2024 was a busy reading year, but I was pleased to see in the end that my top 10 were a nice mix of books. (You can read past Year in Review posts here.)
I want to remember that 2024 was the year I discovered Lucy Score – both the Riley Thorn series and the Knockemout series were fantastic and made for fun vacation reading for the year. 2024 was also the year I discovered John Walton’s books on scripture which led to the Bible for Normal People podcast, more books by Pete Enns, and other books on Biblical studies. When I think of 2024, these are some of the things I think of.
In my top ten, there’s one picture book, two middle grade books, and one nonfiction adult book to accompany the usual adult fiction. As an honorable mention to the top ten, I would list Dating and Dragons by Kristy Boyce as my favorite YA read from 2024, since there’s no YA option in the top ten. This is a companion book to Dungeons and Drama. I will have a full review of Dating and Dragons later this month.
Here are my top 10 favorite books from 2024:
10. The Frindle Files – This sequel to the beloved Frindle, and the last book written by the author, was everything I hoped it would be. You can read my full review here.
9. The Imposter – We lived this story of having a second beloved critter in case of an unfixable loss, so I hoped this would be cute and capture that experience from when my son was small. And this exceeded my expectations. This is the only picture book to make the list this year. You can read my full review here.
8. Big Witch Energy – I have thoroughly enjoyed both of the books so far in the Starfall Point series about a trio of “witches” with ghostly powers, but this book has been my favorite because of the teen characters who were an absolute treat. You can read my full review here.
7. No One Leaves the Castle – I have loved Christopher Healy’s middle grade novels since I first read The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. You will be able to read my full review of this delight later this month.
6. Wisdom for Faithful Reading – 2024 was a great nonfiction year for me. I still read them SOOOOO slowly, but the quality has been top notch. And this book really kicked off a year of memorable study and learning. You can read my full review here.
5, The Rom-Commers – Another Katherine Center book makes my Year in Review list – The Bodyguard made the list in 2022. You can read my full review of the 2024 entry here.
4. The Corpse in the Closet – The Riley Thorn series was EVERYTHING I needed this year from my reading – funny, flirty, and clever. I loved the characters and the mysteries in this paranormal romance/mystery series, and this book (second in the series) has been my favorite. You can read my full review here.
3. Apprentice to the Villain – Book 1 in this delightful series, Assistant to the Villain, was at the top of my 2023 favorites list. For good reason. This series is a delight. I didn’t post a full review of book 2, but I loved it just as much as book 1. I can’t wait for book 3 which will release later this year!
2. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books – This was the surprise of my reading year in 2024. I saw this in the bookstore and found the premise intriguing, but not enough to pay full price for a hardcover book. So I picked this up from the library – and was stunned by how fantastic this was. I immediately shelled out the money for my own copy because I will definitely read this one again. There are several content warnings on this one, so check out my full review here, but you won’t want to miss this one.
1. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year – And the best of the best. I tried to describe in my full review how reading this felt in my body – all the ways I knew this book was special and would definitely be in my top 10 for the year. I don’t know that I did it justice. But this book was perfection for me – the humor and banter, the swoony romance, the book-related and writing-related content, and the top notch mystery. I re-read this before Christmas, and it was just as perfect as the first time I read it. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.
And those are my top 10 favorites for 2024! What did you read – and love – in 2024?
5. The Enneagram Development Guide – This is the second non-fiction book on this year’s list, and it’s another book I loved but apparently didn’t review on the blog. The things I love about this book are probably the same things that kept me from posting about it. This is a working book, not a reading book. I have tons of Enneagram books that I can read from cover to cover. Then they go on a shelf and don’t get picked up again. But like a few of my other favorites, this is a WORKING book. Each number has a section that digs into practices that you can work on to bring you to the healthier aspects of your number. But the practices are a DEEP dive – each one could be a focus for weeks at a time. So while I have been working with this for months now, I am still hardly into my number’s section in the book. And I love that. I told a friend reading this is like discovering the Enneagram for the first time. If you are burned out on reading the same old thing and you long to go deeper, this is the resource you should check out. ♥♥♥♥♥
4. The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway – Looking to see where this should fall on my top ten list for 2023 made me want to drop everything else and read this again. It’s the 
3. Every Duke Has His Day – The dog-swapping premise of this book was a winner for me. This delivered on everything I had hoped for when I picked it up, and it’s definitely one I would read again. You can read my full review 
2. Teen Titans: Robin – The second graphic novel – and the third YA novel – on the list is the most recent addition to this 
1. Assistant to the Villain – This was my most anticipated novel of the year, and it delivered on all accounts. I still remember digging into this the minute it arrived, and not putting it down until I was done. I even did a re-read as part of my low-key Christmas reading, and it was as delightful as I remembered. The only other pre-order I have right now, in addition to the new Teen Titans book, is the sequel to this, Apprentice to the Villain, which won’t be out until August. You can read the full review for this book