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25-year-old Queenie Jenkins, a Jamaican British woman, is having a rough go. Her longtime boyfriend wants a break, leading to struggles at work, a depressing living situation, and questionable life choices. While this synopsis might indicate a light read, Queenie (2019) is a smart story of a strong woman coming to terms with a traumatic childhood, dealing with microaggressions and outright racism, and bolstering her self-worth.

In Tara Isabella Burton's Here in Avalon (2024), Rose lives her life being responsible and stable after a tumultuous upbringing by her bohemian mother, but her world is upended when her wild sister Cecilia vanishes into the enigmatic cabaret troupe known as the Avalon, leading to a mesmerizing journey through New York's hidden underworld.

If you like reading adventure or survival fiction, this is the book for you! If you despise intense word visualizations, you can ignore this. Although I really enjoyed this book, it actually is super intense. 

Walk Two Moons is an unbearably sad but extremely inspiring story of a 13-year-old girl named Salamanca Tree Hiddle. She goes on a journey, from moving to a small Ohio town, meeting the most peculiar Phoebe Winterbottom, discovering who the real lunatic is, going on a road trip on time, and discovering where her mother actually is.

The Sicilian Inheritance (2024) by Jo Piazza transports you to past and present-day Sicily as a woman tries to solve the mystery of her great-grandmother's murder, inspired by the author’s own family lore.

What happens when an idealistic trio takes their innovations too far? In The Startup Wife (2021), Tahmima Anam shows the dark side of technology while satirizing startup culture. Asha is the brilliant coder behind a new social media platform developed with her new husband and his friend.

When their son, Ewan, tragically dies, Richard and Juliette Willoughby fall into desperate grief and cannot let him go.  While Richard digs into the dirt of their field in an attempt to connect to Ewan, Juliette brings a team of mystics into the house to attempt to contact the child's spirit.  Their bucolic farm becomes dark, menacing and eerie as an evil folklore bogeyman dominates their daily lives.

A boy named Chase ends up in the hospital after falling off his roof. He has to learn his whole life over again starting with his own name. He even forgot that he used to be a bully. Chase learned his lesson to not be a bully because he saw how it hurt people. For example, he noticed that this one kid was always afraid of him. 

I really liked the action in Chase’s life. Also, I liked the characters.

“A Gentleman in Moscow '' by Amor Towles is set in 1922 Soviet Russia and follows Count Alexander Rostov as he has to adapt to the changing world while trapped in a hotel. After being convicted of treason, he gets sentenced to house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

See You Yesterday by Rachel Solomon is a YA rom com, Groundhog Day story. And it worked so well. Barrett is excited to begin her first day of college and leave her high school self behind. Unfortunately the day is mostly a disaster.

Spinning Silver (2018) is a fairy tale-like fantasy version of Rumpelstiltskin. Miryem, daughter of a softhearted moneylender, takes over the money collecting duties to try and turn around the fate of her family. Her success and boasting that she can turn silver into gold captures the attention of the Staryk king, a fey creature from a wintery land.

The Book of Thorns (2024) by Hester Fox is an historical fiction tale of two sisters, separated as children, who are linked through the magic of language of flowers and a locket that they both wear. Set in 19th-century New England, Cornelia was raised by a cruel uncle who wants to marry her off and Lisbeth was raised as a servant.