Being Anne’s Books of the Year 2023 #books #fiction #romance #bookbloggers #amreading #FavouriteBooks2023 #RespectRomFic

Yes, it’s that time of year again – and this was shaping up to be one of the most challenging lists I’ve ever compiled. My goodness, what a wonderful year of reading! When I produced my first Books of the Year post, way back in 2014, I actually managed to produce a list of twelve – but, I must confess, with a ramble that followed adding at least another dozen. Eighteen in 2015 – and, by some miracle, I managed that again in 2016. But things started to slide in 2017 with a top twenty – and the numbers have been steadily on the rise ever since, which is something I’m most certainly not going to apologise for!

I’ve read 166 books this year – but that includes the year’s 15 audio books that I haven’t reviewed here, and I’ll be writing another post in the next few days to tell you about them. And, to my shame, three (really excellent) books entirely slipped the net, and there are two more pre-Christmas reads (also excellent!) that I just haven’t got round to reviewing – I’ll put that right in January, just to satisfy myself that I’ve rounded off the year.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve now got rather good at choosing books I know I’ll enjoy – there are always a small number when I don’t get it quite right, but those are the books I won’t tell you about (and why would anyone want to do that?). I also know that I perhaps give more five star reviews than other readers do (on Amazon and Goodreads, not here) – but that only makes it many times more difficult to choose the year’s stand-out reads. Those authors I’ve read who aren’t featured in this post will already know, I hope, how much I loved their books – and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed scrolling back through last year’s reviews and remembering how each one made me feel…

In the same way I did last year, I’ve broken the final list down into a few different categories – starting as I finished the year, with the Christmas reads. There was a time when I didn’t include them in my list – but that felt so very wrong when I enjoy them so much! There were so many that deserved a place in my final list, but I’ve narrowed it down to a favourite six (ouch – and maybe I should have made it eight?!)…

Here they are – all the links are to my reviews, where you’ll also find the buying links you might need.

The Gingerbread Christmas Village by Kiley Dunbar

Christmas at the Cat Cafe by Jessica Redland

The Perfect Christmas Village by Bella Osborne

The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft

The Gingerbread House in Mistletoe Gardens by Jaimie Admans (and that sadly means I couldn’t include A Midnight Kiss on Ever After Street elsewhere, however much I loved it – I only allow one book per author!)

Four Weddings and a Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

And this is the point when things began to become rather difficult – I’ve read a tremendous number of books in series this year, and they might just have made up the majority of my reading. Some series were just starting, others were ending, and yet more were… well, just continuing really. And just sometimes, books I enjoyed were more loosely part of a series, and it just didn’t feel right to select one as a standalone book of the year. And yes, I know I’m overcomplicating things, but hey, I’ve lost sleep over this one!

So, I think what I must do is mention a number of series that I’ve really enjoyed – and I’m bound to forget a few, so my apologies!

There were those just beginning – including Jessica Redland’s Escape to the Lakes (just one book so far, but I so enjoyed The Start of Something Wonderful – the link is to my review), Sandy Barker’s Ever After Agency (also just one book so far, but Match Me If You Can was fantastic), Katie Marsh’s Bad Girls Detective Agency (did you catch my review of How Not To Murder Your Ex?), Judy Leigh’s Morwenna Mutton Mysteries, and Jo Bartlett’s new Cornish Country Hospital series.

And then there were the series that were already firm favourites – like Anna Stuart’s Women of War (The Midwife of Berlin was just superb…), Jessie Wells’ Good News Gazette, Audrey Davis’ Cranley Wishes, Maggie Christensen’s Bellbird Bay, Kim Nash’s Cornish Cove, Helen Rolfe’s Heritage Cove, Sharon Booth’s Witches of Castle Clair (and no, I haven’t read the final book yet – treating myself to that one in January!), Della Galton’s Puddleduck Farm, Julie Caplin’s Romantic Escapes, Christina Courtenay’s Runes series, Jo Lambert’s Cornish Coastal romances, Fay Keenan’s Roseford and Jill Steeples’ Primrose Woods.

And then there were the rather looser series – like Clare Huston’s Love in the Comptons (this year’s Clues to You was so good!) and Julie Houston’s excellent books featuring the Quinn triplets (I really enjoyed both The Village Vicar and The Girls of Heatherly Hall, read and reviewed this year).

Where I’ve mentioned individual books, the links are to my reviews – to see my reviews of others, just enter the author’s name in the search box on the right hand side of the page. But I really do need to name my top favourite series, don’t I? And there were two…

Jo Bartlett’s Cornish Midwives – two read and reviewed this year, A Change of Heart and last in series (and what a perfect finish!), Happy Ever After

TA Williams’ Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mysteries – four read and reviewed this year, and very much looking forward to more…

And now the most difficult bit of all – my favourite books of the year. I’ve honestly spent days over this list – moving books in and out, reading some of my reviews again, reducing the numbers to the point it really hurt, then slowly adding books back in again. And then, as I was resuming the struggle yet again, I saw Friday’s posts from two friends whose blogs I particularly admire. First of all, Linda Hill at Linda’s Book Bag produced her 2023 Top 30 Favourite Reads (yes – not 12, or 15, or 20 – she chose 30!), and what an excellent list it is. And then I saw Anne Cater’s superb Top Reads post on Random Things – 9 predictions from 2022 that proved right, a central list of 24, then seven further 2024 predictions. Both posts read like glorious celebrations of everything that was good about their reading over the last year – and I wondered what on earth I was doing, trying to compare books that were so different from each other, deciding which I thought was better or best.

So… I’ve decided to have a celebration of my own! Here are my 36 top standalone books of 2023 (in groups of 12) – every one very much recommended, listed in order of reading, if you click on the titles you can read my reviews again, and the only “rule” I’ve applied is that each author can have only one entry…

Sisters by Judith Barrow

Nobody Puts Romcoms in the Corner by Kathryn Freeman (with a special mention for Was It Good For You, which I also loved…)

The Daughter-in-Law by Fanny Blake

Sincerely, Me by Julietta Henderson

The Venice Secret by Anita Chapman

The Paris Notebook by Tessa Harris

End of Story by Louise Swanson

Dark Highland Skies by Lizzie Lamb

The Little Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page

The Collaborator’s Daughter by Eva Glyn (with a special mention for The Lost Heir by alter ego Jane Cable…)

Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb

The Cruise by Caroline James

Watching from the Wings by Christine Webber

The Memory of You by Samantha Tonge (with a special mention for When We Were Friends too… it was a close thing!)

A Vintage Vacation by Maddie Please

The World Outside My Window by Clare Swatman (but I also loved A Love to Last a Lifetime…)

The Guest House By The Sea by Faith Hogan

The Recipe for Happiness by Jane Lovering (just edged it over There’s No Place Like Home…)

The Way To The Sea by Victoria Connelly

The Fascination by Essie Fox

The Secret of Villa Alba by Louise Douglas

One by Eve Smith

The Women Who Wouldn’t Leave by Victoria Scott

Echoes on a Cornish River by Kate Ryder

The Associate by Victoria Goldman (whoops, part of a series – but it was ever so good!)

The Lost Diary by Rose Alexander

A Beautiful Rival by Gill Paul

The Major and the Scandalous Widow by Sarah Mallory

The Daughter of the Fens by Elena Collins (with a special mention for The Lady of the Loch, and The Vintage Village Bake Off by her alter ego Judy Leigh…)

Secrets of the Shell Sisters by Adrienne Vaughan (and another whoops, part of a series – I was getting tired! – and entirely readable as a standalone)

Take Me Home by Beth Moran (and I’d also thoroughly recommend We Are Family…)

Snow Days With You by Leonie Mack (but I did love A Taste of Italian Sunshine too…)

No 23 Burlington Square by Jenni Keer

The Last Train from Paris by Juliet Greenwood

The Pieces of Us by Caroline Montague

Only You by Eva Jordan

To all the authors I’ve enjoyed, I’m so sorry if I haven’t included your book – I really could have made the post twice as long, but even I had to draw a line somewhere! But thank you, everyone, for a year of so much reading pleasure. And, in addition to the thanks to the authors (and, of course, their publishers), I really must thank everyone who has provided such magnificent support throughout another great year of reading and reviewing – blogger friends, blog tour organisers, readers and friends. A particularly special “thank you” too for all those Twitter (no, I can’t call it X either…) shares that always mean so much, both to me and the authors I’ve featured.

I won’t be taking a January break this year, much as I might have liked to – there were too many books coming out that I really wanted to read and review around publication. But I will be taking it a little easier for a few weeks – just six blog tour reviews, with an extra post here and there, gearing up for a busier February. I’ll be catching up on some books I’ve missed (and yes, of course I’ll tell you about them later!), getting a head start on the next month’s reading, doing some life admin and planning my treats for the year ahead, and recharging my batteries a little. And I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year, and happy reading!