Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Hey Mersquad! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Years celebration. I’ve been avoiding social media like the plague for the last week in December, or at least I tried to. Now that I’m back, I’m also trying to get back into the swing of things. I say that all the time, don’t I?

I’ve been seeing a lot of 2023 wrap up posts on bookstagram and everyone has had such an amazing reading journey! I’m really happy seeing all the different posts and seeing what everyone decides to highlight on their wrap up posts. I haven’t done mine on bookstagram yet, but I’ll try to work on it at some point.

Today’s T10T is to reflect on our favorite reads from 2023. There are some that were rereads that while they are my favorite, I don’t want to include it in this wrap up. I’d rather talk about new reads that I had last year that were some of my favorites and I’ll try to do a brief write up as to why.

For the most part, I love books for the vibes. It’s hard to figure out or pinpoint the exact reason besides that, but the vibes will always get me.

[1]- The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco: Oh man when I was finally finishing this series, I was in shock! I couldn’t believe how crazy awesome this series was and how intense it got! That ending made me sad but also hopeful, or at least possibly hopeful because it was left open-ended. It was such a cool series though, and I’m glad that I finished it finally.

[2]- Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz: This was another book that I was regretting not reading earlier in my life but I’m so glad that I did finally read it. This book was freaking amazing! I’m actually kinda bummed that it’s only a duology, but this is okay because Amparo is an amazing author and anything she writes is fire. Just being able to get to visit the world of Blazewrath Games one more time is going to be epic. I need to read the second book this year. Or at least sooner rather than later.

[3]- Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega: THIS WAS THE CUTEST GRAPHIC NOVEL EVER?! Like… being someone who has always hated her curly hair growing up and seeing Marlene have someone in her life teach her how to care for and love her natural hair was so awesome to see. My gosh, it hurt my heart so much seeing her feel like her natural curly hair was “bad hair” and I really related to her story. I really wanted this to be one of our books for Battle of the Books because of how so many little girls get told that their curly hair is bad hair, or unprofessional, or unkempt, or just not good enough is terrible, and maybe seeing that their hair ISN’T bad will help them realize that in their own lives.

[4]- Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai: Suspending reality for a little bit made this book freaking amazing. Like, I don’t really care that the idea of an estranged couple getting kidnapped and having to be bad for a little bit was really freaking awesome. Yeah, it may not be super realistic, but we don’t really know if that’s realistic or not when we have no idea how criminal masterminds can be. I would believe it. Like I said, it’s the vibes, friend. Just the vibes.

[5]- Once Upon a K-Prom by Kat Cho: This was the freaking best book ever! I loved this book so freaking much, and it really did read like a K-drama. I haven’t watched many K-dramas yet, but sheesh if they are like this, I would be hooked. I love Kat’s writing since I read Wicked Fox (which I still need to read the sequel) and she did such an amazing job with contemporary romance.

[6]- By the Book by Jasmine Guillory: I read two books with similar premises in 2023, and out of the two, I think this one was my favorite. This one was much more of a romance than the other one, and this was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Knowing that this was going to have a happy ending made me a bit more excited going into this, and I wasn’t disappointed. I also liked the modern take on this fairy tale.

[7]- Sweethand by N.G. Peltier: I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! I’m glad that I got to listen to this and my gosh, it was the sexiest thing I’ve read in a long time. See, I’m not always into the smut, but the way that their relationship built up from the snarky banter to the sex was just great. Plus I think they actually worked better together, and I love this little part of the world that Peltier brought us to. I can’t wait to read the rest.

[8]- Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser: ANOTHER AWESOME GRAPHIC NOVEL! So like, if younger girls see themselves in Frizzy, young women will see themselves in Wash Day Diaries, and it was so amazing to see. I wish that there could be some sort of sequel or even a cartoon series of these women just living their lives and being the amazing Black women that they are. I just can’t deal with there only being one story of these women.

[9]- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks: I don’t know why people thought this book was boring. I actually really liked it. It isn’t fun having to navigate a relationship with an estranged parent and trying to mend it when you aren’t really sure it should be, and while maybe the ending was more of a wishful thinking kind of ending, sometimes we just need that in our fiction world to make up for all the crap we gotta deal with in our real world. You know? I don’t know. Sometimes I just need more happy endings that aren’t always revolving around romance.

[10]- Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett: When I was working through a lot of historical mysteries earlier on last year, this was one of the series that I really liked. I think I can eventually finish the series, or at least what’s available at my library, sometime this year. It was a fun one, and I’ve been finding that historical mysteries are some of my favorite types of books. Something about being in the past is what makes it fun for me.

It was really hard trying to narrow it down! I don’t think there is ever a way to narrow down favorites, which is why whenever someone asks me for a favorite book, I can never pick just one. Sometimes I don’t even answer the question when people ask me because I can’t just pick one. It’s so hard! But hopefully this made a decent enough list. Have you read any of these? Let me see your lists!

See you next time.