Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Comfort Reads of 2021
This year was awful for me.
Really awful.
So I did a lot of rereading of books of favorites, or books that brought me comfort and allowed me a distraction from reality. And those two are not always the same thing. Some distracting books are not comforting, but none of the books have a cliff-hanger ending, and to me, all of the endings are satisfying.
This list is going to be a lot of books. But I read a stupidly large number of books this year, so this is kind of a drop in the bucket.
I’m not even going to try to tell you what makes these books so good, just that each and every one of these served to pull me out of my own head when I desperately needed it. In fact, the first book I reached for after my father died was Robert Parker’s Small Vices, and the only reason the Miss Marple series didn’t make the list is because I had just finished rereading that entire series at the end of 2020
I do, however, want to note that several authors made this list in multiple genres, including C.S. Poe, who wrote books I adore in all three of my escapism genres. The others are Nicole Kimberling, Cat Sebastian, Aidan Wayne.
Fantasy
Big Bad Wolf series* by Charlie Adhara
The Wolf at the Door (2018), The Wolf at Bay (2018), Thrown to the Wolves (2019), Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (2020)
Supernatural Mystery, Romance, LGBT
Fred, the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes:
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (2014), Undeath and Taxes (2015), Bloody Acquisitions (2016), Deadly Assessments (2018), Undeading Bells (2019)
Supernatural Mystery
Offbeat Crimes series* by Angel Martinez
Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters (2016), The Pill Bugs of Time (2016), Skim Blood and Savage Verse (2017), Feral Dust Bunnies (2017), Jackalopes and Woofen-Poofs (2017), All the World’s an Undead Stage (2018); Brandywine Investigations*: Open for Business (2016), Family Matters (2018); Uncommonly Tidy Poltergeists* (2017)
Supernatural Mystery, Romance, LGBT
Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell
London Falling (2012), The Severed Streets (2014), Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? (2016)
Supernatural Mystery
Love, Marriage, and a Baby Carriage* (2016)
Supernatural Romance, LGBT, Short story
Grilled Cheese and Goblins: Adventures of a Supernatural Food Inspector* (2018)
Supernatural Mystery, Romance, LGBT
The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020)
Fantasy, LGBT
Making Love (2017)
Supernatural Romance, LGBT, novella
Audio
Daniel O’Malley The Rook, Audio Edition (2012) narrated by Susan Duerden
Stiletto, Audio Edition (2016) narrated by Moira Quirk
Urban Fantasy
Mystery
Julian Kestrel Mysteries by Kate Ross
Cut to the Quick (1993), A Broken Vessel (1994), Whom the Gods Love (1995), The Devil in Music (1997)
Historical Mystery
Regency London series by Michelle Diener
The Emperor’s Conspiracy (2012), Banquet of Lies (2013), A Dangerous Madness (2014)
Historical Mystery, Romance
Cat Sebastian Hither, Page* (2019)
Historical Mystery, Romance, LGBT
C.S. Poe Southernmost Murder* (2018)
Contemporary Mystery, Romance, LGBT
Josh Lanyon Come Unto These Yellow Sands* (2017)
Contemporary Mystery, LGBT
The Bellingham Mystery Series Volume 1* (2015), The Bellingham Mystery Series Volume 2* (2015)
Contemporary Mystery, Romance, LGBT
Grasmere Cottage Mysteries (2018) by Dahlia Donovan
Dead in the Garden, Dead in the Pond, Dead in the Shop
Contemporary Mystery, Cozy, LGBT
Robert B. Parker Small Vices (1998) (Spenser)
Mystery, PI
Romance
Lescaut Quartet* by Tracy Grant
Dark Angel (1994), Shores of Desire (1997)
Historical Romance, MF, Mystery
The Turner series* by Cat Sebastian
The Lawrence Browne Affair (2017), The Ruin of a Rake (2017);
It Takes Two to Tumble* (2017) (Seducing the Sedgwicks)
Historical Romance, MM, LGBT
Sins of the Cities series* by KJ Charles
An Unseen Attraction (2017), An Unnatural Vice (2017);
Band Sinister* (2018)
Historical Romance, MM, LGBT
Georgette Heyer These Old Shades (1926)
Historical Romance
Garnet Run series* by Roan Parrish
Better Than People (2020), Best Laid Plans (2021); Riven*: Riven (2018), Rend (2018); The Remaking of Corbin Wale* (2017)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Frozen Hearts series* by Annabeth Albert
Arctic Sun (2019), Arctic Wild (2019), Arctic Heat (2019)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Ravenswood: A Girl Like Her (2018), Damaged Goods (2018), Untouchable (2018), That Kind of Guy (2019);
Undone by the Ex-Con (2018), Work for It (2019)
Contemporary Romance, LGBT
Kneading You* (2016), Joy (2017), The Color of You* (2017)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT, novellas
Galaxies and Oceans* (2018), Upside Down (2019)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Hottie Scotty and Mr. Porter* (2017), For Better or Worse* (2017), Jericho Candelario’s Gay Debut (2018)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Dine with Me* (2019)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Loud and Clear (2016), Play It Again (2019)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT
Blank Spaces* (2016)
Contemporary Romance, MM, Mystery, LGBT
Waiting for the Flood (2018) (Spires)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT, novella
And Everything Nice (2016)
Contemporary Romance, MM, LGBT, short story
* Boinking Books
