Welcome to Mt Favourite Reads, the blog series where I share the best books I read over the past month and delight in hearing about yours.

Well, this closes out my 2024 reading year. I managed 79 books, which is my lowest total since 2018. I’m a bit sad about that but it was a ridiculously busy year thanks to the release of The Grazier’s Son. I will try to do better in 2025.

December proved to be an excellent reading month, mostly because I took a bit of a Christmas work break. I read eleven books, with not a single “did not finish”, and only one not making the favourites list.

I hope your December reads were as enjoyable. Remember to share your favourites in the comments.

No overall “best” this month. They were all good. Here they are!

PS. Apologies for the bad formatting. No matter what I do, the book covers won’t align with the text anymore. Sigh. Will keep trying.

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Devil’s Kitchen by Candice Fox

I’m a big fan of Candice Fox’s thrillers. Her Hades series was extraordinary—thrillers with a touch of horror, which is smack in my zone. The Crimson Lake series was a blast too, and I loved Fire With Fire (my thoughts on that here). That was an amazing story. So I had high expectations for Devil’s Kitchen.

It didn’t disappoint. This was a thrill-a-minute book that at times had me choking up with emotion. I do think you need to suspend disbelief a little with Fox’s books. How the firefighters of Engine 99 have managed to get away with their behaviour and crimes for so long is a mystery, but these things are easy to go with when the story is so compelling.

Fast-paced, exciting, and unexpectedly emotional. Great fun.

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The Ledge by Christian White

Ah, Christian White… I’ve read all his releases and loved every one of them. He twists my brain in the most extraordinary way. I finished The Ledge going… what? WHAT??? Then had to spend twenty minutes flicking back through the book, trying to figure out how he hoodwinked me.

I don’t know why I was so surprised. I did the same on finishing The Wife and the Widow—another mind-bender, my thoughts here—convinced I must have missed some clue, but no. He’s just a master at ambushing you with a twist you never saw coming.

The Ledge switches between the past and the present, unfolding the relationships and secrets of four boys who drift apart over the years but reunite when a body is discovered in bushland.

Clever. So, so clever. Very highly recommended.

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Christmas Under the Stars by Karen Swan

I’ve been buying Karen Swan’s Christmas releases since reading The Christmas Party back in 2020 (my thoughts here). Every one of them has been wonderful—interesting, emotional and set in fabulous landscapes. They’re big, complex stories with lovely romances that grab my heart. I’m a fan.

Which is why I snapped up Christmas Under the Stars when I spotted the ebook on sale (as of writing, it was still discounted). It’s an older release from 2016 but has all the same qualities I expect from Swan’s Christmas stories.

Christmas Under the Stars is set in Banff, which makes for a stunning setting. The story revolves around four friends—one pair husband and wife, the other with their wedding barely weeks away. Except nothing is as it appears and when tragedy strikes, secrets begin to leak out.

This was gorgeous. I lost count of the number of times I cried, but it was quite a few. I loved the mystery and the dysfunction and the twists, and the romance was just gorgeous.

Very satisfying.

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Must Love Mistletoe by Kelly Hunter

Seriously, folks, if you love a Christmas romance, then you can’t miss Must Love Mistletoe. Actually, if you love ANY romance, you can’t miss the entire Montana Bachelors and Babies series. It is brilliant!

Must Love Mistletoe sees Beth Evans clinging by the skin of her teeth to the ranch she and her late husband Red ran. Neighbour Cal Casey does what he can to help, and why wouldn’t he? Red was a good friend, and Cal is godfather to Beth’s ten-year-old son. That Cal has been in love with Beth since forever has nothing to do with it.

But when Beth shows signs that perhaps she might be as interested in Cal as he is in her… Well, what can a man do but woo?

This was just adorable. The romance was sweet, the tight-knit Casey family gorgeous, and the “love language” bits were ridiculously cute.

So much fun. Loved it. Can’t wait for the next (and last?) in the series!

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Where He Can’t Find You by Darcy Coates

I’m a big fan of Australian horror author Darcy Coates. Her books are always excellently creepy and entertaining. Where He Can’t Find You is a little different, in that the characters are teenagers, but for me that made the book even more enjoyable.

Our heroine Abby lives in a weird little town where people have a habit of going missing, sometimes for months, before suddenly turning up very dead, their bodies taken apart and stitched back together in inventive ways with red thread.

Abby and her gang of friends live by a set of rules designed to keep them safe from The Stitcher, but when Abby’s sister Hope is snatched and the police insist their hands are tied, Abby is forced to act.

This was such a great read. Nothing too gory, just a page-turner thriller with plenty of creepiness, anxiety, red herrings and twists, along with a moving story about friendship.

Good stuff. And I have two more Darcy Coates novels on my to-be-read pile to come. Yay!

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Unknown Royal Baby by Annie West

Unknown Royal Baby is another wonderfully romantic and emotional read from Annie West, and a book I enjoyed very much.

This was so interesting. Avril is a capable and efficient PA contracted to manage the London affairs of Crown Prince Isam. Though they’ve worked together for a while, it’s never been in person, and both are stunned by their desire when they do. Despite both their efforts to maintain a professional relationship, a night of passion ensues.

Only for Isam to ghost her thereafter.

As I said above, I really enjoyed Unknown Royal Baby. Isam, despite his power, was incredibly vulnerable, which made him a highly sympathetic character. There was lots of tropey goodness too, with amnesia, a secret baby, a marriage of convenience, and while Isam and Avril aren’t true opposites, they certainly come from vastly different backgrounds.

An excellent romance from an author expert at tugging heartstrings.

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What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

I’ve only read one other Dervla McTiernan and that was the first of her Cormac Reilly crime novels, The Ruin. Although still a suspense/thriller, What Happened to Nina? is a lot different, and I loved it.

This was such a page-turner I gobbled it down in only a couple of days. It was fascinating to follow Nina and Simon’s families—one working class, the other wealthy and privileged. Sympathy should surely be with Nina’s family. She’s the one that’s missing, presumed dead, yet media manipulation sends opinion the other way.

The media frenzy and death-by-internet aspects of What Happened to Nina? were painful to read. I can’t imagine what that must be like, having so many lies spread about you and those you love. It’d be a grief pile-on.

A highly recommended read.

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Miss Barton’s Mysterious Husband by Anna Campbell

Ah, this was fun! Short, sexy, fast-paced and very romantic, Miss Barton’s Mysterious Husband made for a delightful Christmas read. And I’m a bit of a sucker for a second-chance romance.

Roland and Charmian were so enchanted with each other on meeting they eloped, only for an argument during their honeymoon to cause Charmian to flee for home, leaving both broken-hearted.

These two were hugely likable. I loved how Roland never lost hope of reuniting with his errant wife, and Charmian is clearly a woman of strength and forgiveness. Mind you, she needs to be, given how she was betrayed.

A lovely Christmas themed historical romance. Go read.

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All I Want for Christmas by Karen Swan

All I Want for Christmas is Swan’s 2024 Christmas release, and it’s a beauty!

British-born art historian Darcy Cotterell is stuck in Copenhagen for Christmas finishing her PhD when her housemate signs her up to an upmarket dating app. Darcy reluctantly agrees to dates with three bachelors. When she’s diverted from her PhD to research a newly found artwork by one of Denmark’s greatest painters, she discovers bachelor number one is the ruthless lawyer at the foundation whose archives she’d digging into.

Their attraction is instant, but can Max be trusted when the foundation has its own agenda?

Loved the setting, loved the characters, loved the mystery, loved the art history, and really loved the romance.

I look forward to seeing where Karen Swan takes me next year!

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The Ghost of Briar Rose by Anna Romer

I’ve been an Anna Romer fan since reading her debut novel, Thornwood House. I just love the way she writes. Her stories are lush and tending toward the gothic, which puts them smack in my zone.

Anna’s previous novels have been Australian contemporaries, but her latest release, The Ghost of Briar Rose, is paranormal, and a very good it is one too.

This book has all of Anna’s hallmarks—it’s beautifully written, with gorgeous descriptions of Loch Ard, the remote property that Rose haunts, complex characters, a narrative that weaves together the past and the present, all the yum gothic things like an old house, a cruel caregiver, dark secrets, and a spooky loch, oodles of mystery and tension, and romance. Oh, is there romance!

A lovely read. And one you can buy in ebook and paperback direct from Anna at annaromer.com.

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What have you read lately that’s brought you joy?

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