First things first, happy new year!
I hope 2023 is good to us all. I have a great feeling about it though. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been so excited for a new year. I know I’m a little late as far as my yearly reading wrap-up, but better late than never? Anyway, here’s what I got. I read thirty-one books this year. Didn’t meet my reading goal, but life happens and that’s okay. Most of my favorite reads are either fantasy or romance.
#10. One True Loves by Elise Bryant
I finished this at the beginning of December. I was in a small reading slump, and since one of my friends on Twitter talks about this book pretty often, I decided to pick it up. One True Loves is a young adult romance book that follows Lenore Bennet, who just graduated high school and is trying to decide what she wants to go to college for. When her parents remind her that Black people don’t have the time to be indecisive about life choices, the pressure is on. She knows she loves art and photography, but she has a habit of jumping to different interests. Her and her family take a summer vacation cruise across Europe, and Lenore is told by her parents to have a plan for college by the end of the trip.
She is also dealing with a brutal heartbreak because of an incident that took place during her prom night. As much as she wants to, Lenore doesn’t believe in love because she has never been chosen first — just placeholders until they find someone better. On the cruise, she meets Alex Lee, a smart, charming boy her age who eventually becomes determined to help Lenore make a decision for her future.
This was my first book by Elise Bryant, and it won’t be the last. This is an adorable story with hilarious scenes and fun characters. I recommend this book if you’re looking for something light-hearted and fun. I loved Lenore and Alex. It’s so nice to finally see so many books with teenage Black girls as the main characters going through life and falling in love in the process. It makes me happy for the younger generation!
#9. Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Another adorable YA romance book, but with a touch of magic. The main character, Evie is similar to Lenore in One True Loves. She doesn’t believe in love after seeing her parents divorce. She’s getting through her last year of high school, and one afternoon, she witnesses a couple kiss and is able to see how their romance began, and how it’s destined to end. Most of the visions she gets ends in heartbreak, which only makes her feel worse about love.
While she’s trying to understand these visions, she finds herself at a dance studio with X, a daring boy who says ‘yes’ to everything. As they prepare for a dancing competition and practice together, Evie finds herself falling for him, but is hesitant because she knows that love often ends in heartbreak.
This is also a quick read that I completed in mostly one sitting. I love Nicola’s writing, and this story brought me to tears. Evie learns a lot of hard lessons in this book about family, and she learns even harder lessons about love and how everyone always takes risks with it. I gave this book four stars, and I’ll be rereading it soon because of how cute it is!
#8. Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado
This YA horror story was sent to me by Sourcebooks, and I immediately became obsessed with the cover. This story follows sixteen year-old Raquel, who lives in the Bronx. For more than a year, there has been mysterious and sudden disappearances that no one is able to explain. Since the police only cares about finding white kids, Raquel tries to ignore it. But then her crush, Charlize, reports her cousin as missing. Around the same time, Raquel’s mother gets sick with a strange illness that’s linked to the disappearances. As they team up to find answers, they realize that everything is linked to a terrifying urban legend called the Echo Game.
I was actually surprised at how much I liked this book. I loved the main character and the sapphic romance side plot. As for the main story, it had some terrifying details. The Echo Game’s rules are based on a dark chapter in New York’s past, and the more Raquel learns about it, the scarier the game gets. There is some gore as well as tons of suspense, and overall, I think it was written well. I read this at the beginning of February, and I wouldn’t mind reading it again.
#7. Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (18+)
One of my favorite romance books of the year! I read the entire Brown Sisters trilogy, and Dani’s book became my favorite by page 150. The story follows Dani Brown, who works a lot and is extremely focused on her future. On top of that, she doesn’t see the point in long-term relationships and only does friends with benefits. No feelings attached, no problems. Zafir Ansari, the security guard at her job who she may or may not have been wanting to sleep with, is a former rugby player. When he rescues Dani from a fire drill that went wrong, a video of it goes viral and the internet is shipping them together. Zaf wants Dani to go with it, because his sports charity could definitely use the publicity. She agrees, and they start fake dating. While Dani is trying to convince Zaf to be her perfect friends-with benefits, Zaf is a hopeless romantic and is determined to change Dani’s world.
I think the biggest reason why I love this book so much is because of Dani’s character developement. Throughout the story, she learns that maybe she is pushing herself too hard and that she is way too hard on herself. Zaf is a sweetheart, and I enjoyed the scenes of him helping out the kids at his sports charity. This is dual point of view like the rest of the trilogy. I believe I read this twice now. I recommend the entire Brown Sisters series for anyone who is interested in Talia Hibbert’s work. She’s releasing a new young adult story in 2023, and I’m excited for it!
#6. The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman
After I finished this book, I took about a couple of days to decide that I really liked it. It follows Nami Miyamoto, who’s eighteen and just graduated high school. She has an incredible family, and she’s looking forward to her just-beginning life. She’s about to head to a party with her friends and even the boy she’s in love with, but she’s murdered on the way there.
Then she wakes up in a strange and terrifying afterlife called Infinity, and it’s a place where one’s consciousness goes after they die. There she learns that Ophelia, a virtual assistant that she used every few minutes when she was alive, has taken over the afterlife, ruling as a queen and forcing humans to serve her as she had been forced to serve. Nami has to work with a group of rebels to make sure Ophelia doesn’t achieve her goal, which is to eradicate human existence forever.
The Infinity Courts is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. The descriptions of the world of Infinity as well as the technology are beautiful. As for the main character, Nami is a feeler, even for people who might’ve done awful things at one point in their lives. As she navigates this strange world, the ones who rule it and the rebels, she finds herself constantly stuck between two sides.
Even though I feel like the book takes off quick, there are some moments in the middle that feel a little too slow, but then it would pick back up again. There was a certain twist that I kind of saw coming, but it still shocked me because it was done completely different than how I was expecting. There are other characters in this story that I loved reading about, and overall, this story is fun and interesting enough to read the sequel, The Genesis Wars, that released in 2022. I believe there’s going to be a third book, and I’ll see if I’ll continue reading the series after book two!
#5. Today, Tonight, Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon
I read this YA romantic comedy at the beginning of December, and I still can’t stop thinking about how cute it was. It immediately became my favorite romance book this year. It’s pretty popular on Bookstagram and Booktok, and I’m so upset that I waited this long to read it! It was perfect.
This story follows Rowan Roth on her last day of high school. She’s taking her time because she’s not exactly ready to let it go — especially when she has yet to defeat her long-term academic rival, Neil McNair. For years, the two of them has compared every debate, project and test score, trying their hardest to best each other. When Neil is made valedictorian, Rowan feels a little defeated, but then she remembers that there’s still Howl — the city-wide scavenger hunt that high school seniors compete in every single year. She uses that as her last chance to beat him. At the start of the game, she gets word thats some of her other classmates are tired of her and Neil being the best at everything, and they all make a plan to beat them at Howl. She teams up with Neil, and as they complete the scavenger hunt together, she slowly realizes that she might have been feeling more than hatred for her rival.
Was this book what I expected? No. Did I absolutely love it? YES. I did think that we would get some scenes of Rowan and Neil debating in a classroom and other things related to that, but it was cute reading about them recalling old memories as they’re spending their final day of high school together. I love the way Rowan’s character was written. She has dreams of being a romance writer one day, so she defends romance books quite often. It did take me a little bit of time to get into the story, but once the game started, I became obsessed. That love confession was the sweetest and I’m still going crazy over it. This book is perfect for anyone that’s looking for a cute romantic comedy that isn’t too long! I just ordered Rachel Lynn Solomon’s other book, See You Yesterday, and I’m excited to read that this year!
#4. If We Were Villains by M.L Rio
I already made a post talking about how much I loved this story! This adult, dark academia, mystery and thriller is told from the perspective of Oliver Marks, who was just released from jail and ready to tell the story of why he was there for ten years.
Ten years ago, Oliver and his six friends are fourth-year Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory. To make it in this program as a fourth year means that you’re either really good at what you do, or extremely lucky. Anyway, the group of seven are extremely close together, and even off of the stage, they speak to each other as if they’re still acting — in Shakespeare lines and poetry. But when things get ugly and the violence they’ve spent years acting out suddenly becomes real, they have to convince each other, themselves and the entire world that they’re innocent.
Like I mentioned before, I’m in love with the way the author wrote the tension in this story. As we get closer to the big reveal, the characters start to unravel — including our main character. This is told in split timelines. At the beginning of each act, it starts with Oliver in the present walking around Dellecher with the detective that arrested him, explaining small bits and pieces of the story. Then, it transitions to a flashback from ten years ago. Books with split timelines are always fun to read. (I love Vicious by V.E Schwab because of this.) Anyway, I plan to reread this book once I read a little more Shakespeare.
I know you’ve probably seen a lot of talk about this book’s ending whenever you see someone review it, and yes, I think it’s spectacular as well.
#3. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
So, I knew by page 50 that this book was going to be a favorite.
This story takes place in Huaxia where boys dream of piloting Chrysalises, which are giant transforming robots that are used to battle aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls that they pair up with in order to pilot it often die from the mental strain it takes to control it.
When Zetian, the main character, gets word that her sister died for this exact reason, she signs up to become a concubine pilot in order to get closer to the male pilot that killed her, then avenge her. After a brutal clash, she achieves her goal and avenges her sister in the most unexpected way — through the psychic link between pilots. When she leaves the cockpit of the Chryalises unscated, she is labeled an Iron Widow, a feared and silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice males to power up the robots instead.
Even though she is paired up with Li Shimin, the most controversial male pilot in Huaxia, Zetian refuses to back down now that she’s had a taste of power. She’ll stop at nothing to uncover the pilot system’s misogynistic ways of operation, and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
I enjoyed this book so much. Zetian is the unhinged, feral female lead I have been wishing for. I’ve read so many stories where the female main character’s goal is revenge but they’re eventually talked out of it by the male lead. So Zetian sticking to her word then going above and beyond made me extremely happy. As for the world around her, the patriarchy is incredibly infuriating. Each time Zetian came into contact with literally anyone that wasn’t two specific people, I wanted to scream at the way they treated her. But it would be fine, because she doesn’t forgive and she definitely doesn’t forget.
The twist at the end had me shocked. I was so invested in the characters and battle scenes that I hadn’t even considered that kind of twist. It does leave off on a cliffhanger, and Xiran Jay Zhao announced that they would be releasing the sequel, Heavenly Tyrant, in 2023! I’m so excited to see Zetian return.
#2. The Blood Trials by N.E Davenport
Speaking of violent and vengeful female leads, Ikenna Amari and her story takes number the two spot on my favorites’ list! I wrote a piece about The Blood Trials already, but I’ll put in a short summary.
This adult, sci-fi story follows nineteen year-old Ikenna Amari, who has been living recklessly as a way to cope with her grandfather’s death. On the night before her graduation, she receives word that her grandfather’s death was actually a planned assassination. Now furious, Ikenna plans to find which member of the Tribunal Council ordered the hit and take her revenge. To do this, she pledges Praetorian after graduation and begins the Blood Trials — a brutal initiation to become one of Mareen’s elite soldiers. It’s already bad that only a small percentage of people survive these trials, but for Ikenna, the difficulty is higher because the country of Mareen is racist and misogynistic.
Not to mention that she has to keep her Blood Gift — an ability that allows her to control others through a blood link, and craft weapons out of blood — a secret, because if it’s discovered, she will immediately be killed.
N.E Davenport became one of my favorite authors! I am obsessed with the way she writes fight scenes. Like Zetian in Iron Widow, Ikenna Amari is never afraid of a fight, nor is she afraid to get her hands dirty. These trials are gruesome and requires her to not mess up if she wants to get out of them alive. Not only is this story full of action, it also has mystery. In between the trials, Ikenna digs around the Republic’s secrets so she can find out the truth about her grandfather’s murder.
The only thing I wanted more of was her using her Blood Gift, but because of the circumstances in book one, she needed to keep it a secret. But I just know that N.E Davenport is going to give us some incredible scenes of Ikenna using it in the second and final book of the series, The Blood Gift! (Fingers crossed that I get that ARC.) The Blood Gift is my most anticipated read for 2023, and I can’t wait to see how Ikenna’s story ends.
note: check TW’s for The Blood Trials!
#1: The Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn
Number one goes to Bree Matthews and her story! I already wrote two posts about Legendborn and Bloodmarked, so you know how I feel about it! I’m so happy to see that more and more people are reading it and becoming obsessed with it. I know that I am now extremely curious about King Arthur and the rest of the knights because of this series, so I’ll be learning more about that this year as well. I already have a list of books ready!
Legendborn, book one starts with sixteen year-old Bree Matthews infiltrating a secret society with a goal to find out about her mother’s death, only to figure out that she is the most important player of the game, and the most important person of the Legendborn Order. Bloodmarked, book two, continues right where Legendborn left off, and Tracy wrote this in a way where the readers also feel the stakes of this story.
Bloodmarked is the most perfect and beautiful sequel I’ve ever read. I was nervous, because usually with YA book series’, book two doesn’t do as well as book one. I didn’t think that it would be better than Legendborn, but it is. I love Bree, her journey and the rest of her friends so much, and I can’t wait to see what book three is like!
So yes, the only thing bad about this series is that we have to wait for book three. Otherwise, 100/10. A million out of five stars. It deserves all of the applause and praise in the world. I read Legendborn back in February, and I still think about it every single day. Tracy Deonn is my favorite author, and I can’t wait to see what other books she’ll put out after the Legendborn Cycle!
That wraps up everything! I hope I’ll be able to read more books in 2023, especially with all of these incredible releases that come out! I’ll make a post about that next. Once again, happy new year to you all!
