I stared reading more regularly again in 2020, right before COVID, and I usually get through about 45 books a year. My goal for 2024 is to read 60 books, and I decided to make this post to rank all of the books that I read this year. I generally stick to reading rom-com’s (think: feelings + laughs + happy ending) but throw in other fiction and memoirs throughout the year, as well as the occasional self-help book (but I’m much more likely to start those then actually finish them). I’ll sort them into genres since it’s hard to compare a memoir to fiction, and then rank them (best to worst) in each genre.

I’ve put a tiny blurb about each book and why I rated it the way I did under each book title. They are all spoiler free (I hate spoilers) but if you want any more detail, feel free to read my Goodreads reviews or scroll through my Instagram – 99.9% of those reviews / captions are also spoiler free but they’re a little longer. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss a book or have any questions! The best way to reach me to discuss books is on my Bookstagram (book Instagram account) – @today.jess.read.

Ranking Fiction Books

5/5 stars – New to Me

The Dutch House – Ann Patchett

This is absolutely one of my new favorite books I’ve ever read. I 100% recommend the audiobook – Tom Hanks narrates it and did a phenomenal job. It’s going to be an automatic annual re-listen for me, and I’m already looking forward to it.

Check & Mate – Ali Hazelwood

This is my second favorite Ali Hazelwood book; I was so pleasantly surprised by the story and the characters. While this is technically a YA book, it didn’t really feel like one – the characters are 18 and 20, and almost all of the characters other than the FMC’s (female main character’s) younger sisters were over the age of 18. I don’t know much of anything about chess except how each piece moves, and I still was obsessed and invested in this story.

How You Get the Girl – Anita Kelly

I was so lucky to get an Advanced Reader Copy of Anita Kelly’s newest book and I was absolutely blown away. I don’t usually gravitate toward sports romances and I don’t really enjoy watching basketball in general, but I was obsessed with this book. There isn’t a single thing that I would change about this book.

When In Rome – Sarah Adams

I read the second book in this series, Practice Makes Perfect, last fall but just circled back to this first one in February. I loved it so much. I think honestly I was a little stressed through the whole book about what was going to happen, so I expect that I’ll enjoy it a little more on my second read-through; I already plan to re-read both of the Rome books (in the correct order, this time) in the next year or so. I believe Sarah is working on the third book in the series right now.

5/5 stars – Re-reads

Beach Read – Emily Henry

I will defend this book, and People We Meet on Vacation, until I die. The internal monologue of both of them made me feel seen in a way I’d never really experienced while reading. They deal with some heavier topics, but I just felt like Emily Henry hits the nail right on the head while she’s having her characters process various bits of trauma / their past, and think through their present circumstances.

The Friend Zone – Abby Jimenez

This was one of my first rom-com books to read / listen to when I joined Bookstagram at the beginning of 2020. I was immediately obsessed and in my head, this was the book that really made me start gravitating almost exclusively toward rom-com books. Abby Jimenez is one of my very favorite authors, and this is probably my third favorite of the five books she has out (as of early 2024).

4/5 stars

Bride – Ali Hazelwood

I would give this book like 4.25 stars – I was incredibly impressed by Ali’s debut paranormal romance book, and expect that this isn’t the last of them that we’ll get from her. She killed it – it wasn’t quite to the level that The Love Hypothesis and Check & Mate were, but I was still really impressed with it. It’s also not a genre that I read pretty much ever, and since there were vampires (vampyres, in the book) and werewolves, it was really hard not to compare it to Twilight constantly – so those two things might not make me the best judge of the book.

Give Me Butterflies – Jillian Meadows

A signed copy of this was gifted to me by my longest book friend – all the way back to middle school when we talked about Twilight and high school when we went to our first ever book festival with our school librarian. It was absolutely adorable, and I can’t wait to see Jillian Meadows gain popularity over the next few years because she’s such a gem. I’m so excited for the next book in this series to come out, and Jillian has another book (not in this series) that I’m planning to read closer to the holidays since it’s a holiday romance (Wreck My Plans).

The Boyfriend Candidate – Ashley Winstead

This was recommended to me by a very trusted Bookstagram friend (@paperbackmegan) who said that she didn’t understand why it’s not more popular, and I completely agree; it’s an adorable political rom-com with some really lovable characters. This was also my first library book to read in years? But has gotten me back into my (newly renovated – so exciting!) public library and I’m excited to start taking advantage of it more.

Powerless – Elsie Silver

I think I felt like this was more of a 3.5 star one – I wanted to love it, but there were just a few things that made it way too unrealistic for me, which if you read my reviews, is a really difficult thing for me to get past. That being said, I still really enjoyed the story and the chracters, so I think it’s my second favorite in this Elsie Silver Chestnut Springs series.

Counting on a Cowboy – Sara Richardson

This was gifted to me by the lovely team at Forever publishing, and I really enjoyed it even though western romances aren’t really my thing. I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen from like page 20, but it ended up throwing me for a few unexpected (in a good way) curves, which I appreciated. I would probably give it closer to a 3.5 star rating overall.

3/5 Stars

Reckless – Elsie Silver

This is typically regarded as the second best Chestnut Springs novel, but it just didn’t work as well for me. While a lot of little things throughout the book felt more realistic than Powerless for me, somehow the biggest conflict really turned me off – I just didn’t quite buy it. For me it’s ranked third, but I haven’t read the last one because I’ve heard overall negative reviews so I’m not sure when or if I’ll get to it.

DNF (Did Not Finish)

Things We Never Got Over – Lucy Score

I know this book is really popular, but I really didn’t get it. The dialogue was really cringey, and if you want to know why I didn’t finish it (I very very rarely DNF books), it was because of a completely unhinged conversation on page 278 between a 6th grade teacher and the student’s aunt (FMC).

Ranking Novellas & Short Stories

5/5 Stars

Worst Wingman Ever – Abby Jimenez

This is part of the Meet-Cute collection that Amazon put together with six really popular rom-com authors; I really loved this one. I really can’t imagine writing a Novella (it’s so hard to tell a story and build characters in such a short amount of time) but Abby did it wonderfully.

The Exception to the Rule – Christina Lauren

This somehow felt like a classic Christina Lauren story? It was really cute and full of fun email conversations that were really fun to read. Again, it was really impressive to feel so much for these characters by the end of a book when it was such a short story.