20+ Books For Moms To Read In 2021

December 18, 2020

30 Books I Read In 2020

Before we jump into the books I read, let me take a quick minute to give you some quick tips to fit in reading time.

The truth is, moms can have tons of books to read, but if you don’t make the time to sit down and actually read, it will do you little good.

I’ve found that when I make it a priority to read for a few minutes a day, I find more free minutes in my day to make it happen. You just have to be willing to commit to making it happen!

I also make it a point to not overcommit. Usually, I try to read 1-2 chapters a day of whatever book I’m reading. For moms, that’s usually not too much to fit in.

If I have more time to read, great. If not, just a chapter or two allows me a few minutes to sit down and relax, if only for ten minutes.

Here are some quick ideas to fit in more reading time:

Read first thing in the morning
Read before bed
During nap time
During a few minutes of independent play
While you walk or exercise (audio books are great for this!)
Listen to an audio book while you cook, clean, or shower

If you’re interested in trying out an audio book, you can get 2 FREE audiobooks with a 30 day FREE trial of Audible. Definitely worth it if you want to try out this route!

How I rate books

Now, one last thing before I get into the books for moms to read next year. I wanted to take a quick minute to mention how I tend to rate the books I read.

Typically I reserve a 5 star rating for books I absolutely love, and will likely read again at some point. These are my absolute favorites and the books I would recommend for other moms to try.

Likewise, 4 star ratings are books I really liked, but were shy of being my favorites.

It’s rare to see 1 star ratings from me, because I usually save those for books I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, let alone moms. Books I rate with only one star are often ones I didn’t finish because I didn’t like it at all, or had strong objections to the material.

Alright, with all that in mind, here’s what I read in 2020!

5 Starred Books For Moms

As I said earlier, these are the books I absolutely loved and would recommend to moms looking for good books.

Book Highlight: Sweet On You

Fair warning: I’m really bad about reading series out of order. Ironically, I asked for three specific books for Christmas, and didn’t even realize until after I got them that they were all part of a series. And of course, before I had that epiphany, I started reading the very last book in the series.

Good news is, the Bradford Sister Romance series does not need to be read in order to be enjoyed! And I absolutely loved Sweet on You.

This book has so much chemistry between the characters, without being inappropriate or gross. Honestly, I haven’t enjoyed a romance book this much in a long, long time.

I loved the two main characters, Britt and Zander, and their adventure to uncover a dangerous mystery together. All while Zander struggled to get out of the gosh awful friendzone.

Hey—just because you’re a mom, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a good romance.

Book Highlight: Falling For You

The second book in the series, Falling For You follows the love life of Willow, the oldest of the Bradford sisters. Willow’s story is unique in the fact that her romance centers around an ex-boyfriend.

I liked that Willow wasn’t as perfect as others believed her to be. Too often I think we all get sucked into wearing masks and leading people to believe the best in us while we hide our own flaws. And worse, we don’t forgive ourselves for our past failures.

I appreciated the theme of redemption and forgiveness in this book. And the romance, of course. Definitely a very good read!

Book Highlight: Hometown Girl

Courtney Walsh is definitely one of my favorite authors, and this book is no exception. In Hometown Girl, Beth Whitaker finds herself still living in the small town she grew up in—the same one she was desperate to get out of as soon as she graduated.

Instead of “moving on” with her life, she soon finds herself wrapped up in helping her sister renovate a newly purchased but long neglected farm and orchard. There, she and Drew Barlow meet while he searches for his own long forgotten answers.

The simplest way to put this is that I loved this book. And I think it had a lot of themes that a lot of moms can relate to, even though the main characters were not parents themselves.

A lot of times we moms get sucked into this feeling that we left behind our life goals and dreams in order to raise our kids. That we’re not really living up to our potential (which is certainly not true, by the way).

Hometown Girl deals with this idea in a way that I think can resonate with many women. Definitely recommended!

Book Highlight: The Scroll

The Scroll is actually a book that I’ve read before and already had on my bookshelf. And I was happy to reread one of my favorites!

The Scroll centers around a biblical archaeologist turned doubter, who is convinced by his mentor to lead one last dig in Israel.

I love the suspense and mystery behind the story. And since it’s set in Israel, which happens to be my favorite place on earth, it’s easily one of my favorite books.

If you’re looking for an easy escape from mom life, The Scroll is a fantastic book to dive into and get lost in. Seriously, this is one book I recommend all the time.

Other Five Starred Books

4 Starred Books For Moms

The following books are ones that I read and liked, but fell shy of being my favorites.

Book Highlight: True To You

After I read Sweet On You earlier in January, I got my act together and started with the first book in the series. Hah! While I did see some details that gave hints toward the second and third books, I still think I was perfectly fine reading the series out of order. So if you’re like me and you tend to read series out of order, you’ll be fine.

Anyway. I really liked True To You, although it didn’t quite suck me in the same way the third book did. I enjoyed the main characters, just not quite as much as I did in the third book. And that’s okay.

What I did really appreciate about True To You was the unique twist it took, and the rather surprising plot twist. I usually can see things coming, but I was definitely caught off guard by this one. Definitely worth the read if you enjoy romances with surprising twists.

Four Starred Books

3 Starred Books For Moms

These books are ones that were “okay.” Most of the time, these books just didn’t resonate with me with where I am in life. They’re decent, just not for me.

Book Highlight: Cheers To The Diaper Years: 10 Truths For Thriving While Barely Surviving

In Cheers To The Diaper Years, Hollis covers ten important truths that all moms need to know and remember in order to thrive through motherhood. While each of these truths is incredibly true and important, I personally didn’t feel like I got much from the book (and hence the low rating from me).

Part of it was that each of the ten truths were things I personally already knew. Of course, it was a good refresher to remind me and bring it to the front of my mind. But I just didn’t feel like I took away anything new.

However, this could be a great book for a brand new first time mom, who is perhaps still figuring out the basics of navigating mom life.

The other part was that I just wasn’t a fan of Hollis’ style in general. I’m sure her writing style works for lots of people, it just didn’t mesh well for me.

I get a bit irked when someone constantly uses the word “solidarity.” I don’t like to feel like authors are trying too hard. For those reasons, I wasn’t a huge fan, but I could see Cheers to the Diaper Years being beneficial for some others.

Book Highlight: Money Making Mom: How Every Woman Can Earn More And Make A Difference

Let me start by saying that I honestly love Crystal Paine. She’s someone who has become a mentor to me and influential woman in my life—both in my blog and my life. And I almost always recommend her and her work to others.

That being said, I wasn’t crazy about her book Money Making Mom. And I don’t know that it was necessarily the content. A lot of it was just focused on a season of life that I’m not in right now.

The first half of the book is focused on helping moms figure out realistic ideas for how they can make more money. And for me, it just didn’t fit my current season of life. And that’s fine.

I did like the second half better, which was focused on how to be intentional with your business. It also focused a lot on how to make a difference with your life and business, which I found to be far more helpful for my current life season. Overall, it was a decent book, just not well fitted for me personally.

Other Three Starred Books

2 Starred Books

Unfortunately, not every book is a winner for me, and I’m sure not every book is a winner for you, either.

Book Highlight: The Marriage Wish

I was actually very surprised that I did not enjoy this book. I have read other book by Dee Henderson and loved them, so it was a big surprise to me that this one fell short of my expectations. Later I realized that The Marriage Wish is one of Henderson’s early books, which may explain the difference.

In The Marriage Wish, Scott Williams meets Jennifer St. James right in the first chapter. After a misunderstanding about her, Scott becomes pretty invested in her.

Rapidly this leads to Scott falling in love and deciding that he wants to marry Jen. Standing in the way of his desire is Jen’s broken heart and grief over a lost husband and child.

I really hate admitting that I didn’t like a book, so I’ll keep it brief. The Marriage Wish is an extremely clean, wholesome book centered around the reality of grief and overcoming it.

The basic plot idea wasn’t terrible, but I just didn’t like the execution of it. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters in any way, and the story telling didn’t feel realistic to me. For those reasons, it isn’t a book I would readily recommend.

Other Two Starred Books

The Marriage Wish

What was your favorite read this year?

Alright, I’ve shared my favorite books of the year with you. Now it’s your turn. What was your favorite book you read this year?

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