★★★★★ A thought-provoking and heartbreaking coming of age story, mixed with a small town mystery. My clear favorite of 2021 by a wide margin

★★★★★ An ambitious, sprawling novel that intertwines 3 storylines across different places and times, but magically comes together in the end

★★★★★ Meet protagonist Marian Graves, a woman in determined to fly planes in the early 1900s at a time when women, quite simply, didn't.

★★★★★ An old friend desperatly needs Lillian's help caring for her kids. There's one catch, though: when the kids get upset, they catch fire

★★★★★ A lovely and cheeky queer story, this traces the evolution of a man as he comes to grips with his professional and sexual identity.

★★★★★ The journey of a mother and her son as they flee Acapulco for the United States after becoming targets of the local cartel.

★★★★☆ When a 12-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 183, including his parents and brother, what happens next?

★★★★☆ Three sisters join forces to influence the suffragist movement, but they must tap into old magic to level the playing field.

★★★★☆ Zelda, a 20-year-old with mild developmental disabilities, channels her love of vikings and embarks on a “quest to become legendary".

2019 was a solid year of reading with some true standouts that created some amazing literary experiences.