My Top Reads for 2022

I read 105 books in 2022 and it was so hard to choose just 10 favourites that I gave up and selected 12! Like last year, my favourite genre to read seems to be fantasy (escapism!), particularly books that have a nod to fairy stories or myths. I also love romantic comedy and historical fiction. There are some new-to-me authors this year, such as Vanessa Len, Rachel Gillig and A.G. Slatter, as well as old favourites Harlan Coben, Sarah Morgan and Karen Swan.

The list is in the order I read them. If you'd like to see what other books I've enjoyed this year, you can find them on Goodreads. 

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len

Sent to stay with her late mother's eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her job at the historical Holland House, and when her co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place. Then a Good Samaritan attempt gone wrong sends Joan spinning through time, and her life begins to quickly unravel. Her family aren't eccentric, they're monsters with terrifying hidden powers. And Nick isn't just a cute boy: he's a legendary monster-slayer who will do anything to bring them down. Because in this story, Joan is not the hero... Full review here.

The Match by Harlan Coben

Wilde tries to locate his real family via a family history website - one of those that uses DNA samples to match relatives. When one of his contacts disappears under mysterious circumstances, Wilde feels obliged to investigate. The trail leads to a secret online group who expose online trolls. When people connected with this group begin to die, one by one, it becomes clear a killer is out for revenge - and the next person on their list could be Wilde. Full review here.

The Birdcage by Eve Chase

Twenty years after their last visit, half-sisters Lauren, Kat and Flora are summoned to Rock Point: the beautiful and windswept Cornish cliff house where they sat for their father's most famous painting, Girls and Birdcage. The last time they were all together, in 1999 for the Eclipse, something terrible happened. Now they're back, no one mentions it - which Lauren finds unsettling and confusing, because there's a bit of a gap in her memory... Full review here.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Nora is a literary agent often compared to a shark. Charlie is an editor with a publishing house and is Nora's Nemesis after he turned down one of Nora's authors who went on to become a bestseller. The bestselling book in question was a feel-good story set in a small town called Sunshine Falls. For a treat, Nora's sister suggests they take a holiday there but it soon becomes apparent that the Sunshine Falls in real life is not remotely like the one in the book. To make matters worse, everywhere Nora goes she bumps into Charlie. What on earth is HE doing in Sunshine Falls? And is Nora's sister being entirely honest about the reason that they're here too...? Full review here.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

In 1754, renowned maker of clocks and automata Abel Cloudesley must raise his new-born son Zachary when his wife dies in childbirth. When an accident leaves six-year-old Zachary nearly blinded, Abel is convinced that the safest place for his son is in the care of eccentric Aunt Frances, who owns a menagerie of weird and wonderful animals. Offered a job by a politician with dubious intentions, Abel leaves his son, his workshop and London behind. This decision will change the course of all their lives forever. Full review here.

This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

At the beginning of time, the goddess Dea created mankind but Crollo insisted humans were too flawed to survive. So the two of them made a wager. Crollo could send his demons to kill the humans but Dea would would bless the humans with gifts: 'Fontes', who are born with magic to defeat the demons, and one 'Finestra' to enhance that magic when the time came to do battle.

Three years ago Alessa was chosen to be her island's Finestra but so far she has accidentally killed each of the three Fontes she chose to be her partner. Now, with only weeks left until a hungry swarm of demons devours everything on her island home, Alessa is running out of time to find another partner and stop the invasion. When a powerful priest convinces the faithful that killing Alessa is the island's only hope, even her own soldiers are tempted to assassinate her! Full review here.

The Path of Thorns by A.G. Slatter

Asher Todd goes to live with the eccentric Morwood family as governess to their three young children. Asher knows little about being a governess, but she is skilled in botany and herb-craft - and perhaps a little bit more. Morwood Grange might be a creepy old house, chock-full of dark family secrets, but Asher has a few of her own - not least the real reason why she is there! And exactly what did happen to the governess before her...? Full review here.

Book of Night by Holly Black

Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn't pick, a book she couldn't steal, or a bad decision she wouldn't make. She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie...

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto has been coached by her father from her childhood to be a winner at tennis, partly because she has a natural talent, inherited from him, but also to help them both cope with the unexpected death of her mother. By the time she retires from the sport she holds several sporting records, including that of most Slam wins, and is considered a sporting legend. When another tennis player looks set to break that record, years later, Carrie announces her comeback. But in risking everything, is she making a terrible mistake? Full review here.

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Centuries ago, when the townsfolk of Blunder wanted help, they would seek blessings and gifts from the Spirit of the Wood. One day, the Spirit granted the King powerful magic of his own. He wanted to share this with his people so he created the twelve Providence Cards. 

Twelve blessings, twelve, curses...

Now the townsfolk had magic of their own, they forgot about worshipping the Spirit, who began using mist to lure people back to the wood in revenge. Children caught in this mist grew sick. Few survived, but those that did were 'infected' with magic that caused them to degenerate. So the King went back to the wood to barter with the Spirit, who told him the way to cure the children was to reunite the Cards - then she tricked him into handing over the last Card before he could do so. Full review here.

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan

Lucy works for an advertising agency, which feels more like family than work, especially since her only relative, her grandmother, died at Christmas a couple of years back. Now the agency is in trouble, she doesn't hesitate to head off to Scotland to try to win over Ross Miller, the CEO of a famous gym/sportswear company. She even has the perfect way to get his attention. Wrap her proposal to look like a present and hand-deliver it to his house. What could possibly go wrong?  Full review here.

The Christmas Postcards by Karen Swan

Natasha is staying in an Airbnb in Vienna with her husband and young daughter Mabel, when they oversleep and nearly miss their plane. Too late they realise Mabel's precious toy cow, Moolah, has been left behind. Even when they return to their home in the Cotswolds, Mabel is distraught and refuses to sleep without it. Unable to find a substitute, Natasha puts out a request on social media that goes viral. It turns out Moolah was found by a climber named Duffy, who has now adopted it as a lucky mascot because it reminded him of a toy his sister had. Now hiking through the Himalayas, Duffy can occasionally get an Internet connection, but there are no post offices, so he can't send Moolah back. Instead, he sends electronic postcards to Mabel detailing all Moolah's adventures. Full review here.

My Top Ten Reads of 2021

I read 120 books in 2021 and it was so hard to choose just ten for this post! In the end, I did a If-I-was-about-to-be-marooned-on-a-desert-island-which-ten-books-could-I-not-live-without thing, and so here they are!

Scrolling through my Goodreads account, I can see a definite tailing-off of crime fiction, which I rarely read anymore, unless it is by favourite author such as Harlan Coben, Elly Griffiths or Lisa Jewell. I'm reading less historical romance but more general historical fiction, and I love the new trend for gothic mysteries! I'm also reading more romantic comedy and romantic fantasy/YA fantasy. A reaction to the times, I wonder?

(The books are listed in the order I read them!)

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories is a companion to Holly Black's bestselling Folk of the Air series, about a human girl who rises to power in the land of the fey. This book is a series of linked short stories about one of the characters, Prince Cardan. Beautifully illustrated but best suited to fans/readers of the series! If you're interested, start with #1, The Cruel Prince! 

Win by Harlan Coben

Twenty years ago, Win's cousin Patricia was kidnapped from the family home during a robbery and kept in an isolated log cabin for months. She finally escaped, but so did her kidnappers, and the items stolen were never seen again - until now.

An elderly recluse has been found murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside a priceless Vermeer painting and a suitcase with Win's initials. How is the man linked to Patricia's kidnapping and is it connected to another cold case involving domestic terrorism? The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades but Win has two things they do not - a personal connection to the case, a large fortune - and his own unique brand of justice!

Full review here.

You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry

Poppy and Alex meet on their first day at university and Do Not Get On, but that doesn't matter because they'll never see each other again, right? Wrong! When Poppy's friend manages to blag her a lift back home at the end of the year with someone who lives in the same town, guess who it is? Alex. By the time they reach their home town they've developed a friendship of sorts and agree to go on a summer vacation with each other.

A few years later Alex is a teacher, happy to stay in the dead-end town where they grew up. Poppy, however, cannot wait to travel the world. The blog she writes, detailing her experiences, becomes such a success she's offered a job at a famous travel magazine. Soon she and Alex are taking holidays all around the world at the magazine's expense. Until one summer, she and Alex fall out. For two years they don't even speak until she accidentally texts him, one text leads to another, and they agree to go on one last holiday together...

Full review here.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This story is set in Malibu and split between the 1950s (leading up to the 80s) and 1983. In the 50s we see singer Mick Riva marry sweet loyal teenager June Costas, and witness the effect his fame (and philandering) has on their marriage and four children. In the present, his daughter Nina is preparing for her famous annual party - except her tennis-star husband has just left her and she'd rather be surfing anyway. And her sister has invited an unexpected guest... It looks as though it will be a very fiery family reunion...

Full review here.

The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan

Kathleen used to have a popular TV travel show but now she's 80 years old and chaffing at the restrictions others (mainly her daughter, Liza) seem to want to force upon her due to her age. Liza feels Kathleen should give up her home on the beach in Cornwall and go into some form of retirement home. So Kathleen retaliates by booking a road trip across America. She can't drive but that's not a problem - she'll hire Martha to drive her!

Martha is only too eager to jump at the chance to get away from her family and ex-boyfriend, who want to belittle her at every opportunity. Won't they be surprised (and hopefully impressed) to learn she has a new job driving a TV star across America? There is only one teensy problem. Martha can't drive...

Full review here.

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

In 2017, Tallulah goes on a date with her boyfriend Zach, leaving her baby with her mother Kim. The next morning Tallulah still hasn't come home. Kim discovers that Tallulah and Zach were invited to the local big house, Dark Place (which already has a sinister reputation), but when Kim calls around the owner says that all the teenagers left after the party. Kim knows Tallulah would never willingly abandon her baby. So where is she? 

Two years later, when everyone but Kim has moved on with their lives, a crime writer called Sophie spots a sign in the local woods that says 'Dig Here'...

Full review here.

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan

Award-winning director Clover Phillips is enjoying the accolades from her last documentary when she encounters Kit Foley, a surfer and snowboarder as famous for controversy as he is for winning championships.

Involved in an accident that had devastating consequences for a bitter rival, Kit has never told his side of the story. Determined to change that, Clover heads to the Austrian Alps with the intention of making Kit the subject of her next documentary.

It's hard to get the truth out of someone who hates you, and goes out of their way to avoid you, but is Kit really the heartless monster that everyone believes he is?

Full review here.

One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley

Elderly widow Sabine knows this will be her last Christmas in her beloved home, Mitras Castle. Determined to make it just like the ones she remembers from her childhood, she employs Dido Jones of Heavenly Houseparties to help with the big day.

Dido is enchanted by the castle as soon as she steps through the imposing front door. And as Christmas Day approaches, her feeling of connection to the old house runs deeper than she first thought.

But when the snow begins to fall and Sabine's family arrive at the house - including Dido's teenage crush Xan - tensions rise around the castle's future and long-buried mysteries begin to unravel...

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

London, 1799. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents' famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle's suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realise that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason.

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Thanks to falling in love with the wrong man, Maria Owens ends up on a scaffold, about to be hung for witchcraft, and curses any man who falls in love with an Owens woman ('broken, body and soul'). Four hundred years later and her family are still feeling the tragic effects of this curse.

After witnessing her mother's suffering, teenager Kylie Owens has no intention of risking the life of the boy she has fallen in love with and is determined to do anything to break the curse, once and for all. Even if that means abandoning her family and heading back to England (where it all began), and risking her own life by using a dark magic book that was once owned by Maria's daughter...

Full review here.

Have you read any of these? Which were your favourites?

You can see more of the books I've enjoyed reading this year over on Instagram and Goodreads.

Related Posts:

Favourite Reads of 2017 (so far)

Favourite Reads of 2017

Favourite Reads of 2018 (so far)

Favourite Reads of 2020 (so far)

Spooky Reads for Halloween

I'm not a huge fan of autumn. Yes, the leaves look pretty but the weather turns distinctly chilly and the nights are growing longer. But cold, wet days and early dark evenings do lend themselves to reading spooky books...

There seems to be a trend at the moment for gothic historical novels, which I LOVE, and also super-scary ghost stories. Listed below are my recommended reads for this year's Halloween. There should be something for everyone: a Victorian ghost story, witches and changelings, a couple of classics retold, and a murder mystery with an 'appearance' by the king of the undead himself...Dracula (aka: Max Mephisto, star of Elly Griffiths' Brighton Mysteries).

Happy Halloween!

The Whistling by Rebecca Netley

Elspeth Swansome goes to work as a nanny on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea. Her charge, Mary, hasn't said a word since the unexpected death of her twin brother William, and the last nanny packed up and left in a hurry. No one will speak of what happened to William, just as no one can explain the sound of singing in empty corridors, strange dolls appearing in abandoned rooms, and the faint whistling that comes in the night...

Full review

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

In the 1600s, Patrick watches helplessly as those he loves are accused of witchcraft - the penalty is death; in the 1990s, Liv escapes her problems by fleeing to a remote Scottish island, Lon Haven, where the inhabitants are a superstitious lot, obsessed with witches and curses; and in the present day, Luna travels back to Lon Haven hoping to discover the truth about what happened to her family, twenty-two years previously.

Full review.

Horseman by Christina Henry

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows of the legendary Horseman, but no one really believes in him until fourteen year old Ben stumbles upon the headless body of a child in the woods. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

Full review.

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths

Brighton, 1965. When theatrical impresario Bert Billington is found poisoned, suspicion immediately falls on his much younger wife, ex-variety star Verity Malone. The evidence is stacked up against her; even her son thinks she did it. Exasperated by the police, Verity calls in two private detectives to clear her name: ex-police sergeant Emma Holmes and journalist Sam Collins. It soon becomes apparent that Bert had a very long list of enemies. In fact, it would be easier to find someone who didn't want to kill him...

Full review.

The Tailor and the Three Dead King by Dan Jones

One winter, in the reign of King Richard II (ie: the late 1300s), a tailor is riding home when he is knocked off his horse by a huge raven, which then turns into a hideous dog. The dog tells the tailor he must go to the priest and ask for absolution, or there will be terrible consequences...

Full review.

Image of pumpkins © Shutterstock

My Top 10 Reads of 2020

According to Goodreads, I've read 114 books this year, the most since I began doing their annual challenges back in 2016. I'm sure this is due to the pandemic! One look at that list and I can immediately see that I've been reading more romance and less crime - although I still have a soft spot for mysteries and cosy crime. (I've never understood why it is called 'cosy' crime!)

It was so hard to pick just ten and impossible to arrange them into any kind of order, so they're listed by publication date. 

Will you find your next read amongst them?

The Queen of Nothing (Folk of the Air #3) by Holly Black

When Jude's human mother left her high-ranking faerie husband for a human blacksmith, her husband tracked her down, murdered her, and took Jude and her  twin sister Taryn back to the faerie world. Since then, Taryn has spent her life keeping her head down and trying to fit in, whereas Jude has spent hers fighting back and trying to gain power. In this story, the last in the series, we find out if all Jude's sacrifices have been worth it.

Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior

Veronica McCreedy is very wealthy, lives in a huge mansion in Scotland, is never seen without her ruby red lipstick and has a collection of very expensive handbags. She's also 85 years old.

Realising that she has no family or friends to leave her fortune to, she tracks down her long-lost grandson. The meeting is such a disaster, she decides to leave her money to the penguins. Or rather, the scientists who are studying them at a remote and poorly-funded research station in the Antarctica. And because Veronica is a sensible (stubborn, bloody-minded) kind of person, she pays the research centre a visit before agreeing to part with any cash. Much to the horror of the scientists. (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan

Flora was raised by an aunt who never really wanted her. As a result, she has always longed for a traditional family of her own. When Flora falls in love with widowed Jack, who has two daughters, it seems as if all her dreams are about to come true. But Jack's eldest, the teenage Izzy, makes it clear their family is doing just fine without Flora - and she'd quite like to keep it that way! And the more Flora learns about Jack's late wife, the saintly Becca, she begins to realise it will be impossible to compete... (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read is the story of two authors suffering from writers' block. January writes romance but no longer believes in happy endings; Gus writes literary fiction but has found himself in a rut. They end up in neighbouring beach houses over the summer, each with a deadline fast approaching. A flippant joke that maybe they should write their books in each other's genres spirals into reality. January takes Gus to the places she uses as settings for her stories, including a country and western bar for a line-dancing adventure, and Gus takes January on one of his research trips - to the burnt-out campus of a cult... (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

The Hidden Beach by Karen Swan

Bel Everhurst is working in Sweden as a nanny for the glamorous Mogert family: Max and Hanna, and their children Linus, Ellinor and Tilde. Out of the blue, Bel receives a phone call meant for Hanna, explaining that her husband has woken up. Bel is confused (She's just seen Max on his bicycle!) but when she passes on the message, Hanna collapses in shock. Hanna's first husband (Linus's father) fell into a coma seven years ago after a terrible accident. Now he's awake - and he wants his family back. (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Teenager Saffyre Maddox has been self-harming since a childhood trauma. Unable to confide in her therapist, Roan Fours, she becomes obsessed with him instead. She follows him around, learning where he lives and all about his life with his family, and he doesn't suspect a thing. She's become 'invisible'. Owen Pick lives in the house opposite Roan but feels as though no one ever really 'sees' him. He's drifting through life, feeling more out of step with the world every day, until he wakes up to find his face is splashed all over the newspapers and wishes he really was invisible. (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Four friends meet up once a month to discuss old murder cases to see if they can solve them. Except the four friends live in a retirement village and one day they find themselves with a real murder to investigate. They run rings around the police, who keep underestimating them, because each one of these friends has a particular skill, or a job they used to do in the past, that helps them work as a team to solve the murders. (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

The Postscript Murders (Harbinder Kaur #2) by Elly Griffiths

Peggy Smith was a 'murder consultant'. She advised crime writers on their plots and invented original ways for them to kill off their characters. When she died at the age of 90 in a retirement home, Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur doesn't believe there is anything suspicious about it. Until Peggy's carer is held up at gunpoint - for a book! (via NetGalley)

Read full review here.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

A prequel to Practical Magic and Rules of Magic, this tells the story of the Owens family matriarch, Maria Owens. Starting in 1664, when baby Maria is found abandoned in a snowy field and bearing the mark of a bloodline witch, it follows her adventures as she flees England via a Caribbean island to New York, before heading to a little town called Salem. And we all know what happened in Salem - or do we? (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

Paris by Starlight by Robert Dinsdale

Every night on the long journey to Paris from their troubled homeland, Levon's grandmother reads to her family from The Nocturne - a book of fairy stories and heroic adventures of their people who chose to live by starlight, generations ago. With every story she tells, the desire to live as their ancestors did grows. And that is when the magic begins… (via NetGalley)

Read the full review here.

Have you read any of these? Which were your favourites?

You can see more of the books I've enjoyed reading this year over on Instagram and Goodreads.

Related Posts:

Favourite Reads of 2017 (so far)

Favourite Reads of 2017

Favourite Reads of 2018 (so far)

Favourite Reads of 2020 (so far)