5-star favourites: My best reads of 2024
I had such a good reading year in 2024. I feel like I read across my favourite genres and managed to get a bit of a mix of new and backlist, as well as books for review and other random reads I was interested in. I also did a bit of re-reading, which is something I don’t always feel like I get to do. I’ve been tracking my reading this year on The Storygraph and today I wanted to share a little round up of my favourite books of 2024, the 13 titles that the Storygraph tells me I’ve given 5 star ratings. Check them out below, and please let me know if you’ve loved any of these ones too!
xo Bron
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
The last time Esther Wilding’s beloved older sister Aura was seen, she was walking along the shore towards the sea. In the wake of Aura’s disappearance, Esther’s family struggles to live with their loss. To seek the truth about her sister’s death, Esther reluctantly travels from Lutruwita, Tasmania to Copenhagen, and then to the Faroe Islands, following the trail of the stories Aura left behind: seven fairy tales about selkies, swans and women, alongside cryptic verses Aura wrote and had secretly tattooed on her body.
I HAD to start this list with The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland. If you pushed me to pick one favourite book for the year this would be it. I feel like it was such a case of perfect book perfect time perfect place for me with this one, which took my breath away and is forever tattooed on my heart. I will read everything that Holly Ringland writes going forward – her words have such a deep impact on me that I can actually feel them, both in her fiction and non-fiction books.
I started reading The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding on the plane en route to Copenhagen for our first trip there in over 10 years. I lived in Denmark for a year before I started university and it has had such a deep special place in my heart since. I think the feelings I had about returning after so long meant I really related deeply to the yearning we see from Esther for people and times past, and the sense of belonging she finds really reflects my own experience in a way. It was also so special to read the book in the same place as parts of it were set. I actually too the book out for a little photo shoot with the statue Liden Gunver, who stands outside Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen and plays a special part in Esther’s story.
Honestly just such a wonderful reading experience.
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
A young girl loses both her parents in a tragic event, and is taken to live with her grandmother on a flower farm. Growing up, Alice learns the language of Australian native flowers as a way to say the things that are too hard to speak. But she also learns that there are secrets within secrets about her past. An unexpected betrayal leaves her reeling, and she escapes to try to make her own – sometimes painful – way through the world, and to find her story.
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a story about stories: those we inherit, those we select to define us, and those we decide to hide. It is a novel about the secrets we keep and how they haunt us, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
Spanning twenty years, and set between sugar cane fields by the sea, a native Australian flower farm and a celestial crater in the central desert, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart follows the life of Alice as she discovers that the most powerful story she will ever possess is her own.
Having loved The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding so much, I jumped straight into Holly Ringland’s debut, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, when we arrived home. I loved this one too – I couldn’t believe I had slept on it so long. I have an interest in floriography, the language of flowers, and seeing an Australian take on this really tickled me. The story of Alice is filled with just as much heart and grief and joy as Esther’s. I haven’t been brave enough to watch the tv adaptation yet – I felt like I needed time for my heart to recover from the book!
You can see my review of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart here.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. A dropout and the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved crime, Alex was hoping for a fresh start. But a free ride to one of the world’s most prestigious universities was bound to come with a catch.
Alex has been tasked with monitoring the mysterious activities of Yale’s secret societies – well-known haunts of the rich and powerful. Now there’s a dead girl on campus and Alex seems to be the only person who won’t accept the neat answer the police and campus administration have come up with for her murder.
Because Alex knows the secret societies are far more sinister and extraordinary than anyone ever imagined. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And sometimes they prey on the living . . .
I remember being absolutely spellbound by Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House when it came out. I had loved the Six of Crows duology (I haven’t read the Shadow and Bone series yet) and I didn’t know what to expect from her first adult novel, but I really loved it. And then I loved it just as much when I re-read it ahead of the sequel Hell Bent being released. THEN I didn’t actually get around to reading Hell Bent, so I re-read Ninth House again over just two or three days at the end of 2024 to get ready for a buddy read of Hell Bent. On the third read of Ninth House it continued to shock and enthrall and delight me and I have every intention of reading it again in the future. I think loving this one so much has really helped highlight for me how much I enjoy dark academia urban fantasy type books, and I’m keen to read more of that sort of thing this year.
You can see my review from the first time I read Ninth House here.
The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter
Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton, caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of the borders of the Darklands, where the much-feared Leech Lords hold sway.
Ellie is being trained as a steward, administering for the town, and warding off the insistent interest of the church. When her grandmother dies suddenly, Ellie’s cousin Audra rises to the position of Briar Witch, propelling Ellie into her new role. As she navigates fresh challenges, an unexpected new ability to see and speak to the dead leads her to uncover sinister family secrets, stories of burnings, lost grimoires and evil spells. Reeling from one revelation to the next, she seeks answers from the long dead and is forced to decide who to trust, as a devastating plot threatens to destroy everything the Briar witches have sacrificed so much to build.
A.G. Slatter is another author I adore and The Briar Book of the Dead is the latest offering set in her Sourdough world. It’s the third in this sort of series of companion books – you can see them all in the photo there – and I have loved each and everyone. Slatter nails the gothic fantasy vibes that I live for, and her witchy protagonists are just perfection. This is the kind of book that I always want to savour but can’t help but flying through. I have definite plans to re-read these three books very soon because I understand that the next book, The Crimson Road, is going to draw together threads from each of these, and I just can’t wait!
You can see my review of All the Murmuring Bones here and my review of The Path of Thorns here
The Branded & The Rising by Jo Riccioni
A century after a virus has decimated the population, the Continent’s survivors are divided into two classes: the Branded who are vulnerable to disease, and the Pure who are bigger, stronger and immune. Orphan Nara, and her twin sister, Osha, are taken in from the wilds of the forest to live in the remote snow-bound citadel of Isfalk, where their pure skin entitles them to a life of privilege as precious immune breeding stock, much sought by outsiders.
But when the girls are ambushed and kidnapped by Wasteland traders, their narrow views of the class system begin to erode, as does Nara’s very identity as a Pure. Discovering that Isfalk is not the last seat of civilization she’d once thought, Nara accepts the help of a sled-driver, known as the Wrangler, a southern Brand with a shady past, who appears to know much more than he should about the sisters.
The Wrangler also seems to be the only one able to explain Nara’s unnerving hunting abilities and the strange new psychic ability that she’s trying to ignore. Untrustworthy as he is, the Wrangler promises Nara she’ll find answers to her identity and her abilities in the obscure southern territory of Reis. Little does she know, surviving the fraught journey across the Wastelands and into the desert is only the beginning. What she unearths in Reis will ultimately deliver Nara to the brink of a war in which she must decide whether who she is written on her skin or in her heart.
I picked up The Branded after meeting author Jo Riccioni at the Northern Beaches Readers’ Festival and proceeded to devour most of it on the bus ride home from Avalon through Sydney Central home to Canberra. I should have listened when people told me I would want the next book immediately – I did buy it as soon as I good because I needed the story to continue. I think this duology is such a perfect read for anyone who loves some epic low fantasy, and I adored the scandi kind of vibes I took from the setting. I can’t wait to see what Jo writes next.
The Wintrish Girl by Melanie La’Brooy
On Talisman Day in Arylia, every child receives an object that gives them special powers and reveals their destiny. Every child except for the Wintrish girl, Penn, that is. There’s no need for a Talisman to reveal her fate. Penn already knows that she’s doomed to a miserable, lonely life as a servant and outcast.
All Penn has ever wanted is the impossible: to return to her home in Midwinter and find her true family. But she’s trapped in Arylia, where a long-forgotten evil is stirring…
When sinister events start to occur, the blame falls on the Wintrish girl. Suddenly Penn finds herself running for her life. Straight into deadly peril. Facing dangerous enemies with terrifying powers, what can an ordinary Wintrish girl do? Because without a Talisman, there’s no changing your fate… is there?
A wildly fun adventure featuring at least five impossibly daring escapes, important life lessons about friendship and cucumbers, a dragon with a fear of unicorns and some stylish execution wear.
And one vicious berry.
I first read The Wintrish Girl when it won an Aurealis Award and I fell in love from the first chapter. I reread this one in 2024, as a readaloud with my 10yr old and we enjoyed it so much! We’re planning to read the sequel, The Lost History, the same way this year.
Psykhe by Kate Forsyth
It is not wise to anger the gods … or to fall in love with one.
Psykhe has always been different. Fair as Venus, the goddess of love, and with the hard-won ability to save the lives of those of mortal blood, she is both shunned and revered.
When she unwittingly provokes Venus, she and her sisters lose everything. Psykhe must find a way to make amends and support her family.
Befriended by an old woman, Nokturna, Psykhe finds herself irresistibly drawn to her young friend, Ambrose. But neither is what they seem.
For Psykhe has fallen in love with a man whose face she is forbidden to see. After disobeying this injunction, she must risk everything to try to save him, even if it means travelling down to the shadowy Underworld to face Proserpina, queen of the dead.
The way to the realm of the dead is easy. A thrust of a sword, a sudden fall, a careless bite of toadstool, and the soul is sucked away. It is the return journey that is difficult ….
Kate Forsyth is one of my favourite auto-buy, must read authors (I feel like I was spoiled with so many new books from favourite authors last year!) and I was delighted to see her take on the greek myth of Psyche and Eros. As always with Kate’s novels I found the writing in Psykhe beautiful and the world she created so easy to slip into. I also really enjoyed the witchiness in this one.
Check out my review of Kate Forsyth’s Psykhe here.
Rapture by Emily Maguire
The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she is denied as a woman.
So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes (as John) dazzles the Church hierarchy with her knowledge and wisdom and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful—and deadly—currency.
And when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known—and loved.
Emily Maguire’s Rapture was one of those books that is just such a pleasure to read. I knew I needed to read it the moment I laid eyes on that cover in the publisher’s publicity catalogue, and the inside is just as stunning. This book was also made a bit extra special to me by the fact that I had the opportunity to hear Emily talk about it in person at The Canberra Writers Festival.
The Last Illusion of Paige White by Vanessa McCausland
Paige White kayaked across the lake each morning at dawn. Someone was watching her. Many someones watched her online. But was anyone with her the day she was found?
Paige White’s beautiful life is documented closely for her thousands of followers: lakeside picnics with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic dinners with her husband. So when she posts an ominous image, and her body is shortly after discovered in the lake, everyone immediately wonders – suicide or foul play?
Paige finds herself suspended in a strange, idyllic place that resembles her most ‘liked’ Instagram post, forced to watch as life continues without her.
When Paige’s death makes national news, Jane Masters, a journalist who was close to Paige in childhood, reluctantly travels home. Struggling with the morality of covering her friend’s death, Jane will confront the town she left behind and the dark undercurrents that she’s always known run underneath.
The Last Illusion of Paige White was another novel I picked up after hearing about it at The Northern Beaches Readers Festival. Vanessa McCausland was on a panel I attended and this sounded so intriguing that I keep my eyes peeled for it in the lead up to its release and grabbed a copy as soon as I could. The story drew me in so quickly and I sped through in just a few sittings. I’m keen to get into more of Vanessa’s books soon!
You can see my review of The Last Illusion of Paige White here.
The Spider and her Demons by sydney khoo
Between surviving high school and working at her aunt’s dumpling shop, all Zhi wants is to find time for her friends… and make sure no one finds out she’s half spider-demon.
But when she accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl in school, she discovers she might not be the scariest thing in the shadows.
I picked up The Spider and her Demons because it was shortlisted for the YA novel category of the Aurealis Awards (you can see the short lists for all of the categories here). I loved this so much from the very first page and would love to see it get a ton more attention.
League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
Shadows are dangerous. Edem is illegal. And liars are cowards.
Ever since his mother was killed in a freak edem-based crime, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal: to have illegal users of extradimensional magic brought to justice. Cayder dreams of becoming a prosecutor and, when he secretly accepts an apprenticeship under the city’s best public defender, he plans to learn every legal trick he can to one day dismantle defence arguments. Then he’ll finally be able to make sure justice is served.
But when he meets all three criminals he is to defend, he finds they are teenagers, like him, and their stories are … complicated, like his. As their cases unfold, Cayder must race to separate the truth from the lies and uncover what really happened the night his mother died.
I re-read Astrid Scholte’s League of Liars ahead of the release of the sequel Shadows of Truth, and just like the first time I was completely drawn into the clever mysterious world Scholte has created. You can see my review from my first read of this one over here.
The Will of the Many by James Islington
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.
I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.
But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.
And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.
To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.
And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.
The Will of the Many by James Islington is another book I picked up because of the Aurealis Awards – it was the 2023 winner for Best Fantasy Novel – and it did not disappoint. This is one of those fantastic thick fantasy novels packed with brilliant world building and a twisty political plot, perfect for losing yourself in for a good long adventure. It also leans towards dark academia, which I’m really into at the moment. I believe the next book in this series, The Strength of the Few, is due out in 2025 and I can’t wait.
***
Wow, that took me longer than I expected to write up because I kept getting distracted thinking about all those fabulous reads. There were so many more that could also have made this list – I really had a fabulous reading year in 2024, made even sweeter by some incredible bookish events. Hopefully this time next year I’ll be reporting on another great bookish year!
If you’ve made it this far, I’d love to know whether you’ve read any of these or have other favourite books from last year you’d recommend – do let me know in the comments!
xo Bron
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