My Favorite Books of 2021

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

A mystery meets comedy with a little romance thrown in. Honestly, it’s like they wrote this book just for me. A for Aunties is about a family run wedding business and what happens when a bad date produces a dead man and that body just keeps reappearing during one of the biggest weddings of the year. The sequel comes out in 2022 and I can’t wait to read it.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan is a struggling mystery writer who can’t seem to catch a break. That all changes when an overheard conversation in a Panera turns into Finlay being hired as a professional killer. Like A for Aunties, this mystery novel also has a bit of humor to it and I promise you won’t be able to put it down.

The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman

I love novels about adults in retirement homes acting ridiculously. Well in this novel, the retirement home happens to also have a club that likes to meet and review cold cases. It’s all just talk until they get pulled into a real murder case. This is the second book in the series and it’s even better than the first!

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

What do you do when all of your relatives keep hounding you about getting married? You ask your childhood crush to pretend to be your fiancé. Even if you kind of hate him and he needs to get married in order to get his inheritance. It’s a fun play on the trope and you won’t regret reading it (especially when you learn that there are two other books in the series).

Age Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

This is the third book in the Brown Sisters series, but this was by far my favorite. I loved reading about Eve, who just can’t seem to get her life together when it comes to her job. When she gets hired as the chef at an inn though, her luck seems to be changing. If only the hot manager wasn’t so set on firing her.

The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox

Can identical twins still swap places when they’re older? Charlie and Cass seem to think so, when both of their lives are going a little off of the rails. But it’s not as easy as they expect, especially when attractive men come into the picture.

I read a LOT of holiday romances this year, but this was by far the best of them all. It’s perfect to finish out the year with.

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

I love Marissa Meyer, so any novel she writes is highly likely to make my top ten lists. Gilded was a play on the Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale (a genre Meyer excels at). Even though I didn’t think I would be interested in the novel because I’m not a huge Rumpelstiltskin fan and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

I picked up this audiobook from the library on a whim and I LOVED it. In it, Izumi, a high school senior in California, finds out that her mystery father is the Crown Prince of Japan and, surprise, she’s an actual princess. When she travels to Japan to meet him, things aren’t exactly what she expects. I’m not kidding when I say that I fell in love with this book. Izumi is so lovable and you just want to keep cheering her on.

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

The Box in the Woods is the surprise fourth book in the Truly Devious series. It’s the only standalone mystery in the series, but it’s still just as enjoyable, with a great mystery. I can only hope that this book isn’t the final book of the series!