Books of 2022
Those of you who know me in real life know I love to read. I was one of those kids who had a high school reading level in 4th grade and have been devouring everything I can get my hands on ever since. When I was in college I wasn’t able to read as much as I wanted since I had to do so much reading for classes, but during the lockdown of 2020, my family decided to do a book club and got me right back in the swing of it! The round-up from book club and the other books I was reading during that time can be found here.
The goal for last year was to read 25 books and I didn’t quite make it. I read a few pretty hefty novels and also just read as a hobby and leisure time so if it took me a while to finish a book that was ok! But that also meant I didn’t keep an updated post of the books I had read recently, so we are just going to do a 2022 book round-up of all the books I read last year! This year’s goal is also 25 books, and I already have finished one, so we are off to a good start! If you wanna follow me throughout the year and see the reviews in real time as I finish the books, feel free to follow me on GoodReads and on my Instagram where I post all the books I am reading as well. Now let’s get to it!
ACOTAR Series. This series was so much fun. I was hesitant when my cousin first recommended it to me, since I sometimes don’t love high fantasy, but I was pleasantly surprised, and read this series all within a few months. I love the way that Sarah J. Maas writes characters and really encapsulates trauma and the feelings that can come with that. Without any spoilers, a young human woman named Feyre is out hunting when she accidentally kills a Fae, and the price for her crime is to go and live with one of the Fae men. She soon discovers he is a High Fae and rules one of the kingdoms. Chaos, love, war and so much more occures as Feyre learns to navigate this new world. My favorite was the second novel of the series, and I cannot wait to read the next one whenever it finally comes out! If you are a fantasy lover, then you will enjoy this series I promise you! There are quite a few spicy scenes (especially the last book 🥵) so proceed with caution if that is not your thing.
Nine Perfect Strangers. I am a very big Liane Moriarty fan. I have read 4 of her books now and have so many more on my to-be-read (TBR) list. Her titles are very cheesy and often give off the impression that they would be very dumb, and kind of pulp novels, but they are very far from that. Her style is wonderful and she can create a world and characters so convincing, you feel sad when the novel is over because you don’t get to hang out with them anymore. She always weaves mystery into every novel and creates a twist so sudden that even once I started looking for them, I still wasn’t able to guess them correctly. This novel in particular had a pretty slow start and took me a while to get into. But once it got going I couldn’t put it down! This wasn’t my favorite I have read from her, but I did enjoy it and if you are a fan of hers it is definitely worth the read. I also preferred this to the tv show so much! I loved Big Little Lies (the show and the book) but this one was meant to just be a book in my opinion.
Ninth House. I have no words for how much I loved this book. It is magical and has fantasy elements. It has hell and demons. It has ghosts and creepy secret societies. There is nothing not to love about this novel. Alex Stern is one of the very few gifted people who can see grays (ghosts) without a magic elixir, which makes her a hot commodity on Yale’s campus for all the various secret societies to keep an eye on things when they perform rituals once a month. But when Alex’s mentor and boss of sorts disappears and someone starts blaming her and coming after her, her supervisor duties take a backseat and she uncovers all the secrets of the societies and her own gifts. It gives off the perfect dark academia vibes and is suspenseful and thrilling without being scary or horror. The second one just came out and I can’t wait to start it!
There is mention of drug addiction and sexual assault, but none of it is in detail or graphic.
Age of Consent. I really wanted to like this one so much more than I did. It’s about 3 girls in high school in the 80s and is sold as them spending a summer in NYC and all the things they get into. But half of it takes place in a boarding school, and it really is only two girls, the third of which is way more interesting and I would have loved the whole novel to be about her. Overall, it is set up to be a crazy, intense, promiscuous summer of 3 girls becoming women and learning about themselves and that is not what this is. I would skip this one if given the chance again.
Magic Lessons. This is a series of books that I am absolutely in love with and cannot recommend enough. This is technically where the whole story begins since this is all about the ancestor Maria they always talk about in Practical Magic, but it is 3rd to be released and in my opinion, you should really read them in order of release and not what the technical chronological order is. This one starts all the way back to the beginning when America was just a few colonies and the puritans ran everything. It stars Maria, a young witch trying to navigate her life, and shows the background of the famous curse that plagues the Owens women. As I write this, I just got the last installment of this series, bringing the total to 4 books that go full circle with the Owens women and their journeys with love and magic. I definitely and highly recommend this one.
Where the Crawdads Sing. I know people have a complicated view of this novel after learning that Delia Owens is suspected of/being connected to the murder of an African man in Zambia, one that has quite a few similarities to a murder that takes place in the book. If you are interested, this is a great article in The Atlantic that gives a good overview of the situation. I was not aware of this when I read the novel, and because I loved it so much, I am really mad that the author has turned out to be such a problematic figure.
The novel focuses on a young woman from the age of 4 all the way through her teens/young 20’s as an incredibly smart individual, but one who lives off the land with very little money or resources. She is accused of murdering a young man in town who is in good standing and not an outcast like her, and chaos ensues. While the driving forces of the plot are the murder and the “who done it” aspect, it focuses so much more on the beauty of this simple life, the hardships, learning to love after and during trauma, and how being different in society can lead to some rough things. I love the way this novel is written, and will likely read it again and again. I am not going to watch the movie or support any of her other projects, but since I have already bought this one, I will enjoy it. But it’s understandable if you chose not to!
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I was told not to read this by someone who said it was about a “boring, rich white lady and all her husbands” and let me tell ya: that could not be further from the truth. This story chronicles the life of a Hollywood star from her humble beginnings with barely enough to eat, to a rising star in the golden age of Hollywood, and everything she had to do to get there. This book will make you laugh, cry, hate men, hate the way the movie industry works, look at Hollywood with magic, and so much in between. Some parts or definitely slow since the premise is built on Evelyn Hugo telling her life story to Monique, for a memoir and to reveal something to Monique, but I really did enjoy it overall. And Taylor Jenkins Reid has a writing style I cannot help but love and envy. She writes characters that I cannot help but love even if they are terrible people.
My Best Friends Exorcism. This was a fun read! It felt like an 80’s summer camp horror movie complete with all the campiness and cheap thrills. I really loved all of the music and movie references in this one, as well as all the nods to 80s horror movies, but I did wish it was more horror. It was horror-light, to say the least, and even though it was still fun, I wanted more. It centers on a group of 4 girlfriends in high school and one of them gets possessed. Everything spirals out of control from there. Still a fun read, but there are a few gross. moments so if you are squeamish, beware.
The Book of Life. This trilogy was awesome. I absolutely loved it and had so much fun reading it. The premise is a young woman who is a professor, scholar, and witch who is denying the magical aspects of her life. She meets a vampire and befriends him as they go on a hunt for a magical manuscript and try and keep it from those who will use it for evil. The first is my favorite of the books by far, with the third a close second. The second one was by no means bad, but it really felt like a filler novel in many ways. Deborah Harkness can also get quite wordy so that can be a little bit of a challenge, but I loved the story and the overall plot and characters in it. If you are a fantasy fan, this is a must-read.
Love in the Time of Serial Killers. This one contains some light spoilers, but they also are spoiled pretty quickly in the actual novel so proceed as you wish!
This book was fun, and a great last read of the year. It was definitely a rom-com-style book, and a fluff read, but after the trilogy, it was nice to have something light and fun to finish off the year with. It was a fairly predictable plot and no grand twists or revelations, and the main character has very “not like other girls” energy, but it was enjoyable to read. I do wish there had been a little more of the thriller aspect, and more suspense when it came to whether or not the neighbor was a serial killer, but like I said, still fun overall.
That’s it! Those are all the books I read in 2022! I hope you enjoyed this little roundup, go ahead and follow me on GoodReads to stay up with what I am reading, and share with me in the comments some of your favorites you have read lately! I am always looking for new things to add to my list.
Madey