Top 11 Reads of 2019
And so we've taken another spin around the sun.
A lot has happened this year.
A cathedral burned.
A hypothetical raid on a maybe-contains-aliens government installation was organized.
A new Billboard Top 100 #1 record was set.
A president was impeached.
But what will almost certainly come as no shock at all to you is that what I think I'll remember most is my year in reading.
We've read loads of books this year. Some entertained. Some enlightened. And some stood out above the rest.
Check out the 11 we think are most deserving of a place on your to be read list.
11. Swipe Right for Murder
by Derek Milman
Release Date - August 6, 2019
Publisher - jimmy patterson
Genre - Young Adult Thriller
Finding a partner for life — or just for the night — doesn’t even require you to leave your hotel room, thanks to modern matchmaking apps.
Though he’s still in high school, Aiden Jamison is more familiar with this type of tech-enhanced booty-calling than he would likely like to admit to his parents.
So when he’s spending a solo in a swanky NYC hotel room, logging on to his favorite app of choice — Dirty Paws — seems like a risk-light, pleasure-heavy way to spend the evening.
With a few swipes, he connects with a silver fox who happens to be staying floors above him. When they meet face-to-face, all seems perfect...and passionate.
That all changes when Aiden wakes up after a post-coital snuggle to find that the sexy hunk with whom he recently romped is now very much dead.
Before he can get his wits about him and even attempt to figure out what happened, he gets a mysterious call, demanding that he deliver some object of which he’s never heard to someone whom he has never met.
With running his only viable option, Aiden hits the streets, knowing that his only hope of avoiding the same fate as his hookup is uncovering the truth.
Why You’ll Love It - Surprising and fast-paced and unapologetic, Swipe Right for Murder is gritty in its realness and significant in its tackling of LGBTQ equity issues.
Check out our full review of Swipe Right for Murder.
10. The Stories You Tell
by Kristen Lepionka
Release Date - July 9, 2019
Publisher - Minotaur
Genre - PI Mystery
Though she should be engaging in a postcoital snuggle with her girlfriend, Roxane Weary is characteristically restless.
Then her phone rings. On the other end is her brother, Andrew, seeking her help.
From the tone in his voice and the content of his story, Roxane knows the situation is serious.
Andrew tells her that a former fling, Addison, showed up unexpectedly at his door. And she wasn’t just there for a booty call.
He could tell immediately that something was amiss.
She was shaky.
Scared.
Scattered.
And then, just as suddenly as she came, she ran off into the night. Now he doesn’t know where she is or even if she is okay.
Roxane agrees to investigate this situation, hoping the search will be a short and simple one.
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t prove to be the case.
As the days pass and Addison remains missing, Roxane begins to worry that something serious and irrevocable has happened to her.
And when suspicion turns to the last person to admit seeing her alive — Roxane’s brother, Andrew — the urgency to find answers mounts.
Why You’ll Love It - The unapologetic protagonist of The Stories We Tell shines. She’s acerbic and bitchy and real and says aloud the thing you likely decide it’s best to keep to yourself after some careful internal monologue.
Check out our full review of The Stories You Tell.
9. Mother Knows Best
by Kira Peikoff
Release Date - September 10, 2019
Publisher - Crooked Lane Books
Genre - Thriller
Claire loved being a mother.
She doted on her son, cherishing his every milestone and celebrating even the smallest of his successes.
Though she knew from an early age that her time with her son would be limited, thanks to a painful genetic mutation that she passed on to him, she still wasn’t prepared to actually lose him.
Her husband is desperate to have another child and reassures her that there is a chance she won’t pass on the same fatal flaw to any future offspring, but Clarie isn’t willing to take the risk.
To appease her husband and fulfill her dream of becoming a mother again, Claire goes behind his back. She convinces Robert Nash, a cutting edge fertility doctor, to use currently illegal reproductive technology to create a healthy embryo that she will carry to term.
But before she can welcome her new, healthy baby into the world, her husband finds out what she’s done.
Driven by a keen sense of right and wrong, he reports her actions.
Now a wanted woman, Claire flees the city and, with the help of Dr. Nash, starts to live on the lamb.
After all, she’s willing to do anything for her child, even if that means trading the comfortable life she has built for herself for one typified by struggle and fear.
Why You’ll Love It - An incredibly topical tale disguised as a simple domestic thriller, Mother Knows Best will move readers to reconsider where they stand on the ethical challenges created by contemporary scientific advancements.
Check out our full review of Mother Knows Best.
8. The Perfect Son
by Lauren North
Release Date - August 13, 2019
Publisher - Berkley
Genre - Psychological Thriller
Tess Clarke expects that the day her only child, Jamie, turns eight will be one of celebration.
She’s gotten a cake — one emblazoned with the Batman logo, which is sure to please even the finickiest of eight year olds — she’s bought the perfect gift, and she’s planned to have friends over.
Despite all her careful preparations, however, the day goes horribly, unbelievably, irrevocably wrong.
By day’s end, Tess is in the hospital, her son is missing, and she is certain that two people close to her are hiding something.
While her son’s birthday party turning into such an unmitigated disaster would always have been disappointing, it’s even more so now, as she’s still recovering from the untimely death of her husband several months prior.
With her world more uncertain than it’s ever been, she’s propelled forward by her need to find Jamie. Ultimately, there is one thing she knows for certain: she simply won’t be able to survive the loss of the last member of her family.
Why You’ll Love It - The twist sets The Perfect Son apart from other thrillers. Paradoxically both incredibly unexpected and exceedingly believable, it will rock you to your core.
Check out our full review of The Perfect Son.
7. Here and Now and Then
by Mike Chen
Release Date - January 29, 2019
Publisher - Mira
Genre - Science Fiction
Kin Stewart is living a pretty typical life. He’s working in IT and trying his best to keep his family strong — including working to connect with his teen daughter, Miranda.
But things aren’t always as they seem.
What no one, besides Kin, knows is that he is actually a time traveler from 2142.
When a failed mission left him trapped in the 90s, he made the best of it and started to build a life.
But then, everything changes. A team arrives from the future, intent on taking him home.
And they do.
But when Kin goes… back to the future...he finds that things aren’t as he remembers them.
Specifically, he has a family that he has no recollection of.
Now torn between two times, two families, both of whom need him, Kin doesn’t know what to do.
Should he stay in the future where he belongs, or break all the rules of time travel to ensure that the family that he built in the past is safe?
Why You’ll Love It - Here and Now and Then is less about the fictional science that allows the protagonist to zip back and forth across the decades and more about the real dilemmas that this ability would create. At its core, it is an incredibly effective novel about the importance of family and the risks we’re willing to take for the ones we love.
Check out our full review of Here and Now and Then.
6. The Friend Zone
by Abby Jimenez
Release Date - June 11, 2019
Publisher - Forever
Genre - Romance
When Kristen and Josh meet with a bang — like, literally, he rear-ends her — it seems like they are all but destined to end up together.
Josh, a strapping fireman who works wood in his spare time will be the perfect business associate for Kristen, a confident entrepreneur who sells dog merch — including sets of custom-built bed-height stairs — on her website.
Add to this the fact that Kristen’s best friend Slone is slated to marry Josh’s best friend Brandon, so a Kristen and Josh romantic merger would be fucking ideal.
But despite their natural chemistry — and all of the other marks in the plus column — Kristen is determined to keep Josh in the friend zone.
As their attraction increases and his frustration grows, Josh becomes even more determined to break through Kristen’s defense and transcend the romantic class into which she has relegated him.
But what he doesn’t know is that Kristen has a very real reason for wanting him to stay in the friend zone. A reason that is too significant to overlook.
Why You’ll Love It - Sweet, sensitive, sexy and surprisingly deep, The Friend Zone isn’t your everyday average beach read. It’s one that will stick with you long after you’ve stopped finding sand in your unmentionable regions.
Check out our full review of The Friend Zone.
5. The Arrangement
by Robyn Harding
Release Date - July 30, 2019
Publisher - Gallery Books
Genre - Domestic Thriller
Living in New York City always seemed like a dream to Natalie, the product of a broken marriage who spent her youth in the comparatively quiet Pacific Northwest.
But things aren’t always as they seem.
When Natalie moves to New York City she finds that the city lights don’t quite shine as brightly when you’re an art student, struggling to keep a roof over your head and eat a meal that doesn’t consist of ramen.
But, just when it feels like all hope is lost and her only option is to scurry home with her proverbial tail between her legs, Natalie learns of a new way to make money.
Becoming a sugar baby.
While she initially scoffs at the idea of going out with men in return for her rent check, her friend — who is already deep into the sugar bowl, as it is called — assures her that it’s not quite as much like full-on prostitution as it seems.
Reluctantly, and desperately, Natalie gives it a try.
When she meets Gabe, a handsome, successful, kind older man, it seems that she has hit the jackpot.
Unfortunately though, what initially seems to be the perfect arrangement proves to be anything but.
With an immediately engaging topic and beautifully paced action, this thriller stands out from the crowd and deserves a place high up on your TBR.
Why You’ll Love It - Rife with moral ambiguity and increasingly relevant questions about the world in which we live, The Arrangement is powerful and engaging. It does so much more than just thrill readers; it induces them to explore the world from a different vantage point.
Check out our full review of The Arrangement.
4. Little Lovely Things
by Maureen Joyce Connolly
Release Date - April 2, 2019
Publisher - Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre - Domestic Thriller
Claire Rawlings has endeavored to keep a lot of proverbial balls in the air at the same time for years now.
A med student.
And a wife.
And a mother.
Her plate isn’t full, it’s overflowing.
In situations such as these, a crash is all but inevitable.
Unfortunately for Claire, the first time she lets one of those fast-moving balls slip past her hand results in life-changing consequences.
Despite the fact that she feels ill — which she attributes to a high-dose vaccine she was recently given in response to an outbreak — Claire rushes to get her daughters to daycare so she can proceed with her day. But, as she rushes down the always crowded Chicago freeway — something I struggle to do even when my reflexes are most keen — her condition deteriorates.
Feeling like she’s going to pass out, Claire pulls over at a gas station, props the door to the exterior restroom open so she can see the idling car in which her daughters nap, and rushes to splash some cold water on her face.
As the chilled water hits her face, she hears the door close and she feels herself lose the last bits of consciousness to which she had managed to cling.
When she awakes, only minutes later, she rushes outside to find, to her horror, that her car, and her daughters, are gone.
Why You’ll Love It - To call Little Lovely Things moving would be an understatement. Readers will finish this exceptionally well-paced and beautifully crafted novel with a gasp, realizing they’ve been holding their breaths the entire time.
Check out our full review of Little Lovely Things.
3. The Wives
by Tarryn Fisher
Release Date - December 30, 2019
Publisher - Graydon House
Genre - Domestic Thriller
As hard as being in a four-participant marriage might be for the average person to imagine, it isn’t a hypothetical conundrum our protagonist of The Wives needs to ponder. Instead, it is the position into which she has willingly put herself.
She already knew that her now-husband, Seth, had another wife when she met and married him years ago, but she willingly agreed to the seemingly-destined-to-end-in-heartbreak situation. As he explained it, his first wife didn’t want to have children while he desperately did. So she, his second wife, would fill that role, providing him with the sons and daughters he needed to be complete.
But when her pregnancy ended not just in miscarriage but in a fertility eliminating procedure, she agreed to allow Seth to take on a third, fertile wife.
Though inarguably unorthodox, the set up seemed oddly logical. And she felt strong enough to handle the understandable stress associated with putting herself in such a position.
But, as stress tends to do, it started wearing at her. And, when her wondering about the other wives turned to obsessing, she couldn’t stop herself from doing what she promised she never would: search for information about these women with whom she is sharing her husband.
Probably unsurprisingly, she quickly discovers that the pieces of information she unearths don’t fit together to form the logical and complete puzzle she expected. In fact, the more she digs, the more she begins to think that Seth might be lying not only to her but also to the other women with whom he has shared his heart and regularly shares his bed.
Why You’ll Love It - Featuring a protagonist with whom readers will easily empathize, The Wives twists and turns, scrambling all of your preconceived notions. It sinks its claws into you, not letting go until the very last shocking word.
Check out our full review of The Wives.
2. The Line Between
by Tosca Lee
Release Date - January 29, 2019
Publisher - Howard Books
Genre - Medical Thriller
Though Wynter Roth was born into the world we all know, she wasn’t raised there.
When she was just seven, her mother — fleeing from Wynter’s abusive father — joined New Earth, a cult that promised — like most cult’s do — absolution and a ticket to heaven.
The price to join New Earth was steep.
Not only did you have to leave behind — or, in this case, donate to New Earth — all of your worldly possessions, you also had to adhere to a strict moral code and subsist on a diet free of meat, dairy, and grain.
Though Wynter wanted to be a good citizen of New Earth — and, for most of her time there, honestly believed that the only way to get into heaven was to live by the testaments written by their leader, Mangus Theisen — she always struggled to do so.
So it likely came as a surprise to no one when, at 22 years of age, she committed a sin so significant that she was expelled from the cult.
Fortunately, Wynter has someone to turn to in the outside world. Someone willing to help acclimate her to a society that she has absolutely no idea how to live in. Her mother’s friend, Julie, not only gives Wynter a place to live but also essentially mothers her, doing her best to rapidly teach Wynter the life lessons she would have learned naturally had she grown up outside of the walls of New Earth.
But Wynter is just getting her feet under her when disaster strikes.
An illness, which induces rapid-onset dementia, hits the country.
And it spreads.
Fast.
Now Wynter finds herself trying to survive in a world in which she doesn’t even know how to live.
Then, complicating matters significantly, important research falls into Wynter’s lap.
Research that could hold the promise of a cure for this terrible illness.
Suddenly, it’s not just Wynter’s own survival at stake, but the survival of millions who are vulnerable to this insidious illness.
Why You’ll Love It - The only thing The Line Between lacked was a dull moment. By limiting the view of a sweeping apocalyptic illness to that of a sheltered, yet inexplicably brave woman, Lee humanizes the lack of humanity that we can only fear would typify the actual end of the world.
Check out our full review of The Line Between.
1. The Things We Cannot Say
by Kelly Rimmer
Release Date - March 19, 2019
Publisher - Graydon House
Genre - Historical Fiction
For the most part, Alina Dziak’s life has been simple, but happy.
Growing up on a farm in rural Poland, her family always had what they needed to get by, even if there wasn’t often much extra left over for luxuries.
As she approaches womanhood, it seems that things are about to get even better for Alina. She has fallen in love with Tomasz, the son of the town doctor. Even better, he has fallen in love with her, too.
With the two betrothed and Tomasz headed to Warsaw to follow in his father’s footsteps and train to practice medicine, it seems that Alina’s future happiness is all but assured.
But then, what started as some conflict at the border grows into something so much more.
The Nazis invade Poland and, almost overnight, Alina’s world is thrust into disarray.
Now her hope isn’t that she will be happy, but simply that she will survive.
With Tomasz seemingly a world away, she prays that, somehow, he will find a way to return to her, bringing with him the promise of a happy future — something that, at this point, seems an impossibility.
Why You’ll Love It - Heartbreakingly real, The Things We Cannot Say reminds readers that darkness is temporary. A tale of perseverance and survival, it tugs at the heartstrings and reminds us of the invincibility of love.
Check out our full review of The Things We Cannot Say.
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