The 2022 End of Year Book Survey

I started my year with Wolfsong by TJ Klune and by the end of the year it was still my favorite read of them all. This story was just so beautifully written and the characters own my heart.

I LOVE Boyfriend Material, so I had high expectations for its sequel, Husband Material. Maybe too high? I have mixed feelings about this book. It was funny and touching and basically delivered all the aspects I loved from Boyfriend Material, but I felt uncomfortable with the main conflict and how the main characters (mainly Luc) dealt with it.

I’m not even sure how I can begin to describe The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. It’s a romance. It’s a fantasy with zombie-like creatures. It is super sweet. It is kinda macabre. It’s cozy and whimsical and yet also gory at times. It’s feel-good but also may have you bawling a bit. Not many stories could pull of this many different vibes and yet still make so much sense. Basically, it’s one of a kind and surprising in all ways. I adored it!

I don’t know how many people actually read Wolfsong because of me, but it’s definitely the book and series I’ve been most vocal about throughout the year 🙂

I read a thriller, y’all! Just one during all of 2022, but hey, it’s a start! As I’m not a regular thriller reader, I’m not sure if I would review this the same as other bloggers who have more experience with thrillers, but for me it was a great first experience. I really enjoyed The Paris Apartment and thought it had the perfectly eerie atmosphere and was filled with the right amount of tension and suspense for this scaredy cat.

The Unbreakable Bladesong Druid. As with any Annette Marie book, the pace was once again unputdownable and the action scenes were sooo well done. The story moves at such a fast pace, but always has time for the emotional moments as well and I love this delicate balance. And the action scenes always feel like I’m watching a movie in my head, they’re so cinematic and will keep you hooked and on edge throughout the pages.

#sorrynotsorry

Look how absolutely beautiful this cover of The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh is!

And the story itself, based on Korean mythology, was also so very beautiful!

I read More Than A Little Warped by Annette Marie and Rob Jacobsen at the very end of the year, but it still reminded how much I LOVE the character of Kit. He’s memorable indeed, and definitely one of my all-time favorite characters.

I loved the writing in Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, but especially the feeling of nostalgia the writing managed to convey. It was just sprinkled with so much fond nostalgia and it was so easy to get invested into both the story, the place and the characters that it almost felt as if I was recounting my own childhood memories. The story just swoops you up and takes you away and that’s one thing I think all great stories have to do.

The No-Show by Beth O’Leary.
Definitely a read that stayed on my mind for quite a long time after reading it.

I’ve been loving all of Christina Lauren’s latest releases, but I still have a lot of their backlist to go through. In 2022 I finally read Love and Other Words (because a lot of reviews compared Every Summer After to Love and Other Words and since I loved one I figured I was bound to love the other too. I was right). This story was everything I love, definitely can’t believe I didn’t read this sooner.

The No-Show by Beth O’Leary.
No spoilers, but the twist in this was genius.

Nora and Charlie from Book Lovers by Emily Henry were bantery perfection! I love that Nora and Charlie quickly connect over their similarities like their love of books and commitment to their jobs, as well as their feelings of not being the ‘right type of person’ for the people around them. It was a refreshing pairing that strayed far away from the more popular opposites attract trope,

The pack. That is all.

As someone who LOVED The Love Hypothesis and who devoured the STEMinist novellas, I think it’s safe to say that Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood was one of my most highly anticipated releases of 2022 and… boy, did it deliver! I think I love this one even more than The Love Hypothesis, but to be fair that may be because I just read this one last and my opinion may change when I inevitably re-read The Love Hypothesis.

I noticed the Lovelight Farms series by B.K. Borison getting a lot of love from multiple fellow bloggers, so I decided to give the first book a try… and fell in love. The friends-to-lovers trope, the cozy Christmas tree farm setting, the lovable side characters… I loved it all and will definitely continue the series this year.

Lucas Martín from The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas. I think Lucas is my book boyfriend of the year. He’s a professional surfer and he’s just this adorable sunshiny cinnamon roll of a man. He’s sooo sweet and tender with Rosie, he helps out his elderly neighbor, he cooks, he loves his dog and he walks around in a towel. Oh and he talks (dirty) in Spanish. I totally get Rosie’s crush on him, because damn. Okay, maybe at times he felt a little too perfect to be real, but then again I don’t read books because they feel real…

I loved the writing in Every Summer After so much, I couldn’t believe it was a debut.

The worldbuilding in The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen is so unique and fun. There are gods and demigods and drudges and talking animal-messengers and it’s so amazing but also never too heavy.

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens was so much fun. It was the perfect palate cleanser for when you’re feeling slumpy, something perfect to read after a heavy and emotional read or just a quick, funny read for those days when you need a little light and serotonin in your life.

Are you getting tired of me yet?

I feel like The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston is definitely a hidden gem of 2022. I felt like The Dead Romantics perfectly embodied the fall vibe. It was a fun, atmospheric read with some quirk and just a tad of paranormal activity thrown in there and while I’ve seen other bloggers read and love it, I think it deserves more hype still.

Honestly, I stayed far away from most soul-crushing books in 2022. Except for this one. This one fooled me with its’ cheerfully illustrated cover.

There’s no denying that The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was the most unique book I read in 2022 (and probably beyond).

Though I enjoyed the Blood and Ash series so far, and A Shadow in the Ember (the first book in this series), I have to say I struggled to get through A Light in the Flame. The first 50-60% is really slow and not a lot happened which made me quite mad. Luckily, the last 40-50% really picked up and made me want to keep continuing with the series.