We’re nearly there. It’s nearly the end of 2024 – and with that, it’s time for me to take a look at some of my favourite reads of the last year. This year I’ve split it up across a couple of posts, and first up we have the best New Fiction that I’ve read this year.
The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
Kate Claybourn’s new novel came out in March, and was a Book of the Week when I got around to reading it in April. And you can click the link to read the full review, but it’s a road trip novel, as a reluctant participant in a podcast goes with her sister to try and find their mother, with the production crew in train. I liked it because of the way it portrayed the heroine’s relationship with her sister as well as the romance, but also because it was more uplifting than I was expecting considering it had a heroine who had been parentified because of the behaviour of her mother even before she abandoned them both. There’s still no news on when Claybourn’s next book is due, but I hope that it’s going in a similar sort of direction to this one because it was a really delightful read.
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
This was a rare case of me reading a Kindle sample and then abandoning all my usual rules about purchase prices to buy the book because I was so desperate to read it. And I’ve since seen it in two for ones in Foyles and at a big discount on Kindle, so if I had waited I would have saved a whole heap of cash. But this made me so nostalgic for the rom-coms of my teenage years. I loved You’ve Got Mail when it came out (still do now to be honest) and the description of this as You’ve Got Mail for a new generation is pretty much spot on. As I said in my review at the time, some people are going to have an issue with the way that the couple get together (their respective partners are cheating on them with each other, but they’re not split up) which is why I count it as “A Novel” not a romance, but I really, really liked it. Suzanne Rindell seems to be on an every other year sort of publication schedule, and I hope that her next one is as good as this.
The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear
This is slightly cheating, and I’ve swapped it in since mid-year point where I picked Mona of the Manor instead. The Comfort of Ghosts is the last in a long series, and I try not to recommend books where you need to have read all the others to get the maximum impact from it. But it’s also rare for a series to finish so satisfyingly as the Maisie Dobbs one does. At the end of eighteen books, Maisie is sent off to a bright new future, all the loose ends are tidied up – including some that you had forgotten, but unlike some final books in mystery series, the mystery plot in this isn’t an add on to the rest, it’s properly thought out and integrated. It’s satisfying enough that although I’m sad that Maisie’s story is done, I’m happy to leave her at this point. Hopefully I’ll like Winspear’s next book as much, and if the White Lady is any indication I think I will
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
This is the first of two books in this list that I read on my late November/early December holiday and is that recency bias showing? I don’t know. But when I looked at all my top rate books these were the ones I wanted to include. And this is the second book in this list that gave me all the nostalgia for the movies of my teenage years. Charlie is a great hero – with the gruff and abrasive exterior hiding a soft and sentimental interior that he is trying his best to hide from everyone. The banter is great, the critique of the movie industry is also fabulous if you’re someone like me who wants to know where the (less problematic) successors to Notting Hill, Never Been Kissed and Two Weeks Notice are.
Birding with Benefits by Sarah T Dubb
And this is the only book on this list which wasn’t a Book of the Week – and that’s because I read it the same week as the Rom-Commers and there can only be one BotW each week. The heroine of Birding With Benefits is Celeste. She’s newly single and about to be an empty nester, so she’s trying to put herself out there and find some adventures of her own. So of course she says yes to a friend who asks her to help one of his friends out at an event. The friend is John, and it turns out the event is Tuscon’s annual birdwatching contest – which John wants to win to help him launch his own guiding business and to a lesser extent to show his ex-girlfriend that he’s just fine. And so the unlikely duo begin a fake relationship for the duration of the contest and it soon turns into something more than either of them expected. It’s charming and fun – and made me care about birdwatching, which is something I never thought possible. It deserves its spot on this list.
Here’s to as many good books in 2025 – and have a great weekend everyone!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 