My Favorite Books and Audiobooks from 2023
This is my 12th year of doing this list! I always wait until January because there has always been a last minute December surprise! Up until now 3 authors have been on every list. 2 of those did not publish this year, so the only person on every single list is Kristen Ashley. This year, however, I had two favorites return that were on a lot of my older best of the year lists, that’s RK Lilley, and Harper Sloan. I couldn’t be happier to have them back!
I’m not sure if I was just a harsher critic this year or what, but it’s the first year I didn’t have a 5+++ star book, and I only had 5 5-star reads out of 90 books. There were plenty of books I loved, but there was something small that held me back from the 5 stars.
Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros
Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) by Rebecca Yarros
Narrated by Rebecca Soler with guest Teddy Hamilton
“In the Rider Quadrant, you either graduate or die”
I picked up Fourth Wing the day that it released, having a feeling this one would blow up. I didn’t read the blurb. So when I first started listening I considered DNFing. Dragons? War College? What did I get myself into? It seemed like a YA read, but she did warn there was death and sex. I had just started my walk and didn’t have another book ready to go so I continued to listen. By the time I walked less than half a mile, I was hooked.
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.”
The second book, Iron Flame, was great as well, but I had a few negative notes versus the first one, giving it only 4.5 Stars. There seemed to be some writing for the upcoming TV series going on as the story felt a little more episodic with standalone adventures within the story.
The start of the Empyrean series, with Fourth Wing and Iron Flame are by far my stand-out reads of the year and I’m so glad I gave them a chance!
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
A Long Time Coming by Meghan Quinn
Narrated by Erin Mallon and JF Harding
“Fuck, if you were my fiancée, my wife, I’d never let you leave the bedroom. Your voice would be hoarse from every fucking orgasm I gave you.”
I am usually very stingy with my five star reads, but A Long Time Coming had everything I ever want in a book. Lia and Breaker’s nerdy friendship morphed into such a great romance, but it took its time, and I loved that; I thought the pace was just perfect. Even though they were each with other people to start, there was no doubt they were meant to be more than that. I listened to A Long Time Coming with a HUGE smile on my face the whole time. If I could hug this book I would!
A Long Time Coming is the 3rd Standalone in a series that’s not even marketed as a series anymore. It stands alone fine.
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
Series: A Not So Meet Cute | So Not Meant To Be | A Long Time Coming
Tyrant by R.K. Lilley
“Tease.”
“Horndog.”
“Ballbuster.”
“Wanton.”
“Can I just see a nipple?” That got her eyes off the computer.
“Just one?” she asked with heavy amusement.
“I’ll take anything.”
I was not really in the headspace for a hot book with an alpha male, but it was RK Lilley, and it had been too long since she released. Tyrant looks like the typical bossy alpha romance, but all is not as it seems! It turned out to be a sexy rom-com with some of the hottest and most playful banter I’ve read. I love a male POV book, and RK Lilley did a great job with Tyrant, making it only my fourth 5-star read this year. But be warned: If you are looking for the hot, bossy alpha you are used to from RK, this may not be for you. If you like banter and a guy who falls first and obsesses, you will love Tyrant like I did.
See My Review
Amazon
*HOTTEST BOOK of 2023 goes to RK Lilley’s latest release, Teacher’s Pet. This student/teacher forbidden romance was so hot I needed to stop reading it when I had my hysterectomy because I didn’t want to get a little too excited. 😜
A Little Magic by Lindsey Lanza
Narrated by Shaina Summerville and Stephan Borne
“All I ever wanted was that cozy kind of love. The gooey heart, curled toes, crinkled eyes kind of love. The kind that feels like hot cocoa warming my bones. Summer rain, fluffy socks, s’mores by the fire. That small kind of love you get lost in from too much happiness to ever wonder what else is out there.”
A Little Magic by Lindsey Lanza was such a perfect holiday romance! I loved how it celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah equally and captured the magic of both holidays as well as first love and second chances. I think this is only my 5th 5-star read this year, and I don’t care what holiday you celebrate, this book will capture your heart during the holidays or any time!
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
Both Feet in the Grave: Night Huntress, Book 10
Narrated by Will Watt
The Night Huntress Series by Jeanine Frost has been my favorite series since 2008. Even when I stopped reading vampire books, this was one series I continued. The original series is told from half-vampire Cat Crawfield’s POV. Both Feet in the Grave is a modernized retelling of the second book in the series, One Foot In The Grave, from Bones’s POV. I loved the first retelling, The Other Half of the Grave, so I had high expectations for this one, and it lived up to it!
“Her courage was one of the reasons Bones had fallen in love with her…and her recklessness was why he’d never known a night’s peace since.”
All of the excitement, humor, action and romance of the series is there, and if it’s even possible, I love Bones more! I never felt like I was reading a repeat of the original book. It was a whole different perspective of all the events that happened, and lots of new information. I can easily say I love it just as much this way as I loved the original, and that’s saying a lot.
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
The Love Wager by Lynn Painter
I love epistolary novels (novels with texting, letters, emails) and The Love Wager had a ton of amazing banter both in person and in messages. My notes during this book were all “they are so much fun”, “I can’t stop smiling”, “I love this”, etc.
This was my first Lynn Painter book, and it will absolutely not be my last! The Love Wager had everything I love in a book. I loved both the hero and heroine and their whole friend crew, they made me laugh out loud, and it just made me feel good overall. I couldn’t ask for more in a book, and I can’t wait to explore her older books.
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
2023 Best Series
The Lost & Found Series by Catherine Cowles
Once again, every Catherine Cowles book published this year is on my list. This time it’s The Lost & Found Series. Last year, it was the Tattered and Torn Series.
Catherine is the queen of small-town romantic suspense. Her prologues grab you and they never let go. The Lost & Found Series starts with Whispers of You where Holt and Wren, the town’s most likely couple, get a second chance at love when Wren is targeted by a killer. The series follows all of Holt’s family, the Hartley siblings, as they each find love while almost getting killed in the process.
Echoes of You is about Maddie & Nash, friends as kids, but Maddie loved him and left so she wouldn’t see him with others. Now her abusive ex is after her and she runs right into Nash’s arms. In Glimmers of You, Grae is another sibling who has always loved one of her brother’s best friends, Caden. But after she almost died when they were kids, he held himself away from her until she became the target of a crazy stalker. In Shadows of You, Roan, the troubled brother, meets his love with Aspen and her daughter Cady who are hiding under assumed names, but they may be in danger. Ashes of You is the 5th in the series, and it releases 2/8/24.
See my review for Whispers of You
See my review for Echoes of You
See my review for Glimmers of You
See my review for Shadows of You
Ashes of You is coming 2/8/24
See The Lost & Found Series on
Amazon|Audible
What You Do to Me: A Novel by Rochelle B. Weinstein
Narrated by Stacy Gonzalez
I love music-influenced books, especially classic or retro music from the late 60s to 90s. So when I saw a cassette tape and the lyrics to Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T’s, I clicked immediately and was excited to read the forward by Tom Higginson from the band, who was honored to know his song was a muse for a romance novel. *Note: Both the Kindle and audiobook are in Kindle Unlimited.
What You Do To Me by Rochelle B. Weinstein is told in 3 timelines. We start in the present where Cecilia James is winning an award in Journalism. The rest of the story alternates between 1996 when Cecilia got her first story at Rolling Stone magazine, and the 1970s, which is when the story she was writing about took place. The muse to this iconic love song is something everyone has tried to find out for years, but Cecilia uncovers the story years later, and we get to go back and read it as it happened.
What You Do To Me by Rochelle B. Weinstein is a complex and completely unique story that had me riveted the entire time. I especially loved the story of the young Argentinian singer and the sheltered Jewish girl in the 1970’s and the sluething of the reporter to find the muse to the famous song. If you enjoy music-based romances, this one will be right up your alley.
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
Both the Kindle and audiobook are in Kindle Unlimited.
The Girl in the Woods (Misted Pines Series Book 2) by Kristen Ashley
“This town is f*cking crazy. Dead girls in the lake. Dead girls in the motel. Wives texting videos to everyone in town of their cheating husbands doing kinky shit. Naked guys on the lawn of the high school with sex toys shoved up their ass. What the fuck?”
I love how Kristen Ashley can write a different genre and completely nail it. I love how The Girl In The Woods is different from all of her other books, yet still has that Kristen Ashley feel. I loved how Kristen surprised me and didn’t follow the expected formula.
The town of Misted Pines is a bit crazy, but let me tell you, if there is another dead resident, I’ll be gobbling up that story as well. I don’t wish anyone dead but….
Check out my unboxing of the special book box that contained The Girl In The Woods
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
Fighting The Pull: A River Rain Novel by Kristen Ashley
“Tomorrow,” he said. “My place. Nine. And I’m renting this space for you, and you’re going to move your ass into it, because you won’t want to find out what’ll happen if you don’t.”
I loved Fighting the Pull by Kristen Ashley. I liked it way more than I expected because neither of the characters were my fave in the beginning. They are now! I loved Elsa and how hard she worked and I loved her dad. She was perfect for Hale who I ended up loving as well. While Fighting the Pull was more of Hale’s story than Elsa’s, her family drama had me just as involved as his.
A follow-up novella about Elsa and Hale just released, Sharing the Miracle (review to come).
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
See the River Rain Series Order here
See my Complete Guide to Kristen Ashley
My So-Called Sex Life by Lauren Blakely
Narrated by Vanessa Edwin & Sebastian York
“I’m thirty-one, missy. I can work a phone, a power drill, and a twenty-speed vibrator.”
My So Called Sex Life by Lauren Blakely is the perfect example of why Lauren Blakely is one of my top 5 authors and my number one audiobook author. She writes her characters with the narrators already in mind and I just love how perfectly casted these characters were.
I love books that take place in the book world, so that made My So Called Sex Life even more special. We have met Hazel and Axel in previous Lauren Blakely books, but you absolutely don’t need to read any of them before this book.
Lauren Blakely never disappoints. I honestly love almost every book she has written, but I will say that this is one of my favorites, I think because it was in the book world, and I liked how she kind of made fun (in a loving way) of all the tropes. I hope we get more in this series.
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
The Long Way Home (Corps Security Book 7) by Harper Sloan
“This was all supposed to be simple. Get close to the girl, wait for that slimy shit I’m hunting to make contact, and then move on to the next target after we take him out. What it wasn’t supposed to be is whatever this is. What I wasn’t supposed to do was grow attached to the beautiful coffee shop owner and her niece.”
It’s been 5 years since Harper last published a book and let me tell you, I’m so happy she came back!
The only reason I didn’t give The Long Way Home by Harper Sloan a full 5 stars is because I didn’t re-read the Corps Security Series first. Had I done that, I would have been a blubbering, crying fool instead of just tearing up. Like Harper has said, The Long Way Home is the ending to the Corps Security Series that you didn’t know you needed, and it was SO WORTH THE WAIT. Now that Harper is back writing, I hope she begins a new series that won’t require me to remember so much, because I love her writing so much!
“Damn sure took the long way to find my home, and it’s even sweeter than I ever dreamed, baby.”
See My Review
Amazon | Audible
See The Entire Corps Security Series
Anonymous Mom Posts by Jenifer Goldin
“My nose bristles with irritation at the recent rash of snarky comments on the Hamilton Beach Moms’ Facebook page. Is it bringing this community together or tearing it apart? Earlier, a mom posted looking for a company that could provide “unicorns” for her daughter’s birthday. The comments were ruthless.”
Are you in your local Facebook group or on NextDoor? I don’t know about you, but I get a bit of a thrill when neighbors start arguing about the dumbest shit, then someone throws a “Let’s go Brandon” into a discussion about the best ice cream in my town, and it all crumbles from there lol. Posting anonymously has totally upped the crazy posts, and I have to admit, I’m here for it.
Each chapter is about a different mom in the group, and starts with an anymous post. I had no trouble keeping track, a rarity for me, and I really liked the representation in the book, including a deaf character, and a Jewish character who is married to an Asian man with opposite political ideologies. Each mom had their own little stories and I loved every one of them. Anonymous Mom Posts was nothing earth shattering, but it was such a fun and unique read!
See My Review
Amazon
I also enjoyed Moms Who Read Romance Novels by Jenifer Goldin about a romance author and some smutty book lovers, where we again get each person’s story.
2023 “Why Did I Wait So Long?” Award
We Own Tonight by Corinne Michaels
Narrated by Andy Arndt and Zachary Webber
Each month I try to listen to at least 2 books I already have in my library so I was happy to find We Own Tonight by Corinne Michaels on my phone right before I met her at Readers on the River.
Honestly, We Own Tonight is every woman’s fantasy come true, but there are some real-life, emotional times that just completely made me fall in love with this novel. Heather is a policewoman who goes to see her favorite boy band whom she idolized 20 years ago perform a reunion concert and has a one-night-stand with him.
We Own Tonight is an oldie but a goody! It’s been on my radar for years, but I never got to it. It had everything I love in a romance novel and more. Filled with romance, friendship, family, love, and heartbreak, We Own Tonight by Corinne Michaels left me wondering why I waited so long to read it; it’s no wonder it’s still so popular 6 years after release. Be warned though…have tissues at the ready!
2023 “Why Did I Wait So Long?” Award
2023 “Best Value” Award
The Runaways Series by Devney Perry
Narrated by Ava Erickson, Vanessa Edwin, Maxine Mitchell, Lucy Rivers, Jason Clarke, Teddy Hamilton and Aiden Snow.
Before I went to Readers on the River in September, I wanted to read a Devney Perry book, and downloaded the entire series of The Runaways, which includes the books Runaway Road, Wild Highway, Quarter Miles, Forsaken Trail, and Dotted Lines. I reviewed Runaway Road right away, but I quickly came back to the series and gobbled up the next four. At 29.5 hours, that’s worth one credit, wouldn’t you say?
The books are all connected in that the main characters from each book were all runaways living in a junkyard in Southern California when they were kids. They are trying to bring a restored Cadillac across the country, but each person keeps getting waylaid by love in a small town.
Each of the five books in The Runaways Series by Devney Perry are available to purchase on their own, but I loved how the Cadillac’s journey across the country tied each story together, it was so clever! I will say that each story on its own would be a little light and short for me, but together they were just an amazing journey. So worth the 29.5 hours and only one credit!
See My Review of Runaway Road
See my Review of the rest of The Runaways Series
Amazon | Audible
2023 Best Recommendation, Best Audible Plus Series
The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout
If you are looking for a series to give you that Fourth Wing feeling but not be too similar, you should check out The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. When one of my readers, Colette, messaged me and told me that this entire series that she absolutely loved was FREE if you were an Audible Plus member, I figured, why not? I always wanted to read another Jennifer L. Armentrout book, so here was my free opportunity!
I think The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the one that really took off for her years ago, and with good reason. I listened to the whole series straight through, I couldn’t put them down! I am so happy they were included in Audible Plus because I never would have started this otherwise. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, but I am so glad Colette talked me into this series!
This one is confusing, because the novellas are included in the kindle versions, but not the audible. So check THIS POST for the correct Audiobook and Kindle orders. They are different!
See my Review
Amazon Series Page
You can see all of my previous 11 lists here.
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