It seems like only yesterday when it was 2024, where does the time go? A new year means it’s time for new recaps so I’m back again compiling my top 5 2024 Most Pleasantly Surprising Reads (along with the Most Disappointing Reads that will be going up soon)! If you have already read them, also check out last years 2023 Most Pleasantly Surprising Reads list and 2023 Most Disappointing Reads list.
Similar to last year, books on this list are not necessarily my favorite reads of the year but are instead those that I was most pleasantly surprised by. Whether the book exceeded my expectations (or I went in with no expectations), did a 180 turnaround mid-story, or was a lesser-known hidden gem, these books were those that I thought were noteworthy and impressive! Besides, I think it’s boring when best of lists are made up by too many sequels (looking at you Pierce Brown for writing to many amazing Red Rising entries) or book influencers hyping up the same popular artists they’ve done over and over again. Anyway disclaimer aside, here are my 2024 Most Pleasantly Surprising Reads!
#5) A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Over the last year, Ashley Poston has quickly become one of my favorite contemporary fiction/romance authors and is a definite must-read writer for me. All three of her main full-length adult novels are wonderful romance novels that crossover into the magical realism territory, with specific gimmicks varying per story. What sets Poston apart from her many other counterparts for me is her quality writing that gets better and better with every novel and the ambitious narrative commitment to more mature topics and character growth. At the time of this blog entry, A Novel Love Story is Poston’s most recent novel (Sounds like Love due to be released mid-2025) and one of her most creatively complex story yet. I had enjoyed Dead Romantics back in 2023 and consider The Seven Year Slip one of my overall favorite reads of 2024, so I felt pretty confident that I would enjoy A Novel Love Story. And in many ways, it’s similar to her other works that feature good romance and chemistry, great character development, clever use a magical element, and a hopeful warm tone. However, the sheer ambition of this novel’s story within a story and assorted side plot elements shocked me (in a good way).
I absolutely loved the premise of A Novel Love Story which transported the main character into a fictional world brought to life, one of my favorite story concepts. Usually this setup is done with well-known pre-existing works (ie. BBC’s Lost in Austen manical take on Pride and Prejudice). However here, Poston wrote a full on series of romance stories within the main story, with each story featuring a different romantic pair of characters all loosely connected within the fictional world of Eloraton. I found these stories fascinating as Poston goes out of her way to make each couple completely different, some featuring a happily ever after, others “settling” with each other, and one even choosing to leave the town all together. As you would expect from placing a fan within their favorite fictional world, there were a lot of great comedic breaking the fourth wall moments but I was fully whisked away into this fictional town where everything is seemingly perfect. And to match the cozy vibe of the town, so to are the romances as well as Elsy’s meet-cute with Anders, the resident exasperated local bookstore owner she almost runs over blindly in the pouring rain.
A Novel Love Story earns its spot on this list by far surpassing what you would expect from the synopsis and genre. Despite being 100% a contemporary fiction/romance novel, I found it to be an unexpectedly good cozy mystery novel as well. Pushing its magical realism element as far as it can, Poston introduced many underlying mysteries that slowly unravel and connect to each other. How does this fictional town exist and how did Elsy end up here? Why is the town seem to be stuck in a time-loop, complete with a sudden downpour each afternoon? The writer of the fictional series passed away before she was able to finish the last entry to the series and there’s clues hidden everywhere, suggesting where this last novel could have gone. Why is the local inn Elsy tried to stay at supposedly haunted? Although the town appears to be placed somewhere between the fourth and unreleased fifth novel, where is the fourth romantic couple who is missing in town? And finally, who is Anders and why is he the only person in all of Eloraton who Elsy had never read about in any of the first four novels? These mysteries were just as compelling as the romance and drama elements of the story and the way Poston incorporated “real-life” events outside of the book series into Eloraton was amazingly creative and clever to me.
The sheer ambition of writing such a fully-realized book series within a sub 400 page novel is nothing short of impressive on top of having many compelling mysteries for Elsy to investigate during her time in Eloraton. And as per Poston usual, Poston’s character development and plotting is fantastic. To top it all off, Elsy and Anders are my favorite focal characters of her novels so far and this novel features some of Poston’s most poetic and well-crafted reflections to date. It makes me really sad how low the average rating for this book is on Goodreads and other platforms considering how good it is and more notably, deftly manages so many concepts in a coherent and satisfying manner. Of the five books on this list, A Novel Love Story is easily the most accessible that I highly recommend, even for non-romance readers due to its magical realism elements and mysteries.
#4) The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi-ye
If you’ve been following my reviews or Goodreads profile, you’ll know that I have a recurring struggle with reading and appreciating translated Asian literature. While great on paper, I find a lot of Asian magical realism/speculative fiction novels feel like impressionistic portraits that are nice to look at in passing but leave a lot to be desired in terms of the complete narrative and execution of the details. Furthermore there’s been a trend putting whimsical fantasy elements like dreams, memories, alternate life stories, etc. within the confines of seemingly innocuous locations like this Dept. store, a café, libraries, or a recent one I saw featuring a laundromat. When I saw the Dallergut Dream Department Store, the synopsis sounded fascinating and the cover caught my eye (the details and graphic design are beautiful, the clouds texture and lighting in the building are stunning). This book earns it’s place on the list by actually delivering exactly what it advertises in the synopsis (which is honestly a pretty sad low bar compared to the other magical realism Asian literature novels I’ve read by comparison).
Besides being surprised that the book actually was appropriately described, I was also pleasantly surprised by how incredibly creative the magical realism concepts and mechanics are. The concept of a dream world is nothing new but Miye Lee’s ideas involving purchasing dreams in the form of emotions and feeling currency is fascinating. Ideas ranging from dreams for holidays, topics, dream creations (famous scenario writers are akin to novelists in the dream world), even pet dreams, the Dream Department Store has a creative approach and explanation to them all. While there really isn’t much of a story or character progression since the story instead focuses on showing vignettes of different features of the store and its customers, the creative elements are more than enough for this book to make this list. And as a reader who doesn’t typically gravitate to Asian literature nor do I favor cozy magical realism stories, the Dream Department Store accomplished the near impossible!
#3) The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This one caused quite a stir when it was released due to accusations of Bradley ripping off the name and concept of Spanish television show of the same name, which is utterly uncalled for considering this book has almost nothing in common with the show apart from the name. For some reason this book also has gotten very polarizing reviews from many popular booktok-ers and influencers, further muddying up its reputation. And that’s a shame because I thought The Ministry of Time was a classy and unique novel unlike anything I’ve read before.
I actually found this book on “upcoming release” book lists that I closely follow as I tend to have better luck with those vs book influencer recommendations. When I read the synopsis of this book, it was instantly a must-read based on how unique it sounded. Featuring a reverse time-travel concept where individuals from the past are brought to the present for an experimental rehabilitating study, I was pleasantly surprised not by the unique premise, but by the quality of Bradley’s writing and prose. While the premise was well-executed and complex, I found the writing itself to be beautifully lyrical and quite poetic which I did not expect at all based on the premise and genre. In addition to being well-written, The Ministry of Time effortlessly crossover and fuses multiple different genres seamlessly including historical fiction, science fiction, cozy slice of life moments, multicultural ethnic discussions and cultural identity, romance, and in the back half of the book, actual thriller elements.
The creativity and ambition of the story paired with Bradley’s reflectively beautiful work results in a novel unlike anything else I’ve read and I do not understand how it has gotten such a low average rating, even considering the early review bombing it unjustifiably received. If anything perhaps the novel is too complex for some readers to follow or the open-ended, wistful ending was not the perfect happily ever after others wanted for the romance storyline. But for those that appreciate lyrical or ambitious stories, this one is a great one (plus the memes about readers now crushing on a English Navy officer who’s been declared dead almost 200 yrs ago are hilarious).
#2) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
I read a lot of newly published books in 2024 compared to past years so this one is unique as being the only older novel making this list. Against my better judgement, I actually took a Goodreads algorithm-suggested recommendation which are usually quite terrible when I picked up Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Originally published back in 2006 and the winner of the coveted Hug Award for best science fiction novel, I went in expecting an ambitiously complex science fiction epic full of futuristic technology and extraterrestrial encounters given its premise. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Spin’s story and tone is nothing at all like that. While it’s for sure ambitiously crafted and written, Spin is a slow-moving, character-centered story about the lives of Tyler, Jason and Diane starting from the childhood when the “Spin” occurs. The novel then follows their lives and their relationships with each other over the course of the next several decades, culminating in Tyler and Diane on the run from the government with Jason nowhere to be seen.
My full review linked above goes into far more detail than I have the time for here, but all you need to know is that Spin is wonderful character story that doesn’t go for a huge epic feel or far-flung scifi feel. Instead, it’s heavily grounded in telling a compelling and deeply personal character story that reflects on the implications and life trajectories an unexplained phenomenon like the Spin can affect people. It truly feels like an old-school classic approach to science fiction that feels increasingly more rare within the scifi genre and has aged wonderfully despite being 20 years old. The pacing and focus is not for everyone and the story can be quite heavy and dark at times, but I was truly blown away (quietly) by Spin that delivered an excellent story but one so different from what I was expecting.
#1) The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Yet another amazing read I discovered based off of an industry reviewer recommendation list and not a book influencer (see the trend), The Other Valley is not only at the top of my list for Most Pleasantly Surprising Reads but is also one of my top overall reads in general! Picked up on a whim based on a synopsis involving time-travel and past/future implications, I was legitimately floored while I was reading The Other Valley. Apart from being ambitious crafted and utterly brilliant with its moral and philosophical discussions of continuity, regulation, and ones place in society, it’s a great coming of age story that’s perfectly paced and plotted. On top of that, the prose and lyrical beauty of its quieter moments left me in awe, all the more impressive considering this was Howard’s debut novel.
The less you know about the story the better, but what I will say is that I found the story riveting and an absolute page-turner, despite its very withdrawn and restrained presentation. This is not the kind of novel for casual readers who want a comfy or easy read, but it rewards those who are committed to it. While it’s a coming of age story of Odile figuring out her life and future career as a young teenager, it also serves as a coming of age young adult story when the narrative does a notable time-jump at the crucial turning point in the story. Emotional, nuanced, and sophisticated, without a doubt The Other Valley was the most Pleasantly Surprising Read of the year for me and far surpassed whatever expectations I had going into it. While I was disappointed it wasn’t able to win the GoodReads award for favorite science fiction novel of the year (The Ministry of Time won which was my 2nd pick for the category), I was surprised it was popular enough to even make the finalist list and I highly recommend giving this novel a chance.