I read a total of 73 books in 2023. Not quite the 100 books I read in 2022, but I had set my target as 50 for last year and I’m very glad that I was able to reach 73 books in total.
Of all 73 books that I did read, I wanted to put together a list of my favourites. There were 20 books that I rated 5 stars during the year, but these 12 were the ones that really stood out to me as the best books.
And I’ve even ranked them from my most favourite of the year onwards, so the number one spot is my biggest recommendation from 2023.
You can always keep up with my reading in realtime on Goodreads @orlaghclaire, and on Instagram as well @orlaghclaire.
The 12 Best Books I Read in 2023
1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
My rating: ★★★★★
I am not a fantasy reader and never really have been (aside from Harry Potter of course) but I just had to see what the fuss was about with this book and oh my word, it did not disappoint. I’m so glad there’s a second book in this series and that it’s already available because this will be one of the first things I read in 2024, that’s for sure. So, even if you’re not a fantasy reader like I thought I wasn’t, I think you’re going to love this.
2. Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings
She is a beautiful, affluent, self-involved and mildly neurotic London socialite. He is Britain’s most photographed bad-boy lothario who broke her heart. But Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine are meant to be, and everyone knows it. They’re in the stars… just suspended in a strange kind of love that looks like hurting each other a lot of the time: She dates other people to keep him at bay; he sleeps with other girls to get back at her for it. But at the end of their every sad endeavour to get over one another, it’s still each other they crawl back to. But their dysfunction is catching up with them, pulling at their seams and fraying the world they’ve built; a world where neither has to ever let the other go completely. As the cracks start to show and secrets begin to surface, Magnolia and BJ are finally forced to face the formidable question they’ve been avoiding all their lives: how many loves do you really get in a lifetime?
My rating: ★★★★★
If there’s a gaping Gossip Girl hole in your heart like there is in mine, this book might just fill the void. If Chuck and Blair were transported to London, they would be Magnolia and BJ. Think couture fashion, socialites and posh people problems. Magnolia Parks gives this and more and I couldn’t read the book fast enough. I can’t wait to fully dive into this series and read even more about these characters.
3. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
My rating: ★★★★★
I read this book in 48 hours. I couldn’t put it down. If I wasn’t working, I probably would have read the whole thing in one sitting. I’ve seen this book everywhere recently and now I see why. I bought this for £2.50 in a This Works store and I’m going to run back to the store to see if they also have the second book in this series. Or anything else Freida McFadden has written. I haven’t read a psychological thriller like this since The Silent Patient. Obsessed.
4. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon. Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride. Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of. There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.
My rating: ★★★★★
Obsessed. That is my review of this book. It may have took 100 pages before the two main characters finally kissed but oh my word I was hooked to this book. The ending had my smiling from ear to ear and wishing it didn’t have to end. After I write this review, I’m off to purchase the next two books in this series. You need to read this if you like romance novels!
5. Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
New York is slipping from Cleo’s grasp. Sure, she’s at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn’t even have money for cigarettes. But then she meets Frank. Twenty years older, Frank’s life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art-and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. He is everything she needs right now. Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that’s Cleo’s best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank’s financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.
My rating: ★★★★★
My final book for January was a book that I had requested for Christmas and was so excited to read. And just as I had suspected, it did not disappoint. In fact, I would be surprised if this book doesn’t end up in my top books of 2023. It’s not a happy story by any means, but then my favourite books usually aren’t. This tells the story of a 25 year old British girl trying to stay in New York as her visa is running out (relatable) and marries a man in his forties to do so. Their love story unfolds and with it comes issues with alcohol, drugs, depression, grief, money, success (and lack of) and so much more. There are quite a lot of trigger warnings but this book felt so raw and real and I loved every page.
6. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
My rating: ★★★★★
I went into this book not knowing what to expect other than being set in rural Ireland. However, this short book inspired me to look deeper into the goings on of the Catholic Church and the Magdalene Sisters which I have added to my long list of things to watch. Amazingly written and left me with a lot of intrigue and questions as to what actually happened in these Laundries.
7. Happy Place by Emily Henry
A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
My rating: ★★★★★
I’m always apprehensive when Emily Henry publishes a new book. She’s still quite new on the scene, but since her first books like Beach Read and You and Me on Vacation went viral, it’s expected that each new novel also be viral-worthy. Can you imagine the pressure?! However, I found Beach Read and You and Me on Vacation quite mediocre reads and actually preferred her newer work, Book Lovers a lot more. And dare I say it, Happy Place may now have taken its place of my favourite Emily Henry book. So it seems that I have nothing to be apprehensive about since each new book that Henry publishes, the better they seem to get.
8. The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley
Every day Iona Iverson, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Bookworm and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse. This single event starts a chain reaction, and an eclectic group of people with almost nothing in common except their commute discover that a chance encounter can blossom into much more.
My rating: ★★★★★
I had this book recommended to me months ago by my manager as the Platform 5 in the book is actually the train that I get to work in Wimbledon. It was a little surreal reading about the stops and platforms in the book that I pass during my commute to and from work, but it meant I could picture everything so clearly and really envision the characters. This was some great light-hearted reading with so many eccentric characters that I would very much recommend to you for some escapism. However, I don’t see myself sparking up conversations with the passengers around me on my morning commute anytime soon.
9. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Meet the unconventional, uncompromising Elizabeth Zott.
My rating: ★★★★★
Obsessed. That is the one word that comes to mind when reviewing this book. It’s unlike any romance or fiction book I’ve ever read and that’s why I think I loved it so much. I never saw myself reading a book about Chemistry and I’m sure you’re probably thinking you wouldn’t want to either, but believe me this is about so much more than chemistry. It’s funny, sassy, full of feminism and one of the best books I’ve read so far in 2023.
10. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists – he a photographer, she a dancer – trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.
My rating: ★★★★★
A beautiful short story about relationships, masculinity and fighting emotions. Set in South London, the characters of this book leapt from the pages and felt incredibly real. For a debut novel, I can’t wait to see what else is to come from Caleb Azumah Nelson as this was exceptional.
11. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.
My rating: ★★★★★
Ok, I think this one may just be my favourite Colleen Hoover novel. I went in quite apprehensively as the blurb was showing a storyline/trope that I had never read before and that I didn’t have very high hopes for. However, the book evokes a lot of questions and discussion, as well as thinking of putting myself in the shoes of the main female character, the love interest and the family as well. What would I do and how would I react if I was in any of their shoes? The story is told incredibly well and one that I’ll remember for a long time.
12. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he’s lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather – but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
My rating: ★★★★★
I read Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo a few years ago and loved it, so when I saw another book by this author in the library I instantly picked it up. It definitely appeared to be one of her older books, but it was just as good as GWO. The main character Barrington is such a loveable character, but his eccentric daughters and wife make the story come to life, along with his soulmate Morris. A truly beautiful story that can make you both laugh and cry.
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