Looking for what to read next, but don’t know if you can trust the whims of BookTok or Bookstagram? Here are 8 of my recent reads — mostly in the Romance genre — that have earned a 5-star rating.
Every year I set a goal for the number of books I want to read and then either forget about it a week later or binge read every book in the last month or two of the year. Last year, I set a goal to read 26 books and ended up reading (and listening to) 38 books. Of course, that all happened between the months of October and December.
This year, I upped my goal to 52 books thinking it would be a great stretch goal for me. Turns out, I blew through that goal by May and had to up my reading goal not once, but twice. So far this year, I’ve read over 200 books and don’t see myself slowing down for a good long time. My current tastes veer into the Romance and Fiction categories, with sports romances being among my absolute favorite. (I have yet to meet a hockey romance that I haven’t enjoyed thoroughly.)
I track all of the books I’ve read (and the one’s I decided weren’t worth my time) over on GoodReads. I have also dabbled in The StoryGraph but, unfortunately, haven’t found it is easy to use or intuitive as GoodReads. The one benefit to StoryGraph is that it creates really cool banners of the books you’ve read based on dates or other parameters you’ve set, making it still worth using for me.
I’m not sure how most people rate the books they read, but it has to be really dang good for me to give a book a 5-star review. Most books I read tend to get 4-star reviews since they kept my attention and entertained me throughout. I try to reserve the 2- and 3-star reviews for books that are really not my thing (I have learned that I truly dislike stories that include sexual assault or dubious consent) or books that have so many typos or grammatical mistakes that it becomes painful to get through.
Having said that, all of the books listed below have been given a 5-star review and are ones that I would highly recommend when you’re stuck asking what to read next. They are all free on KindleUnlimited if you have that. (Huzzah!) In case you don’t, I am linking to the books on Amazon (with affiliate links). You could also probably find them on Libby through your local library.
8 books to add to your TBR pile, pronto.
Because no one should ever have to spend too long thinking about what to read next.
- Hate Mail by Donna Marchetti
- Night Sweats + Hockey Nets by Marika Ray and Sylvie Stewart
- The Runaways by Devney Perry
- Variant Lost (and the rest of the series) by Kaydence Snow
- The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
- The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
- Some Like It Hopeless by Megan Bryce
- The Summer We Fell by Elizabeth O’Rourke
I gave each of these books a 5-star rating because they kept my attention, gave me more than a few laughs (and tears), and made me super sad when I got to the end because I had to say goodbye to my favorite characters. The books range from rom-com style (Hate Mail) with minimal spice to deliciously spicy (Variant Lost) and everything in between.
A few on the list are actually series and not just a single book, like The Runaways (a 5-book series) and Variant Lost (the first of 3 books in the Evelyn Maynard Trilogy). I blazed through both series, so please don’t be put off by how many books are included. I promise you won’t feel like you’re slogging your way through a single page/book.
I will say that The Last Letter and The Lost Bookshop are both incredibly sad while also being beautifully written. The Last Letter is about grief and loss, and does contain story lines around child illness and tragedy. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler but I feel like it’s a need-to-know kind of spoiler.) I swear I haven’t cried reading a book like that in a long time. The Lost Bookshop is a historical fiction, with a little magic thrown in, that talks about some really difficult topics as well — war, mental health, pregnancy and forced adoption, controlling family members — and definitely had me in tears throughout a lot of the story. What can I say? Sometimes you just need a good cry and a beautiful story.
Okay, your turn.
What have been some of your favorite reads this year? Any that you’d recommend??
