Top 11 Reads of 2023
I hope you are all as shocked as I am that it’s suddenly nearly 2024 and not still 2021… It’s been a tumultuous few years but one constant that remains for me is my love of reading. Thank goodness for that, because it’s always brought comfort and boy, did I need it this year.
2023 started off great, my family travelled to Mexico for our first ever all inclusive vacation (we’re explorers, we aren’t used to just staying at the beach). I had a chance to see my top 2 favourite artists of all time this year: Taylor Swift Eras Tour in March in Las Vegas and Hozier Unreal Unearth Tour in October in Vancouver. And then came the lowest of lows… my childhood home/parents current home burnt down along with 30 years of memories. So I reverted a bit to that childhood nostalgia and reread a lot of my childhood favourites this year to bring that sense of comfort that came to me back then. I feel good that I’ve made it successfully to 2024 and I wanted to share my top reading adventures this year with you!
11. Heartless (#2 Chestnut Springs Series) // Elsie Silver
I was pleasantly surprised by the Chestnut Springs series this year. I may come from a small town, I may have a career in agriculture, I do not like country, I do not like cowboys. Well…. I DO NOW!
Elsie Silver managed to draw me into her world of bull riders and ranchers and it ended up being one of my favourite series of the year. Following the Eaton brothers as each of them found love was definitely a highlight of my reading year. Heartless, which is the second book in the series, was my absolute favourite. Cade is a grouchy single dad, running a ranch by himself and still, after decades, taking care of his little brothers. Willa blasts into his life like a hurricane and helps take some of the weight off his shoulders while bringing out his wild side. It was so addicting that I couldn’t put this book down.
10. Assistant to the Villain // Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Assistant to the Villain was a very long-anticipated book for me. I’ve been following Hannah on TikTok for what feels like forever and watched her “Assistant to the Villain” skit series grow until she eventually got a book deal and absolutely BLEW UP on Booktok.
I was not disappointed with this book. It had exactly my type of humour and I laughed out loud for 80% of this book. It was such a fun and unique concept in today’s world of romantasy novels. The perfect blend of magic world and parody humour pulled it off perfectly. Her world-building was surprisingly intricate for such a short novel and it ended up being a lot more deep and meaningful than I expected.
9. Masters of Death // Olivie Blake
Third times the charm with Olivie Blake! I was convinced I did not like this author. Not that the writing is bad, it’s beautiful, but maybe just wasn’t for me. Well this book proved me wrong. I listened to it on audio and followed along in hardcopy and I couldn’t get enough of it. This book was such a great blend of supernatural creatures and an insight into how they blend into everyday modern life. From ornery ghosts who refuse to leave their estates and vampire real estate agents who can’t wait to sell the haunted house to a con artist godson of death and his immortal on-again-off-again heartbreak. The entire plot and concept of this book had me hooked.
8. The Fragile Threads of Power (#1 Threads of Power) // V.E. Schwab
When I heard that Schwab wasn’t done with the world of Red London, I was a little scared. All of my favourite characters made it out relatively unscathed (but majorly traumatized) from the original trilogy. I wasn’t eager to see them in harms way again but this book had such a great mix of danger for our new characters and support from our old cast that I feel confident this series will be amazing. I was extremely pleased with where our characters are and this book made me realize, even our old favourites can use some character growth. The new cast also set up for an extremely intriguing series and I cannot wait to see their stories intertwine.
7. Butcher & Blackbird (#1 Ruinous Love) // Brynne Weaver
The book I never knew I needed but will probably reread every few months. Romance over audiobook is usually not my vibe but the narrators of this book were spectacular and I’d recommend anyone that reads this, give the audio a try as well. There were dual narrators for the fmc and mc and it felt like I was in the room with them with their top tier banter. This book is somewhat dark romance and also somewhat romcom. Two serial killers who kill other serial killers for a living have a competition every year on who can get to the “big bad” first and eventually, you guessed it, they fall in love.
6. A Study in Drowning // Ava Reid
Ava Reid will always be an auto-buy author for me and this debut into young adult novels blew my expectations out of the water. A mix of dark academia and dark-fae lore, this book highlights the trauma and struggles of women and how difficult it can be to have your voice heard and believed in a world ruled by men. It had a haunted house, a suspicious family, deep, introspective character journeys, and a heart-warming romance all wrapped into one fabulous story.
5. Happy Place // Emily Henry
Emily Henry will most likely ALWAYS make my top reads list. Something about her writing just speaks to my most inner thoughts. Her characters are always extremely relatable and her words are always heartbreaking. Happy Place was the first “second-chance” romance that I actually enjoyed and I ended up reading this book twice this year. Two people torn apart by their own insecurities find their way back to each other in their friend groups final lake trip before their oasis is sold. Seeing their character growth was my favourite part. When you’re in your late 20’s/early 30’s it can feel like you’re a little lost sometimes and seeing that portrayed in this book was everything to me.
4. Hell Bent // Leigh Bardugo
I’d be remiss if this book didn’t make my top reads list especially somewhere near the top. Ninth House is my favourite book of all time so waiting for the sequel was PAINFUL. But at the start of the year it finally arrived and it didn’t disappoint. Alex faces new challenges not only at the university but in her search for Darlington as well. With new dangers and betrayers around every corner this book makes for an intense thriller. Darlington’s Jekyll/Hyde appearance in this book was also so intriguing and dark and the rituals and dark magic brought forth in this book set up for an amazing conclusion in the next book. I can’t wait! (Literally it’s killing me).
3. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi // S.A. Chakraborty
Chakraborty continues to write some of the most epic fantasy novels I will ever read and seems to always top that chart for me. The Daevabad trilogy is probably my favourite fantasy series of all time so knowing this same author was venturing into Pirate books?? My favourite genre?? SIGN. ME. UP. This book follows a mother in her 40’s who has retired from piracy but in her prime was one of the most fearsome pirates to sail the seas. As she is requested on one last adventure we get to see not only her badassery as a pirate captain and her cleverness, but also her soft side as she does whatever it takes to protect her child. I absolutely adored this novel and look forward to what the sequel will bring.
Top 2 reads of the year:
I am beyond excited to share my top 2 reads of this year with you. They were amazing adventures with beautiful love stories wound throughout. But unfortunately, until Saint Martin’s Press decides to rectify their employees racist and islamaphobic words and actions, I will not be promoting any of their or their imprints books on my platforms. So these top 2 spots are reserved for those 2 books under the Wednesday Books imprint and I will happily update this list once action has been taken.
A note on the boycott:
In October, following recent world events and a current ongoing genocide, an employee from Saint Martin’s Press, an employee that decides on who receives ARC’s, took to their personal social media to spew vitriolic racist and islamophic speech. When called out, this employee began (or continued) to exclude certain influencers (Palestinians and other POC) from the ARC program. Booktok banded together and called for an influencer boycott of SMP and their imprints, including Wednesday Books, where this employee worked until they acknowledged and rectified the harm this employee had done.
This is a publisher boycott, we are not punishing the amazing authors under this imprint so buy the books, read the books, love the books, but don’t provide SMP with free marketing on your social platforms until the boycott is over.
The demands are simple:
Demand 1: Address and denounce the islamophobia/racism from their employee.
Demand 2: Offer tangible steps for how they’re going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
Demand 3: Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, authors, as well as their BIPOC readers and influeners.
To sign the petition you can go here and enter a US postal code (if you’re from outside the country just look one up).
I look forward to this publishing company taking accountability for the harm their employee has caused and can’t wait to share these last two titles with you in my top reads list and in separate reviews on this blog.
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I hope all of you had a successful and fulfilling reading year and that 2024 treats you right. I’d love to discuss all things books so please share your top reads with me in the comments below.
Cheers to New Years!