Best Books of 2021

 Welcome Back, Booklovers! 2021 was a wild year and as much as some books frustrated me I also came across some really great reads. So I separated my top reads of the year into multiple categories.

Favorite Picture Book of 2021

Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham

This was such a great picture book about a Black family coming together for their Sunday dinner tradition. And I usually don't listen to picture book audiobooks but I first listened to this before physically reading it and it was so descriptive that I could sit and imagine how it all looked. 

Favorite Graphic Novel of 2021

Artie and the Wolf Moon by Olivia Stephens

I'm exploring graphic novels again and they're really a great format if you want a full length story but in less pages and a visual format. This was a fun fantasy read for that 12-14 age group that gets overlooked by publishing now that everything is split into such stringent age categories. It's a new take on vampire vs werewolf lore and a Black fantasy that acknowledges race without centering around it and making it a driver in the story. This coming-of-age story follows a girl who discovers she comes from a long line of werewolves and must deal with her new abilities and the threat of vampires.

Best Middle Grade

Josephine Against the Sea

This was a fun story about a little girl living in a fishing village in Barbados. She's not ready for her father to start dating again after her mother's death and does whatever she can to stop him from getting close to any new women. But then this mysterious new woman comes along and her usual pranks keep getting thwarted. Josephine realizes that there's no way this woman can be human and she needs to get her out of their lives before it's too late. This book was magical and funny. There were some laugh out loud moments. Jos Even though it did touch on moving on after loosing a parent it didn't feel heavy.

Best Young Adult

Bad Witch Burning

Katrell has this special gift that allows her to communicate with the dead and she uses this gift to make extra money in between working long hours at a fast food joint to support herself and her deadbeat mother along with her mother's boyfriend of the moment. After an altercation with her mother's boyfriend results in the death of her beloved dog, Katrell gains a new ability to make beings rise from the dead. And this new ability is about to be her ticket to a better life. But things start getting out of hand and Katrell finds herself in over her head. with This book was really nothing like I imagined. It was a very emotional read that dealt with abuse from a parent and parental figure. I cried! 

Best Romance

Careless Whispers

I started the Jackson Fall series this year and fell in love but my favorite in this series would be Elaina's story. Elaina has a reputation for being a cold-hearted bitch but deep down she's really a loving person who has is vying for her father's approval. Grant Robidoux is like a Black Victor Newman and always meddling in his grown children's lives. He fires Elaina and to be spiteful gives her position to her workplace nemesis Alex. Elaina decides she's going to start her own company and she sets her sight on acquiring land owned by Alex's family. And to secure the deal she's going to have to play nice. Who would've thought they'd have so much chemistry together? You get that soap opera drama with the family mixed with some really steamy scenes.

Best Fantasy

Son of the Storm

Danso is a historian who has grown up as an outsider among his own people because of his mixed ethnicity. His intended, Esheme faces similar issues of being looked down upon because of her caste and lack of present father. Both find their lives upheaved, when a woman from one of the lowest castes, the yellowskins of the Nameless Islands, appears in their city. She is looking for a magical family heirloom which Esheme's mother Nem has taken. They were always told yellowskins don't exist. Now one is running around Bassa displaying great power.

My mind just kept coming back to this one this year. And I actually read it twice in the same year! I first read it physically and then listened to the audiobook. And both formats are great! 

Best Thriller

All Her Little Secrets

Ellice Littlejohn is a corporate attorney working in Atlanta. She's got a good job, great friends and she's currently having a steamy affair with her married boss. One morning she heads to his office ready for a quick hook up and instead discovers him with a gunshot wound to the head. She decides to leave the scene without reporting it but her hopes to not be involved don't go as planned. His widow is well aware they were sleeping together and wants Ellice to find out what happened to her husband. Ellice gets promoted at work to make the company look more diverse but she's finding out just how much of an old white boys club it is there. Soon things are spirally out of control and she finds herself being framed for murder. 

Thrillers are hot right now and there are multiple thrillers being released by Black authors that deal with racism. But for me most of them haven't been done that well. This was one that took me by surprise because stuff was actually happening. 

Best Nonfiction

Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did but Nichole Perkin's had a pop culture moment for every occasion and she's lived some life! She talks about her childhood growing up in the South dissecting stigmas placed on young Black girls to her adult days in NYC where she gets very candid about her sex life. It was interesting to read about how she related to certain tv shows, her experience with hbcus, why she left the church, etc. I felt this collection of essays explored so many different topics.

Best Historical Fiction

Libertie

Libertie was a story written in a very lyrical style about a young girl growing up during the Reconstruction era with a mother who is a prominent doctor. She and her mother have a complicated relationship as her mother wants her to follow in her footsteps and Libertie challenges her mother when she starts to work more and more with the white people who disrespect them. Libertie comes of age and falls in love with a Haitian man named Emmanuel who is promising her the world back in Haiti  I've been really enjoying more historical fiction lately and it's been inspiring me to deep dive into the stories we don't normally hear when we talk about Black history. And it also let me know we can talk about racism and history without getting overly graphic but still remaining true to the time period.

 

Best Audiobook

What the Hex

Catalina Cartagena returns to Isla Bruja for her sister's wedding but notices that the wedding party seems to be under a demon's spell. Well everyone except her childhood rival Diego who she must team up with to destroy the demon. I listened to so many great audiobooks this year but this witchy romance novella was by far the best. The narration hit all the right notes managing both the more sensual moments and corny jokes. It really brought the story to life.