All right, let’s be real guys – I didn’t read much in 2022, not when compared to other years. In previous years, I’ve reached an end of year count as high as 200 books in one year. This year? Well, not so much. I ended 2022 with 51 books under my belt and a good chunk of those were re-reads. There was a LOT on my mind in 2022 – my wedding, transferring at my job and transitioning to a full time schedule, losing my grandma and my nana, and so much more. I also really, super got into true crime podcasts this year – True Crime Obsessed, Obsessed with Disappeared and Let’s Go to Court – and so that took up most of my time!
That being said, I managed to round up some of my favorite books that I read this year and I wanted to share them with you!
The Killing Code by Ellie Marney
This was hands down my favorite read of the year and I honestly stumbled upon it by total accident. I received an email from NetGalley, encouraging me to request access to this book and it sounded pretty good so I decided I would. I hardly ever get approved for anything anymore so I was surprised when I got it. I was even more surprised when I downloaded it and then just completely consumed it within a matter of days. Its the number one book that I’m recommending to people right now. The story has so many layers and I love them all. It’s a romance between young women during WWII, and these women are intelligent, badass, codebreakers, and they also are trying to solve the murder of a fellow codebreaker. It’s murder mystery and romance and historical fiction and heavy LGBTQ all in one and it was brilliant from beginning to end. It’s out now so I HIGHLY recommend you pick up a copy!
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
This book actually came out in 2021 but I found it this year because, honestly, it was hard to miss. It seemed like it was everywhere. It won a ton of awards and accolades and everyone seemed to be talking about it and I loved the cover immensely so I decided to give it a shot and I am SO glad I did. This book absolutely deserved the hype to me. It’s a beautiful, slow burn romance novel between two teen girls in 1950s San Francisco. It’s so beautifully written and you fall in love not just with the characters but the world that surrounds them. You fall into this mysterious world of late night clubs, clubs existing for those that fit outside of society and I love it, it feels so real, you’re there. Add in the setting of San Francisco and Chinatown and it’s just a great book. I’m still thinking about it months later.
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A Thousand Miles by Bridget Morrissey
I pretty much have only been reading romance lately mostly because the world has gone to crap and I need and crave the happily ever afters that come with romance novels. I kept seeing this novel being raved and reviewed highly by my friends, Austin and Emily (of romance novel fame themselves) and figured, okay, I gotta give it a chance. It has a road trip and, man, am I a sucker for a road trip novel. Road trips are the BEST and I’m here for the kind of romance that can ensue during a road trip. Bridget is phenomenal at romance and she does a wonderful job writing my FAVORITE trope, best friends to lovers, and makes it both totally fit that trope and making it her own. The book is sweet and funny and the relationship between Ben and Dee is one that you root for from beginning to end. This is the kind of romance that I aim to write!
I did an interview with Bridget a few months ago, check it out here!
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Written in the Stars series by Alexandria Bellefleur
Another book series that isn’t totally brand new, though book three DID come out this year. I actually saw that book first before realizing it’s a series and I immediately went and bought the first book and fell in love. The first book caught me as this sort of opposites attract romance, a sort of Pride and Prejudice story, except Lizzie and Darcy are two women and they’re forced into a fake relationship when a little white lie gets out of hand. The series continues on with more queer characters and romance and fun. Alexandria is a GREAT writer and there is simply not enough LGBTQ romance that features queer women or bisexual people and as a queer women of myself, I loved it. I also felt like all three books were a love story to Seattle and Washington and it made me want to go back so bad. I can’t wait to see what else Alexandria gives us because this series is perfection.
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People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Okay, I’ll admit it – I didn’t like the first Emily Henry romance novel I read – Beach Read; it wasn’t at all what I expected and I just didn’t enjoy it. That made me kind of sad because I ADORED Hello Girls, the novel she cowrote with Brittany Cavallaro. I think, because of that, I truly wanted to give her another try so I picked up this book. I had found that readers tend to like this one or Beach Read, but not a ton of them like both so I gave it a chance and ended up totally loving it. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the friendship and eventual relationship between Alex and Poppy was the best kind of slow burn, told back and forth between the present and past, told in adventures and average nights and I loved it. This romance was one that had to be fought for and I was along for the fight. This book brought me back into Emily’s fan club and I ended up reading Book Lovers and loving that book too!
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The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
I ADORE Emily and Austin. They are great friends of mine, they are fantastic writers and I feel a little attached to them sometimes, seeing as I met them before their first book came out and watched them totally blossom and blow up as authors. It makes me SO happy. Which means I was just beyond excited for their adult romance debut. I love any book that involves writers and they gave me a novel with writers who fall in love and that is basically kryptonite to me. I knew that Emily and Austin were capable of swoon worthy romance in their YA novels and they showed that yet again in their romance debut. This book is SO good and I consumed this book so quickly because I just had to know what happened. I had to find out what happened with Katrina and Nathan in the past and I had to know what would happen to them in the future and I had to know what would happen with their book. This story was ADDICTING from beginning to end and such a fabulous debut for Emily and Austin.
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Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
While I never finished the Caraval trilogy, I still really love Stephanie Garber and her writing and writing style. I loved the first Caraval book, but struggled to continue the other books. However, I really wanted to read this book and I’m so glad I did. This one of the first books that I read in 2022 so the details are a little fuzzy but I do remember absolutely loving it because it did the same thing that made me love Caraval – it made me feel like I was in a dark fairy tale. Stephanie has a way of writing her novels in such a whimsical and magical way. She spins her story to feel like something familiar but there are twists and turns and you never quite know which direction you might end up in. Her books are fairy tales, dark and romantic and full of magic and I love it. I think her talent just bleeds on the page and she’s able to spin stories as if they were stories that have existed forever and she’s just passing them along to you. I haven’t read book two yet but I need to because I need to jump back in this gorgeous world once more!
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