20 Books I Loved in 2024 & Think You Should Read in 2025

172 books was my number for 2025. Some were pamphlets, many were on audio (69), and some looked short but weren’t in reading time!

StoryGraph says that I couldn’t stomach sad books at 2024’s end. I read 92 romances and 92 LGBTQ+ books, and yes, there were many LGBTQ+ romances. 53% were romances.

Storygraph chart shows a mood line going up left to right. Higher means lighter books

In my challenge to read at least 50 books I already owned (purchased December 31, 2023 or earlier), I read 66. But I also acquired 114 books (oops!) and read 36 new acquisitions before year’s end. 43 of my reads I borrowed from the library.

Kresley Cole was my most-read author with 6 books, with Rachel Reid and Susan Elizabeth Phillips at 5 books each. All of these are romances.

The Trans Rights Readathon was once again a bright star in the year. Together, we raised $3,286.50 with 39 donors in 2024! All funds went to the local Seattle nonprofit, the Lavender Rights Project.

46 books got 5/5 stars from me, including rereading my #1 2023 book, Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee, on audio ready by the author! But honestly, that weren’t enough 5-star reads. My average rating was 3.79. Anything with a 🎧 means I listened to the audiobook.

The problem with reading so many mind-blowing and soul-changing books is that I will give you my top 20 this year instead of just 10!

Rules For Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore20. Rules For Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Genre: trans man/cis man achillean contemporary romance

Ezra is dragged back into his family’s drama at their family-run funeral home. There, he meets Jonathan, a widower and his neighbor, who helps with Jewish burial rites. Unfortunately for Ezra, he sees ghosts, including Jonathan’s dead husband. Awkward.

Wild Pitch (Dominating the Diamond #1) by Cat Giraldo19. Wild Pitch (Dominating the Diamond #1) by Cat Giraldo

Genre: cis bi (man/woman) contemporary romance

Sierra is the first woman in major league baseball and must put up with grumpy Mateo, a seasoned pitcher. The two butt heads over their age gap and how they work. As they fall for each other, their mentor/mentee power dynamic switches and heats up in the bedroom.

Ocean's Echo (The Resolution Universe #2) by Everina Maxwell18. Ocean’s Echo (The Resolution Universe #2) by Everina Maxwell

Genre: sci-fi queer romance

Ocean’s Echo is a sci-fi, military-based action adventure novel with a slow-burn romance between our main characters simmering in the background. The sci-fi element (trying not to spoil here) and how Tennel and Surit dealt with it made it more romantic, and that was a pleasant surprise. The action and plot movements are perfectly paced.

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor17. The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

Genre: literary fiction

Taylor puts a magnifying glass on this community of (mostly) grad students who are (mostly) gay men but come from a variety of backgrounds in the other aspects of their identities and lives. All the characters struggle to see what’s next in their lives, even if, for a handful, what’s next is already what they are doing. It’s so ephemeral.

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann with Kristin Joiner16. Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann with Kristin Joiner

Genre: memoir 🎧

If you don’t know who Judy Heumann was, you should pick this up and watch the fabulous documentary Crip Camp. Heumann was one of the people responsible for the modern disability rights movement and instrumental in passing the ADA in 1990. I hate reading a memoir about a marginalized person and saying, “Oh, they were so inspiring.” But Heumann was inspiring, and she (and many others) made this world so much better for all of us.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle15. Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Genre: horror 🎧

Misha is a closeted horror screenwriter and showrunner in Hollywood who refuses to kill the gays in his TV show. Then he starts getting attacked by monsters from his scripts. I loved the ultimate story behind the monsters and how they were defeated because, yes, I agree with Tingle’s assessment of how this will go and how we can defeat the real monsters.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado14. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Genre: memoir

Machado captured the kind of abuse that gets swept under the rug (queer relationship abuse by women) because it defies what the patriarchy has narrowly labeled as punishable abuse and the types and people who are supposed to be abusive. At the same time as laying out the emotional devastation, Machado plays with tropes and language and incorporates folklore and facts about domestic violence.

MacRieve (Immortals After Dark #13) by Kresley Cole13. MacRieve (Immortals After Dark #13) by Kresley Cole

Genre: cishet paranormal romance

MacRieve is ultimately a book about dealing with unaddressed CSA trauma as an adult man, who’s a 900-year-old werewolf. MacRieve’s biggest hurdle is shame and talking about his trauma as he falls in love with Chloe, a young succubus who challenges everything.

Silver Under Nightfall (Silver Under Nightfall #1) by Rin Chupeco12. Silver Under Nightfall (Silver Under Nightfall #1) by Rin Chupeco

Genre: historical fantasy

I love a vampire book, and I love vampires as all types of romantic fuckwits. Remy may not be a vampire, but he’s so starved for any and all affection, praise, and touch that he’s willing to engage all these terrible people. As Remy tries to save his realm from zombies, he cannot see the forest through the trees, meaning he’s great at killing monsters but terrible at plans and strategy.

Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse by Brontez Purnell11. Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse by Brontez Purnell

Genre: poetic memoir 🎧

I loved this! Purnell makes poetry both accessible and modern but so layered. No one talks about queerness, being Black, being a gay slut (positive), living in a body, fatness, and America quite like Purnell.

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) by Rachel Reid10. Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) by Rachel Reid

Genre: cis bi/gay achillean romance 🎧

Ilya is everything. He and Shane are rival hockey players whose tension on the ice translates to hookups and eventually falling in love. Reid’s pacing is impressive, considering the book’s 7-8 year time span. We get enough glimpses of the guys’ lives and superstar hockey careers while focusing on Ilya and Shane’s relationship.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White9. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Genre: YA horror

This is a scary Victorian England romp about the terror humans are capable of. White’s prose perfectly captures how vulnerable young people are, how minors are treated like property by parents, society, and systems, and how stuck youth in bad situations feel, even if being a minor has a time limit. Here, the most vulnerable (trans kids, teenage girls, autistic people) are preyed upon and exploited by those who seek power and seek to destroy what little power they have.

White’s Hell Followed With Us was #6 on my 2022 list!

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock8. A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

Genre: historical horror 🎧

This was very much right up my alley with botanical Frankenstein vibes. Two gay Victorian gentlemen — a botanist and a taxidermist — live in a glass greenhouse, and together, they craft the titular botanical daughter (Chloe) from a sentient fungus, plant matter, and a corpse. And oh, that corpse was the murdered “gal pal” of Jennifer, their live-in housekeeper turned governess/playmate of Chloe.

Bitter (PET #0.5) by Akwaeke Emezi7. Bitter (PET #0.5) by Akwaeke Emezi

Genre: YA fantasy

We desperately need fiction with a vision for something different than our current highly policed and corrupted capitalist state and one that doesn’t rely on a single savior character (politician/superhero/cop/chosen one/strong man/Joseph Campbell’s style hero). Bitter is a teenager dealing with the chaotic world around her, full of police violence and systemic brutality of politicians toward regular people. A community filled with people of all skills must unite to make change.

The first book in this series, Pet, was #2 on my 2021 list!

Celestial Monsters (The Sunbearer Duology #2) by Aiden Thomas6. Celestial Monsters (The Sunbearer Duology #2) by Aiden Thomas

Genre: YA fantasy

Teo and the rest of the demigods must confront their physical and emotional limits to bring Sol back and stop the apocalypse. Thomas writes a lush, fully realized world full of Mexican mythology and a reckoning of sending your teenagers off to perhaps sacrifice themselves for the world.

The first book, The Sunbearer Trials, was #6 on my 2023 list!

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison5. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Genre: literary fiction

If you forget who you are, if you lose the meaning of your name, if you lose the understanding of where and who you come from, that doesn’t mean the past and those myths won’t haunt you. If that past and those myths haunt you, they will drag you down and prevent you from flying and future myth creation.

Untouchable (Ravenswood #2) by Talia Hibbert4. Untouchable (Ravenswood #2) by Talia Hibbert

Genre: contemporary cis het man/bi woman romance

Hannah becomes a nanny for Nate’s children, and Hibbert doesn’t sidestep the potential power imbalance. She never fails to make you physically feel her characters and hang on to their every emotion. This book typifies how romance is about feelings and interiority, and I dearly love that.

Her book, Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters #2) by Talia Hibbert, was #8 on my 2022 reading list!

A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell3. A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell

Genre: trans man/cis woman historical romance

Fun, funny, romantic, and too relatable as Muriel and Kit meet, fall in love, and overcome personal hurdles while supporting each other. There are bicycle tours, seaweed collections, shenanigans, and general breaking gender norms mayhem on the English shore. Genuine care and love are on full display throughout the prose as Lowell wrote this book to reflect her real-life marriage to a trans man.

We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan by Lou Sullivan, edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma2. We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan by Lou Sullivan, edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma

Genre: memoir

Reading Lou’s diaries was getting to know both a close friend and an ancestor/elder. I felt the deep wrench in my soul over his words articulating my feelings as if in a mirror, but a reflection that no one is alone. No one is as singular as we feel. Even if Lou himself felt at points that no one had his trans experience, he eventually found queer trans men like himself.

Lothaire (Immortals After Dark #11) by Kresley Cole1. Lothaire (Immortals After Dark #11) by Kresley Cole

Genre: cishet paranormal romance

Rarely do I read the year’s best book in January, but here we are. Lothaire felt like a book written for me, combine it with the new Interview with the Vampire TV show, and everything I longed for in vampire books has been realized. Is Lothaire a bad vampire? Yes. Can you fix him? No, Ellie, you cannot. But knowing all this? I still love Lothaire.

Other 5-Star Fiction Reads (alphanumerical by author’s or editor’s last name)

  • Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
    Genre: dystopian fiction 🎧
  • Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
    Genre: literary fiction short stories
  • The Art of Scandal by Regina Black
    Genre: cishet contemporary romance 🎧
  • Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) by Octavia E. Butler
    Genre: speculative fiction
  • When I Arrived at the Castle by E.M. Carroll
    Genre: horror graphic novel
  • Fire Season (Unwritten Rules #2) by KD Casey
    Genre: cis bi achillean romance
  • Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
    Genre: horror
  • Come As You Are (Bluebird Basin #1) by Jess K. Hardy
    Genre: cishet contemporary romance
  • That Kind of Guy (Ravenswood #3) by Talia Hibbert
    Genre: cishet woman/demisexual cis man contemporary romance
  • “Skinwalker, Fast Talker” by Darcie Little Badger
    Genre: horror short story 🎧
  • The Night Eaters, Book 2: Her Little Reapers by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
    Genre: horror graphic novel
  • Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
    Genre: horror graphic novel
  • Hold Me (Cyclone #2) by Courtney Milan
    Genre: trans het woman/cis bi man contemporary romance
  • The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa
    Genre: YA fantasy 🎧
  • Sweet Vengeance (Sweet Demons #1) by Viano Oniomoh
    Genre: cis bi woman/het man monster romance
  • Heartstopper Volume 3 by Alice Oseman
    Genre: contemporary achillean YA romance comics
  • Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman
    Genre: contemporary achillean YA romance comics
  • Nobody’s Baby But Mine (Chicago Stars #3) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
    Genre: cishet contemporary romance 🎧
  • Smut Peddler Presents: My Monster Girlfriend (Smut Peddler Presents #7), edited by Andrea Purcell and Amanda Lafrenais
    Genre: monster erotic comics
  • Tough Guy (Game Changers #3) by Rachel Reid
    Genre: cis achillean contemporary romance 🎧
  • Common Goal (Game Changers #4) by Rachel Reid
    Genre: cis achillean contemporary romance 🎧
  • Role Model (Game Changers #5) by Rachel Reid
    Genre: cis achillean contemporary romance 🎧
  • Tentacle Entanglement by Siggy Shade
    Genre: cishet erotic monster romance

Other 5-Star Nonfiction Reads (alphanumerical by author’s or editor’s last name)

  • They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
    Genre: memoir and music criticism 🎧
  • Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna
    Genre: memoir 🎧

4-star rated book I cannot get out of my head

Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth PhillipsKiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Genre: cishet contemporary romance (published in 1996) 🎧

This is absolutely bonkers romantic comedy as it begins with a marriage of convenience between Daisy and Alex. The twists and turns astonished me from the moment we discovered that Alex works as a circus manager. How Phillips doled out information at critical times was brilliant. My jaw was on the floor, and my fingers were in the group chat to share. I will never forget Daisy and her telepathic connection to the tiger.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *