My Favorite Books of the Year (So Far)
My five-star reads for the first half of 2026.
It’s mid-way through July 2026, and as of right now, I’ve read 14 books. Goodreads is telling me that I’m technically five books behind to stay on track for this year’s goal of completing 35 books. C’est la vie.
It’s been a really up and down year for reading. In February I read NOTHING. Not really sure what I was doing, except watching a lot of 90 Day Fiance and playing with my new Switch so… actually that makes sense in hindsight.
But then, in April, I read SEVEN books, six of which were read in a single week while I was on vacation. After that, a lot of life happened in a short amount of time so my reading went back to sporadic. But, I have had the joy of reading several really great five-star books so far this year, so I wanted to share them here.
Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino
I went into this not really knowing what to expect and WOW it was unhinged. I loved it. It follows Margo, a 37-year-old publicist in DC, who has been trying to buy a house for eighteen months. After 11 lost bidding wars, she’s desperate, so when she gets a tip about The Perfect House going up for sale, she becomes obsessed with buying it before it hits the market. And just as she thinks she has everything figure out, her plan comes crashing down around her. But Margo’s not giving up on her dream house that easily…
I devoured this book in a single evening, and when I was done I wrote on Instagram that it was like Gone Girl meets House Hunters. Delightfully unhinged and insane. Steer clear if you don’t like messy, unlikeable main characters, but otherwise, I highly recommend this one.
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How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Cover Story by Susan Rigetti
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
I had no idea when I read an advance copy of this book in February that it would turn into the cultural zeitgeist that it has. It seems like a very divisive book; everyone either loves it or hates it. As for me, I absolutely loved it. If you somehow don’t know, it follows a trad wife influencer with millions of followers who suddenly wakes up in the late 1800s with no running water, electricity, or Instagram, and has to actually live out the life she’s been cosplaying online.
I’ve read plenty of valid criticism (and invalid criticism—remember, just because a main character is a bad person doesn’t make them a bad character). But overall it was a deliciously acerbic and razor-sharp denouncement of trad wives and of influencer culture at large. At times, it did start to seem a bit mean-spirited. I’ve seen chatter online that Natalie, the main character, is a thinly-veiled version of Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neelman. I don’t know enough about her to have an opinion, beyond having read that viral NYT piece that seemed like a cry for help.
Regardless, I found the story to be utterly engrossing, in a “can’t look away from a car wreck” way. Natalie is a deeply ugly person inside, and an entirely unreliable narrator, which is fascinating but sometimes makes it difficult to read her inner thoughts. If you’re a fan of “rich people behaving badly” types of stories, I think you’ll definitely like this one.
You might also like…
Trad Wife by Sarah Langan
Fallow by Sarah Anderson
The Mad Wife by Meagan Church
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
Ready or Not follows Eve Hatch, a buttoned-up office worker who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant following a very uncharacteristic one-night-stand. Her best friend, Willa, has been struggling with infertility quietly for years, so this puts a bit of a strain on their relationship. Luckily, Willa’s brother Shep, who Eve has known since childhood, is there to lend a helping hand with all things baby-related… and coincidentally, is starting to look extremely attractive to Eve…
I finished this book and immediately purchased Cara Bastone’s other two novels. It was SO CUTE. I loved the writing style, loved the main character’s POV, and loved that the love interest was a huge sweetie but also REALISTIC!!!! Sometimes these “book boyfriends” are a little too perfect for me and it makes me cringe.
I also really liked the dynamic with the baby daddy who, while not exactly a stand-up guy throughout it, clearly had his own stuff going on and managed to work it out without being a total jerk. Also this book was laugh-out-loud funny more than a few times too. I just loved it. Eve’s narration was a delight, and there were plenty of genuinely emotional moments throughout that made it feel much more than a run-of-the-mill trope-y rom-com.
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It’s Different This Time, Joss Richard
Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell
Friends With Benefits, Marisa Kanter
Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
I really enjoyed this gothic horror, which is arguably my favorite genre at this point. The story follows Emily, a student at Briarley School for Girls. Her final year is derailed when her best friend, Violet, dies in a sudden, shocking accident. But Emily quickly becomes convinced that it wasn’t an accident, but the work of their jealous French teacher, who clearly was in love with Violet.
It quickly becomes apparent that there’s something darker and more sinister lurking at Briarley, as one by one girls meet gruesome fates and dark shadows lurk in the corner of their vision. Add in sapphic entanglements, demonic energy, an unspoken eldritch horror, and the turn-of-the-century spiritualism craze and it might as well have been written specifically for me.
My only nitpick: this book is told from the hindsight POV of a much older main character, so it’s rife with sentiments like “if only we’d known” and “I didn’t know then how wrong we were” which to be honest got a bit old after a while. I also sort of wished the overall evil had been explained a bit better but I suppose that’s sort of the point—maybe there isn’t a reason for evil to occur.
You might also like…
Grey Dog, Elliot Gish
The Hounding, Xenobe Purvis
Odessa, Gabrielle Sher
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the eARC!
Turn Off the Light by Jacquie Walters
Without giving too much away at all, this is exactly what I wanted from a gothic haunted house story. It had messy, interwoven timelines, family trauma, shocking revelations, strong female characters (like, unironically), and a house that might as well have been its own character.
The story follows two women, separated by hundreds of years but living in the same house. In the 1700s, Edith is a healer who soon learns that her skills are seen as sinister by the pious congregation in her small Virginia settlement. As she hears disembodied voices, and things go missing in her home, she fears she has unwittingly opened her mind to the devil. Four hundred years later, Claire has returned to her childhood home to help care for her father dying of Alzheimer’s. The house feels darker than she remembers, more alive, like it’s listening. It soon becomes clear that the two women’s fates are linked, and they must reach across centuries to save each other before it’s too late.
I loved it. I gasped out loud a couple times. It was heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful and downright terrifying a few times. If you like ghost stories, I guarantee you’ll like this one.
You might also like…
Accumulation, Aimee Pokwatka
Play Nice, Rachel Harrison
Weyward, Emilia Hart
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Co. for the eARC!
Grey Dog by Elliot Gish
Another turn-of-the-century sapphic-tinted gothic horror for you. I was really on a roll this spring. Grey Dog follows Ada, a disgraced spinster schoolteacher who has accepted a new post in a very rural district on the orders of her authoritarian father. She’s hoping this new assignment is a chance to reinvent herself, and to escape the rumors and shame she left behind at her last school. But it soon becomes clear that all is not well in rural, isolated Lowry Bridge. Ada is plagued by visions of insect swarms, mutilated animals, and other ghastly apparitions. She becomes convinced that an entity called the Grey Dog is leaving her these offerings, and her grip on reality loosens, with devastating consequences.
I really really loved this, and was genuinely quite creeped out by it which is kind of rare nowadays. It didn’t help that I was reading it during a really emotionally fraught time while stuck in my very isolated rural hometown. While this book is fairly gruesome, it’s also a beautiful metaphor for female rage, loss, pain, motherhood, and male violence. I loved it. Chef’s kiss. Proceed with caution if you’re squeamish.
You might also like…
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Root Rot by Saskia Nislow
Spellstruck by Martha Waters
This book was so dang CUTE. It filled a Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping-sized hole in my heart. I’ve come to realize that I really love witchy, cozy, lightly-magical rom-coms. Spellstruck follows Vesper Holloway, who runs her family’s centuries-old club in alternate-history London where vestiges of magic remain but have been outlawed. When a spate of magical accidents plague these clubs, Vesper worries for her family’s legacy and livelihood—and is forced to team up with Maxwell Ashbridge, a former friend of her brother’s who now works for the government task force assigned to enforce the magic ban.
It was just so whimsical and cozy and the magical lore and worldbuilding was fascinating without being overwhelming or underdeveloped. I loved it.
You might also like…
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the eARC!
What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
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Currently reading Spellstruck because of your rec and loving it so far! Its SO cute!
I picked up Spoiled Milk on Independent Bookstore Day and I’m saving it for fall, but this has me excited! I’m already envisioning the crisp air and spooky vibes!