AAR has given DIKs to twenty-three books in 2024. Of those, fifteen are 2024 releases. They are:
Simply the Best by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
A Wild and Heavenly Place by Robin Oliveira
Convenient Vows With a Viking by Lucy Morris & Sarah Rodi
Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw
Promises of Forever by Nicky James
First Lie Wins by Ashely Elston
The Ladies Rewrite the Rules by Suzanne Allain
When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein
Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin
The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman
The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
Girls With Bad Reputations by Xio Axelrod
All of these, other than The Hunter, are romances or have love stories of some kind in them. I’ve read five of these and enjoyed them all.
Goodreads tells me I’ve read nine books published thus far in 2024. Of these, my favorite NOT on the above list is Bride by Ali Hazelwood which is a DIK for me.
What is your favorite book, thus far of 2024? Favorite romance? And if you’ve read something we should avoid like the plague, share that too!
So far, my favorite book of 2024 (that was also published in 2024) is Nicky James’s PROMISES OF FOREVER. An absolutely heartbreaking story of two people who met at summer camp as ten-year-olds and reconnect when they’re in their mid-forties. Angsty, melancholy, and beautifully written. Brilliant!
Seconded. That book is outstanding – heartfelt and deeply emotional without any contrived drama.
I’ve also loved the new audiobooks of Glitterland and Waiting for the Flood.
I gave Waiting for the Flood an A, too – I know it’s a reissue but the companion story, Chasing the Light is brand new (also an A) and not available separately so perhaps WftF could be added to the list.
I’ve read one stinker (The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore) and one other DIK (Salt by Fearne Hill) – both books are coming soon.
I was only putting new books out in 2024 on this list–it’s odd that Chasing the Light isn’t available on its own.
Not really. Chasing the Light is dependent on Waiting for the Flood to make any real sense. It’s basically a continuation of the story from a different point of view. And while it is much, much more than that, it also serves as an epilogue to the original work. I think Hall is right to keep them a pair.
What Carrie says – and AH makes it clear that the two are meant to be read together.
Hmmm….. OK.
Like Caz and DDD, Promises of Forever is absolutely on my favorites list of book for 2024. (I listened on audio, which is wonderful!) The Waiting for the Flood re-release is on my list which, as noted, contains the new novella, Chasing the Light. It incredible and stayed with me for days.
I gave H.L. Day’s A Pirate’s Pleasure (standalone set in her 13 Kingdoms world) an A-. A murderous harpy, pirates and long lost love makes this so much fun. It made me smile every time I picked it up.
The audio of The Art of Husbandry by Jay Hogan will be on my 2024 Audiobook releases (the print was 2023). Superb narration by Gary Furlong, as usual.
My favorite books so far this year (besides Simply the Best and Bride) include What is Love by Jen Comfort, a romcom about a trivia show and a March early release for Prime members. Small Town Swoon by Melanie Harlow just came out and is a sweet small town romance that’s not too angsty. A few not out yet that I love are Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (04/02), Funny Story by Emily Henry (04/23), Look on the Bright Side by Kristan Higgins (05/28), Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan (6/04), Viscount in Love by Eloisa James (07/23), Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto (07/06) and Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood – her spiciest book yet (and her best IMO) and more! It’s another great year for romcoms!
My favorites have been Funny Story by Emily Henry and The Hunter by Tana French. And they weren’t published this year but In Memoriam by Alice Winn and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas were also five-star reads for me.
I liked both of those too! I have read some reviews of In Memoriam–I worry it’s too hard emotionally for me.
It is difficult but so well done and beautiful!
I loved Bride too! I can’t pick just one, but Bride, At First Spite, and If Only You by Chloe Liese are the top for me so far.
I’m not sure I have a favorite but I have a book that’s well in the running to be the worst book of 2024: One Night with the Duke by Jodi Ellen Malpas. This author has only written contemporaries and this is her first try at historical, Regency in this case. Oh my lord, yikes. She did exactly zero research, maybe, maybe, she watched Bridgerton. I only got 16% of the way in and I just couldn’t do it anymore.
I haven’t read it but readers love it on Amazon. I read, in the comments, that her editor asked her to write a historical. Apparently she has a ton of contemp fans and they all read this book too.
I saw that too. I was shocked by the high rating so I read through all the reviews and not a single person had read HR before so as long as there were corsets and dukes, they were fine. I was not. And I’m not a stickler for accuracy!
This person on Goodreads got a lot of the issues:
On top of the above, the author clearly did ZERO RESEARCH and did not know the Regency time period at all. You can’t just write a contemporary romance and stick it in 1816. There were numerous terms of phrase said by characters that didn’t exist at the time (blimey, cat got your tongue, etc.). Eliza was shocked that a titled man of 24 wasn’t married. Eliza complained about her corset when you literally cannot wear the type of corset with the clothing of the time (I’m blaming the Bridgerton Netflix series for this one). Somehow her getting up at 6:15 AM was two hours before the butler woke up (on what planet would a butler not get up until 8:15 AM). One of my biggest pet peeves, there were multiple references to Jane Austen by name in a book set in 1816, when Austen’s identity was not known until December 1817. Perhaps the most egregious of all and one that deeply disturbs me, GULLIVER’S TRAVELS IS REFERENCED AS A TRAVEL DIARY. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS. THE AUTHOR THINKS GULLIVER’S TRAVELS IS A TRAVELOGUE. You can’t make it a plot point to have your heroine never read novels and then mention several times that she has Gulliver’s Travels by her bed and mention that it is a travel diary she’s read without making me think you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Lilliputians everywhere are rolling in their graves!
Well. That’s as bad as my two favorite examples. (The author who talked about strolling around the trees and flowers of Covent Garden, and the one who had her wealthy heroine dressed in a gown of fine fustian.) I’m adding this example to my list!
The supply of published books is so huge and fragmented! I’ve never heard of this author (but I don’t read erotica generally, either). Of course, I had never heard of Zapata either when she appeared out of nowhere on AAR’s Top 100 list a few years ago.
From the author’s website (bf emphasis mine):
“#1 New York Times & Sunday Times Bestselling Author Jodi Ellen Malpas was born and raised in England, where she lives with her husband. She is a self-professed daydreamer and has a terrible weak spot for alpha males. After writing in secret for too long, Jodi exploded onto the scene in 2012 with her debut novel This Man.
Writing powerful love stories with fierce, memorable characters is her passion – a passion that has taken her on an amazing journey into the limelight of romantic fiction. Her work is now published in more than twenty-seven languages across the world.”
Also from her website: She’s a self-published author of erotica.
Heard elsewhere: her books/characters have been optioned to become TV/films. I’m torn between wanting really good authors work to be recognized and rewarded by being made into movies/TV (ala Quinn and Carr) but risking that those characters might be destroyed in the process (see Carr’s Virgin River series) vs. picking really bad writers’ work to turn into video and so who cares if it turns out poorly.
I haven’t read anything by the author, but I know she’s an author of contemporary and erotic romance – so when I saw she’d written HR, I sailed right on past. Sounds like I had the right idea.
Hmmmm… Doesn’t Alexis Hall write both? It can be done!
It can. But his historicals aren’t especially “historical” either, tbh. And he doesn’t try to pretend they are.
This would make an interesting post in itself: which authors who have written in multiple romantic sub-genres have done a credible job of it (even if they’re stronger in one than another)?
You definitely had the right idea. I read the blurb and thought, ok, this sounds interesting. And usually, I try to get through a book, but I had to nope out of this thing at the 16% mark. Thankfully, it’s a library book so no $$$ spent.