My Favorite Reads of 2023

Hello readers, and my god has it been quite some time.

I am currently writing this blog post inbetween plotting chapters of a book, so if I seem to jump around a little, it’s because I’m doing this in between twenty minute sprints and my mind is currently consumed with the french revolution and kissing books.

I really wanted to make a list like this for everyone who has been looking for book recommendations or has been liking the book recommendation portion of my newsletter, largely because while I think it’s an entertaining place and a fun way to spend time, I, myself, have stopped taking book recommendations from Tiktok.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that I’m not a dark romance fan, but that’s okay! A lot of people are, and everyone reads differently. But, with that in mind, I’m also going to do a brief reader profile here.

About me:

• The photo above is me, I have pink hair on and off and many dogs.
• I’m 27, I have a college degree, date on and off, and have no partner currently because I’m busy and like to write books.
• All politicians scare me, but some scare me more.
• I do crafts in my free time, mainly knitting and crocheting, which might begin to hint to something very important to some of you here– I do not hunt. I have never worn camo. I sew on and off, mainly apparel, and I like the idea of boats but I’ve never boated or fished or anything. I’m probably not good for country girl romance recommendations. (But more on that in like two bullet points.)
• I faint at the sight of blood, and the idea of being injected with anything makes me nauseous. I am also afraid of illegal drugs and some of the things people make in their basements– I live in Minnesota and more than one friend has tried to make alcohol. To varying degrees of terror.
• The one thing that I am afraid of to the point that I cannot read about it, however, is horses. I am terrified of horses. I watched someone get bit by a horse and it’s changed me. I didn’t even know they could do that. I don’t think there’s been a single horse written about in my short publishing career.

About the things I like to read and write:

• I primarily read romance, so assume that just about everything on this list will be that.
• I’m a huge fan of historical romances and soap operas to the point that I watch them in many different languages and read them pretty consistently. I’m also a big fan of classically styled gothics or anything adjacent to that, which may not mean much to you, but just so the few of you who zeroed in on that line or are wondering what I’m getting at here; I was a huge fan of Tim Burton Movies, dark comedies like Burke and Hare, Coraline, and the Phantom of the Opera growing up, so– my favorite movie right now is also Crimson Peak.
• I got really into reading right before the 2010s vampire boom, and now that I’m an adult I live for trying to find more atmospheric monster and vampire romances like that.
• I have a soft spot for romcoms but am not a super fan of characters with excessively rough lives.
• I fell in love with Hockey romances last year and am more indiscriminate about them than most things I read. I think part of it is the whole living in Minnesota thing and hockey hits close to home. I almost added a book to this list just for mentioning the Minnesota Vikings, so… keep that in mind.
• Again, I’m not a huge fan of dark romance and actually draw the line at accepted behavior from a male lead pretty early on. So, if I’m recommending something that typically means that the male main character is either a kind ‘cinnamon roll’ type of guy, quiet and shy, or brooding.
• I cannot read pregnancy romance. I just can’t.
• Last year I was a huge fan of monster romances and science fiction, but you’re probably going to see a lot less of them here, this isn’t because I have beef with science fiction or anything, this is just because a girl goes through cycles.

Instead of tediously writing out summaries of each and every book, I’m just going to do a preview link to the amazon listing, note for you if it’s in kindle unlimited or if it’s not and you, dear reader, should be searching it on Libby (which all of you should have downloaded on your phone right now regardless of me not being on there yet), and then I’m going to give you a short, preferably one sentence summary that might convince you to read a book along with a list of tags.

So, using my own book as an example, since this is my website and I’m allowed to self promote once every century, every entry is going to be formatted like this and shoved under a category.

Bam, read my books, baby.

All of this will be done only for the books I’ve read section, and I’m also going to list some of the authors that I love as people but haven’t had the opportunity to read yet or have read but didn’t read this year– because I go through waves of different book themes, and I’m a big mood reader. Then, I’m going to follow up with what I’m excited to read next year.

In cases where I have read the whole series, the first book will be listed and I will note that I have read the whole series.

And, just for your sake, here’s a list of all of the trope tags, and I’ve got with my favorites bolded: WOC Main, MOC Interest, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Monster Romance, Cinnamon Roll Hero, Hockey, Racing, Historical Fantasy/Gaslamp, Second Chance Romance, Billionaire Romance, Fake Dating, Brother’s Friend, Sweet Romance, Spies, Bespectacled Hero, Slow Burn, Pirates, Murder, Con Artists, Coach’s Daughter

(Also, these are in no particular order)

So, here’s the structure of this post:

Books I Read This Year that You Should Read Too Genres:
Historical Romance
Fantasy Romance
Contemporary Romance
Sports Romance
Sci Fi Romance

Authors I Know and Love That You Should Give a Chance and Start Reading

Books I’m Excited to Read This Year

Books I’ve Read this Year That You Should Read Too:

Historical Romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes, First Book Only
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Fake Dating, etc
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Complete Series. Have read. Recommend all.
Short summary: Two rival students struggle with their undeniable draw towards each other as a series of violent incidents take place at the most renown rewarding university in the world. Chaos ensues.If you’ve watched Bridgerton, you already know. I will say that the books are a little more dramatic than the show, and I did have problems with Colin in Romancing Mister Bridgerton because he was much more aggressive than the perfect man we all know I’m obsessed with on the show, but I love When He Was Wicked, It’s in His Kiss, On the Way to the Wedding, and An Offer from a Gentleman an insane amount.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No
Tropes: Brother’s Friend, Sweet Romance
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Complete. Have Read all. Recommend.
Short summary: A sister series to the Bridgerton books, this series is a little more lighthearted and focuses on the love lives of the insanely bad Smythe sister quartet, which is a reoccuring joke in the Bridgerton series that everyone is made to bear. I feel like she really fleshed out each and every one of the girls featured in these books however and gave them love stories that, while far more sweet in nature than the Bridgertons, sucked me in.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Sweet Romance
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Complete. Have Read all. Recommend.
Short summary: Okay, so, if the Smythe quartet is the sweeter counterpart to the bridgerton series, then the Rokesbys are kind of like the bad boy version of them? Listen, one of them is a pirate. The first book can be a little slow, what with them being trapped on a roof and all in the first few chapters, but by the time you get to my little pirate boy, you are going to be insanely engrossed in the lives of Mister Bridgerton’s sisters and cousins.

Available on Kindle Unlimited:Yes
Tropes: Opposites Attract, Sweet Romance
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short summary: Full disclosure, this is a 1980s romance, so it’s kind of a strange fit amongst the historicals– but it counts. Basically, if you’re ever asked yourself what it would feel like to date Eddie Munson, you’re in great luck. The main character in this is a sweet church girl, but I do have to give the warning that there are triggers for eating disorders and abuse. I did find this book to be an amazing read and one of those romance books that has something to it that reaches out beyond the genre and sticks with you, so please give it a try. I also realized while writing this review that I hadn’t followed L.H. Blake on amazon and missed her most recent release, so I’ve now run to grab it.

Available on Kindle Unlimited:Yes. Full series.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Spies
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Interconnected standalone series. Have read, do recommend all. New book coming soon.
Short summary: Okay, so basically the man who she loves jilted her and left her for years without contact because he’s a spy, only to come waltzing back into her life. And normally, I’d recommend you start with the first book in the series, but as there’s a 0.5 in this series as well, and there’s just a lot going on that stays individual to each book with only a few references to what happened in previous books, I’m recommending you start with this one because his sass is unbelievable, he’s the most attractive in my mind, and their storyline is just so unique.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Bespectacled Hero, Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Slow burn
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: There’s two books in this series. This one is my favorite and definitely worth the read, after reading this one I want to go back and try to read the first one again, but it’s absolutely not required that you read both.
Short summary: Basically, think the plot of a more disastrous Emma. She considers herself a matchmaker, he thinks she’s absolutely insane, they’re also childhood friends and he’s put up with her forever. Their love story is definitely slow burn in my mind but so worth it.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Pirates, WOC Lead, Spies, Murder?
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: I’m currently reading this series and it’s definitely worth the wait, though every book has so much going on in it that I keep finding myself putting it down to pace.
Short summary: She’s an insanely beautiful indian princess and he’s the loser third son of a duke who broke her heart years ago, having long since become a grizzled sea captain and a duke at the same time after both of his older brothers died. Also there’s an assassin trying to kill her. Trigger warning, though, there is old timey racism in this and I know that’s not something that some people feel comfortable reading through, and a lot of historicalromance has evolved to no longer show that, so I do have to note that. English people were awful to Indians and there’s so much colorism going on, but the hero loves her for who she is and they don’t shy away from the reality of her situation.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Con Artists
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short Summary: She’s a woman who is down on her luck in desperate need of money to save her family, he’s a duke who sees right through her from the moment that he sees her and someone just knows that she’s trying to con his brother. They engage in a hilarious game of back and forth and then fall in love.

Fantasy Romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes. Both.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, WOC Lead, Historical Fantasy (If you squint)
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: There’s two books in this series currently, they’re all standalones, and I’m trying to emotionally prepare myself for the second one solely because this one wrecked me.
Short Summary: If you have been following my newsletter, you probably know that this is one of my favorite books of the year and I’m slowly plotting a way to befriend the author so I can get whatever books she publishes next ASAP. The main male is surprisingly kind but sarcastic and every bit as considerate as he can be when he is married to his bride, a woman who was initially more than willing to marry him, but upon secretly overhearing him speak of his former lover and how he wished he could be with her instead, turned sour and decided to run off on her own. As he swears to help her escape the miserable reality that would be being married to him, the two slowly fall in love and must make the decision as to whether or not to part ways by the end of the book.
When I say this book broke me, I mean it, and the man doesn’t even have glasses to speak of.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, WOC Lead, Historical Fantasy
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Ongoing. Second book due November 2024
Short Summary: Imagine the mummy but starring the woman. Now imagine she’s twice as adventurous, Brendan Fraser is somehow even more impossibly gorgeous, kind and clever than he’s always been, but also has a devastating secret– you now know exactly what Whit, the male lead is like.
The amount of betrayal I felt by the end of this book was astonishing, but it’s okay, I’m going to recover.

Contemporary Romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes.
Tropes: Billionaire Romance, Second Chance Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Arranged Marriage
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short Summary: The Author has been promoting this heavily on her tiktok and I’m here to tell you it’s worth it. I want so many people to pick up this book. It’s just a great example of how good indie can be.
In it, the children of two of the richest families in america are forced to marry, and while they’ve been wed for a year, they hardly know each other– until a cross country move forces the two of them into the same place.
When I say that the male lead in this book is understanding and kind to the point that it made my heart melt? Yep, he is. But, trigger warning, eating disorders and abuse appear in this book.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Cinnamonroll Hero, Friends to Lovers, MOC Lead
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short Summary: She’s been promoted to her dream job, editing the works of one of the most famous romance authors… only to find out that the woman she was expecting is a man, and one who desperately needs help coming up with his next book.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: No.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short Summary: She desperately wants to be an author, and he’s the prick who’s joined her publishing house and is desperate to prove that he belongs there. She has suspicions when she finds that someone has been editing her printed manuscript that she’s hidden in the office, but is it really him? Over the course of the book, she starts to hope.

Sports Romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes. Full Series.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Racing, WOC Lead, MOC Lead (Different books)
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Complete series. Recommend.
Short Summary: Okay, so, capable, confident young women meet formula one fuck boys. Especially in the first book. There’s a bit of an age gap with most of these men, but they have a lot more to them than meets the eye.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes. Full Series.
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Hockey, Coach’s Daughter, Cinnamonroll hero
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Complete series. Recommend.
Short Summary: Actual. Adult. Hockey. Romances. He’s a grown man. And he’s sweet. Actually, all of the men in this series are absolute hams and I love them.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes.
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Hockey, Cinnamonroll hero
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone. Would sell my soul for more. Need to know who did her cover.
Short Summary: Full transparency, there’s a lot of sex in this. Like, a lot. But, I really appreciated that it was the story between a library worker and an athlete and that we got to see the male hero make decisions that humbled himself. Female lead did come across cold at times, but I still enjoyed the book.

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Hockey
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: New series that’s interconnected to the previous hockey series.
Short Summary: I love Elle Kennedy. I think that she gives great depth to her male heroes and makes them feel like actual characters, which she’s done an even better job of in this book than anywhere else.
Our female lead is the daughter of a famous hockey player who may or may not be familiar to some of you, and our male lead is a douchebag on the team who has previously doubted her and made comments that infuriated her. Following her break up with her boyfriend who cheated on her, however, the two begin a friendship that quickly turns into romance as Ryder, our male lead, desperately tries to prove to Gigi’s dad that he’s worthy of being a part of an exclusive training camp.

Sci Fi Romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited: Yes. Get it. Now.
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Monster Romance
Complete Series/Have I Read It All: Standalone.
Short Summary: Okay, I lied, I do know the author of this one, but I mainly know her for writing historical romance, and since this book saved me from complete burnout with sci fi romance–
She’s a burnout IT office worker who is currently kind of working for what I feel like is the galatic empire. He’s an Orken warrior sent to kill the president that accidentally printed while she was fixing a paperjam error. The whole thing kind of reads as a lighter hearted sci fi romp and I genuinely suggest you read it with the caveat of, while I think there will be more books in this series, she’s working on it.

Authors I Know and Love and Think you Should Give a Chance and Start Reading:

Fun fact, I read a lot, but often times because they’re in different genres, I don’t get to read all of the books by my friends, or in this case, I want to be transparent, I’m a little bias when it comes to recommending them.

We as authors operate as a community, and the amount of support I’ve found amongst others is truly amazing– but it’s always important to be transparent.

Soooooo

• If you like werewolves, please check out my friend Lynn Katzenmeyer, who is also from minnesota and has a really cool bear series. as well as a mystery series taking place in a city near me that I need to read. She’s amazingly kind, amazingly cool, and her advice helped me out when I was just starting as an author.
• If you like witches or fairies or even just loved the Winx club, which I am so bias towards, check out Ky Venn, who wrote Justice in Magic and is busy at work with a sequel. I beta read the original Justice in Magic, and her continual strength and determination actually factored a lot into me deciding to revise and expand Ivy and Ash. I love her so much as a person and wish her luck moving forward.
• Elizabeth Brady is another person who taught me about publishing, is so cool, and is honestly who I want to be when I grow up. She writes sweet romance, does covers, and has a way better eye for design than I could ever hope to obtain. If you’re interested in regency, give her a shot!
• Allie Lasky helped me figure out how Zoebub works, is a former journalist, and wrote the Gameplan, which I honestly loved. She has one of the first Hanukkah romances I’ve seen and I was so sad that I didn’t read it during the season this year.
• E. H. Demeter, how I love you, let me count the ways. She’s done everything under the sun, has an amazing witch series, is so kind and caring, and just makes me smile every time I talk to her.

Book I’m Excited to Read This Year:

And, we’ve reached the final stretch. After this I’m going to take a long breath, pace around my house, and then finish my yearly polls post with tears in my eyes before going back to what I like the most, which is writing.

This is just what I’m currently interested in reading this year, but if you know me, you know that my tbr is constantly changing, and that the best way to stay up to date on what I’m reading and my releases is my newsletter, which you can check out and subscribe to here.

Things I’m excited to read this year:

Historical:

• The whole Regency Vows series, the first of which I already devoured while writing this blog post.
• A Sinner at Highland Court, since I’ve been on a highlander kick that hopefully will not greatly impact my publishing.

Fantasy:

• Heavenly Bodies is extremely famous and I haven’t read it yet.
• Bound by Knighthood, if you’re keeping up with my newsletter you know I’m on a knight romance kick and desperately fighting the urge to write my own.
• Of Thorns and Curses, I’m trying to get back into fae romances.
• Memento Amore, which I picked up to do research on my own upcoming release. Both involve morticians and romance.
• A Curse of Frost and Fate

Sports Romance:

• Dukes and Dekes, which I mistakenly picked up because it looked like a regency, but I read the description and I’m still excited and here.

Final note:

Several books were removed prior to publication due to the pro-palestine boycotts. I genuinely enjoyed these books and have mentioned them before the boycotts, but do not support the politics behind them and until further notice will not be recommending or pushing them. If you see a book you know to be associated with an author or company who has openly supported the persecutions of the Palestinian people on this list, please let me know and I will remove them. I tried to check each and every book but it’s been an undertaking.

Amidst a swarm of statements against indie publishing and the quality of some works associated with kindle unlimited, I would like to make a final statement:

I do believe that there are books that have been put out specifically for financial gain and that have capitalized on the consumer knowing fully well that they were made with lacking quality. Having existed in author spaces for a few years now, I also know that this is a mindset that has existed amongst publishers and some authors for a while, with one of the most popular mindsets for publishing, having long supported ‘rapid’ publishing or ‘spree’ publishing whole series in a matter of days. At the beginning of my career, I had also found myself constantly stressed with the idea of publishing as quickly ads possible and that I was not publishing enough to make a viable living– however.

It has always been my approach that books are, in many ways, art, and that it is my job to provide you with the best book I can, even at financial consequence to me. I know that many other authors feel the same, and while I cannot claim to know the minds of every author on this list, I do feel that they have put time and effort into their books and produced something worthwhile.

Even if a writer did not write the Iliad, they have fulfilled the goals of art in some sort of way if they made you feel something or provided you with some sort of entertainment.

I know that it has been my goal from the very beginning to provide my readers with escapism and a break from the cruel reality that we are currently living in, as well as additional rewards to attentive readers who pick up on small Easter eggs and call backs. I know that that is what I look for as a reader, and that is what I try to create as an author, and while that while some people may believe that publishing as a whole has reached a new rock bottom, I have faith that the majority of people who are creating books in both indie and traditional spaces genuinely wish to give you something of worth.

With that in mind, please be kind to the authors you encounter and please do not assume bad faith.

And also, please, I beg you, take the time out of your day to support Palestinian authors as well and do not let the words of the Palestinian people die out.