Welcome to the Cup of Tea’s Best Books of the Year, where I list the best of the best books I read the previous year.
I’ve been meaning to start my best-of-the-year lists in either January or February but of course, life and the world just got in the way. But maybe this was meant to be. What better way to celebrate 10 years of blogging than giving my choices of the best books I’ve read in 2024! I’ve read a total of 126 books in 2024, and I managed to narrow them down to these choices.
I didn’t get to read as much adult fiction as I would have liked to, but I increased the number of young adult reads. Whatever type of books I read, there were exciting, thought-provoking and engaging, and I’m excited to share them with you:
Fiction
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner
Jenner has written another heartbreaking but beautiful novel that will leave readers with warmth and insight that will stay with readers up to the very last page. Jenner brings a new voice to the historical genre, and it is a voice that readers of the historical genre need to be on the lookout for.
The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster by Shauna Robinson
Robinson always bring the heart and warmth in her stories and with The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster, she shines with those elements and more. This novel highlights what people look for within themselves: trying to find their identity and finding their identity withing theri family. I connected, along with Robinson’s other books, with this stroy on a deeper level and I just loved every minute of it and was sad that the Townsend family were leaving.
FYI: Be prepared to crave mac and cheese after reading this because after I put this book down, I was craving for a good bowl of mac and cheese.
Once Persuaded, Twice Shy: A Modern Reimagining of Persuasion by Melodie Edwards
When you think of a classic retelling of Austen’s works, Pride and Prejudice is always the go-to adaptation. And while I understand and I am a sucker for those retellings, it’s nice to see an author go in a different direction and choose a retelling for a novel that should get more attention like its predecessors. Edwards does a wonderful job capturing the essence of Persuasion and bringing the story into the 21st century. Instead of trying to mimic Austen’s wit and humor, the book tells a story on its merit but still captures the essence and enjoyment of Persuasion.
Teens and Young Adult
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
You will have a hard time putting this one down! With this latest page-turner by Holly Jackson, with is intricately plotted but with tense and engaging writing, Jackson has another winner with a story with a twist you will not see coming!
Somewhere In The Deep by Tanvi Berwah
If more fantasy books turn out to be the type of books Tanvi Berwah creates, I’ll begin to be a fan of the genre! Berwah has once again created a fantastic fantasy adventure that grips you from the very first page. The world that Berwah created was unique and creative to see on paper. Although this takes place in a world entirely of make-believe monsters, the story, and plotlines are poignant and relevant, which is excellent since readers will not have difficulty connecting to our current world. A book with excellent writing, world-building, and a powerful message…the perfect elements for a great read. And let us not forget Krescent, a strong and realistic female protagonist that readers will have no problem identifying with and will root for throughout the story as they did with Koral in Monsters Born and Made.
Wander In The Dark by Jumata Emill
Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.
Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.
Amir never finds out, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch. And in no time, Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of a rich white girl’s murder? All of New Orleans agrees: the case is open-and-shut.
Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, things don’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but Marcel knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving his innocence will repair the rift between them.
To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths. (Credit: Delacorte Press)
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
After being home-schooled, Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school. Misfortune has been a constant companion throughout her life, but even she doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls known as the Unholy Trinity. Between learning more about them—especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to—and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But the police are hardly looking into what happened to Elizabeth, so it’s up to her and Elizabeth’s best friend, Baz, to investigate.
And then a student is found dead.
As Sade and Baz try to make sense of it all, she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…Secrets that rival even her own. (Credit: Feiwel & Friends)
Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin
Perfect for readers who enjoy fantasy world-building, Asian folklore and elements, and a strong female character but also want to have a good time reading, Rebel Skies” is the perfect book for you. It is an excellent start to an exciting series, and I love the world of the Midori (the idea of flying ships sounds pretty awesome), but mostly, I love the main character, Kuara. She is funny, strong, and relatable, which I love seeing in fantasy series. I’m excited to see what Lin comes up with next because I believe I discovered a new favorite series.
Boy Like Me by Simon James Green
It’s 1994 and thanks to Section 28, there can be no mention of gay relationships in UK schools. When a kind librarian leads Jamie to a disguised novel in the library that reflects his own confused feelings towards boys, Jamie sees that he’s not the only one who has checked the book out. Will Jamie and this mystery boy have the courage to meet and if they do, what will it take to hold on to each other? (Credit: Scholastic)
Where The Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
Ireland is starving, and a poor Irish scullery maid falls in love with the British heir to the land. Can their romance stay hidden during the devastating famine? The potatoes are black, people are dying, and in the midst of it all, Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together and everyone she loves alive.
It is hard to tell a love story
and also the story of a people
being torn apart. (Credit: Greenwillow Books)
This Book Kills by Ravena Guron
What if a short story you wrote was used as inspiration for a murder? That is what Jess encounters and leads her to play a deadly cat and mouse game with the killer. This is not only a captivating dark academia thriller but also a thought-provoking and insightful story that has you hooked from beginning to end. Jess will be an immediate favorite character with her introverted but determined personality. Overall, this dark and tense story will have you hooked and encourage you to read more as Jess uncovers the dark secrets that are beneath her prestigious school. Fans of Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Win Lose Kill Die by Cynthia Murphy will want to pick this one up!
Signed Sealed Dead by Cynthia Murphy
Murphy has another winner that provides all the twists and turns you look for in a thriller. Murphy brings readers the chills that immediately grip them from beginning to end and has them guessing and on the edge of their seats at every turn. If you are a fan of slasher films like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer and are intrigued by true crime stories, then you will highly enjoy this teen thriller! And trust me, the cliffhanger will leave you speechless.
The Only Way Out by Sarah Daniels
Such an epic conclusion to an exciting duology! After The Stranded shocking finale, I was itching to know what happened next. And I am happy to say I was not disappointed. Without giving too much away, this duology deals with relevant and timely themes that will connect with readers of all ages, especially teen readers. Daniels creates relatable and engaging characters that teens can identify with and will leave readers with a lasting memory. These books are one of the few series that returned my faith in dystopian fiction, showing that creating an exciting and suspenseful series is possible. I am sad to see it end since I know there is much more to dive into with this story. But it was an exciting story to be immersed in.
The Midnight Game by Cynthia Murphy
Do you want to play a game?
To play, you will need to read The Midnight Game…especially with the lights on…
Murphy has done it again by creating a twisted, YA horror story that is perfect for teens who are fans of the horror genre and internet folklore and for adults who played those urban legends at parties and sleepovers (you know who you are…). Murphy brings the twists and thrills where you initially think you have it solved, but then she throws another curveball that makes you rethink (and reread) what you just read. Not only a read for Halloween but a perfect mystery to enjoy for the winter season, “The Midnight Game” is another winner by Murphy and will have horror fans read with their reading light…and have their bedside lamp on for a couple of days.
Are you brave enough to play the game? 💀
My Life as a Chameleon by Diana Anyakwo
As cold rain thunders on the British streets, Lily flashes back to her childhood in Lagos. The biracial daughter of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother, Lily lives a dual reality as a child, with moments of joy existing alongside her father’s increasingly erratic and violent behavior, which is due to a stage illness Lily doesn’t understand called schizophrenia.
As the streets of Lagos erupt in violence due to a coup, things with Lily’s father reach a breaking point, and she is sent away to live with a family in England. As a confused and shy child thrust into a foreign country, Lily must deal with a new school and new friends, while longing for what she left behind in Nigeria. (Credit: IgKids)
This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings
It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family’s thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can’t refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)
This Is How You Fall In Love by Anika Hussain
Zara loves love in all forms: rom-coms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. She’s desperate to have her own great love story-a real one.
Everyone thinks Zara and her best friend, Adnan, obviously belong together. And they do love each other-just not like that. So when Adnan begs Zara to help cover his new, secret relationship by pretending to be his girlfriend, she doesn’t really hesitate. How difficult can it be? It isn’t the kind of great romance she had in mind, but with fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and . . . real feelings?
And when a new, exciting boy arrives in Zara’s life, things get more confusing than ever. Her fake romance might be making everyone around her happy, but should it be real, and can Zara and Adnan really be in love if they both have real feelings for someone else? (Credit: Bloomsbury YA)
When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede
Sixteen-year-old Lucille hopes to one day open a school alongside her best friend where girls just like them can learn what it means to be Haitian: to learn from the mountains and the forests around them, to carve, to sew, to draw, and to sing the songs of the Mapou, the sacred trees that dot the island nation. But when her friend vanishes without a trace, a dream—a gift from the Mapou—tells Lucille to go to her village’s section chief, the local face of law, order, and corruption, which puts her life and her family’s at risk.
Forced to flee her home, Lucille takes a servant post with a wealthy Haitian woman from society’s elite in Port-au-Prince. Despite a warning to avoid him, she falls in love with her employer’s son. But when their relationship is found out, she must leave again—this time banished to another city to work for a visiting American writer and academic conducting fieldwork in Haiti. While Lucille’s new employer studies vodou and works on the novel that will become Their Eyes Were Watching God, Lucille risks losing everything she cares about—and any chance of seeing her best friend again—as she fights to save their lives and secure her future in this novel in verse with the racing heart of a thriller. (Credit: Candlewick Press)
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