Best Reads of 2021
My Favourite Books From This Year
It's time to look back and see what were the best reads of 2021. The majority of the books I read this year were 3 and 4 stars.
These are the books that I read during this year that had the WOW! factor for me and therefore each get my 5 Star Award badge.
5 Star Reads
Ransom Road (Liars Island) by Anya Mora
Nanny Bexley was a dream come true: an excellent resume and tons of energy.
But just one week after she came into our lives, the dream turned into a nightmare. And there was no one I could trust.
If I wanted to see my daughter again, I would need to step outside and find her myself.
Welcome to Liar's Island... a stand-alone series of interconnected, novella length domestic thrillers set in the picture-perfect community of Liars Island. Here, nothing is quite as it seems.
On this island, families and friendships are more than meets the eye ... secrets, deceptions, and jealousies threaten to ruin everything these influential people have built. But it isn't only the rich that live here ... and power comes in all shapes and sizes.Everyone here is a liar ... just how far would you go to get what you want?
Backstories by Simon Van der Velde
Can you find the famous person hidden in every story? And once found, can you understand them?
Backstories – ‘the stand-out most original book of the year’ - is a collection of stories each told from the point of view of one of my personal heroes, (or villains) back when they were just another Jew or black, or queer – back when they were nobody. Bullied, assaulted or psychologically abused, their road to redemption was never easy, and for some there would be no redemption, only a descent into evil.
These are the stories of people you know. The settings are mostly 60’s and 70’s UK and USA, the driving themes are inclusion and social justice - but the real key to these stories is that I withhold the protagonists’ identities. This means that your job is to find them - leading to that Eureka moment when you realise who's mind you've been inhabiting for the last twenty minutes.
I should also add that this is a book that operates on two levels. Yes, there’s the game of identifying the mystery activist or actor, singer or murderer, but there is then the more serious business of trying to understand them. This in turn leads to the challenge of overlaying what you now know about these famous people onto what you thought you knew – not to mention the inherent challenge to your moral compass.
These are people you know, but not as you know them. Peel back the mask and see.
This book is dedicated to the victims of violent crime, the struggle against discrimination in all its forms and making the world a better place for our children. That is why 30% of all profits will be shared between Stop Hate UK, The North East Autism Society and Friends of the Earth.
Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke
Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children.
After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK was terrorizing the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. Then, after he took his eleven-year-old victim, the pattern—and the murders—abruptly stopped. No one has ever known why.
When Elle follows up on a listener tip only to discover the man’s dead body, she feels at fault. Then, within days, a child is abducted—a young girl who seems to fit suspiciously into the TCK sequence halted decades before. While media and law enforcement long ago concluded that TCK had suicided, Elle has never believed TCK was dead. She had hoped her investigation would lay that suspicion to rest, but her podcast seems instead to be inciting new victims.
Sword of the Seven Sins (The Seven Sins #1) by Emily Colin
FINALIST for the 2020 Foreword INDIE Award in Young Adult Fiction
SHORTLISTED for the The Manly Wade Wellman Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy
From New York Times-bestselling author Emily Colin comes a story of one young woman’s battle for freedom in a future world where love is the ultimate sin.
Eva Marteinn never wanted to be a killer.
Raised in the Commonwealth, where citizens live and die by the code of the Seven Sins, Eva is sickened by the barbaric punishments the High Priests inflict. She sees the Bellators of Light, the Commonwealth’s executioners, as no more than conscienceless killers. When she’s Chosen as the first female bellator—and can’t refuse, on threat of exile or disgrace—Eva is devastated. But she turns out to be inordinately gifted at the very role she abhors…no thanks to her mentor, Ari Westergaard, who alternates between ignoring her and challenging her to impossible tests.
Ari’s indifference conceals a dangerous secret: He’s loved Eva since they were children. When Eva falls for Ari too, she knows they should do anything to avoid each other. Love is forbidden. Lust is a death sentence. But as mentor and apprentice, they’re bound by the blood oath they swore the day of Eva’s Choosing.
Balanced on a razor’s edge of desire and betrayal, the two uncover a secret that could overturn the Commonwealth itself. Now Eva must make an impossible choice: Turn her back on Ari, and remain loyal to the only home she’s ever known—or risk everything on the slim hope of freedom, and stake her life on the boy she’s come to love.
The Secrets of Us by Lucinda Berry
Dangerously addictive, The Secrets of Us is a pulse-pounding exploration of a disturbed psyche and the bond between two sisters desperate to escape a troubled past.
Foster sisters Krystal and Nichole have always been there for each other, so when Nichole is committed to a psychiatric hospital after trying to kill her husband, Krystal drops everything to defend her.
Scarred by a hard upbringing, Nichole and Krystal managed to construct comfortable lives for themselves. Krystal became a respected lawyer, and Nichole was happily married to an architect—until Nichole starts raving that her husband isn’t her husband, believing that he’s an imposter.
Driven by fierce loyalty, Krystal starts asking questions, but she’s not sure she can bear the answers. Her investigation leads to the sisters’ dark shared past…to a horrible tragedy and a well-guarded lie that cemented their sisterly bond.
But that lie can’t kill the truth—the battered, gasping, clawing truth that’s coming for them both. Now Krystal and Nichole must both fight for the lives they’ve built before they’re consumed by the one they left behind.
You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
From the international bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new addictive thriller.
Ivy, Mateo and Cal used to be close - best friends back in middle school.
Now all they have in common is a bad day. So for old time's sake they skip school together - one last time.
But when the trio spot Brian 'Boney' Mahoney ditching class too, they follow him - right into a murder scene.
They all have a connection to the victim. And they're ALL hiding something.
When their day of freedom turns deadly, it's only a matter of time before the truth comes out . . .
It's Ferris Bueller's Day Off with murder, perfect for fans of One Of Us Is Lying and A Good Girl's Guide To Murder. This explosive new thriller is impossible to put down.
You might also like: Book Reviews: Star Rating Systems for Books
What were your 5 star reads from 2021? Favourite book of the year?
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