January recommended lists you don’t want to miss
It’s a new year as well as a new month, and we’re rolling out a new feature to celebrate: Monthly Essentials. Near the beginning of every month, we’ll include links to OverDrive Marketplace shopping lists that will cover all the essentials you need to know about for the month. It will have our Top Titles for the month, Coming Blockbusters, top genre lists, and a couple lists tying into the season. Let’s get started!
Best Books of 2023
Shop the list here.
This list is our giant, cumulative list of Best of Lists! It includes the New York Times 100 Notable Books, NPR Best Books; Publishers Weekly Best Books, the OverDrive Public Library Digital Content Librarians Best Books, and more!
Featured Title
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
Buy the ebook here
Buy the audiobook here
From your OverDrive DCL: For my money, no one writes a better historical romance than Charles. The Secret Lives is set in the south of England during the Napoleonic Wars and focuses on a nobleman who has recently inherited his title and an estate far away from his life in London. There he falls in love with Joss Doomsday, the leader of a family of smugglers. Together they need to unravel deadly secrets while protecting their forbidden love.
This delightful historical mystery romance was named one of the best books of 2023 by Library Journal, NPR, and the Digital Content Librarians here at OverDrive. And if you love it, The Secret Lives is book one of a duology. The second book, A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, was named a Best Book of the year by BookPage. Buy the ebook of A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel here or the audiobook here.
Shelf Care
Shop the list here.
Self-care and self-help books are always popular at the beginning of the year as folks look to get a fresh start. And other people just want a comfort read. Find everything you need to help your patrons make 2024 their best and most relaxing year yet!
Top Titles of January
Shop the list here.
Featured Titles
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
Buy the ebook here
From the publisher: Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.
Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he’s in the Asteri’s dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce’s fate. He’s desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri’s leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas’s Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt’s world is brought to the brink of collapse—with its future resting on their shoulders.
Random in Death by J.D. Robb
Buy the ebook here
Buy the audiobook here
From the publisher: Jenna’s parents had finally given in, and there she was, at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A, carrying her demo in hopes of slipping it to the guitarist, Jake Kincade. Then, from the stage, Jake catches her eye, and smiles. It’s the best night of her life.
It’s the last night of her life.
Minutes later, Jake’s in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from the dance floor comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale. He tries to help, but it’s no use. He doesn’t know that someone in the crowd has jabbed her with a needle—and when his girlfriend Nadine arrives, she knows the only thing left to do for the girl is call her friend, Lieutenant Eve Dallas.
After everyone on the scene is interviewed, lab results show a toxic mix of substances in the victim’s body—and for an extra touch of viciousness, the needle was teeming with infectious agents. Dallas searches for a pattern: Had any boys been harassing Jenna? Was she engaging in risky behavior or caught up in something shady? But there are no obvious clues why this levelheaded sixteen-year-old, passionate about her music, would be targeted.
And that worries Dallas. Because if Jenna wasn’t targeted, if she was just the random, unlucky victim of a madman consumed by hatred, there are likely more deaths to come.
January Forthcoming Blockbuster
Shop the list here.
Featured title
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Buy the ebook here
Buy the audiobook here
From the publisher: When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.
And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
Top Historical Fiction of January
Shop the list here.
Featured title
Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
Buy the ebook here
Buy the audiobook here
From your OverDrive DCL: This is a fascinating debut, bouncing between the present and a family’s history in Georgia during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like many at this difficult time, Saba and his family left Georgia for England. Decades later, Saba’s father returns and finds himself entangled in the ongoing troubles facing the country and his past. Then Saba’s brother travels to Georgia to look for their father, but he also goes missing. So it’s up to Saba to follow the literary clues left like breadcrumbs by his brother around Georgia in an attempt to reunite his family.
The novel received a well-deserved starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Top Nonfiction of January
Shop the list here.
Featured title
How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) by Jessica McCabe
Buy the ebook here
Buy the audiobook here
From the publisher: Diagnosed with ADHD at age twelve, Jessica struggled with a brain that she didn’t understand. She lost things constantly, couldn’t finish projects, and felt like she was putting more effort in than everyone around her while falling further and further behind. At thirty-two years old—broke, divorced, and living with her mom—Jessica decided to look more deeply into her ADHD challenges. She reached out to experts, devoured articles, and shared her discoveries on YouTube.
In How to ADHD, Jessica reveals the tools that have changed her life while offering an unflinching look at the realities of living with ADHD. The key to navigating a world not built for the neurodivergent brain, she discovered, isn’t to fix or fight against its natural tendencies but to understand and work with them. She explains how ADHD affects everyday life, covering executive function impairments, rejection sensitivity, difficulties with attention regulation, and more.
Top Self-Published of January
Shop the list here.
Featured Title
Searching for Heather by Susan Stoker
Buy the ebook here
From the publisher: Ever since hearing about the mysterious woman in the woods who’d rescued his friends, Talon Ross has been intrigued. Who is she? Why is she there? Is she cold? Hungry? Scared? He can’t rest until he’s found her, made sure she’s all right. But when he finally manages to track her down, that difficult task turns out to be the easy part—now he has to earn her trust. The more he gets to know her, the more he wants to know, and the more vital that trust becomes. And there’s an even bigger mystery surrounding the wary redhead, one he wants to solve so she can reclaim her life…possibly with Talon by her side.
Sunset Meadowblossom had known nothing but degradation and fear her entire life, until the fateful day she mustered the strength to escape the only family she’s ever known. Living on her own in the forest is a dream in comparison, until a man she’d previously spied in her woods finds her makeshift home. Talon treats her with care and kindness, which is surprising—and confusing. Sunset’s always been warned away from Fallport and its citizens, but this man is making her want things she never considered…and giving her the courage to claim them.
Sunset soon learns Fallport has secrets—including the fact her name isn’t Sunset at all. It’s Heather…and she’d been stolen from her real life years ago. As a whole new world opens up around her, as Talon and her new friends help her to learn and trust and grow, Heather has no idea someone from her past is lurking, outraged by her disobedience. Waiting to take back what he considers rightfully his. And when he strikes, it’s up to Heather to save herself yet again…and to fight not only for her life, but the love she’s found with Talon.
Searching for Heather is the sixth book in the Eagle Point Search & Rescue Series. Each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhanger endings.
More lists you don’t want to miss
Top Fantasy of January. Shop the list here.
Top Mystery/Thriller of January. Shop the list here.
Top Romance of January. Shop the list here.
Top Sci-Fi of January. Shop the list here.
If you ever need help shopping, you can always email your Digital Content Librarian! Find your DCL in the SUPPORT tab of Marketplace.
About the author: Shelia Mawdsley did everything from answering questions at the Reference Desk to tech training to running a classic lit book club in her 17 years in public libraries. Now she helps other public libraries make the most of their OverDrive collections. In her spare time, she’s either writing or reading, usually with an opera playing in the background. If you ever run into her, ask Shelia about #WITMonth.
