Best 10 Books of 2021 (so far)
We've made it to halfway through 2021, so what better time
to look at the many amazing books this year has already brought us so far?
Below are 10 of the most popular new releases from the last six months, from
thrillers to romance to historical fiction.
Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
"Malibu: August
1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation
is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the
talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship
surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit.
Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world
over--especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.
The only person not looking forward to the party of the year
is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has
also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh,
and maybe Hud--because it is long past time for him to confess something to the
brother from whom he's been inseparable since birth.
Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until
nightfall, when the girl he can't stop thinking about promised she'll be there.
And Kit has a couple secrets of her own--including a guest
she invited without consulting anyone.
By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By
morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first
spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will
play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all
come bubbling to the surface."
My personal favourite on this list has to be Taylor Jenkins
Reid's new novel, released at the end of May. I love her edgy takes on
historical fiction, and this book has been called the perfect book for hot girl
summer.
The Push - Ashley Audrain
"Blythe Connor
is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby
Violet that she herself never had.
But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days,
Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter–she doesn’t
behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s
imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to
question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is
telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born–and with him, Blythe has the
blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to
love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an
instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth."
This is another book I've already read this year, and I
absolutely loved it. It was actually one of my first books of the year, and I
have definitely thought about it at least once a week since reading it! It
really got under my skin and was so excellently done. If you love thrillers,
you definitely have to read this. You can read my full review of The Push here.
Girl A - Abigail Dean
"''Girl A, ' she said. 'The girl who escaped. If
anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.'"
Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about her family. She
doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And
she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped,
the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's
been easy enough to avoid her parents--her father never made it out of the
House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind
bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the
family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister,
Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first
she must come to terms with her siblings - and with the childhood they shared.
What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival
becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and
betrayals of sibling relationships--about the secrets our siblings keep, from
themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their
memories defy or galvanize Lex's own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to
her family's final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared
family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly
broken free."
I haven't personally got round to reading this book yet, but
I've seen SO much about it online and have also included it in previous blog
posts. It has been likened to both Room and Sharp Objects, which sounds like a
book I would love - so if you're a fan of those kind of novels it may be one
for your list.
Of Women and Salt - Gabriela Garcia
"In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction.
Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about
her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take
in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the
trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own
mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for
understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with
secrets from the past destined to erupt.
From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention
centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is a
kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals--personal and political, self-inflicted and
those done by others--that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women.
A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories
they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite
those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a
story of America's most tangled, honest, human roots."
A sprawling historical fiction following five generations of
women across multiple cultures and countries, this book is set to stick with
you long after you finish it.
The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner
"A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to
liberate women from the men who have wronged them—setting three lives across
centuries on a dangerous collision course
Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another
woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be
recorded in the apothecary’s register.
One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark
London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer.
Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker
purpose—selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be
free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a
precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets
in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose
the many women whose names are written in her register.
In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell
spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her
husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river
Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to
the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago.
As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in
a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive."
If you enjoy dual narratives spanning both past and present,
this is absolutely a book for you! I love these books which weave and
intertwine two stories together.
The Rose Code - Kate Quinn
"1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three
very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley
Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the
dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove
herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a
translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of
east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she
conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla
and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose
shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her
wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the
impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 1947. As the royal
wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a
fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted
letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed
their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious
traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now
Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code
together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and
their true enemy--closer..."
This book is a stellar historical fiction, highlighting the
work of the women in Bletchley Park during WWII.
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
"Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara,
an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her
place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to
browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a
customer will soon choose her.
Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at
our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that
explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?"
Ishiguro's new book has been hugely popular since it was
released back in March - no doubt if you're a fan of his books then you will
already have it on your TBR or have read it as soon as it came out! I struggle
with Ishiguro's books - I wasn't a huge fan of Never Let Me Go - but maybe I'll
give this one a go given all of the hype.
People We Meet on Vacation - Emily Henry
"Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in
common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he
prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share
home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most
of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small
hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of
vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They
haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a
rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a
doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to
convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on
the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get
around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their
seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?"
Following the success of Beach Read, Emily Henry's new book
is full of the same level of romance, character development and humour. If you
haven't already read this one, it's perfect for your summer TBR.
Second First Impressions - Sally Thorne
"Ruthie Midona has worked the front desk at the
Providence Luxury Retirement Villa for six years, dedicating her entire adult
life to caring for the Villa’s residents, maintaining the property (with an
assist from DIY YouTube tutorials), and guarding the endangered tortoises that
live in the Villa’s gardens. Somewhere along the way, she’s forgotten that
she’s young and beautiful, and that there’s a world outside of work—until she
meets the son of the property developer who just acquired the retirement
center.
Teddy Prescott has spent the last few years partying,
sleeping in late, tattooing himself when bored, and generally not taking life
too seriously—something his father, who dreams of grooming Teddy into his
successor, can’t understand. When Teddy needs a place to crash, his father
seizes the chance to get him to grow up. He’ll let Teddy stay in one of the
on-site cottages at the retirement home, but only if he works to earn his keep.
Teddy agrees—he can change a few lightbulbs and clip some hedges, no sweat. But
Ruthie has plans for Teddy too.
Her two wealthiest and most eccentric residents have just
placed an ad (yet another!) seeking a new personal assistant to torment. The
women are ninety-year-old, four-foot-tall menaces, and not one of their assistants
has lasted a full week. Offering up Teddy seems like a surefire way to get rid
of the tall, handsome, unnerving man who won’t stop getting under her skin.
Ruthie doesn’t count on the fact that in Teddy Prescott, the
Biddies may have finally met their match. He’ll pick up Chanel gowns from the
dry cleaner and cut Big Macs into bite-sized bits. He’ll do repairs around the
property, make the residents laugh, and charm the entire villa. He might even
remind Ruthie what it’s like to be young and fun again. But when she finds out
Teddy’s father’s only fixing up the retirement home to sell it, putting
everything she cares about in jeopardy, she’s left wondering if Teddy’s magic
was all just a façade."
Another great romance novel, this book was released
following the success of The Hating Game. If you're a fan of cutesy romances,
this is definitely one for you!
Concrete Rose - Angie Thomas
"If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick
Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a
former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the
King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his
dad’s in prison.
Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin
who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.
Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.
Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for
everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a
child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world
where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.
When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you
can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav
apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure
out for himself what it really means to be a man."
Angie Thomas's new book is the prequel to the hugely popular
The Hate U Give.
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