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As 2020 came to a close I was thinking about pulling together a few end of year blog posts and one I love to share each year is my favorite books read that year. Well, when I was getting ready to share that I realized I hadn’t shared a reading update in a while! I’ve read these books over the last 6 months since I shared my last set of mini book reviews (oops!), but I’m going to count reading 8 books in 6 months with a new baby as a win 🙂 Would love to hear what you’ve been reading recently as I’m always looking for new recommendations!
The Hunting Party– For New Year’s Eve, a group of friends goes to a very isolated and private estate to celebrate together. The group is mainly friends from Oxford plus significant others and they’ve celebrated together for ten years, despite relationship and life changes. On New Year’s Day they discover one of them is dead and seeing as they are basically alone at this estate, it seems another friend did it. Add to this a massive snow storm that has cut the estate off from the outside world and you’ve got a good thrilling read.
Followers– Followers is a great read for any of us social media lovers (I’m guessing you fall into this category if you are reading this). It tells two stories- first, of friends Orla and Floss who join forces to make Floss an online celebrity and the second story based 35 years in the future, of a woman named Marlowe, who lives in a government run town where celebrities live their entire life in front of the camera, like The Truman Show.
Majesty– The second book in the American Royals series! Loved getting to read the next installment in this series that frames up what things would be like if the US had a royal family, the Washingtons. I won’t share too much in case you haven’t started the series yet, but this series is a must read if you love royals and watch The Crown or Bridgerton.
The Other Windsor Girl- Another royally inspired book 🙂 This historical fiction novel follows Vera Strathmore who gets a chance meeting with Princess Margaret thanks to her secret job writing romance novels. After meeting, Margaret takes a liking to Vera and soon enough she is part of her inner circle. The book follows their friendship and many of the news worthy Margaret moments you may be familiar with.
One Of Us Is Next– Loved this YA thriller that is a sequel to one of my prior year favorites, One Of Us Is Lying. Again since it is a sequel I won’t ruin anything, but if you like thrillers of the young adult variety, I’d definitely recommend. While this one is classified as YA, I think it is pretty adult aside from the characters being in high school/college.
Writers & Lovers– This beautifully written book will absolutely show up on my favorite reads from the year list! Writers & Lovers follows Casey, an aspiring novelist who is a waitress at a fancy restaurant in Cambridge and living in a garage of one of her brother’s friends in Boston. Casey is holding on to the notion that she can write a great novel despite most of her friends having moved on from their creative dreams and even though she is still writing the same novel six years later. Casey falls in love, writes, works and you get to go along for the ride throughout the book.
In Five Years– This book really surprised me with how much I liked it. Dannie lives her life according to plan- she’s going to get engaged this year, get a new job, make partner, all exactly on her timeline. But on the night Dannie’s boyfriend proposes, she falls asleep after the celebrations and has a dream of her life five years in the future. Problem is she is in a different apartment, with a different man and wearing a different ring. Dannie can’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t just a dream, but a premonition of her future. The book may tell you the ending- what Dannie dreamt- within the first few pages, but I promise the ending isn’t what you expect.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo– If you haven’t already read this book, add it to your list I could not put this one down. An aspiring author, Monique is invited personally by former mega movie star Evelyn Hugo to write her life story. Evelyn details her rise to fame, her seven failed marriages and reveals her one true love to Monique along the way. This novel is full of Old Hollywood glamour and if you loved Taylor Jenkins Reid’s other book Daisy Jones & The Six, I think safe to say you will also love Evelyn Hugo!
What have you read recently?
xoxo, Jenna
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