With six (6) months of the year under our belt, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my favorite books so far this year. It’s always incredibly challenging to narrow down my favorite books. Books become favorites either because it is quite literally the best thing I’ve ever read, it has stayed with me over time, or it made me feel all the feelings and I need everyone to read it. Most of these books fall into the last bucket: they made me feel things, and some times a lot of things. Here are my top 10 of 2024….so far (though I think a lot of these are going to be on my end of year favorites list too), in no particular order (since I cannot pick a favorite from these; changes by the day).
What have been your favorite books of the year so far?
On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera
Series: Dating in Dallas #2
Published by Harlequin on October 11, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Romance / Workplace
Pages: 347
Goodreads"Adriana Herrera writes all my favorite things, and I’ll never get enough of her books!" --Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
Alba Duarte is the queen of the side hustle.
As the eldest daughter in her crisis-prone family, she’s always stepped up to help. Her favorite gig is doing Instagram-worthy, bookish-themed bedroom makeovers for friends. Her most hated? Working as the assistant to the most gorgeous—and most infuriating—man on earth.
Theo Ganas is a former Olympic swimmer and heir to a bona fide real estate empire. He’s also about as warm and fuzzy as a New York City winter, and quite frankly, Alba has had enough of his ridiculous demands and cold shoulder. When opportunity knocks, she decides to put herself first for once…which means leaving her demanding boss—and relatives—behind.
Her new life in Dallas seems like everything Alba’s ever wanted, until a bafflingly charming and attentive Theo turns up in the Lone Star State with an offer she simply cannot refuse. Agreeing to do a home improvement reality TV show with her sexy, and suddenly flirtatious, former boss is not a good idea, but it just might be the makeover her heart has been waiting for.
Dating in Dallas
Book 1: Here to Stay
Book 2: On the HustleDreamers
Book 1: American Dreamer
Book 2: American Fairytale
Book 3: American Love Story
Book 4: American Sweethearts
Book 5: American ChristmasSambrano Studios
Book 1: One Week to Claim It All
Book 2: Just for the HolidaysLas Leonas
Book 1: A Caribbean Heiress in Paris
Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne
Published by Penguin on February 13, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Romance / African American & Black, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 432
Goodreads“Nikki Payne skillfully spins the tale of a well-known Jane Austen classic and makes it entirely her own. Thoughtful, hilarious, and smolderingly steamy.”—Kristina Forest, author of The Partner Plot
Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy novel inspired by Sense and Sensibility.
There’s never a good time to learn you are your father’s secret child—especially not at the reading of his will. With their father’s affairs laid bare and Nora’s sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What’s more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season’s designer boots when she’s confronted with three problems:1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
2. She hasn’t seen another Black person for miles.
3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis “Bear” Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week’s time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.
Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear’s silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing.
Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli
Series: Artefacts of Ouranos #2
Published by Grand Central Publishing on August 15, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, Fiction / Romance / Fantasy
Pages: 512
GoodreadsFull of pulse-pounding action, steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, and glittering fae magic, the epic second installment of the Artefacts of Ouranos series is perfect for fans of romantasy favorites like A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Fourth Wing.
“I am not his conquest. I am not his to claim. I am my own castle.”
Freed from the golden clutches of the Sun King, Lor now finds herself in the hands of Nadir, the Aurora Prince. Convinced she’s hiding something, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her talk. But Lor knows the value of secrets—she’s been keeping them her entire life—and she’s not letting hers go without a fight.
When Lor and Nadir team up to search for a lost item that holds the key to her past and her future, she isn’t sure she can trust him. All she knows is she won’t fall for another royal fae’s promises again.
With the Sun King determined to reclaim her, Lor must keep on the move, but nowhere is safe. Not until she destroys him and the Aurora King. But she soon learns that the future of Ouranos depends on much more than avenging her shattered legacy.
What Was Meant To Be Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp on November 8, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Pages: 300
GoodreadsFrom the author of Love Unexpected comes an all new age-gap forbidden romance.
Three years ago, Jacob Price walked away.
After a whirlwind steamy affair, my father's best friend broke my heart.
He told me things were too complicated. Messy. Wrong.
That we could never be together.
I knew he loved me but the fear of ruining our family was too great.
With too much at stake, he sacrificed our hearts and ended it.Now, he's back and he still wants me.
He still loves me.But now, I'm engaged to another man.
Yours, Forever by Leonor Soliz
Series: Cozy Latine Billionaires #2
Published by Leonor Soliz on March 1, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 398
GoodreadsMarrying a sexy, outrageous billionaire in Vegas was a wager on my future. His arrival in my small town two weeks later? Not in the prenup.
My deal with Maximiliano Errázuriz is nothing more than a bold business move. He needs a wife to overcome his father's schemes, and the money he offers will fix all my problems.
To trick his father, we're living together and pretending we're in love.
But we're too different. He's brazen; full of cheeky smiles and wicked teasing. I'm practical and private. His bespoke suits and exuberant personality clash with the simplicity of my hometown. I hate city living. He thrives in the bright lights.
That is until he shows genuine care for my town, and his eyes turn fiery at the sight of my curves. When he reveals his bruised heart, I melt even more. Soon I can't resist him at all.
Max is my eccentric souvenir, but forever wasn't in our vows. People have left me behind before and he will, too. I need to let him go, before I start to believe we belong together and I end up with nothing but a shattered heart.
***
YOURS, FOREVER is a slow burn, low conflict, dual POV romance, with a small town gal and a billionaire, big city guy. This Marriage of Convenience, Opposites Attract novel includes plus size and Latine characters, and open door spice.
Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up by Charish Reid
Published by Harlequin on June 6, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Romance / African American & Black, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Romance / Workplace
Pages: 384
Goodreads“A heartfelt opposites-attract romance...” —Publishers Weekly
Total opposites. Totally irresistible.
Mickey Chambers is an expert at analyzing modern literature. But when it comes to figuring out her own story, she’s feeling a little lost. At thirty-three, she’s an adjunct instructor with a meager summer class schedule and too many medical bills, courtesy of her chronic illness. Picking up a bartending gig seems perfect. Sure, Mickey’s never done this before, but the gorgeous, grumpy bar owner, Diego Acosta, might be the perfect man to teach the teacher…if he wasn’t so stressed.
Diego is worried he’s running his late wife’s bar into the ground. Add the pressures of returning to college part-time at forty-two, and it’s no wonder he’s making rash decisions. Like hiring the sunny, sexy woman who looks more at home in a library than slinging beers to rowdy barflies, and who turns out to be teaching his online writing course, a complication neither was expecting…
It’s not long before Mickey starts reenergizing The Saloon with cocktails, karaoke and an optimism even Diego can’t ignore. They need to fight their feelings if they want to keep things professional, but all it takes is one sip, one kiss, to shake both their worlds forever…
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Published by Penguin on June 13, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Romance / Workplace
Pages: 400
Goodreads"The reigning queen of STEM romance."—The Washington Post
An Indie Next and Library Reads Pick!
Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain.
The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
Personal by Alexandria House
Series: St. Louis Cyclones #3
Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US on March 31, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / African American & Black
Pages: 224
GoodreadsThe bad boy of the NBA and the princess of the McClain Kingdom-a love story.
He's handsome, talented, and troubled. Known as the bad boy of the NBA, Armand Daniels is both a liability and an asset to any team he's a member of due to his hair-trigger temper. He's no stranger to instability, but this latest trade may be what forces him onto the path of true change.
Ella McClain is her daddy's princess, the daughter of a beauty icon, and a successful model in her own right. However, she's tired of the spotlight and all that comes with it. Although cherished and protected by her family, she is overcoming deep issues when she crosses paths with Armand.
They are an unlikely pair who share a combustible chemistry and an inextinguishable passion, but do they have what it takes to build an enduring love?
Note: For the best reading experience, Let Me Love You and Let Me Hold You by Alexandria House should be read before reading PERSONAL.
Not So Kind Regards by Clio Evans
Series: Warts & Claws Inc. #1
Published by Clio Evans Author on August 20, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / General
GoodreadsIt’s just another Monster Monday…
Inferna expected many things to happen— but sparks flying between her, the office rival, and his lover was not one of them.Calen is a nerdy omega witch, one that Inferna wants to sink her teeth into. Art is a stuck-up boss but can be a little more charming outside the regular 9-5.
After an evil HR agent shows up with an agenda, everything starts to change. No one is safe, tensions are high, and the creatures of Warts & Claws Inc will have to fight spell and claw to make it to the weekend.
Can Inferna, Calen, and Art survive a work week from hell while discovering a love that’s off the charts?
One Week in Paradise by Anise Starre
Series: Flights and Feelings #1
Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp on February 18, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Pages: 220
GoodreadsWhen disgraced influencer Bailey Clarke is invited to go on an all expenses paid trip to a couples only resort in Jamaica, she's ecstatic. This is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her brand. Only problem is...she's not currently in a relationship.
Enter the effortlessly handsome Caspian 'Cash' Reid, who just so happens to be her brother Dane's best friend. He's never seemed to like Bailey, but when Dane jokingly suggests Cash accompany her to Jamaica and get a free holiday, Bailey can't get the idea out of her head.
Surprisingly, Cash agrees to be her fake boyfriend all in the name of content. Their agreement is simple enough, but one week in paradise brings them closer than ever before and an undeniable spark ignites between them.
But Bailey has secrets, and the closer they get to one another, the closer Cash gets to unravelling her shameful past. As the lines blur between their fake dating agreement and their real feelings, will Bailey let Cash into her life or will she let her past destroy her future?
A steamy fake dating contemporary romance.
