Top Ten Tuesday – Best Books I Read in 2021
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Best Books I Read in 2021. I had such a good reading year that I’m finding it impossible to narrow down to just ten favorite reads. Instead of making those impossible cuts to get down to just ten books, I’m going to go ahead and share all of my favorites from the different genres I read. My groupings aren’t very precise though since several of these could fit into multiple categories. The bulk of my favorites are also romances since I read more of those than I did anything else in 2021.
* * * * *
My Favorite Reads from 2021
(In no particular order)
ROMANCE
THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS by Ali Hazelwood
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry
THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren
ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert
VERY SINCERELY YOURS by Kerry Winfrey
ISN’T IT BROMANTIC? by Lyssa Kay Adams
ONE LAST STOP by Casey McQuiston
WOMEN’S FICTION
ALWAYS, IN DECEMBER by Emily Stone
UNDER THE SOUTHERN SKY by Kristy Woodson Harvey
YOUNG ADULT
BETTER THAN THE MOVIES by Lynn Painter
FANTASY
UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR by TJ Klune
THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab
THE BOOK OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman
A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas
SCIENCE FICTION
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir
HISTORICAL FICTION
THE FOREST OF THE VANISHING STARS by Kristin Harmel
MYSTERY/THRILLER
The only book I read on your list is Better Than the Movies, and I loved it!
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/the-10-best-books-i-read-in-2021/
That was such a good book. I can’t wait to read more from Painter. 🙂
The Love Hypothesis is on my TBR for the new year! Seen so much love for it on TTT lists.
It’s such a cute book!
Great list! So many of these are on my shelf.
I hope you enjoy them all when you get to read them!
Thank you for sharing your favorites. Love Hypothesis sounds like a book I’d like.
It’s a cute one. 🙂
I have an Emily Henry book on my TBR and the Lynn Painter one but did not get to them this year. I like the way you created your lists. https://cindysbookcorner.blogspot.com/2021/12/top-ten-tuesday-cover-love.html
Thanks! 🙂
I’m so curious about Act Your Age, Eve Brown.
That’s a fun one. 🙂
Great list! We have a lot of favorites in common in the romance and fantasy genres 🙂
I just saw your list and we definitely share a lot of favorites. 🙂
Great list! I definitely want to read Isn’t It Bromantic? soon! The Soulmate Equation was a great read!
The Soulmate Equation was so good. It’s my second favorite of theirs after Josh & Hazel.
My list has way more than ten books, lol. I’m glad to see a few of my favorites on your list like Project Hail Mary and Addie LaRue. It really was a great year for books!
It really was a great year for books. I had more 5 star reads this year than I’ve had in ages.
Addie made my list too! And I got Project Hail Mary for Christmas, so I’ll be reading that one eventually.
I hope you enjoy Project Hail Mary. That’s a book I’ve been recommending to pretty much everyone I know.
That Hazelwood book is getting such good press! I was trying to avoid it, thinking it was all YA. I should have remembered what they say about judging from the cover. 🙂 Happy TTT, and thanks for a great list.
I avoided it at first because of the hype but fell in love with it as soon as I started reading. I loved that the main characters were scientists. 🙂
Its certainly hard to narrow it down to just 10 favorite reads of the year! (I ended up doing 15 lol) but I like your method of sharing in genres!
I’ve seen Project Hail Mary on a few lists now and I own the audio for that, so I have to get to it soon in 2022, I need to see what its about for myself!
Addie LaRue was on my favorites of 2020 list so I fully agree with that, such a fantastic read!
I loved Project Hail Mary so much. I read an ARC of it but would love to go back and listen to the audio at some point.
No actual romance made it to my list this year but there’s several that have such elements. I’m looking forward to reading some of the books on your list next year. Happy reading. My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/the-best-10-books-i-read-in-2021/#comment-1117
Happy reading to you too!
PROJECT HAIL MARY is a popular choice! Sci-fi isn’t my genre, but my husband really loved the book as well. THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS is one I hope to get to in the new year. It looks adorable.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I think Andy Weir tends to write sci-fi that people who don’t normally enjoy sci-fi actually like. He always seems to have these fun, scrappy protagonists that get you so invested in the story.
SO many of these are on my TBR. ACOFAS made my list too.
Loved that book so much!
I thoroughly enjoy historical fiction and Kate Quinn is awesome! Thanks for the recommends!
My post: https://pagesandpaws.com/2021/12/28/ttt-top-20-heroes-heroines-from-2021/
I’ve loved everything I’ve read from Kate Quinn so far. Can’t wait for her new one in 2022. 🙂
The Love Hypothesis was on my list of favorite 2021 romances, too! Such a great book. I can’t believe it was her debut.
I can’t believe it either. It impressed me so much. I also noticed that she has two novellas coming out soon and I can’t wait to read those.
We definitely have some favourites in common! The Book of Magic, Project Hail Mary, and Razorblade Tears are on my list too!
All of those were so good. 🙂
Great picks! I have read and loved 5 of the romance plus Addie Larue.
Addie Larue was such a great read. I read the ebook but would love to go back and listen to the audiobook version at some point.
The Rose Code, ACOSF, Under the Whispering Door are on my list as well!
We have excellent taste in books, lol. 🙂
The Love Hypothesis was one of my favorite reads this year, too! It’s such a fun book. 😀
It really is. Can’t wait to read the novellas she has coming out in 2022. 🙂
I read all but one of those romances, and I wholeheartedly support those choices. Painter was a YA standout for me as well. I am smiling just thinking about that book
Same! Every time I even see the cover, I start smiling. I can’t wait to read her new book. 🙂
This is a great list, Suzanne. Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed The Rose Code this year as well, although it didn’t quite make my top ten list. I just got Hoffman’s The Book of Magic for Christmas and I cannot wait to read it. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue is on my TBR list–hopefully I can get to it this year. I hope you have a wonderful year of reading in 2022!
I hope you enjoy the Hoffman book and Addie Larue when you get to them. 🙂
The Rose Code was on my list this week too! Addie LaRue made my favourites list last year, so happy to see that you enjoyed it too.
Addie Larue is such a special book, definitely one of my favorites from Schwab. 🙂
Great List. 2021 was a great reading year 🙂 I also loved Project Hail Mary, Isn’t it Bromantic, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, and A Court of Silver Flames 😀
We have great taste in books, lol. 🙂
So fun that you did categories. I have most of yours represented on my list, except that apparently I didn’t read any science fiction this year at all, except for one middle grade novel dealing with an EMP! (The Big Dark, not top tier but still good/recommended)
But I’m reading Very Sincerely Yours right now, 25% of the way in and holy cow I LOVE it. I’m actually gonna hold off finishing it until New Year’s, so that I can cherish it at the top of my 2022 list all year long, because it’s a 5-star read right now and feels like it has a chance of being Top Ten.
Very Sincerely Yours is such a great book. Finishing it in 2022 sounds like the perfect way to start off the new year. 🙂
Nice list. I love those Maas covers. 🙂 And your historical fiction picks look good too!
Yeah, those Maas covers are always pretty cool. I haven’t bought this one yet though because it doesn’t match the others I have for the series and I don’t want a mismatched set, lol.
I have The Rose Code and Under the Whispering Door on my wish list to read. I really must catch up.
I hope both of those are great reads for you. Both exceeded my expectations when I read them. 🙂
I enjoyed One Last Stop. And Always, in December was wonderful. I still haven’t read A Court of Silver Flames. I need to prioritize that one.
Oh yes, definitely read ACOSF, especially if you were a Nesta hater in previous books. This book took her from being my least favorite character to one of my favorites.
Looks like you had a great year of reading! The Love Hypothesis was one of my favourites this year as well and I love seeing it on so many peoples’ lists! 😍 I’ve also seen Project Hail Mary on countless lists so I’m definitely gonna be bumping that up my TBR next year. I hope you have an awesome year of reading in 2022!
I hope you enjoy Project Hail Mary. I loved it even more than I hoped I would. 🙂