The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

In case you were questioning it, we love books, and we love talking about books.  So, neither of us were surprised when our post about our favorite titles of 2019 got a bit…wordsy.  Dear readers, this is a long post, I’m hoping this will be the longest post of the year. In light of that, it’s going to be a choose your own adventure post.  

• Do you want to read all our musings about our favorites?  Just keep scrolling and reading, and enjoy all the words! Maybe grab a beverage first.
• Do you just want to see the list and move on?  They are directly below our thoughts on the year as a whole.  
• Prefer a blend of the two?  You can click on any of our favorites to go directly to our reflections on that title (do note, we have two overlapping favorites, so you’ll have to click each listing to get the full story) and click back up to the top at the end of each section. 

It’s totally your call, we’re just glad you’re here!  And with that, check out our reflections on 2019 reading and our favorite titles below!  

Nikki:  I’d like to start by saying that 2019 was a new banner reading year for me!  I read more titles than in recent memory (probably since before I could drive), and I thoroughly enjoyed most of them. Since I started tracking with Goodreads, I’ve been making favorites lists each year.  You can see 2018’s here and 2017 here.  My 2019 favorites are not necessarily the popular titles of the Goodreads Choice Awards, nor are they all published in 2019, although several are.  They are books I read in 2019 and thoroughly loved.   

Ashley:  Seriously, y’all, 2019 was one of my best reading years in a while. I have only recently started tracking my reading in any meaningful way. Please check out how I’m doing that analog-wise in Monday’s post, but I also super dooper love Goodreads for the digitization of my reading habits. I have read more brand new releases in 2019 than probably ever before in my life. I’ve always had certain authors that I read their newest release the week it came out (J.K. Rowling, Diana Gabaldon, Robert Jordan – R.I.P., Cassandra Clare, and more recently Sarah J. Maas), but with the attempt at reading every Kindle First Reads title  (I got to 3/12 because of the prevalence of books set during the World Wars – seriously, what is the deal?!) and Anne Bogel’s Modern Mrs Darcy Summer Reading Guide my new release consumption skyrocketed this year. And if you count 2018 releases that we had to wait on because #libraryholdssituations I’m closer to ⅓ of my 2019 reading life in new releases. 

NIKKI’S FAVORITES

Fiction

• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
• The Bourbon Kings by J. R. Ward (Trilogy – this is #1)
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
• Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Non-fiction

• Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
• Never Enough by Judith Grisel

Honorable Mention

• Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy (The Bear and the Nightingale is #1)
• Pippa Grant’s Stud in the Stacks
• Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints

ASHLEY’S FAVORITES

Fiction

• The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
• Stud in the Stacks – Pippa Grant
• The Bourbon Kings – J.R.Ward
• Meg & Jo – Virginia Kantra

Non-Fiction

• Southern Lady Code – Helen Ellis
• The Library Book – Susan Orlean
• You Are A Badass – Jen Sincero

Honorable Mention

• The River – Peter Heller
• Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
• Tribe of Millionaires: What if One Choice Could Change Everything? – David Osborn & Pat Hiban with Mike McCarthy & Tim Rhode

Click on a title above to jump to our comments or scroll on down! You can jump back up at the end of each section.

If you’re just glancing at the list, scroll all the way down to let us know your favorites and what you think of our favorites!

Nikki’s Favorites

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang 

I love a good romance novel, and this is it!  What I wasn’t expecting was complex characters through which we had some great social commentary (am I the only one who sees that in romance novels and fantasy titles?) and got glimpses into two very different lives, and while neither is typical, they aren’t really outside of the norm either.  Our female lead is a successful professional who has autism spectrum disorder and recognizes she needs help in her romantic relationships. Our male lead is the son of immigrants who is working hard to provide for his family, sacrificing the social and romantic aspects of his life to do so. It’s well-written, the story is gorgeously plotted, and our characters (yes, even the supporting characters) are genuine and real.  Hoang’s follow up novel The Bride Test is another fabulous read I highly suggest.  I am super excited by the third in the series The Heart Principle which is expected in May 2021!  Back to the list.

The Bourbon Kings by J. R. Ward

Is this cheating?  Perhaps, but I’m doing it anyway.  This title is the first in a trilogy and the whole thing, yes all 1,100 pages, is a favorite!  It’s a romance, mystery, and family saga all in one!  It’s set in [fake] Louisville and starts the week of the Kentucky Derby.  If you’re not from the south, then perhaps you don’t understand this is a huge deal in some circles, and a GIGANTIC deal in Kentucky!  Our leading family owns a bourbon company and the eldest son trains horses. The head gardener (and romantic lead) also helps to put together the annual Derby event on the estate.  Conveniently the prodigal son returns home around this time after a call that a loved one has been hospitalized. There’s drama to clean up, more to come, love is in the air, and it’s a gorgeously written, well-plotted train wreck that I may just need to reread this May.  (If you like this idea and want to join us, let us know in the comments so we get it on the calendar!)
Back to the list.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

I didn’t remember (or perhaps never knew) what this title was about and groaned when I realized the story starts in the 1940s.  Y’all, I am over WWII novels. I have had a favorite set in or around that period for the last three years (Everyone Brave is Forgiven and The Women in the Castle), and have read several more each year and I am done!  (This is probably also because I like HEA in my books and there’s not a ton of H in most WWII books, because there wasn’t a lot of H to go around about that time.)  HOWEVER, this book isn’t about WWII (neither is The Gown, not really).  

City of Girls is a coming of age story, but it’s also about women and society and finding oneself, recovering from mistakes, reinvention, and adaptation, with a side of family saga and a sliver of mystery and romance.  (I’m sensing a theme, perhaps I love books that cross genre lines.) I adore how the text starts in the “modern day” and then goes back to the 1940s, with glimpses at the present as the tale progresses. Perhaps my favorite part was knowing that Vivan was only a few years older than my grandmother.  I grew up on tales of her brothers going off to the war and those of my grandparents getting married shortly after my grandfather came home from the Pacific, then the early years of my grandparents marriage, including how finances were managed when my mom was two and my grandfather’s reserve unit was called to go to Korea.  I felt like Vivian and others her age were just my great aunts and uncles (with extra drama) and it was really interesting to read about how their lives shifted and changed as the war wrapped up and soldiers came home, as well as how the “new normal” was developed. Perhaps I’m underselling this book by sharing it’s personal meaning to me, but it’s truly magnificently done and makes me want to read much more from Gilbert. Back to the list.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

This book hit so, SO many boxes of interest for me.  It’s set in Paris during the hustle and bustle of the World’s Fair and focuses on one member of a group of friends, with a backdrop of magic.  I wish I knew how this ended up in my holds because I’d go back and ask for more.  There’s mystery and romance, with a friend group who seem (perhaps we’re told, I don’t recall) to be late teens or early 20s, so there’s some growing up to do too.  I could visualize myself walking down the streets of Paris with the characters, or attending a lavish estate party. This was my first Chokshi and won’t be my last.  I currently have an ARC of The Silvered Serpents burning a hole in my physical TBR stack, but I definitely want another read of The Gilded Wolves first.  Oh, and let me add, the ending of this first installment was solid.  The book has an arc that’s settled, yet there is clearly a lot more in need of resolving for the books to come.   Back to the list.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

I feel like perhaps Mahurin knows me somehow and wrote this for me (she doesn’t, but perhaps one day!).  What I texted Ashley shortly after starting this book: Magic + French + witches + large muscular witch hunter = PLEASE MA’AM MAY I HAVE ANOTHER. All that, AND mystery, romance, family drama, and two characters who are trying to find their places in the world and figure out who they are.  I do know how this book made it to my list – Mahurin and I are in a bookish Facebook group together and she posted about it in the group and folks liked it, so I recommended it to my library.  I’ll be purchasing a copy, likely to reread before #2 comes out in the fall (I hope). And since this is a debut, let me just say – it is gorgeously written and I am beyond excited to see how Mahurin’s writing develops through the series.  I adore the way she intersperses French and francophone culture and language throughout in a fantasy world that is masterfully built. As this is also the first installment, I’ll add, the ending is not a cliffhanger. There’s still a big story arc that’ll take a while to resolve, but book #1’s issues are more or less settled and there are some expectations (just me? ok) set about where #2 will start out.  Back to the list.

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

Confession time – I read Shapiro’s Hourglass because Anne Bogel suggested it and fell hard for her writing.  It’s concise, gorgeous, and encompassing. When Anne mentioned on her podcast (What Should I Read Next) that this title coming up and what it was about, I wasn’t interested.  Then I thought, well, but it’s Shapiro, so content isn’t relevant, I’ll adore the writing regardless, and recommended it to the library (sensing a theme here?). When I started reading this memoir, I was amazed!  Not only was it every bit the writing I was expecting, but I connected with the story in ways I never saw coming. Short version of the story – after both of Shaprio’s parents have passed away, she does a DNA test with several members of her family (her husband’s side I think) and realizes her dad isn’t her biological father.  She has no one to ask and only a passing comment from her mom to go on – something about fertility treatments in Philadelphia. From there Shaprio takes readers along on her journey to discover who her father is and what this all means about who she is. The outward journey is magnificent but the real gem of the text is the inward trek to consider nature versus nurture and what our genes actually say about who we are compared to the environment of our developmental years.  This book is fantastically introspective and inspires readers to consider their origins along side Shapiro as she learns and decides how this news does and does not change her own definition of who she is.  Back to the list.

Never Enough by Judith Grisel

The tagline is important here – the Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction.  I’m interested in addiction personally.  Addiction is coming to me from both sides of my family tree and the same goes for my children, so the more I can understand about it the better.  This title seems like an outlier for my reading life, but it’s part memoir part science book, but the type of science book that’s actually really interesting to read.  Wait, but the tagline, why is it important? This book has 11 chapters. Seven of them are about substances. These chapters are broken down into two main parts – what the experience is like for the user, the first time and subsequent times, and the neuroscience of what happens in the brain as it interacts with the substance.  It is FASCINATING! I don’t read a lot of non-fiction because I generally find the rare titles I do pick up to be dry and slow. I read this book in ten days, which is normal for me when you consider I also had fiction going at the same time. And just for kicks a story – as we were going to bed one night, I was settling in with my Kindle and my husband asked me what I was reading.  He expected me to say [insert open door romance title here], but instead I said, quite honestly, “Never Enough, it’s this fascinating book about addiction, written by a woman who was an addict, got clean, and got a PhD in Neuroscience because she wanted to solve addiction.”  He starts laughing because he expected a book with an updated Fabio cover and because his wife is going to sleep reading a book about the neuroscience of addiction, We proceed to have a 20 minute conversation about the book, addiction, and our family trees at bedtime because HE wants to, and he HATES talking at bedtime.  He hasn’t read it yet, but he’d love it. I think the last book he read was Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and I have yet to convince him to read David and Goliath.  One day! Back to the list.

If you’re still reading, I’m super impressed and #sorrynotsorry that I couldn’t narrow it down any more.  This is only 4.6% of the titles I read this year, and clearly I adore each one listed here and think more people should read them!

Also, there were honorable mention titles, but I’ll be less verbose with those, maybe.

Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy – Start with The Bear and the Nightingale

Based on Russian folklore, this is a gorgeous and atmospheric tale of the intersection of Christianity and folklore as a young girl (at least at the beginning of the first book) experiences them in her home and in her life.  It’s a bit of a family saga, a bit of historical fiction, and just such an amazing read! Back to the list.

Pippa Grant’s Stud in the Stacks

This was our introduction to Pippa and THANK YOU FACEBOOK ALGORITHMS FOR THAT.  It’s #2 in the series, but I’m not at all sad I read it first. (It’s romance, so we all knew how #1 was going to end from the start, and honestly, Chase and Sia are … a lot.  Knox and Parker Parker Elliot are much more normal, at least comparatively). Knox is a librarian who reads and recommends romance novels, so if you enjoy a good open door romance novel, this is a super fun, hilarious read, as are the rest in the series.  If you like this one, read them all, and attempt to keep them in order, after you start with this one (as much as I love Ares and want to tell you to skip ahead, you need to meet Loki and Felicity in Gracie and Manning’s book because it’s funnier that way). Back to the list.

Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints

Another fantasy, debut, series starter that was fabulous!  This is slated to be a trilogy, so I’m a bit scared of the ending of the next installment, but this one ends in a fine place.  The writing is solid, the world building is amazing, and the story is creative, while making complete (magical) sense. This is dark and brooding, and I almost wish the next book was due out in the fall rather than in April (2020!) because the first would make a glorious fall reread. Back to the list.

ASHLEY’S FAVORITES

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Full Disclosure: I focused on Classical history in college. And I’m not talking ‘classic literature,’ I mean ancient Greece and Rome. In addition to 4 years of college-level French I took 2 in Latin. I did not take Greek, but y’all something had to give. Greek was that thing for me. There were multiple history classes, a couple Greek philosophy, and definitely a mythology class. It would have taken very little to be misrepresented for me to hate this view of Homer’s Illiad. The entire novelisation is from Patroclus’ point of view. Don’t remember who Patroclus is? He is Achilles’ best friend and in this book his lover. Let’s give it up for some excellent LGBTQ+ representation that isn’t forced, involves both males and females, and, most importantly, doesn’t place modern mores on what we know of ancient times. I am desperate to be #1 on Circe in Overdrive, can’t wait to read Ms. Miller’s newest title. Back to the list.

Stud in the Stacks by Pippa Grant

Thankfully, Nikki covered the important plot and character things in her honorable mentions, but for me this title sticks out for several reasons. Yes, it was the start of our minor obsession with the Pippaverse. We will talk more about this in a subsequent post, but what you need to know about the ‘verse is that it involves hockey. I LOVE HOCKEY. Now, I am a God-fearin’ Southern woman who loves the SEC and my Saints football, but sweet mother of Canada I LOVE HOCKEY. It might be because the Predators came to Nashville when I was in high school. It might be because I married Canadian Adam. It might be because my friend Liz ALSO loves hockey and we bonded over that in college, and continue to talk hockey now. It’s probably just because hockey is awesome. How can huge men be graceful? Put them on two tiny blades of metal on frozen water, that’s how.

Stud in the Stacks doesn’t directly involve hockey, but this book was what I didn’t know I needed at the time. It helped get me back into that TRN life but it also went to prove that the thing most of us women need in a man is a man who knows what we want. And no, not just in bed, but also in life. Women find examples of what they want in a partner in romance novels because they’re fictionalized versions of what we wish we could have every day. Knox Moretti, Mr. Romance, even though he is fictional, is a man who knows what women want because HE READS ROMANCE NOVELS. The theory is sound, if more men read romance novels they would know without a doubt what women really want in a life partner…and in bed. Back to the list.

The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward

Again, thankful Nikki handled all the important things about these books. Yes, maybe it’s a cheat that we’re counting the entire trilogy as one, too bad. We buddy read these in the course of 7 days. 3 books, 1100 pages. 7 days. How can I confirm, well Goodreads my friends! We had these back to back to back available and ready to go from our overdrive libraries. Usually we’re waiting on one or another of us to get a book, but all three of these glorious books were consecutively available for us and we were so invested in the characters and especially the place that we drank it down like…well, like bourbon, baby. At the time we read these books, I was having a rough bout of homesickness for the South while living in LA, and these books really helped me feel like I was living at home. Back to the list.

Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra

This was a new release title that I found a few months ago, before it was released in December, and I pulled a Nikki and recommended it to the library via overdrive, and was magically #2 on the holds list when it was released! So, I just finished reading it over this Christmas holiday. It is a  modern re-telling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, follows Meg and Jo March, in modern North Carolina and New York City, balancing their passions and careers (those might be two different things, as they are for most women) while also trying to be good sisters and daughters during a holiday season fraught with family drama. It’s definitely a Christmas book and I happily read it during Christmas time, so maybe the feels were high, but I could feel Alcott’s characters come alive in a modern way. I can’t wait for the release of Beth & Amy! Little Women is my favorite book. Hard stop. I’ve had that same answer since the age of…probably 7. I’ve re-read it multiple times, own multiple copies in dead tree and digital, and had yet to read a modern re-telling. This was glorious. There are more modern re-tellings on my list, so stay tuned, dear readers. Back to the list.

NON FICTION

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero

You Are A Badass is an entire book about how to raise your self awareness and chase after the life you think can only happen in your dreams. Just like I think everyone needs to go to therapy at certain points of their life, everyone needs to read books that help them raise their inner voice in preparation for attaining that next level goal. This is a book you keep on your shelf to look at and remind yourself of all the reasons you are a badass and that you can accomplish your badass goals! It’s a personal success coach in book form. I followed up by reading You Are a Badass at Making Money and You Are a Badass Everyday, but the original is my favorite. (I might have cheated and pulled my explanation from my Goodreads review.) If you don’t have someone in your life who repeatedly tells you that you are amazing by accomplishing even the seemingly most insignificant things, like showering, you need Jen to help you remember that you are indeed a badass because you did that. Thankfully, I also have a Nikki to give me props for doing things, it helps, and you don’t know how much until you either have it added to your life or have it taken away. Back to the list.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

I’m going to cheat on this book, too. Here’s the link to my 5 star Goodreads Review.

It’s true-crime, history, personal memoir, and social discourse all rolled up into a book about libraries. I want to share some photos from the inaugural LA Times Bookclub I attended in June 2019 where I got my copy signed by Susan Orlean!

Back to the list.

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Do you remember how in a previous post we talked about how we were going to discuss the 2019 Goodreads Awards Winners? Well the fact that this book didn’t win for the comedy category is why I am boycotting writing that post. No one wants to hear me rant and complain, yet again, about how little known great books can’t get the votes.. You can look at the winners and vote counts here.   

I gifted this book this Christmas. It should be required reading for any Southern Lady, especially those of us living outside of the South, as I was when I read it. It’s a collection of funny and poignant personal essays by a professional poker playing Southern Lady from Alabama living in New York City with her husband and cats. What really hit me was how when her mother talked to her in stories she was always “Helen Michelle.” Always two names, never just one. How quintessentially Southern is that? This is definitely a book I am going to purchase in dead tree for my own bookshelves, once those bookshelves are removed from the storage units.
Back to the list.

HONORABLE MENTION

The River by Peter Heller

I don’t want to give too much away, since this was a buddy read and there’s potential for more in depth discussion in a future post. But, I was blown out of the water (heh) by the gorgeous, melodic prose. Two college friends take an extended portaging canoe/camping trip to Canada’s Husdson’s Bay and things start happening when they run into two other groups of campers and smell smoke from a forest fire all on the same day.  This was on the Modern Mrs Darcy Summer Reading Guide, but we didn’t read this debut until November/December because of library holds. Back to the list.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The well-known YA Fantasy author has officially released an adult novel. The story follows Alex Stern as she monitors the magical, occult activities of Yale’s secret societies. It has magic and history and architecture and all the things I loved about attending university, especially secrets. I read this as part of Barnes and Noble’s book club, and was a little frustrated to find out that it is the first in a series. I’m excited that it’s a series and can’t wait to read more, but it’s a series and WANT THEM NOW. Back to the list.

Tribe of Millionaires by David Osborn & Pat Hiban with Mike McCarthy & Tim Rhode

It’s not a big surprise if I tell you that I’m a real estate agent and that I listen to real estate podcasts. I love the BiggerPockets series of Podcasts and listen to the Real Estate, Money, and Business podcasts every week. When I was listening through some of the backlog this fall, I came upon Episode 326 of the BiggerPockets podcast. You can listen here.  The authors of the book talk about how finding extreme accountability in your life can help catapult you to achieve all the goals you set. I can’t explain it as well as David Osborn, Pat Hiban, and Tim Rhode can (with help from hosts Brandon Turner, Joshua Dorkin, and David Greene). I read the book after listening to the podcast several times over, but I will say I preferred the real life stories in the podcast over the modern day fable in the book. In addition, without a doubt, finding people that will give you the accountability that the authors talk about in the podcast and book will change your life for the better. Back to the list.

So, dear readers, now that you’ve seen what our favorites were, what will you add to your TBR?  What were your favorites of 2019? Based on the books we love, what titles do you love that we should read?  Let us know in the comments!