TWENTY Must-Read Books of 2021 that You Need On Your Bookshelf
In 2020, I read a crazy amount of books. I doubt I will ever top the amount I read!

I’m trying to read as much as I can and just plowed through some of the best novels I have ever read. I didn’t think another year could possibly compare, but there is an absolute plethora of books that are SO GOOD coming out now and in the next few months.

I cannot stop reading! As soon as I finish one I pick up another.

Here are TWENTY books that you will want to read as soon as they are published.

These are books that will entertain, make you think, make you laugh, some will have you biting your nails in suspense. Take a look now and let me know what you will be reading!

8. Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford, read if you want to set your time machine back to 1984 and land in NYC.
New York’s last bohemia—the glittering, decadent downtown club scene of the 1980s—is the setting for this brilliantly winning novel about a smart, vulnerable young woman taking a deep dive into her dark side, essential for fans of Sweetbitter, Fleabag, and books by Patti Smith.

New York, 1984: Twenty-two-year-old Phoebe Hayes is a young woman in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who painfully wronged her.

With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls, and lost souls trying to party their pain away. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan.

When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs, and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness. She may have a chance to save herself—and Carmen, if she can find her—but to do it she must face what’s hiding in the shadows she’s been running from—within her heart and in the dangerous midnight streets.

A love letter to gritty 1980s New York City, Astrid Sees All is an irresistible, original novel about female friendship, sex and romance, and what it’s like to be a young woman searching for an identity.

Published on April 6.

Disclaimer: I received the e-arc and arc of this from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.



Book: Astrid Sees All



Author: Natalie Standiford



Book Series: Standalone



Rating: 3/5



Recommended For...: women's literature fans, contemporary readers



Publication Date: April 6, 2021



Genre: Women's Fiction



Recommended Age: 18+ (sex, drugs, romance, alcohol, slight gore)



Publisher: Atria Books



Pages: 272



Synopsis: New York, 1984: Twenty-two-year-old Phoebe Hayes is a young woman in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who painfully wronged her.

With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls, and lost souls trying to party their pain away. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan.

When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs, and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness. She may have a chance to save herself—and Carmen, if she can find her—but to do it she must face what’s hiding in the shadows she’s been running from—within her heart and in the dangerous midnight streets.

A love letter to gritty 1980s New York City, Astrid Sees All is an irresistible, original novel about female friendship, sex and romance, and what it’s like to be a young woman searching for an identity.



Review: For the most part this was a great read. The story is compelling and it draws you in immediately. The characters do as well and the interactions between each other is well written. The world building is great too and I really liked how the story flowed.


However, I did feel like there were a lot of topics that could have used some trigger warnings at the beginning of the read. The book was also slow and it felt too slow in a lot of areas. The book, at the end, had a feeling of incompleteness and I felt like there should have been more.



Verdict: It was good, but I needed more.

This was a quick read and I liked the 80s nostalgia and the near normalization of seediness. The seediness also made it feel a little empty and depressing as seediness will do. It read almost more like a YA novel, which sort of makes sense given the age of the characters?

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An all encompassing read! What I liked most about this book was how atmospheric it was. I could vividly picture the club crazy kids of the 1980s through these pages. I really understood how Phoebe felt the need to emulate Carmen, and how it backfired and led her down dangerous paths. Very enjoyable.

The story was cute and had partially a good ending but there was a deep ness missing to the scary content. It read as a nice story but was very dark and I could have used a more in depth look into the darkness. It was a little too surface level.

Wonderful story development, rich characters, and a plot that hooks you and never lets you go. I love it when I can immerse myself within a book and just forget about real life for awhile and “become” a part of the story. This book totally delivered!

3.25 stars.

I couldn’t resist an invitation to read Astrid Sees All, a novel set in New York in the gritty 1980s club scene. It sounded atmospheric and eye-opening. And it was. But it was also much darker than I expected and devoid of much hope. Normally, I don’t mind dark books, but I’ve been steering away from them for the past year. While I didn’t love this one, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t well-done—it just wasn’t the right book at the right time for me. But it’s not all negatives, there were things I enjoyed about this historical fiction novel.

Astrid Sees All has been compared to Fleabag, but Astrid lacks the humor and strong characters of Fleabag. I felt detached from the main character, Phoebe/Astrid. Especially for a novel written in first-person. And maybe that’s what the author intended, but I was always left wanting more of her internal thoughts and less of the play-by-play events of her life.

It was a quick read, but not necessarily an easy one. And I kept reading wanting to know if Phoebe’s life ever turned around. There were some unexpected aspects toward the end that helped to wrap the novel up satisfactorily, but when I finished, I still didn’t feel like I knew Phoebe much better than when I’d started. I could respect what the author was doing—keeping the reader at arms length, much like Phoebe did with everyone—but I wanted a bit more.

What I did enjoy was the 1980s setting. Standiford does a good job of placing the reader in the dangerous but glittering downtown New York club scene. I found myself googling names and places, wondering if the stories were true. And some of them were—with the names changed. Although, many celebrities who were famously a part of the club scene made appearances, as well, including John Kennedy Jr., Andy Warhol, and Tatum O’Neal. The novel also mentioned the films and music that made the decade so memorable.

And I will say Astrid’s method of telling fortunes was one of the most interesting ways I’ve ever heard of!

If you like to immerse yourself in a place and time, placing more importance on the atmosphere than the plot—and you don’t mind a darker piece of literature—you’ll probably find plenty to unravel in Astrid Sees All.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford follows Phoebe who, in addition to other New York escapades, begins working as a sort of psychic (aka Astrid the Star Girl). With her on these escapades is her friend Carmen. Together they explore the club life while caring for friends and getting into trouble. After Phoebe's father dies, she goes into a bit of a tailspin, and the story takes off from there.

First, I want to mention that the description of this book, while reflecting things that do happen in the plot, feels a bit misleading. Or perhaps this book just didn't quite accomplish what the blurb promised. I wanted a book about female friendship, and this sort of gave it to me. I wanted a book where Phoebe searched for her missing friend, and I got a bit of that in the last 10% of the book. It all felt a bit surface level, and I would've liked to go deeper.

I want to say that I liked what the book promised to be, and if the book itself had dug a little deeper, I would've enjoyed it much more. I like Phoebe and her motivations. I like her friend Carmen and the arc of their friendship, though it feels a bit light if it's supposed to be the driving force of the book.

As far as other critiques I've seen, I don't mind that Phoebe is unlikable. Really, no one in this book is likable, and that's fine with me. They all just didn't feel quite lived in enough to justify their actions. And, on a personal note, I don't like when authors withhold important scenes from the story until later in the book for no reason. There's a reveal about Phoebe in the last 10% that should've come much earlier in the book and would've helped set up the story waaay better if it'd appeared sooner. I'm not sure I understand the motivation for putting it so late in the book, other than wanting a twist of some kind. But the end of the NY plot is twisty enough, so that convention really isn't needed.

DNF. Unfortunately, this was a book I started multiple times but could just not get into. I was initially intrigued by the idea of a story set in NYC in the 1980s but unfortunately, it felt very disjointed and I struggled to understand the overall premise. I can appreciate an unlikeable character novel but I just could not connect with any of the main characters. I appreciate having the opportunity to read this book, it was just not a good fit for me as a reader.

From the spray-paint inspired cover to the description, I was very intrigued with this book from the get go. The time was the 80's. Art, drugs, NYC, clubs and celebrities mingling with the "common" folk. I just had a feeling this was going to be a fast-paced drug addled book that was just my pace. Unfortunately I felt the characters were underdeveloped and the story was too fast paced and not too coherent. I'm all for a quick pace, but it seemed like too much was missing.

Astrid is actually Phoebe. Phoebe is more of a "small" town girl that meets a friend, Carmen while in college that she grows really close to. Their friendship seemed way one sided and like they never really fit. Once they are out of college, it's all about living it up in NYC and away from their parents. Until Phoebe's father dies and her mother tries to convince her to move back home. Phoebe basically runs away from where she grew up to return to Carmen and NYC and doesn't stay in touch with her mother besides odd phone calls and postcards from random places. Where Carmen comes from some sort of money, Phoebe does not. She ends up with a pretty slick gig, telling fortunes by reading moving ticket stubs for her patrons in a nightclub under the alias of Astrid. A nightclub full of drugs and occasional celebrities.

That is the basis of the story, but random things happen throughout and I don't think some of those events are dealt with enough. They happen and that's it. It makes for a melodramatic and sad sort of story. I didn't connect with the characters too much because of lack of development and the fact that I didn't really care what happened to them.

Overall, the book was ok and definitely fast-paced. Just what I imagined NYC would be like in the 80's. It's a quick read, but the characters were not 100% likable for me. I wanted more from this book and found it had potential, but wanted Phoebe and Carmen's struggles with life to go onward and upward. Unfortunately, they fell flat. They lived on the edge of everything they wanted without really achieving anything. It was kind of sad in the end.

This one just wasn't for me. I enjoy reading books about this era and the premise sounded interesting, but it was boring and disjointed.

I didn't like any of the characters - none were well-developed. The first few chapters were all OVER the place. I think the author was trying to do way to many things to develop plot and story jumping all over the place in time, and it seemed like a fever dream. I couldn't follow along, and I found myself getting angry reading this. I didn't feel empathy/sympathy for the death of Phoebe's father. I didn't like Phoebe or Carmen, and I couldn't understand their actions at all.

This one really fell flat. I don't have rose colored glasses for the late 1970s/early 1980s or its music or that era of NYC, but if you do, I think you might like this, as I think that's the only thing going for it. I won't be recommending this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that a lot will describe as "gritty."

I found myself reading it quickly, but kinda hating everyone in the book. Lots of drug use, lots of trauma and the choices you make out of trauma. It was fine, but I won't find myself thinking about this one probably ever again.

A dark, unique book set in the 1980s. Books in the '80s are always interesting to me because I was a child then so seeing what adults did during that cocaine-fueled time is always eye-opening. This one had the twist of being about a woman on a downward spiral. Gritty and compelling, I really sped through this one and want to seek out the author's future works.

My favorite type of book is the ones where the location plays as much to the part of the story as the character and this is great for seedy NYC. In this case Pheobe lives a 1980's boho lifestyle and shes trying to make it. She is unreliable, and sort of strange, and gets a job as a fortune teller at a nightclub. She is living with a friend she makes named Carmen, and she is always prioritizing Carmen over herself - until they have a falling out. This is a fun book and a quick read! I definitely recommend!

I had to let this one sit a few days before I was able to write a review because I wanted to make sure my own personal experience of NYC living, working, and existing (and specifically all of the on the LES) didn’t taint my review too much. But after a few days I realized that no matter what, my own personal experience was going to sit there and stare at me in the face. So, I guess read my review with this in mind… NYC is forever changing, but there are a lot of things that continue amidst the changes. I lived in NYC for over 10 years from the early 2000’s until I left in 2015, and “my” place was always the LES, where I worked and played, and at some point did live too. Astrid Sees All is set in the early 80’s, but the streets are still there, and the places mentioned in the book were still there when I lived there too (sadly I don’t think any of them are).

Anyway! The book is set in 1980’s NYC, mainly on and around Avenue C in the East Village, including views on Tompkins Square Park, and also in a popular nightclub called Plutonium also located below 14th St. Phoebe, the main protagonist, has followed her college friend Carmen to NYC and is trying to figure out a life for herself when her father dies. After his funeral her mother tries to keep her in Baltimore, but she is determined to return to NYC, to Carmen, and to a new job of reading fortunes at Plutonium. Phoebe and Carmen score an apartment on Avenue C, and spend their days in the cafe where Carmen works, at the club, hanging out with friends and all of the random famous and not famous people who they rotate around, doing copious amounts of drugs, and looking after Atti, Carmen’s boyfriend who is a heroin addict. Phoebe makes money by reading fortunes via her collection of movie ticket stubs at the club (using the name Astrid), and doing everything she can to basically become Carmen. This lifestyle obviously leads to betrayal, friendships and relationships that fall apart, and a very random happening that kind of made me sigh.

Astrid Sees All reads really well, and is difficult to put down once you get into it. However, Phoebe is absolutely not likeable at all in my opinion, and for the most part the main characters are all really one-sided. We have all had friendships that develop amidst times of our lives that were maybe not the best, but this friendship just doesn’t seem that believable. I actually preferred the more minor characters who, in my opinion, were more well developed than the main characters. And having actually lived the same type of life that Carmen and Phoebe live in the novel, it just didn’t dig deep enough into the actual feelings. The descriptions are great, and the locations, the famous people sightings, and the random people who are famous for no reason were all so accurate, but the characters just weren’t developed enough to do justice to all of the ins and outs of the lifestyle and the choices. Also the random event at the end was a “woah what the heck” moment for me, and I think the novel would have been better without it.

If you love reading about NYC and people living in the East Village in the 1980’s you will probably enjoy this though!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I freaking loved this book! This is a book I read a couple months back and I still think about it. This book was gritty, glamorous, emotional and just left me so invested in Phoebe’s well-being and survival.

4.5 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 24 March 2021.


Trauma can do funny things to our brains. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re off kilter because we can’t see our behavior. Others can. Others will try to protect us, help us or exploit those crazy days post-trauma.

Phoebe has graduated from college and moved to NYC. She is drawn to the magic of the 1980s in New York - the decadence, the social life, the madness of those crazy days of the 1980s. One of her reasons for heading to the city is her friend Carmen. She is drawn to Carmen ever since she heard Carmen read a story she wrote. Phoebe wants to be able to experience the things Carmen writes about. Phoebe wants to be Carmen.

But when Phoebe’s father is dying, and she heads home to Baltimore to spend the final days with her father, sister and mother, Phoebe is itching to get back to New York. Her mother, however, thinks Phoebe is not quite right and wants her to stay home. Phoebe sees this as hovering and over-protection, her mother, not so much. Plus Phoebe has some vendettas to settle in New York and a fortune telling job at a New York hotspot on New Year’s Eve. So against her family’s better judgement, she heads back to Carmen, and the excess of her life there.

While I can’t compare this to the other books it has been compared to, I can say, having lived through the 1980s (though on the opposite coast) that it is pretty spot on with its description of the hedonism and excess of the times, even for those barely scraping by. I enjoyed watching the transition of Phoebe from bookstore worker to fortune teller and everything else Astrid was for her. Astrid Sees All is a thoughtful look at trauma and how our brains can escape reality. I was really excited to be chosen to read this novel, and I was not disappointed. There is loss and sadness in this novel, but also growth and change. I enjoyed this read. Not an easy one, but a good one nonetheless.

New York isn’t going anywhere, she said. She was mistaken: New York is always charging forward and threatening to leave you behind. It is going somewhere, always.


Astrid Sees All is a coming of age story that shows that being “it” in NYC is harder than it seems. Phoebe tells fortunes in the elusive Plutonium Club as Astrid. She tells them through picking out movie stubs. While being Astrid, she lives with her best, Carmen, a born city girl. She also just lost her father and basically ran away from her mom to come back to NYC.


This book is so atmospheric. I was sucked into NYC in the 80s, and trying to fit in where edgy it cool, and where one minute something is in, the next it’s out. Where drugs and clubbing are a norm and missing Amelias (missing girls) are more common than not. It’s gritty, it’s raw, but it’s very dark and sad. This was one where I wanted to hug the MC and whisper it’s okay.

Overall, it took me a minute to get into the book. Once I got into the thick of it, I understood the characters and enjoyed the journey.


Thank you Atria for the gifted copy! Astrid Sees All is out April 6th!

TW: abortion, drug use, overdose, People who work the door at Plutonium are called by others, “Door Nazis”. For NYE, one dresses up in a German SS costume for the party.

I was very excited to read Astrid Sees All, which follows Phoebe through the grit and glamour of 1980s New York City. The cover is gorgeous and grabbed my eyes immediately.

Phoebe is grieving the loss of her father and throws herself headfirst into the NYC party scene with her friend Carmen who’s a bit of a wild child. But through the course of their crazy nights, Phoebe betrays Carmen, and Carmen disappears.

I love books about female friendships but this one just did not grab me. It was a struggle from the get-go and I ultimately abandoned it around 16 percent.

I wanted so much more from this book. I wanted to see Astrid live her best life after som struggle, but instead we see continued struggle with no end in sight. The frustrating part to me though, is that Astrid and Carmen both do little to help themselves. They just continue on and seem to expect people to give them what they want. ⭐⭐⭐ I would recommend if you liked Sweetwater.