Being Anne’s Books of the Year 2024 #books #fiction #romance #historicalfiction #thriller #bookclubfiction #FavouriteBooks2024

I always really enjoy pulling together my list of Books of the Year – looking back over the year, remembering the many hours of such enjoyable reading, reading again the many reviews. It took a while – I’ve read 165 books this year. But that did include 15 audiobooks (I’ll be producing a separate post to tell you about them), the seven books I loved catching up with during my festive blogging break (another post for those too!), and the wonderful Christmas reads (all 23 of them…) that I told you all about in an earlier post you’ll find here (and, with apologies, not included in my Books of the Year list – there would have been far too many!).

Very reluctantly, I’ve also decided to exclude books that were part of a series this time (sorry!). I’ve read and enjoyed so many of those (as I hope you could tell from the reviews…), and it does rather hurt to have to leave out the likes of T A Williams’ Armstrong and Oscar cosy mysteries, Louise Douglas’ Toussaints Detective Agency books, Jo Bartlett’s Cornish Country Hospital series, Maggie Christensen’s Pelican Crossing series, Anna Stuart’s Women of War series, or  Jennifer Page’s lovely Little Board Game Cafe books (you’ll find all the reviews if you pop the authors’ names in my search bar)… and that’s a list that could have been a great deal longer!

I produced my first Books of the Year list ten years ago, back in 2014 – how on earth did I manage to produce a list of twelve? (The answer is by cheating – and mentioning at least another dozen!). There was absolutely no chance of achieving that again this year, for the tenth anniversary – but I have (with a few tears as I removed so many personal favourites…) finally produced a list of 24 standalone books for 2024 that I really felt were the best of the best this year, all very much recommended, and from a range of genres. They’re listed in order of reading, and if you click on the titles you can read my reviews again – with one more “rule” applied, that each author could have only one entry…

The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

Time’s Prisoner by Linda Gillard

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

Lean On Me by Beth Moran (by a whisker over It Had To Be You…)

At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer (but it could just have easily been The Ravenswood Witch…)

The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn

Small Acts of Kindness by Caroline Day

Nosy Neighbours by Freya Sampson

A Single Act of Kindness by Samantha Tonge

The French Cookery School by Caroline James

Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

The House in the Water by Victoria Scott (originally published as Victoria Darke…)

The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan

The Garden of Memories by Amanda James

Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life by Helen Fisher

The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant

Scandalous Women by Gill Paul

Lights Out by Louise Swanson

The Start of the Story by Jane Lovering (if only I could have included The Island Cottage too…)

The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson (but I would been happy to include The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up as well!)

Family Portrait by Victoria Connelly

In Italy for Love by Leonie Mack (but I also loved A Wedding in the Sun…)

The Stranger in my House by Judith Barrow

To all the authors I’ve enjoyed this year, I’m so sorry if you find you’re not included – I’d really like to have shared my original list of 75, but it seemed rather excessive – and thank you so much for the immense pleasure your books have brought me. And, as well as thanks to all the wonderful authors (and, of course, their publishers), I really must thank everyone who has continued to support me throughout another fantastic year of reading and reviewing – blogging friends, tour organisers, readers and friends. And, as always, a really special “thank you” too to everyone who helps me spread the word on Twitter/X (I’ll be doing my usual sharing of your posts again in the New Year, promise!). Oh, and just in case you were wondering (and to save you searching), you won’t find me on Bluesky – I still haven’t yet made my mind up whether to take on another platform.

No January break this year – I won’t forget the catch-up posts I’ve promised – and my first blog tour review will be on 14th January (ten of them in January, then nine more in February). With an eye on next year’s reading, I always plan to try to fit in more of the books I’ve randomly chosen to read (often on the recommendation of others) – this might just be the year when I try even harder. I’ll still be joining the blog tours, of course, though perhaps not quite in the same volume – and my posts might be a little less regular, the reviews perhaps a tad shorter, as I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find the time and energy to write content of the quality I really want it to be. Did you know I’m 70 this year? I just feel I should maybe spend rather more time doing all the other things I enjoy. Worry not though, I’ll always be reading and wanting to shout about books I love, and Being Anne (and I) will still be here for some time to come (maybe just a little bit quieter!).

So, all that’s left to do is to wish everyone a very Happy New Year – and happy reading!