These are favorite reads in 2023, read and (mostly) published in 2023. (On the list in no particular order)
Anne
Magic Tides and Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews- The Thirteenth Month by Elizabeth Hunter
🎧An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka- 🎧Saving Emma by Allen Eskens
- 🎧 The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
- North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan
- That Others May Live by Sara Driscoll
- 🎧 The Poisoner’s Ring by Kelley Armstrong
- Beneath Dark Waters by Karen Rose
- 🎧 Drowning by TJ Newman
- The First Death by Kendra Elliot
- Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima
- 🎧 The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos
This was the worst. I had some other 5 heart books I really wanted to include. Some of them will show up on the best Audiobooks list tomorrow, so I am cheating and having a Top 20+. Audiobooks where the narration played more of a factor ended up on that list, even if I would include them in my Top 10 favorites. I had to eliminate the ones which were not published this year.
Robin
The Malevolent Seven by Sabastien de Castell- Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews
An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka- Esrahaddon by Michael J Sullivan
- Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
- A Match in the Making by Jen Turano
- City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer
- Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Sophia
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh, thriller- Rogue Mission by Kendall Talbot, romantic suspense
Kyden by Veronica Scott, sci-fi romance- A Traitor Among Us by Anne Perry, historical mystery
- Maelstrom by Cara Bristol, sci-fi romance
- Dragons Beyond the Pale by Maria Grace, Gaslamp fantasy
- The Lucky Shamrock by Carolyn Brown, women’s fiction
- Witch King by Martha Wells, fantasy
- A Wyoming Summer by Carla Kelly, Christine Sterling, Heather B. Moore, Inspirational Historical Romance
- Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelly Armstrong, thriller
Link up so we can see everyone’s favorites:
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Coming up this week:
Monday, December 25th– Top 10 Books of 2023
Tuesday, December 26th– Top 10 Audiobooks of 2023
Wednesday, December 27th – Top 10 Book Covers of 2023
Thursday, December 28th – Top 10 Book Characters of 2023
Friday, December 29th – Top 10 Your Choice Category ( Narrators, New to Me, Couples, Series, Books I Meant to Read This Year, etc)
Saturday, December 30th – Top 10 Books I Want in 2024
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Haha…we all have such different favorites for the most part. Sophia, There should have been Eight was on a list of books I didn’t get to yet. Same with Anne’s favorite 🎧 The Poisoner’s Ring by Kelley Armstrong.
Well I had trouble with keeping it to 10 but we did have some the same. My friend Lisa did a post yesterday for Your Choice because she has 2 Your Choice ones she wanted to do, and listed the books she should have read in 2023.
We sure did, Robin. 🙂 I love seeing what makes the list and the agony of narrowing it down. I still need to get to that John Scalzi on your list.
I limited today’s post to ebooks only, so it would be easier to pick some books and even then I ended up with a top 15 instead. Lots of titles or author names I recognize in your top tens, but none I’ve actually read. I have the A Rip Through Time series by Kelley Armstrong on my to-read list, but haven’t started it yet. And the Badari Gladiators series is on my to-read list as well, maybe next year I can get to it.
Thanks for hosting this! I am linking u for 3 days with my own posts :).
Lola thanks so much for sharing your list. I know it’s very hard to stick to 10. I try things to limit and it doesn’t work completely. I love seeing everyone’s lists and getting more ideas of what I want to read. Kelley Armstrong was amazing this year (if not every year)
I only got it to 10 because I split between top 10 read and top 10 audios
I still couldn’t make it to 10. I had too many for both.
Many intriguing books there! Thank you. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas. I love seeing all the favorites.
None of the same books for us, although Starter Villain almost made my extra post I did on the weekend about books I wish I’d read in 2023!
Well it just gives us more to add to our TBRs. I really appreciate you sharing your lists with us Lisa.
I feel your agony, Anne. I had to ruthlessly slash so many books from my Top 10 lists. 🙂 But, yes, being able to slide them onto the other Top Ten lists helped.
I was not good at slashing this year. Also there was a big pile of 4.5 hearts which I didn’t even look at those. It was a year of very good books.
Ilona Andrews and T. Kingfisher will definitely be on my top-of-the-year list.
I look forward to your list! It’s fun to see everyone’s favorites.
Sounds like a winning year to me.
I have 4 in common with your list here, Anne. I’ll be posting mine top favorites of the year next week.
I’ll look forward to seeing your choices.
I’m so honored to have Maelstrom included. Thank you, Sophia.
I liked The Poisoner’s Ring and There Should have been Eight but those are the only ones I’ve read of these. I do love Allen Eskens’s books but hadn’t heard of that one. I picked books like The Seven Year Slip, Fourth Wing and Forevermore. Lots of others too. 5 of my favorites were posted on Maryse’s Blog today. I could have easily given her ten more. Like you say so many good books this year!
It sounds like you had some great reads. You are welcome to link here so we can all see them.
I see that you got to quite a bit of romance this year and love seeing so many make your top list there. Definitely adding those to my tbr for the upcoming year! Veronica Scott especially I want to try out. Have you read her Egyptian books?
I definitely want to read Veronica Scott. Sophia has shown us how great her books are.
Oooo a few I want to read
yes Robin and Sophia have some picks I still want to read.
Great lists! I see everybody’s top of 2023 lists, but I think I’m going to refrain from making my own. It’ll be too difficult to limit any list.
Well I obviously did not do well with limiting myself. We’d love to see it if you pick some favorites.
Nice book lists! I couldn’t stop at 10, so I have a top 20 list.
That’s no problem. I didn’t limit myself well so no one is judging. I have 26 with top 10 and audio top 10.
Always fun to see what everyone’s favorite books are! I hope to read An Inheritance of Magic this year. So many of the other titles from the three lists are on my wish list. Here’s to a great year of books this new year as well!
Thanks for sharing Wendy! I love seeing all the lists too.
I’m so stingy with my 5-star ratings, these top 10 lists are usually pretty easy for me 😀 The only author I’m familiar with from any of your lists is T. Kingfisher and I love her books! Happy New Year to all of you!
Well you have many options for adding to your TBR if you need suggestions. We are big fans of urban fantasy, fantasy, mysteries and romance, really many genres. The big ones I would thought you may know are Brandon Sanderson, Kelley Armstrong, Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh and Martha Wells. I would also highly recommend Allen Eskens and Benedict Jacka, Karen Rose if you like romantic suspense. Thanks for sharing your picks.
I love seeing everyone’s lists! I always wind up with more on my TBR though 😅 So many good ones!
yes so many great reads. It was hard to narrow down this year. Thanks for sharing with us Lillian!
Looking at your collective lists, I should probably move Ilona Andrews and Benedict Jacka higher up on my TBR list this year.
I had a hard time picking just 10 this year, too. I didn’t have a ton of 5-star reads, but I had a whole lot of 4.5-star books! In the end, I eliminated rereads, let a single book stand in for an entire series in several cases, and went with the ones that still shone brightest in my memory, regardless of stars given at the time of reading. I can see rereading all the books I chose.
There is one of my criteria for a 5 heart read – that I would want to reread it. Thanks so much for sharing your favorites.
I have Beneath Dark Waters by Karen Rose on my TBR so I’m excited to see that it made your list of favorites. 🙂
Karen Rose never disappoints me. When I read more romance, romantic suspense was high in my subgenre choices.