**I take a few sips of my lemonade, trying to grasp the last bits of summer and sunlight in my hand so I can bottle them up and keep summer forever. I take a few sips and browse through my reading journal, noticing some patterns. I have read a lot more adult books this year than in previous years. It gets me thinking, maybe I should write down some of my favorites. I grab my journal and my quill and ink and write a few of my favorites in swooping cursive. I will have to share my list with Betty immediately.**

Welcome or welcome back to bookishcore! I wasn’t sure what to write about today, so I looked back at my list of post ideas and thought I could do another recommendation post. I did a post on graphic novel recommendations in June, so I thought I would do one on adult books. I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t read a lot in the adult genre. I usually read young adult, so reading a lot of adult books this year has been out of character for me. With my adult books piling up, I wanted to give a few recommendations.

Historical Fiction

• I wanted to start with historical fiction because I only have one recommendation for it. I don’t really read a lot of historical fiction in either adult or young adult, so my only recommendation is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This is a WWII historical fiction following two characters, a blind girl living in Paris named Marie-Laure, and Werner, a German orphan enlisted to help in the war. I read this one several years ago and don’t remember much, but I do think this was a good historical fiction and I recommend checking it out.

Mysteries/Thrillers

• One of my favorite adult thrillers, and one of my favorite adult books overall, is In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead. This book follows a woman named Jessica who is going to her college reunion. She is getting to see all of her old friends, but gets confronted with a murder that happened while they were still in college. This is a past/present timeline and we see the friend group in college leading up to the murder, then go back to present day at the reunion where old secrets are coming to light. I really enjoyed this one and had no idea where the story was going.
• The next recommendation in my mysteries/thrillers section is The Night Shift by Alex Finlay. I read this one last year and really enjoyed it. This one starts with a murder that happened in a Blockbuster in 1999, then moves onto 15 years later where a murder at an ice cream shop resembles the Blockbuster murders. We get three perspectives in this story: the sole survivor of the Blockbuster murders, the brother of the original suspect, and an FBI agent working on the case. The story unfolded really well and the ending keeps you on the edge of your seat.
• Next, I want to recommend I Didn’t Do It by Jaime Lynn Hendricks. I got this book as an arc from my library’s summer reading a year or two ago and really enjoyed it. It takes place at a convention for thriller writers, and four of the authors there start to get threatening texts after one of the other authors is found murdered in her hotel room. This one wasn’t the most thrilling story, but I found the setting unique and did enjoy seeing the story unfold.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

• My first fantasy recommendation is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I did a whole review on this book, so if you want my thoughts, you should check that out. This book is about a twenty-year-old Violet who is forced into the Rider’s Quadrant of a war college by her mother. There is action, romance, and dragons, and it is such an entertaining read.
• My other adult fantasy recommendation is Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. This is actually one of my favorite books by the author. It’s about Yale secret societies and magic and a girl who oversees all of the other societies. I really loved this one and it is definitely one of my favorite adult books as well.

Fiction/Romance

• I wanted to put fiction and romance in the same category because most are fiction with some romance, but the first book is actually just a fiction story, which is Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks. This is a story told in the perspective of an imaginary friend, which was such a unique concept, and we watch as he watches over his boy. There’s a lot more to it but I really don’t want to spoil it. I read this back in 2018 or 2019 and really enjoyed it. It’s simultaneously heartwarming and sad at the same time.
• The next book I would recommend in this category is Emily Henry’s books. My personal favorite is probably Beach Read. This is a literary fiction/romance book about two authors that swap genres as a bet. I liked the story and I know Emily Henry is a loved author, so I recommend checking her out.
• I would also recommend The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston. I read this book this year and liked it. It’s about a ghostwriter who sees ghosts and has to return to the small town she left behind for her father’s funeral. She also encounters a ghost there which is her new editor. I liked the story and thought it was a pretty good read.

That about wraps up my recommendations for adult books. I’ve said it before, but I usually don’t really read adult, and I can never get into it for some reason, but if you are looking for some recommendations, these are the ones that stand out in each genre. Let me know if you have read any of these and what some of your favorites are, especially if you read more ya like me.

xoxo,

Just another reader