Top 10 of 2022

Happy 2023 folks! It’s that time of year again when I share my favourite books from the outgoing year. I always struggle to narrow it down to just ten books, but this year was particularly hard as I have read some truly amazing books. After much toing and froing though, I have managed to whittle my list down from 40-something to just ten. These are purely in the order that I read them rather than a chart run down. Click on the titles to read my reviews of each of these:

• Dusky Dahlia – Lucy Holden
  • I absolutely adore the Nightgarden Saga by Lucy Holden, and having read the final three books in the series in 2022, it was hard to choose just one. In the end, it had to be Dusky Dahlia because of the depth of emotion in the story.

• The Embroidered Book – Kate Heartfield
  • Two of my favourite genres are historical fiction and fantasy, so when the two collide, it is a dream come true for me. This stunning book is a reimaging of Europe at the time of Marie Antoinette, and I could not put it down!

• Nothing Burns As Bright As You – Ashley Woodfolk (review coming soon)
  • This YA novel in verse is as beautiful as it is devastating. I wanted to review it as soon as I read it, but I just could not find the words – to be honest, nine months later, I am still struggling.

• Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl – Joya Goffney
  • This was a tricky decision for me, because I also read Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya in 2022, and I loved both books equally, but only had space for one. I ended up choosing this one because I think that its subject matter is something that should be spoken about more.

• The Ghost of Ivy Barn – Mark Stay
  • I can’t get enough of the Witches of Woodville series by Mark Stay, and I loved this latest instalment. Each book has a slightly different feel to it, and I found this one a lot more emotional than I had expected. Oh, and I cannot stress this enough, you HAVE to look up Mr Stay’s unboxing videos!

• The Wedding Cake – Isabella May
  • If you don’t know by now that I am a huge Isabella May fan, then I don’t know where you have been for the last five years! I love, love, love her Foodie Romance series! It is just wonderful.

• Words In Deep Blue – Cath Crowley (review coming soon)
  • Oh my, this book! It was recommended to me by a friend, you know the type, “You have to read this book, it will destroy you!” and she certainly wasn’t wrong. I know this is a book that I will keep coming back to – just as soon as I recover from reading it the first time!

• We Are All Constellations – Amy Beashel
  • Yet another book that left me in absolute bits! I think maybe I should read some happier books in 2023, but I just can’t help myself with the emotional rollercoasters!

• Goblins of Lapland – Caedis Knight
  • While a lot of the books on my list this year are YA, this one is most definitely an 18+! The latest in the Blood Web Chronicles is a festive prequel full of Christmassy delights!

• The Witch and the Tsar – Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
  • Finishing off this year’s list is one of the last books I read in 2022, and another where history meets fantasy, this time in Russia as Ivan the Terrible encounters a reimagined Baba Yaga. It was the perfect wintery read to curl up with in the days before Christmas.

What were your favourite books in 2022? I would love to see your lists to add to my TBR!

Blue Lilies – Lucy Holden

Happy publication day Lucy Holden! Blue Lilies, book six in the fabulous Nightgarden Saga is released today. Many thanks also Lucy for entrusting me with an advanced copy of this book

BLURB:

Time. Truth. Tears.

Everything has led to this moment. Harper thought she was ready. But now everything is different. Everything she fought to protect is lost in time. Her greatest enemy is her only friend. And Harper is no longer the girl she once was.

REVIEW:

Blue Lilies is the penultimate book in the Nightgarden Saga, and as happy as I always am to have a new book in the series to read, each book also makes me a little sad as the end of the series draws ever nearer.

There is a lot of information to take in at the start of this book, before the story really gets going, but it was so interesting that it didn’t just feel like an information dump. In fact, I found it so fascinating that it left me wanting more. Aside from the characters, who I think you all already know I adore, one of my favourite things about this series is the way Lucy Holden has included so much from cultures that I knew next to nothing about, and how she has managed to intertwine different mythologies so beautifully.

Where Dusky Dahlia is my favourite book in terms of the depths of emotion, Blue Lilies is perhaps the most exciting. I was completely gripped as the story built and built to the dramatic events that were coming and I devoured this book in a matter of hours. I don’t think I have ever been more glad that I already had a book’s sequel ready to read as I was when I finished Blue Lilies! Watch this space for more on that book coming soon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lucy Holden is a pseudonym for Paula Constant, Random House published author of Sahara and Slow Journey South and indie author of the Visigoths of Spain historical fiction series. The Nightgarden Saga is Paula’s first foray into YA/NA paranormal romance.

Lucy Holden is Paula’s alter ego. She is a romantic tragic and has a deep fascination for all things supernatural. Starting with Anne Rice as a teenager, Paula has read her way through the vampire panoply. Her passion for the supernatural is so ingrained, she can recite whole scenes from The Vampire Diaries.

Her favourite thing in the world to do is sit on Cable Beach at midnight under a full moon with a glass of wine, something she gets to do almost every month not that she lives in the tropical North West town of Broome, Australia.

While off work with a broken leg, Paula wrote the entire Nightgarden Saga and now has plans for two related series set in the same world.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Dusky Dahlia – Lucy Holden

Happy publication day to Lucy Holden and Dusky Dahlia, the fifth book in the Nightgarden Saga. I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book from Lucy, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! If you haven’t read the rest of the series, I highly recommend it, especially before you read on, because there are spoilers ahead!

You can read my review of Red Magnolia, the first book in the series, HERE. As an added bonus, Red Magnolia is free to download on Amazon from today until 20th January, so make sure you don’t miss out.

BLURB:

Magical. Mystical. Unimaginable.

Harper’s dreams are strange. But her reality is about to become stranger than any dream.

Nobody will believe her. Harper isn’t sure she believes it herself. Until the waterpaths take her somewhere she never thought she’d be again – to someone she thought lost to her forever. Now she has more than one unlikely miracle to explain, and no way to prove her story.

Worse, Harper knows the only way to keep them all safe is for her to travel the waterpaths again. Antoine is just as determined to stop her trying.

Deepwater has a new vampire. One who seems willing to help Harper do what she must. But nobody knows quite where she comes from, nor what happened to her Maker. Antoine doesn’t trust her.

Harper doesn’t know who to trust. But she knows someone who does.

She just has to work out how to get back to her.

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

REVIEW:

Regular readers will know that I absolutely love this series, and the first four books all featured in my top reads of 2021. After reading and reviewing Red Magnolia, I decided that I would save the rest of this fantastic series to review en masse once I had read them all. However, I then had the opportunity to join Lucy Holden’s Street team and I couldn’t resist.

Each book in the series starts with a letter written by Harper to her twin sister, Tessa. Throughout the series, these have served as a handy refresher and link to the previous book, but the letter that starts Dusky Dahlia sounded so desperately lonely that it made me feel quite sad.

As much as I have loved each book in the series, Dusky Dahlia is my favourite so far. Where there has been a lot of world building and action up until now, this book sees something of a change of pace. It is so full of emotion that it really touched my heart. The night garden and water garden felt so real, I could practically see and smell them, hear the leaves rustling in the breeze.

Although I am no stranger to books of a paranormal nature, Lucy’s use of ancient cultures that are, to me at least, less familiar than your average vampire origin tale has been absolutely fascinating. I can’t get enough of the different stories and origins that are being introduced in each book.

Each book in this series has such a gorgeous cover, each of which links beautifully to the night garden that Harper is growing throughout the series, and I can’t wait to see them all lined up together.

Forget Edward Cullen, or whichever Salvatore brother stole your heart, Antoine Marigny is the number one vampire in my heart. I hope you love him just as much as I do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lucy Holden is a pseudonym for Paula Constant, Random House published author of Sahara and Slow Journey South and indie author of the Visigoths of Spain historical fiction series. The Nightgarden Saga is Paula’s first foray into YA/NA paranormal romance.

Lucy Holden is Paula’s alter ego. She is a romantic tragic and has a deep fascination for all things supernatural. Starting with Anne Rice as a teenager, Paula has read her way through the vampire panoply. Her passion for the supernatural is so ingrained, she can recite whole scenes from The Vampire Diaries.

Her favourite thing in the world to do is sit on Cable Beach at midnight under a full moon with a glass of wine, something she gets to do almost every month not that she lives in the tropical North West town of Broome, Australia.

While off work with a broken leg, Paula wrote the entire Nightgarden Saga and now has plans for two related series set in the same world.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Red Magnolia – Lucy Holden

Happy publication day to Lucy Holden and her fabulous YA paranormal romance, Red Magnolia, book one in the very exciting sounding Nightgarden Saga. Many thanks to Lucy for my copy of the book, which I received via NetGalley.

BLURB:

Decadent. Dark. Devastating. Seventeen-year-old Harper Ellory knows the ruins of the past are a dark place for a new beginning. Then she meets Antoine Marigny, and discovers just how seductive darkness can be. After the death of her twin sister, Harper dreams of a new life. But not only is the Mississippi mansion she moves into cursed, it’s also Antoine Marigny’s family home. Now he wants it back—no matter the cost.

Harper’s seen too much death to be frightened off by a curse. But Antoine is a different kind of threat. He has an infuriating smile, an annoying habit of turning up when she least expects it, and a frustrating knack for getting Harper to talk about things she’d rather keep hidden.

Like her emotions.

Antoine is also keeping secrets of his own. Secrets that Harper suspects are far darker than the curse he says he wants to protect her from.

Harper knows Antoine is dangerous. Part of her wants to take his offer and run. No dream is worth dying for.

But Harper is done running from death.

She’s ready to make an offer of her own. An offer destined to turn Antoine Marigny’s life upside down.

Even if it means binding herself to the curse forever.

Red Magnolia is the bewitching first installment of the Nightgarden Saga. A heart wrenching YA/NA paranormal romance full of Southern Gothic atmosphere, supernatural adventure, and shocking twists that will keep you turning pages deep into the night.

If you’re a fan of The Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and romance that rips your heart out, you’ll love the Nightgarden Saga. Red Magnolia is a YA/NA paranormal romance that is sweet with heat, without any explicit scenes, suitable for ages twelve and up. The first in a series of seven, it can be read as a stand alone or as part of the series.

REVIEW:

Red Magnolia is a compelling read, which I sped through in one day because I was so hooked on it. Although it is not entirely unpredictable, it is well written and I found I was invested in the characters very quickly. I couldn’t read the book fast enough to discover what would happen to them. In my head, the mysterious Antoine Marigny was a dead ringer for Teen Wolf’s Derek Hale, which was a definite bonus for me!

I am a sucker for a good vampire book (if you’ll excuse the pun), and I absolutely loved this book. The setting is rich with history and the secrets surrounding the old Marigny house add a real gothic feel to the story.

Red Magnolia is definitely one for fans of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. It has everything you could possibly wish for in a YA vampire book, and I am very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series.