The back of my reading journal has a section just for capturing my favorite book quotes each year. A perk of ebooks and a digital reading journal is how easy that is to do. This year, I’ve highlighted more passages than I usually do and needed 3 pages. Looking back at all 78 quotes, I had every intention of picking one favorite for this post. But I couldn’t do it. Instead I found a few common themes and pulled the best of each.
Below are my top FIVE favorite book quotes of 2024, and then some more.
Romance
Since the first day we met, I think a piece of my heart has belonged to you. Every year, it just got bigger and bigger.
Carley Fortune – This Summer Will Be Different
- “Of all the good things I’ve felt in my ****ing life, you are the best.” Ali Hazelwood – Bride
- “His eyes dropped down to my mouth and the burning in my chest ran into the rest of my body. It found every dark, hidden place and lit it on fire.” Adrienne Young – Sky in the Deep
- “I always thought you looked like mine, but you sure do ****ing feel like mine, too.” Mariana Zapata – Wait For It (My favorite MZ book)
- “Anywhere you want to go. If you want me to, I’ll follow.” Catherine Walsh – The Matchmaker
Humor
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: people suck.
Elsie Silver – Off to the Races
- “I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a control freak, but I’m a woman who needs to be in control.” Hannah Grace – Icebreaker
- “…my nipples chose that instant to stand at attention, like eager little meerkats.” Emily Henry – Funny Story (See our RBF review)
- “He’d done far too much peopling for the day.” Jenni Bara – The Fall Out
- “It’s ****ing rude he’s so good looking. It offends me.” Jessica Joyce – You, With a View
Memory / Time
I wouldn’t change any of it. If I could walk through a door and undo all of this, I wouldn’t. Do you understand?
Adrienne Young – The Unmaking of June Farrow
(I cannot stop thinking about The Unmaking of June Farrow and it’s been months)
- “The words had risen from his skin even when he wasn’t speaking, and I called them to me, collecting them like fallen leaves, pressing them between the heavy pages of my memory so I could keep them.” Amy Harmon – The Bird and the Sword (See my review)
- “I knew the centuries that could take place in half a day. I knew the decades that could pass in a minute.” Abby Jimenez – Just for the Summer (See our RBF review)
- “This was one of my first lessons in how you make the future: moment by moment, you seal the doors of possibility behind you.” Kaliane Bradley – The Ministry of Time (My favorite book in July)
- “And what’s the point of it all, if you don’t take the time to stop and celebrate this life you’re living?” Tricia O’Malley – Wild Scottish Rose
Stories
I hope you run through every open Door and tell stories when you return.
Alix E. Harrow – The Ten Thousand Doors of January
- “I believe there are far more possibilities than happily ever after or tragedy. Every story has the potential for infinite endings.” Stephanie Garber – Once Upon a Broken Heart
- “I happen to believe every story is a love story if you catch it at the right moment, slantwise in the light of dusk.” Alix E. Harrow – The Ten Thousand Doors of January (My favorite book in October)
- “Whatever story you tell yourself about your own life, that’s the one that’ll be true.” Katherine Center – The Rom-Commers
- “There’s only one way to run away from your own story, and that’s to sneak into someone else’s.” Alix E. Harrow – The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Truths
Always be quiet when a heart is breaking.
Meg Shaffer – The Wishing Game
- “I realize now that life is just a continual parting of the ways, some more painful than others.” Amy Harmon – Where the Lost Wander
- “We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt, and we let our beliefs get brittle long before our bodies.” Adam Grant – Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
- “Wasn’t that the very definition of life? Constant adaptations brought about by a series of never-ending mistakes?” Bonnie Garmus – Lessons in Chemistry
- “You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.” Adam Silvera – They Both Die at the End