the most unforgettable YA heroine I’ve read of all year.
Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Sometimes you just need some pure, fluffy wish fulfillment in your life. Dade gives us that, teaming a fanfiction author and the actor she admires (who’s been doubling as her writing partner) in a fun romance.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria
Telenovelas are a weakness of mine, so Daria’s romance set within this world had me nodding along in pleasure and sympathy the whole time.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Gorgeous writing, sweet romance and a tribute to gothic tropes kept me turning the pages with this one
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
Confessions in B-Flat by Donna Hill
Sixties romances were very much my thing this year – Hill’s wonderfully done book, about two people with opposing ideologies learning how to live with one another.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer
A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy
No one’s doing historical romances like Vincy does, and her latest kept me grinning and turning the pages.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Supernatural elements and warring gangs make this Romeo and Juliet retelling one of the most absorbing pieces of action-adventure fiction I read all year.
Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite
A total delight of a warm embrace of a book. Romantic and sweet-tempered, it captivated me from the very start.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher
Delicious food descriptions and a genuinely sweet romance highlight a beautiful novel.
I’ve read (and liked) 4 on your list:
hibbert, talia: take a hint, dani brown***
parker, lucy: headliners****
chase, loretta: ten things i hate about the duke***
vincy, mia: a dangerous kind of lady***.5
And I have Spoiler Alert tbb, waiting for the ebook price to come down.
Hope you enjoy the others on the list!
Mexican Gothic and Spoiler Alert made my best list as well. And based on your rec I have Daughters of Jubilation on my TBR as well as the Hill book and Headliners. I’ll have to add These Violent Delights and Take a Hint Dani Brown.
I hope you will! Thank you very much!
great list! Thanks Lisa! I adore Mia Vincy and now have to read a few more from your list as well.
Thank you!
I’ve read six of the books on your list and enjoyed them all, which leads me to think that I should look into reading the rest as well. There are certainly several I’m intrigued by just after reading your descriptions, plus Mia Vincy’s book is already on my tbr list.
I haven’t made my own list yet. I have too big problems with my memory to make it without going through all the books I’ve read this year, and that’ll have to wait for another day, but I think that at least Take A Hint, Dani Brown, Ten Things I Hate About the Duke and Headliners are likely to be on it.
Great list – thank you for sharing it!
Ooh, I hope you will! I’m glad you enjoyed my list!
Additional YA rec: You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson. Totally slipped my mind when I sent these recs.
Shannon picked that one as well :)
I saw from her list! I wish I’d put it into my original batch.
AND Jenn Bennett! Should’ve thrown her in. But Jenn Bennett is routinely good. Chasing Lucky is uniformly excellent.
Totally agree about The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows. It was one of my favorite romances from 2020 as well. The Secret Ingredient is on my never-ending TBR list.
On the subject of f/f romance, have you read the Carina Adores title Hairpin Curves? My hold finally came through at the library, and I really enjoyed reading it. The frenemies to lovers road trip scenario felt totally believable, the pacing was good, and the story thankfully didn’t fall into tourist trap hijinks. Plus, I liked how one of the heroines had somewhat vintage hobbies like scrapbooking, instant camera photography, and CD burning- all of which are also in vogue right now- rather than tap tap tapping on her phone and texting every other sentence (a pet peeve of mine). My only complaints are the somewhat pat, whirlwind ending that contained a couple of loose ends and some disclaimer-ish thoughts of one of the main characters. I.e. a couple of the statements were clearly thrown into the text to avoid offending readers rather than feeling like organic character thoughts. Other than that, I would definitely recommend it to you and other f/f readers as well as those thinking about exploring the subgenre.