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tinkaton's 2023 Reading Round-Up!
I found an end-of-year book ask meme on Tumblr and snagged the questions to use for a wrap-up post on books I read in 2023 since it's been a while since I posted any book recs. (Feel free to steal the meme for yourself!) There was a lot of stuff I was looking forward to being released at the end of the year, November/December was a time of excitement for me lmao.
01. How many books did you read this year?
I'm a slow reader so I got through 41 books in 2023! And 15 of them were graphic novels, so technically I read 26 actual books.
02. Did you reread anything? What?
I did some buddy reads with a friend who had never read any of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse books before, nor Good Omens. So I re-read the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology, plus Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. I also re-read the Nimona graphic novel by N.D. Stevenson because the movie came out and I wanted to refresh my memory on the comic since I loved it so much when I first read it. So yeah, the Grishaverse took up a good chunk of my reading energy this year.
03. What were your top five books of the year?
The image up top is my top 10 of the year, but to narrow it down further... In no particular order:
A Power Unbound (Freya Marske) - Third in a series set in a magical Edwardian England, this book features an aristocratic magician who has lost his magic and a journalist who writes porn on the side teaming up with the previous books' characters to stop a conspiracy that threatens Britain's magical society. Also they make out a lot. This series is one of my newest top favorite series.
Dark Heir (CS Pacat) - I can't say anything about this without spoilers but if you read Captive Prince and liked it but are balking at this series because it's YA, PLEASE read Dark Rise don't be fooled. Pacat does not disappoint. Lots of twists on your standard YA fantasy tropes. Waiting for the next book in the series is going to kill me.
Silver Under Nightfall (Rin Chupeco) - I picked this up because it had vampires and a canon poly relationship. Highly recommend to people who think they might enjoy a horny vampire throuple book.
Solomon's Crown (Natasha Siegel) - Do you remember when we were all into Hetalia and shipping England/France was a thing? This feels like that except it's Richard the Lionheart/King Phillip of France and it's more serious.
All the Hidden Paths (Foz Meadows) - Sequel to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, this gay-arranged-marriage fantasy series has SO much happening all the time. There are so many murder attempts. The romantic drama. The politics. Objectively like a 3-star book but it's 5 stars in my heart.
Honorary mentions to Six of Crows which is one of my favorite books of all time, and to The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Deya Muniz) which was my favorite graphic novel of the year.
04. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?
A lot of my reads in 2023 were authors I'd already read, but I'd say out of the new authors I picked up the ones I'd keep an eye out for their next releases are Deya Muniz, Natasha Siegel, and Foz Meadows.
05. What genre did you read the most of?
Fantasy, closely followed by romance. Historical fantasy romance is my "guilty pleasure" as it were, except I'm not guilty about it I WILL make everyone read The Last Binding series by Freya Marske if it's the last thing I do.
06. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?
*looks at my 800-book to read list on Goodreads*
*looks back at the camera*
07. What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?
My average rating for 2023 is a 4.0 which seems about right. I'm very generous with my ratings, if I feel like something is maybe a half star I'll round up. For me, 3 stars is a decent book, maybe I wouldn't recommend it when there's better books to rec but I enjoyed it enough to actually finish at least. 4 stars I really enjoyed and would definitely rec but it may have some issues I nitpicked at. 5 stars are books I enjoyed reading so much I don't care if technically they could be better lmao that's MY baby.
08. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?
I don't set number goals or anything so I don't feel pressured, I am an "any amount of reading is good to me" sort of person. So yes, I met my reading goal of reading some books!!
09. Did you get into any new genres?
Nope, and honestly I think I regressed a little into reading even fewer genres sjhfksjsfd I have limited time and I know what I like to read.
10. What was your favorite new release of the year?
Technically my real answer to this is also my answer to #20 so for this one I'll instead say Dark Heir by CS Pacat. It's a sequel to Dark Rise which was released in 2021 and which ended on the most delicious twist/cliffhanger, so finally getting to see the outcome of that twist was so good. Lots of good drama in this one, new favorite character got introduced, and it left me very hyped up for the third book. Lots to think about etc.
11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?
Hmm most of my reads were fairly recent releases, so I'll say Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin which released in 2021. It's a spin-off/sort of sequel of an earlier series of Therin's that I had put off finishing, so I finally read the last book there and read Proper Scoundrels just in time to read its newly published sequel, Once a Rogue.
12. Any books that disappointed you?
I guess I'll say Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell, which was good (I still gave it 4 stars) but in a way disappointing to me because I enjoyed Maxwell's first book, Winter's Orbit, more and I wanted Ocean's Echo to be as good as that one. And it was a sci-fi book that involved concepts of mind control and mind melds and did NOT take advantage of that whatsoever in the romance arc which is like, the complete opposite of what I would've done if I'd been writing that book sdjfhskjdfs
13. What were your least favorite books of the year?
I didn't read anything particularly bad so hmm another disappointment maybe? I'll say Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, a sort of paranormal horror set at Yale and the sequel to Ninth House. I don't like this series nearly as much as I enjoy her Grishaverse books, it just feels totally different and kind of messy and I KNOW she can do better. At least when the Grisha books are messy they're fun messy. Hell Bent DOES have some wild stuff in it that's kind of funny and it's not like I'm not going to read the next book lmao, but there's too much that hasn't won me over to be like, a big fan of the series.
14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?
I finished everything I was reading before the year ended so yay! Fresh start for 2024.
15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?
lmaoooo me reading award-winners. Nimona probably won some graphic novel awards? Good Omens I'm sure has won something at some point. I do love those two.
16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?
Lore Olympus?? I complain about how that series isn't that good every time I read a new volume but still I keep reading it lmao I love a soap opera, okay. Those people who constantly hate on LO and say the art is bad are unfathomable to me though because I read western superhero comics and you don't Know what it means to have bad art until you've suffered like we have.
17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?
Hmm Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel maybe? I picked it up not expecting much, all I knew was it's a historical romance based on real people (Richard the Lionheart/King Phillip of France but like, so very altered that most of the historical accuracy seemed to be chucked out the window haha), but I ended up enjoying it a lot. The romance had me hooked and the prose was well-done, nicely emotional.
18. How many books did you buy?
I don't buy a lot of books (see the next question lol), just stuff I really like and want to have a copy of. So last year I think I only bought hardcover copies of the second and third Last Binding books (A Restless Truth and A Power Unbound), as well as special edition copies of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. Maybe one or two others I can't remember but that's about it. I really need to clean out my bookshelves to make space before I keep buying more stuff, honestly. T-T
19. Did you use your library?
Yes!! I literally only use my library because 1) I work there lol and 2) I hate spending money. Obligatory PSA if you have access to a local library please use it!! And if you don't, for USA folk check out the big libraries in your state and see if they let you get a digital card for ebooks and things! For example there's a major library in my state that lets anyone who lives in-state get a card, so I have an extra catalog for ebooks I can access.
20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?
A Power Unbound by Freya Marske!!! The last book in The Last Binding series which starts with A Marvellous Light, a historical fantasy romance series set in an Edwardian England where magic exists. There's a different main pairing for each book, but the characters and plot continue through the series as the main characters try to solve a murder mystery that leads to them attempting to thwart a plot that threatens Britain's magical society. The POV characters of this book were a couple I reallyyy wanted to see, one of whom was a side character in the previous two books that I latched onto immediately/is my favorite character of the series, so I was so happy he was getting the spotlight at last. And the book did meet my expectations, I loved it so much. ♥
21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?
Never lmao. Also I think this meme is old they didn't ask about BookTok. Anyway I hear occasionally about the big stuff that goes down with authors sometimes because of Twitter or whatever, but that's about it.
22. What’s the longest book you read?
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo, coming in at 608 pages.
23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?
Oh jeez my stats are skewed on this because of the graphic novels I logged that only took 1 day to read haha. I think probably under a week for some regular books? Usually those historical romances that aren't very long I can read pretty quick.
24. Did you DNF anything? Why?
I did not! I don't normally DNF stuff, I guess because I'm very easy-going when it comes to book quality lmao. When I do sometimes DNF stuff it's usually because I'm just not in the mood for something I might otherwise like at a different time.
25. What reading goals do you have for next year?
Same as always, just keep reading! So many people who used to read a lot wish they could read like they used to, but I think just reading what you can is worthwhile, even if it's only a few pages a night. So that's how I roll lol. 26 books is better than no books!
Phew, okay that took forever. If you made it all the way through that, thanks for reading!! Here's my Storygraph wrap-up stats and Goodreads year in books for anyone curious. (I use Goodreads more, but Storygraph has nicer stats and the buddy read feature is really cool.) For my fellow readers, what were your top books of 2023? Any recs? Let me know if you snag this meme/make a post!
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I'm staring intently at the 15 people in front of me in the holds for A Power Unbound. Come on guys, read it fast!
41 books is an impressive number, graphic novels or no!
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However my expectations for A Power Unbound were also high and it DID deliver so *kicks everyone out of the way for you so you can get your hold faster* I loved Hawthorn from his first scene in A Marvellous Light so I'm so happy he became a main character... And finally having all the POV characters together in one book and seeing them interact was so good 🥺 Definitely share your thoughts once you get to read it!!