Top 5 Books I Read in 2023

1. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young 

I didn't expect to love this book so much, especially not to have it be my top book of the year, but Adrienne Young blew me out of the water with this literary magical realism tale that was at times historical and at other times romantic. I don't know how to properly describe it without giving away some of the reveals that made it so magical for me, but I will say that there are magical doors and beautiful friendships and second chances. The writing is stunning. Don't look up anything more before reading; just jump straight in. 

2. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow 

This is my favorite Alix Harrow novel. This book is ethereal and transportive, perfect for anyone interested in reading about the dark secrets of a cursed town, a generational history that gets twisted through time, a pair of protagonists fighting for survival, a sibling relationship to envy and found family bonds stronger than steel, an unexpected yet swoony romance, and a house brimming with monsters. A creepy, old, gothic, sentient, house that may or may not be the real main character. This story captivated me from the beginning. 

3. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher 

This year I discovered T. Kingfisher, and she has become one of my favorite authors now. Swordheart was my favorite book from her this year. It's about a woman who has suddenly inherited an estate, and the man who is trapped in the enchanted sword that she finds within the house. It's a romantic novel, an adventure, and a comedy. It was such a fun and wholesome reading experience for me. Highly recommend to fantasy and romance fans. 

4. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson 

An Asian-inspired romantic fantasy written by my all-time favorite author? Sign me up! This book pays homage to the movie Your Name, one of my favorite movies. The protagonists wake up in each other's bodies and basically have to watch the other person live out their life while they watch from spirit form. There's a magical noodle shop, magical energy lines, and magical stone stacking that can summon spirits. Very magical and fun and feel good. 

5. Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth 

This book helped me to realize that I do in fact enjoy horror novels. I loved everything about this. A trio of women in the past experiencing terrors at school, and a trio of women in the present day making a film about the historical trio but while experiencing their own terrors on the film set. There are wasps. There is romance. There is drama. There are drawings and poems throughout. I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to more from this author. 

2023 Reading Goals Review + Yearly Stats

 Reading Goals Review

My first goal was to read 100 books. I managed to read 148 books this year!! 

View my Goodreads Year in Books here to see all the specific titles I read in 2023!

My second goal was to read my TBR pile. I had 532 books on my physical TBR list on January 1, 2023. I wanted to reduce that number as much as possible. The ultimate goal was to read more from my TBR than I added to it. Unfortunately, I did not accomplish this goal as my TBR at the end of the year was at 606. *crying emoji* 

Yearly Statistics

Number of books I read in 2023: 148
Number of those books that I listened to on audio: 87
Number of books I read from my TBR: 75
Number of ARCs I read before the publication date: 24
Number of series I started: 23
Number of series I completed: 15
Number of books I DNFed: 14
Number of books I reread: 3
Number of books I acquired this year: 167
Number of those books acquired that were TBR books: 149
Amount of money spent on books this year: $1,519.11
Number of books I unhauled this year: 28
Number of books on my TBR at the beginning of 2023: 532
Number of books on my TBR at the end of 2023: 606

Books I read that were . . .
Middle Grade: 5
Young Adult: 31
Adult: 111
Nonfiction: 8 

*Note that I categorize anything not specifically labeled as middle grade or young adult as an adult title, such as nonfiction, humor, graphic novels, or religious books that could be enjoyed by any age group. 

Star Ratings:
1 star: 18 books
2 stars: 29 books
3 stars: 30 books
4 stars: 39 books 
5 stars: 31 books 

Reading Survey

Favorite book of the year: The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Least favorite book of the year: Pop Kids by Davey Havok 
Most surprising book of the year: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 
Most disappointing book of the year: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson 
Longest book of the year: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 
Shortest book of the year: The Long Way Up by Alix E. Harrow 
Book that was on my TBR the longest that I read: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira 
Biggest accomplishment: The Freelance Editor's Handbook by Suzy Bills 
Most read genre: Fantasy (48%) 

Reading Reflections

This year was a good year. I managed to read all of Brandon Sanderson's secret projects plus his other new releases. I read a book by almost all of my favorite authors. I finished up a lot of series and started even more. I committed to DNFing more books, especially early on in the year. I went through a period of romance books and discovered I love clean romance novels. I read some great fantasy, but I also read some great non-fantasy. I discovered horror this year with T. Kingfisher and Eric LaRocca and found love in Plain Bad Heroines. I read a good amount of nonfiction, including memoirs, reference, and religion books. Overall, I'm really pleased with my reading year in 2023. 

Review: HEIR OF UNCERTAIN MAGIC by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed Keeper of Enchanted Rooms and excitedly picked up its sequel, Heir of Uncertain Magic, soon after finishing it.

Charlie Holmberg's writing style never fails to delight me. I love her books so much.

This series is a cozy historical fantasy with some romance and some mystery. It's the perfect combination of genres, and Charlie writes them all so well together. I particularly love that her romances are always slow-burn and always clean; I really appreciate that.

Heir of Uncertain Magic was a good follow-up to the first book in the Whimbrel House series. This book introduced multiple POVs, including one perspective from a dog, which was really fun to read. I also loved seeing the progression of Hulda and Merritt, both as individuals and as a couple. They are both really delightful.

I am having the best time reading this series and I can't wait to continue on with Boy of Chaotic Making soon! 

Review: KEEPER OF ENCHANTED ROOMS by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Charlie's books never fail to impress me. 

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms is a historical cozy fantasy with some mystery and some romance. I love the combination of all of those genres together, and it works really well in this book. 

I love that there are twelve different kinds of magic in this world. There is a handy guide at the beginning describing them all, but I thought it was super neat because most fantasy stories only have one or two kinds of magic. 

Hulda and Merritt were both wonderfully stubborn characters whose interactions I really enjoyed. I loved their slow-burn clean romance. Charlie does slow-burn clean romance so well. 

I am super excited to finish this series and see where the story takes me. I know I am going to fall more in love with these characters and this world. 

Review: HOUSE OF ROOTS AND RUIN by Erin A. Craig

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

House of Roots and Ruin is a standalone companion novel to House of Salt and Sorrow. You don’t need to read that book first to understand this book. And frankly, this one is better so just read this one instead.

Read if you like: 

• lots of plants, especially poisonous plants 
• slow-burn clean romance 
• a mysterious and potentially dangerous house with hidden rooms 
• ghosts 
• a historical-feeling setting 

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it, but I don’t know how memorable it will be. I don’t remember anything about House of Salt and Sorrows except that the ending was confusing, and I do think I will remember more about this book, but probably not many relevant details. 

Review: TWO TWISTED CROWNS by Rachel Gillig

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Suspense, action, romance, betrayal, intrigue, magic: this book has it all. 

Two Twisted Crowns is the sequel and conclusion to One Dark Window, which follows a girl who is inhabited by the soul of a monster she calls Nightmare. I really enjoyed the first book, but I absolutely loved this second book. 

We solely followed Elspeth’s perspective in the first book, but here we interchange between Elspeth’s, Ravyn’s, and Elm’s POVs. And I loved it! I didn’t care for Elm in the first book, but I really grew to love him after reading through his eyes. By the end, I was actually looking forward the most to his chapters. I also enjoyed his and Ione’s relationship more than Elspeth and Ravyn's, although I still loved both couples. 

I do appreciate that the romance in this series is fairly clean, having only one spicy scene in the first book (even though it was unnecessary) and none in the second book. I’m always on the lookout for fantasy books with clean romance in them. I loved the character-building and character relationships that were present in this series. 

Regardless if you think the story itself is interesting or not, this book is still very well-written. Gillig set a good foundation in One Dark Window and seamlessly built on it in Two Twisted Crowns. Somehow I liked this book even more than the first, even though I was skeptical when I first picked it up. The ending here nicely wrapped up all the plot points and answered all my questions. It was a very satisfying conclusion where I didn’t fully know how everything would play out until it did. 

I would recommend this series. It’s pitched as being similar to For the Wolf and Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale, all books that I did not enjoy, yet I still ended up loving the Shepherd King duology. Each of the above books has a female protagonist, a dark forest, a castle, ancient magic, a historical setting, and a romance with a mysterious man. However, One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns handled that all in a way that I enjoyed reading about while the other books did not. I can’t really pinpoint what the difference is, other than possibly that I like Rachel Gillig’s writing style while I do not like the other books’ authors’ writing styles. Either way, I was very surprised that I ended up loving this duology so much, and I can’t wait to read future books from Rachel Gillig. 

Review: THE PROX TRANSMISSIONS by The Starset Society

 

Rating: 2.5/5 stars 

This novel is one for fans of the band Starset. They’re my favorite band, which is why I picked up this book. The Prox Transmissions, written by the singer of the band, is a prequel of sorts to their first album, Transmissions. 

If you’re not familiar with the lore of the band, Starset was “commissioned by The Starset Society to spread broad awareness of The Message through music and media. The Message contains the knowledge necessary to spare the future of humanity.” The primary objective of the Starset Society is “to shed light upon various emerging near-future technologies, investigating the potential and inevitable social, economic, political, and philosophical impacts thereof,” and one of the ways they do that is through the band Starset. The Message was received by the Society in a mysterious transmission from space, and the known details of that transmission are laid out in the book The Prox Transmissions.
(If you’re confused and want clarification, listen to the band. 🙂) 

I thought the premise of the novel was quite interesting. I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but I was able to follow along just fine and stay engaged the whole story. The writing style is a bit amateurish, but I didn’t really have a problem with it.

The plot itself is intriguing—our protagonist Stephen receives a mysterious message leading him to obtain a mysterious transmission, and he has to decode its meaning before the enemy corporation steals the data from him. Even though Stephen receives more than one transmission from the planet Prox, this book only delves into the first transmission, leaving this book feeling incomplete in a sense, like not all the questions were answered. It does end on a cliffhanger though, and I know the Starset Society has more books planned for release in the future. 

I thought the plot was the strongest part of this book as neither the characters nor the setting were very fleshed out. There was only the tiniest bit of backstory given to Stephen, but everyone else felt rather two-dimensional to me. Unfortunately, every female in this book is described as “beautiful” in a way that is cliched and over-sexualized, not to mention that the word “sensuous” is used as a synonym for “female” in one instance. 

My biggest complaint, however, was that this novel badly needs a copyeditor. There are typos on nearly every page: incorrectly used punctuation, misspelled words, poor grammar choices, inconsistent word usage, and even some words cut off due to poor layout choices. Did I mention improper punctuation? The biggest offenders are missing quotation marks and missing hyphens, which made for a few confusing sentences as my brain was trying to figure out the intended meaning. As an editor, I could feel my eyes burning as I read this book. But if you can get past all that, then the story is actually worth reading if you’re a Starset fan. 

I would recommend this book only to hardcore fans of Starset who want to know more about the lore behind the band. There are a handful of references to lyrics and other things related to Starset lore, such as mentions of “Carnivores” and the “BMI” and the “Everything Machine,” among others. Any regular sci-fi reader would be able to understand this novel just fine, but I don’t think it would be as enjoyable or meaningful if you aren’t familiar with the band because you wouldn’t understand the references, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t a fan—and frankly, there are better sci-fi novels out there to read instead. 

Review: SWITCHED by Amanda Hocking

 

Rating: 2/5 stars

This book—in fact, this whole trilogy—has been sitting unread on my shelf for over a decade, and 2023 is finally the year I get to remove it from my TBR. 

The first thing I noticed while reading is that this book has very plain writing. It’s certainly fast-paced and entertaining, but it’s also full of overused tropes (although they probably weren’t as overused when this book was originally published). You have the girl who’s not like other girls who’s also secretly a princess soon-to-be-Queen over a whole kingdom, and let’s not forget she has a hidden special ability that’s going to help save her people. And of course, there’s also the hot guy who’s not like other guys who she falls in love with. We have all read this story many times before. The difference here is that she secretly belongs to a tribe of trolls called the Trylle. I don’t think I’ve read a troll book before. 

Switched is extremely insta-lovey. Like I’ve never read a book with more overt and quick insta-love than this one, and I’ve read a lot of books. Wendy chooses to leave her family and follow Finn, whom she hasn’t had more than three interactions with, into Trylle, and she comments how she’s happy she can spend her life with him. Like girl, get to know him first. 

I probably would have enjoyed this book a decade ago when I actually acquired the book, but now as a twenty-something adult with a lot more books under my belt, Switched just feels amateurish and cliche to me. It also doesn’t really hold up in today’s market as I encountered a handful of phrases and descriptions that would be deemed either offensive or outdated in today’s society. 

Overall, I can’t really recommend this book. It sounds like I’m bashing it pretty hard, but it’s not a bad book for its time, and I’m sure I would have loved it had I read it back in high school when it was published. However, it doesn’t hold up in 2023, nor does it align with my current reading tastes. I’m glad I at least read Switched though because I felt like I would be doing a disservice to my sixteen-year-old self if I didn’t read it after having owned it for so long; however, I will not be continuing with this series.