Me Time
My Best Books of 2024 - Not All Published This Year
This issue of the newsletter is a bit of a departure from the curated content I normally include (don't worry, I have plenty to share and will do so soon!).
This issue focuses on the 23 best books I read in 2024 in the following categories: Sapphic Romance, Sapphic Historical, Sapphic Fiction, Young Adult, and Jewish Fiction & Non-Fiction. Not all of these books were published in 2024, but now that I'm using Net Galley to read Advanced Review Copies, more of my best books will likely be published in the same year as my Best Of list.
So hang on. Here we go...
Sapphic Romance
Her Golden Coast by Anat Deracine - Laurie, a white woman who comes from a poor family, takes an admin job in San Francisco tech where she meets Mal, who grew up in her Indian immigrant family. this is a slow-burn, friends to lovers romance written entirely from Laurie's POV, almost in places as a stream of consciousness. But it is so much more. The writing is strong and the metaphorical backdrop is so well done. The author writes Laurie's character arc beautifully while including a portrait of Mal's neurodiverse personality.
Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd - a strong debut in which Maddie, a Jewish lesbian, takes a job in a Catholic high school where she meets soccer coach, Jillian. This enemies-to-lovers, butch-femme romance was a pleasure to read. The writing was strong,; the character development well done; and the author successfully used the issue of religion as a plot point conflict. It's unusual and so refreshing to read about a Jewish MC whose family, while not religious, is notably culturally Jewish.
The Broken Lines of Us by Shia Woods - Another strong debut. Charlie (Charlotte) returns to NYC after 4 years away in LA to be in her younger sister's wedding. She left days after her parents were killed in an auto accident. The first night in the city, she goes to a lesbian bar where she meets Annie. The two have a one-night stand that wows them both, but they know it's only for the one night. The next evening when Charlie attends a family dinner, in walks Annie. The writing is excellent, particularly the dialogue. The plotting kept me reading, and when I wasn't reading, I wanted to go back to the book.
The Flight Risk by Macon Leigh - It's been a great year for strong debuts! Baylee grew up in foster care, never knowing her parents. She's a flight risk, always running away from the homes where she's placed. As a teenager she meets Harper, former foster kid and now living with her father and step-mother, and volunteering at Baylee's home. Baylee and Harper's lives will meet and separate throughout the next 15+ years. There's so much here and all of it is really good. All in all, just read this book and stick with it. It's one of the best Sapphic novels I've read.
The Love Lie by Monica McCallan - Sidney has just retired from pro tennis after an injury that left her less competitive. She returns to her hometown and best friend to lick her wounds and deal with the breakup of a relationship with her cheating boyfriend. After running into her ex's sister, Reese, Sidney makes him believe that she is dating Reese, and Reese goes along with it. After a 2-year break, Monica McCallan has returned with a strong romance that focuses on the interior lives, needs and goals of two well-drawn main characters. We care about each of them and this author utilizes the skill she's become known for--focusing more on the emotional issues and less on the plot.
The Red Files by Lee Winter - yes, I know I'm late to the party, but as usual this author doesn't disappoint. This enemies to lovers book braided with political intrigue is a highly engaging read; the debut novel of the author who's become known for her ice queen characters. Here, two under-utilized journalists partner to uncover irregularities that lead them on a road trip to Nevada.
Time and Tide by J.M. Frey - Samantha is a 24 year old bi woman living in present day Canada who is the sole survivor of a plane crash, rescued by a British ship's captain in the year 1806. Traumatized and disoriented, Sam first tries to deny what's happened, but eventually she is reconciled to her fate, especially after she's introduced to the captain's sister, Margaret, an author just beginning her trade but destined to write the first queer novel. This time travel book is wonderful; completely engaging and well plotted.
Whistleblower by Jen Lyon - In the third book in The Senator's Wife series, Alex and Katharine confront two major obstacles to their happiness: Katharine's unsettled divorce from a man who is poised to be elected the next US president, and the ongoing struggle for Katharine to regain control of her company from her father. Alex continues to play soccer and becomes the object of an unrelenting online attack by Katharine's evil husband. Book three is just wonderful, well written, great plotting, and incredibly detailed descriptions of settings, especially in England.
Writ of Love by Cassidy Crane - The night before starting a new job at a big law firm, Kelly decides to hook up with a woman for a one-night stand. While the sex was mind blowing, she knows it was a one-time thing, until she's face-to-face with this woman who's a partner at the firm and her supervisor for the first 2 weeks. This is a pretty standard age-gap, boss-employee set up, but what makes it interesting is Kelly's backstory having to do with her family. It's not a high angst plot. Overall, it's a very solid and engaging romance with hot BDSM sex scenes that do not distract from the story.
Sapphic Historic
A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki - Married to Nadya, Ayukta has been unable to agree to have children because she has been hiding knowledge of her gift from her wife. But the time has come to be forthcoming and Ayukta recounts in great detail the lives of the two generations of women who have come before her. Beautifully written with well-researched historical details, this book weaves together significant eras of history with a mystically inspired and very feminist story. It is rather long but never dull and is highly recommended.
Death Has Golden Eyes by Cameron Darrow - A mash-up of alt hist, paranormal, mystery, and Sapphic. The time is 1948. The place is a small town on the moors of northern England. In this alt history, the Nazis were defeated when the US dropped several atom bombs in Germany, turning it into a wasteland. The Germans had figured out how to access The Realm, the land of paranormal creatures (vampires, werewolves...) and how to raise the dead as Zombies to attack soldiers. Dizzy Dixon, the world's authority on The Realm, along with a vampire, and a blue fox with two tails, sets out to solve the murder of a male werewolf, while protecting a teenage female werewolf that landed on her doorstep. Darrow drops us right into this world with little preparation, trickling out the back story little by little. That works here.
Encrypted Hearts by E.V. Bancroft - In WWII England, Cam is a brilliant, neurodiverse butch assigned to work at Bletchley Park decoding enemy messages. Gloria, beautiful and very feisty, is looking to escape her controlling father and dull life. She competes for a place at Bletchley and after being mistakenly assigned to a boring job, she joins Cam and her other coworkers as a decoder. The plot involves the growing attraction between Cam and Gloria and the pursuit of a spy by an abusive miliary police officer. Excellent research and the creation of two well drawn MCs.
Islands of Mice by Lucy Jacobs - Solveig is a young woman living with her family on an island off the coast of Norway during the German occupation. Looking to prove herself as a resistance fighter, Solveig encounters an Army deserter living in a cave and agrees to bring him food. She's also captivated by Liv, the new schoolteacher who unfortunately is a member of the collaborationist NS. The two end up forging a tentative friendship that, one night during a storm, becomes something more. But how compromised is Solveig willing to be? This well-researched historical novel does an excellent job of placing the reader in the unforgiving setting of punishing storms and extreme cold of the islands, whose residents live off the sea and tend sheep, cows and pigs.
Reverence by Milena McKay - Juliette is the prima ballerina of the Paris company in the 1980s. During a trip to Paris by the Bolshoi Ballet, their prima, Katarina, alluring yet remote, defects, and is protected by Juliette. The two end up rooming together in Juliette's apartment and Juliette is both mesmerized and attracted to Katarina but is convinced she's straight. But Katarina holds many secrets about her past in the USSR, her family and the reason for her defection. As with almost all her other books, Milena McKay has written a novel that I found difficult to put down. The main characters were incredibly well drawn and the plot kept me reading.
Tangled Roots by Marianne K. Martin - The book opens on young Anna's birthday in 1906 Atlanta. Anna is the white child of a fairly wealthy family and her best friend, Nessie, is the Black child of a family of workers who live adjacent to Anna's family and work for them. As the two girls grow into teenagers, they remain close and soon realize their feelings go beyond friendship. But how realistic is any ongoing relationship at a time of extreme and violent racism and strict rules for women. This book is both well written and well researched. It describes the difficult environment in which the characters live without detracting from the story.
Sapphic Fiction and Young Adult
The Devil You Know by Ali Vali - And we're back...with Cain, Emma, the children, Remi, Dallas, and the rest of the crew. In this 8th book in the series, Cain faces a number of foes, including two Russian families, Colombians, and FBI agents doing illegal things. There are two shootings, one pretty violent scene of retribution, and a subplot about trafficking. Oh, and toward the end, some happy events. As always, the love that Cain and Emma share is a thread throughout, and we begin to see Emma playing a larger role in the business. I don't know what this book would be like for someone just picking up the series here. But since I've read all of the previous 7 books, plus the prequel, I was highly engaged in seeing how once again Cain prevails over multiple adversities.
The Unfinished Line by Jen Lyon - Kam meets Dillon when her car hits Dillon on a dark road in Hawaii. Thus begins a long tale of this incredible love affair that spans from this accident through to Kam's rocket to fame as an actress and Dillon's continued quest to win Olympic goal as a triathlete. This is an extraordinarily well written book that takes the reader from Hawaii to LA to Wales among other places. All well described. The book's overall strength is its description of the main characters. One of the best Sapphic books I've ever read.
The Summer List by Katia Rose - Naomi is spending her summer between high school and university house sitting and cat sitting for her father's boss who lives in a mansion in a ritzy Ottawa neighborhood. Then, Andrea, the daughter of man who owns the house arrives unexpectantly, having broken up with her boyfriend and reluctant to go back to her mother in Toronto. The book not only follows the budding relationship between Naomi and Andrea it also focuses on the growth of each of the girls. There are many positive aspects of this book. The portrayal of Naomi's neurodiversity is well-described and convincing, as is Andrea's own issues about needing to find her own path and separate from her domineering and successful mother. The portrayal of the cultural background Naomi's friends, who are South Asian with family from India, is well drawn. This book departs in a good way from other sapphic novels where the best friend is a person of color but there is no exploration of how that impacts the character. This book does that pretty well.
Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth by Ben Francisco - High school student Val Vega lives in NJ with her mother, two brothers and her uncle, Umberto, with whom she's very close. The book begins as a typical YA novel: Val has a crush on her best friend, Will, who is interested in Val's best friend who isn't talking to her. But soon we're thrown into a whole new universe and built world with the loss of Umberto and Val's appointment as his successor--the secret ambassador of earth--who needs to fill in as the mediator between two advanced powerful civilizations fighting over control of the planet Hosh. The book has incredible world building. It is strong in its values of peace, autonomy for the disenfranchised, and respect for difference. Val's Latinx heritage is also an important aspect of the book and is seamlessly woven in.
Jewish Fiction & Non-Fiction
Kissing Girls on Shabbat: A Memoir by Sara Glass - Sara grows up in a large Haredi family in Brooklyn in which both her mother and one of her older sisters suffers from severe mental illness. Unable to receive any explanations for what's going on, Sara decides that she needs to pursue a career in psychology. As a teenager, Sara becomes romantically involved with another Haredi girl but she knows that there is no future for them and she must marry a man. The book details Sara's journey from Haredi Brooklyn through two marriages to men and to her growing realization that her well-being and the well-being of her children depend on her living an authentic life. The book is well written and highly engaging.
The Judgment of YoYo Gold by Isaac Blum - Yoyo is an Orthodox Jewish teen and the daughter of the community's revered rabbi. As the eldest daughter, she's taken on a lot of household responsibilities and is looked to by her friends as a wise problem-solver. But as the book opens, Yoyo is dealing with the fact that her best friend, Esti, has left the community for a boarding school after it becomes known that she kissed a boy. Yoyo's anger at the loss of her friend and the unfairness of the situation pushes her to begin to chronicle the hypocrisy of her community in a series of videos she posts. The book centers on questions of faith and responsibility and being true to oneself. How does Yoyo deal with hypocrisy? How far is she willing to go to deviate from Orthodox observance? How does she deal with her feelings for a boy? Is there a way for her to remain observant but on her own terms?
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish - British history professor Helen Watt, suffering from Parkinson's and nearing retirement, is called to the home of a former student to investigate a cache of documents found hidden behind a wall under a staircase. The book shifts to the late 1600s, the time of the found documents, in which a mysterious scribe of a blind rabbi, known only as Aleph, drafts the rabbi's correspondence and other documents. Helen and her grad student soon discover that the scribe is a woman named Ester, a Jew originally from Portugal who escaped the Inquisition with her family and fled to Amsterdam. There's so much strength in this long novel. The research and historical settings are excellently portrayed. The writing is beautiful. And there are enough unanswered questions in the plot to keep the reader turning all 706 Kindle pages.
When Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb - This is the story of a Jewish angel and a Jewish demon, study partners in a tiny Polish shtel who've been together for centuries. When the local baker is worried that he hasn't heard from his daughter who's gone to America, the duo heads to Warsaw to procure tickets for the ocean voyage. Meanwhile in a slightly larger shtetl, Rose is saving money for her own trip to America, hoping to take along her best friend. But she goes alone when her friend ends up marrying a local boy. All 3 are united together on the ship along with the ghost of a murdered rabbi and his trunk of property. This is an outstanding book. Funny, poignant, well written, and one you don't want to end. It's one of the best books I've ever read.