Well, I think we can all agree that 2020 was a different year. Man, was it different! One of my brightest spots of the year was definitely reading. When things are hard and stressful, I always turn to books. This year, I met my reading goal of 75 books and narrowing the list down to my favorite 10 was incredibly hard- a true sign of a great reading year! So we can focus on all the bad parts of 2020 (and yes, there were so many) or we can focus on the happier parts, which I’m choosing to do today as I share my top 10 favorite books of 2020 with y’all.
My One and Only by Kristan Higgins; Add it to Goodreads
My One and Only was our #lalalifebookclub pick for February. It was also my first Kristan Higgins book. Oh my goodness, y’all! I wasn’t expecting to love this one nearly as much I did. It was just the sweetest little romance that has my absolute FAVORITE ROMANCE ENDING OF ALL TIME. My heart exploded at this swoony ending. Friends, this one is adorable. After finishing it, I immediately went and bought all of KH’s other books. This is an older title, but soooo amazing!
Synopsis
Divorce attorney Harper James can’t catch a break. Bad enough that she runs into her ex-husband, Nick, at her sister’s destination wedding, but now, by a cruel twist of fate, she’s being forced to make a cross-country road trip with him. And her new fiancé back at home is not likely to be sympathetic.
Harper can’t help that Nick has come blazing back into her life in all of his frustratingly appealing, gorgeous architect glory. But in Nick’s eyes, Harper’s always been the one. If only they can get it right this time, forever might be waiting–just around the bend.
Beach Read by Emily Henry; Add it to Goodreads
My summer reading was probably the best season of reading I’ve ever had in my life. I read SO MANY 5 star reads from May to August. Beach Read by Emily Henry was right at the top. I vividly remember curling up in my egg chair on the back porch at night while I read this one. It’s one of my favorite memories from the year lol. I love when I’m reading such a good book that I can also attach a wonderful memory to. Y’all, Beach Read was the swooniest, sweetest, cutest book. I can’t even pick out my favorite part because there are so many sweet moments in this story. It’s one of those books where I’m jealous at someone who gets to read it for the first time. I already want to go back and reread it. It is amazing.
Synopsis
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
All I Ask by Corinne Michaels; Add it to Goodreads
I randomly picked up All I Ask at the end of summer because I was in the mood for something quick and easy to read. August is always a tricky month for reading because back to school pretty much consumes my life. I was so surprised by how much I loved All I Ask. It was exactly what I needed when I read it. It was the pure definition of unputdownable. I always love a second chance romance and this one was so sweet.
Synopsis
Teagan Berkley is trying her best. A single mom raising a precocious teen, she may have given up on her dreams, but she’s accepted her life in her small beachside hometown. Now the one person who abandoned her when she needed him the most has returned, bringing back memories of what might have been.
Derek Hartz arrives in town with a teenage daughter – and he’s full of guilt over his failed marriage and the way he ended his friendship with Teagan. He’s determined to set things right with her, but first he needs to gain her trust. Something he’s not convinced he deserves.
As Teagan and Derek open up to each other-and confess their deepest secrets-it’s impossible for them to deny what’s always been between them. But just when their happily ever after is within reach, their complicated history surfaces again and threatens to keep them apart. Forever.
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston; Add it to Goodreads
I ordered Red, White, and Royal Blue last year, but I never got around to reading it. I even picked it up and read a few pages at one point last year around this time, but then got side tracked with another book. For some reason, royal books are always fun to read around the holidays for me, so I decided to finally read this one at the very beginning of December. Everyone raves around this romance. It even won Goodreads Best Romance of 2019 award. I was worried that all that hype was going to lead to disappointment for me.
There was no need to worry. It was amazing. It was everything that everyone said. And more.
If you love royal theme books, election theme romances, or just dreamy romance moments, this one is for you. It was such a sweet love story. And, as if you needed one more reason to love it, it features a female American president as she campaigns for reelection. Fictional, yes, but hopefully not for long. 🙂
Synopsis
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier; Add it to Goodreads
The first book I read this year ended up earning a place in my Top 10. Jennifer Hillier can do no wrong, friends. When I read Jar of Hearts back in 2018, I knew I would read and more than likely love everything she ever writes. Little Secrets was such an amazing thriller. I still love Jar of Hearts a little more because it has a little more romance, but this one is SO good. And perfect to read right now because there’s a Santa involved. It is amazing.
Synopsis
All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret…
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.
A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix.
Permanently.
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager Add it to Goodreads
2020 was the year I finally read a Riley Sager novel. I think I have every single one of his books, but until October, I had never read one. I read Home Before Dark for our #lalalifebookclub and I was honestly dreading it because I didn’t think I would like it. Again, I was wrong. This thriller is perfect for Halloween. I have never read anything else like it. Such a spooky story. I loved it!
Synopsis
What was it like? Living in that house.
Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.
Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore Add it to Goodreads
Bringing Down the Duke was another book I had sitting on my shelf for about a year before I picked it up this summer. Historical fiction/romance has always been a struggle for me, but this year I fell in love with the genre. Bringing Down the Duke is not only an amazing romance, but it has the best feminist plot that is at the same time swoon-worthy. I absolutely loved the message in this story. Book 2 in this series also came out this year and it’s just as good. The third comes out next year and I’m counting down the days. I LOVE this series!
Synopsis
England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.
Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn’t be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn’t claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring…or could he?
Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke….
To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters Add it to Goodreads
I’m surprised that there’s a historical romance in my top 10…I’m shocked that there are TWO! Y’all, I got an ARC of To Have and to Hoax back last October and I finally decided to read it in April. I absolutely fell in love with this funny, witty, sweet story. Seriously this is the funniest book. If you love The Hating Game (one of my all time favorite romances) you will love this one. It’s like the historical romance version of it (minus the workplace romance storyline) The second one in the series, To Love and to Loathe, comes out in the spring. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of it and I just loved it!
Synopsis
Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since.
Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side—only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.
Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses—and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them?
His and Hers by Alice Feeney Add to Goodreads
My favorite thriller of the year is, hands down, His and Hers by Alice Feeney. Y’all this book is amazing. It reminds me of an adult version of Mean Girls. If you know me, you know Mean Girls is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time LOL This is seriously so good. I was struggling to figure out the mystery the entire book. I was shocked until the VERY LAST PAGE. Absolutely amazing. Highly recommend it you love thrillers. Or Mean Girls LOL
Synopsis
Anna Andrews finally has what she wants. Almost. She’s worked hard to become the main TV presenter of the BBC’s lunchtime news. So, when someone threatens to take her dream job away, she will do almost anything to keep it.
When asked to cover a murder in Blackdown, Anna is reluctant to go. But when the victim turns out to be one of her childhood friends, she can’t leave. It soon becomes clear that Anna isn’t just covering the story, she’s at the heart of it.
When the body of a young woman is discovered, DCI Jack Harper decides not to tell anyone that he knew the victim, until he begins to realise he is a suspect in his own murder investigation.
One of them knows more than they are letting on. Someone isn’t telling the truth.
Whose story should you believe? His or Hers?
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand; Add to Goodreads
If you follow my bookstagram, my number 1 favorite book of 2020 should come as no surprise. I read my first Elin Hilderbrand book this year and boy, did it make an impact with me. Y’all, 28 Summers not only earned the title as my favorite book of 2020, it also found its way as one of my top 5 favorite books of all time. I cannot even begin to describe how much this story consumed my life. I don’t think a book as ever affected me like Mallory and Jake’s story. I 100% know I’ve never cried at the end of a story like I did with this book. It is one of the best romances I’ve ever read, but I love that this isn’t solely a romance book. I loved the subplots that we got to read about throughout the book-especially Ursula’s presidential run. The ending was gut wrenching-even if we knew it was coming. Oh my goodness. This book. It’s magical.
Synopsis:
When Mallory Blessing’s son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he’s not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It’s the late spring of 2020 and Jake’s wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.
There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother’s bachelor party. Cooper’s friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere — through marriage, children, and Ursula’s stratospheric political rise — until Mallory learns she’s dying.
Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.
Okay, there you have it. My top 10 favorite books of 2020. Oh goodness, how I adore these books. Have you read any of them? I’d love to hear what you read and loved this year. If you want to enter to win any of these books, I’m having giveaways on my bookstagram account starting tomorrow, so be sure and follow along!
To check out my top favorite books from previous years, click the links below.
