Favorite Fiction Reads of 2014

My fiction reading is all over the place, from a sampling of YA to hard, dark, bloody thrillers. What surprises me every year, when I look at my list of books I’ve read or listened to on audio, is how few of them made a strong impression on me. Those that linger in my mind are worthy of places on my year’s-best-reads list. Not all these titles were published in 2014, but that’s when I read them.  Because I can't always say I enjoyed one book more than another, I've divided most into categories, but those labeled unforgettable are exactly that.

UNFORGETTABLE 

The Paying Guests by Sara Waters

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

The Lie of You by Jane Lythell

Don’t Stand So Close by Luana Lewis

Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes

In the Blood by Lisa Unger

LATEST FROM FAVORITE WRITERS

Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth A. Fennelly

The Secret Place by Tana French

Designated Daughters by Margaret Maron

To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie

FICTION WITH CRIME IN IT

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/THRILLER

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

Assault with a Deadly Lie by Lev Raphael

VARIOUS FICTION

 The Good Children by Kate Wilhelm

Everything I Never Told You by Christine Ng

Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson

Rooms by Lauren Oliver

Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Stone Diaries by Margaret Atwood