Can you believe we are at the end of 2023? *Cue meme about me still trying to process 2019* I decided to only do a roundup of my top 5 books this year since I only read ~54 books. Over the past few years (since about 2021, really) I’ve been a lot less focused on keeping up with new releases and becoming more of a mood reader. I’ve also really moved on from most YA into Romance. I’m embracing these changes and trying not to force a fit when it comes to my reading taste and TBR.
My below top 5 reads for this year are in no particular order, with the exception of Fourth Wing which was #1!
Fourth Wing | The Empyrean #1 | I feel like you either love or you hate Fourth Wing, and I am firmly in the camp of adoooooring it! It scratches that same type of itch that ACOMAF does: romantasy, not too dense world building elements, found family, DRAGONS. It’s been a while since a fantasy series has really become a top fave, auto buy for me but this series certainly is!
Love, Theoretically | I love a good Ali Hazelwood novel, and I don’t even care that they basically all have the same plot LOL. I love reading about women in STEM (and learning about the different STEM areas her protagonists focus on!) and enemies to lovers is one of my fave romance tropes (honestly it’s probably my favorite, who am I kidding?) I’m excited to dive into her paranormal debut in 2024, but I’ll always be here waiting to pick up another STEMinista novel from her!
The Serpent & the Wings of Night | Crowns of Nyaxia # 1 | Romantasy seems to be really, really taking off and I am here for it! TSATWON was fairly original IMO (vampyre court) while borrowing from some other well known fantasy tropes (hunger games, anyone?) I loved that while a romance, this book focused a lot on things other than the romance, such as the tournament and the protagonists relationship with her father, the vampyre king. All in all very impressed with Carissa Broadbent’s writing. I believe we’re going to get more companion novels set in the same world as this duology, and I can’t wait!
Lovelight Farms | Lovelight #1 | If I’m not mistaken, this novel was my first foray into Kindle Unlimited and it set the tone for me loving the service! I’ll 100% admit I picked this one based on the cover, but I ended up loving it (which actually surprised me because typically I am not a huge fan of the friends to lovers trope). The small town vibes were immaculate in this one, and OMG I just want to live on Lovelight farms and eat alll the baked goods. The start of a very cute series. I also found out one of my friends went to college with the author- small world!
Things We Left Behind | Knockemout #3| Ok I sort of dragged the first two books in the series (which ranged from OK to MEH and were WAY TOO LONG) but I was WAITING for Lucian and Sloan’s story!!! Seriously there little interactions in the previous book was the only thing that got me to finish it when I was so done with Lina and Nash. I was SO curious to know what was behind the decades of animosity between then, the intense hatred (there I go with the hate to love trope again) plus it also had a dash of second chance romance! Honestly this book was the perfect blend of romance and angst for me, and I didn’t even care that it was super long because I’ll take all of the Sloan and Lucian content I can get! It’s the only book in the series that I actually purchased a hard copy of for my personal collection (the rest I read on KU)
Did any of these books make your top reads of 2023?
I enjoyed the SERPENT books! They were a surprise and totally mood-based read. I actually even enjoyed the novella the most of the three? I can’t wait for the next installments!