Earl Grey Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is a thankful freebie, and I thought I’d use it to talk about some of the books I’m thankful that I read this year. So let’s jump right in.

Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1) by Olivia Dade

This was really the book that started my love of contemporary romance. Previously, I’d only really stuck to historical romance and occasionally tried something else here and there. But this year, I fell in love with contemporaries, and Olivia Dade definitely had a big part to play in that. I’ve read five of Dade’s books in 2022, and I love the way she creates characters and these fun, sexy but realistic romances. I’m so excited for the third book in this series, which just came out last week.

Lovelight Farms (Lovelight Farms #1) by B.K Borison

I picked up Lovelight Farms on a whim, but it turned out to be one of my favourite books of the year. Though this is a contemporary romance as well, but B.K Borison just puts so much heart into her books that just makes them something incredibly special. This series has just made me feel incredibly happy, and I love recommending them to people, especially as we come into the holiday season as it takes place on a Christmas tree farm.

The Duke Heist (The Wild Wynchesters #1) by Erica Ridley

With my newfound love of contemporary romance, I found myself really struggling to get back into historical romance. I tried a few new authors this year, and the only one who really impressed me was Erica Ridley. This was fantastic and immediately reminded me why I fell in love with the genre in the first place. I think this will be a great series, and I’m excited to get to book two, which I just got for my birthday last month.

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

This was the first ever Mariana Zapata, and I’m so glad I decided to start with this one. This is beautiful and devastating all at once—it has a sweet, (extremely) slow-burn romance but it’s a lot about the main character’s grief for her mother. My mum passed when I was a teenager, so the way grief was represented absolutely tore me apart because of the way it felt so close and real to my own experience. I always love books that explore grief and its aftermath.

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Which is part of the reason The Dead Romantics made it to this list as well. So obviously, this one also talks about grief, specifically losing a parent, but it’s also a really fun romp. The main protagonist is a ghostwriter for a famous romance writer who is struggling to write her next book when she ends up teaming up with an actual ghost.

A Few Right Thinking Gentlemen (Rowland Sinclair #1) by Sulari Gentill

This one was sent to me by my bestie Mel last year, and I was so nervous about it then. This is a historical crime/mystery set here in Australia which is really not in my comfort zone, but I read it last week and was completely blown away. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever read and it might not even make my favourites for the year, but I’m thankful that I read it because it really threw me into a historical crime/mystery reading spree, and I’ve been really enjoying that lately.

Touched By Fire (Magic Wars: Demons of New Chicago #1) by Kel Carpenter

I’m thankful for this one because it’s a really fun paranormal romance with a sort of dystopian-ish feel to it with a really interesting world and all that. But mostly, I’m thankful for it because it has a really lovely female friendship at its centre or at least the development of one. My best friend Angel is my family—she’s the person who has kept me alive over the past few years, and I couldn’t live without her, so when I see female friendships like that in fiction, it always makes me really happy.

Frostheart (Frostheart #1) by Jamie Littler

I had a bit of a hard time with fantasy for a while this year, but then Frostheart came along. Middle-grade fantasy is one of my favourite things to read because there’s just something so magical about it and while I love a bit of gritty/smutty fantasy romance, I’ll always come back to MG. Frostheart is such a great example of why MG is so good—it hits all the right notes and has some adorable illustrations as well. I also got book two of this for my birthday so excited to get to that one too.

The Sunbearer Trials (The Sunbearer Duology #1) by Aiden Thomas

I’m honestly surprised that this one made the list. I read my first Aiden Thomas (Lost in the Neverwoods) earlier this year, and it was one of my least favourites, so the fact that this one blew me away is really surprising. This had a really interesting world and plot, and I absolutely adored one of the side characters, Xio, to the point that he might be my favourite character of the year. This whole book gave me the same feelings as reading Heroes of Olympus for the first time—it’s a very different story, but it just had those feelings for me.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I held off reading any TJR for a while because I tend to really dislike hyped books, but eventually, I had to give in. I LOVED this. I really didn’t expect too, but from the very beginning, I was completely engaged. I also read Daisy Jones this year, but Daisy just doesn’t hold a candle to Evelyn for me. I’m glad that I finally gave TJR a chance and that I ended up really loving her books.

That’s it for today. Have you read any of these? What books are you thankful for this year?