I know we are virtually halfway through 2024 and there are lots of new books out there to tempt every one of our tastes. But I didn’t want to forget some of the great books that came into our lives during 2023.
2023 has blessed us with a treasure trove of captivating reads across various genres, and I'm excited to share just a few of my top picks with you. Whether you're a fan of intricate historical narratives, heart warming romances, pulse-pounding thrillers, or enchanting fantasies, there's something here for everyone. I've carefully selected four standout titles from each category, in what I think are some of the best books of 2023, ensuring a diverse range of stories that will keep you hooked from start to finish. Join me as I explore these literary gems and discover the magic and excitement they have to offer.
Let me know what your favourite book published in 2023
Best Fantasy Books from 2023
Title: Hell Bent
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: Alex Stern Series Book 2 of 2
Publisher: Golancz
Book Length: 481
About Book: Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell. Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is determined to break Darlington out of hell - even if it endangers her future at Lethe and at Yale. But Alex is playing with forces far beyond her control, and when faculty members begin to die off, she knows these aren't just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if Alex is going to survive, she'll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university's very walls.
Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies
Author: Heather Fawcett
Series: Emily Wilde Series book 1 of 3
Publisher: Orbit
Book Length: 368
About Book: Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at peopleSo when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell BamblebyBut as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones - the most elusive of all faeries - she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all - her own heart.
Title: Tress of the Emerald Sea
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Secret Project series book 1 of 3
Publisher: Gollancz
Book Length: 384
About Book: The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?
Title: A Day of Fallen Night
Author: Samantha Shannon
Series: The Roots of Chaos series
Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus
Book Length: 866
About Book: Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose. To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be. The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Best Thriller Books from 2023
Title: The Guilty Couple
Author: C L Taylor
Publisher: Avon
Book Length: 352
About Book: What would you do if your husband framed you for murder?
Five years ago, Olivia Sutherland was convicted of plotting to murder her husband.
Now she’s finally free, Olivia has three goals. Repair her relationship with her daughter. Clear her name. And bring down her husband – the man who framed her.
Just how far is she willing to go to get what she wants? And how far will her husband go to stop her?
Because his lies run deeper than Olivia could ever have imagined – and this time it’s not her freedom that’s in jeopardy, but her life…
Title: The Fall
Author: Louise Jenson
Publisher: HQ
Book Length: 480
About Book: She promised not to tell. They made sure she couldn’t…
At her surprise 40th birthday party, Kate Granger feels like the luckiest woman in the world but just hours later her fifteen-year-old daughter, Caily, is found unconscious underneath a bridge when she should have been at school.
Now, Caily lies comatose in her hospital bed, and the police don’t believe it was an accident. As the investigation progresses, it soon becomes clear that not everyone in the family was where they claimed to be at the time of her fall.
Caily should be safe in hospital but not everyone wants her to wake up. Someone is desperate to protect the truth and it isn’t just Caily’s life that is in danger.
Because some secrets are worth killing for…
Title: The Last Party
Author: Clare MacKintosh
Series: DC Morgan Mystery series book 1 of 2
Publisher: Sphere
Book Length: 464
About Book: IN A VILLAGE WITH THIS MANY SECRETS, A MURDER IS JUST THE BEGINNING . . .
On New Year's Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. He's celebrating the success of his lakeside holiday homes, and has generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake. On New Year's Day, DC Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. She grew up in the tiny community, so the murder suspects are her neighbours, friends and family - and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn't who wanted Rhys dead . . . but who finally killed him.
Title: The Housemaids Secret
Author: Frieda McFadden
Series: The Housemaid series book 2 of 3
Publisher: Bookouture
Book Length: 352
About Book: As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job - not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything....That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go....
Best Romance Books from 2023
Title: Pandora
Author: Susan Stokes-Chapman
Publisher: Vintage
Book Length: 416
About Book: London, 1799. Dora Blake lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents' famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle's suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. For Edward, the ancient vase is the key to unlocking his professional future. For Dora, it's a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle. But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it...
Title: Happy Place
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Penguin
Book Length: 400
About Book: Two exes. One pact. Could this holiday change everything? Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Every year, they take a holiday from their lives to drink far too much wine with their favourite people in the world. Except this year, they are lying through their teeth, because Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago. And they still haven't told anyone. But the cottage is for sale so this is the last time they'll all be here together. They can't bear to break their best friends' hearts so they'll fake it for one more week. But how can you pretend to be in love - and get away with it - in front of the people who know you best?
Title: Love Theoretically
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Sphere
Book Length: 389
About Book: Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom. The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent pay check by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig - until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favourite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but... those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she's with him? Will falling into an experimentalist's orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
Title: King of The Pride
Author: Ana Huang
Publisher: Piatkus
Book Length: 389
About Book: Reserved, controlled, and proper to a fault, Kai Young has neither the time nor inclination for chaos - and Isabella, with her purple hair and inappropriate jokes, is chaos personified. With a crucial CEO vote looming and a media empire at stake, the billionaire heir can't afford the distraction she brings Isabella is everything he shouldn't want, but with every look and every touch, he's tempted to break all his rules . . . and claim her as his own.***Bold, impulsive, and full of life, Isabella Valencia has never met a party she doesn't like or a man she couldn't charm . . . except for Kai Young. It shouldn't matter. He's not her type - the man translates classics into Latin for fun, and his membership at the exclusive club where she bartends means he's strictly off limits. But she can't deny that, beneath his cool exterior, is a man who could make her melt with just a touch. No matter how hard they try, they can't resist giving into their forbidden desires. Even if it costs them everything.
Best Historical Books from 2023
Title: The Lost Bookshop
Author: Evie Woods
Publisher: One More Chapter
Book Length: 442
About Book: ‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
Title: All The Light We Cannot See
Author: Anthony Doerr
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Book Length: 560
About Book: Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret.
Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering.
At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.
Title: Weyward
Author: Emilia Hart
Publisher: The Borough Press
Book Length: 329
About Book: Three women, five centuries, one spellbinding story
In the present day, Kate flees a traumatic relationship to the Cumbrian cottage she inherited from her great-aunt; but the cottage hides secrets of its own.
In 1942, Violet rebels against her father’s ideas of a ‘proper young lady’ . . . until he takes matters into his own hands.
In 1619, Altha is on trial for witchcraft, implicated in the gruesome death of a local man.
Three women they tried to cage – but Weyward women belong to the wild. And they cannot be tamed…
Title: The Covenant of Water
Author: Abraham Verghese
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Book Length: 724
About Book: Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water follows a family in southern India that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning - and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century a twelve-year-old girl, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this poignant beginning, the young girl and future matriarch - known as Big Ammachi - will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life, full of the joys and trials of love and the struggles of hardship. A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humour, deep emotion and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
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