10 Must-Read Books of The Year
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We may not be able to predict everything 2023 will bring in. And so far it’s been a hell of a year. But based on 2023’s new book releases, we have a feeling we will be reading from sun up to sun down, and repeating the process, all year long. Below, we’re highlighting 10 must-read books you have to add to your TBR this 2023!
Please keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list. It was hard to narrow it down to just ten. Think of it as an amuse-bouche to the literary delights you should be checking out all of 2023!
For easy access here’s a link to my Amazon Storefront where you can find all the must-read books of the year!
Must-Read Books you have to Add to Your TBR
Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
Girl in Pieces is a hauntingly beautiful story that you have to read. Charlotte Davis is broken into pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do their entire lives. But one thing she’s learned is how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about the people whose left. Your father, your best friend, your mother.
Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more. But in the end, she still hurts so much. Charlie doesn’t want to care anymore, but she’s trying to find her way back from the edge.
This story is so heartfelt. Charlie is a girl in a world that although it owes her nothing has taken so much from her. And, the journey she undergoes to put herself back together will have you needing tissues from crying so much. Kathleen Glasgow’s debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.
And don’t miss Kathleen Glasgow’s novels You’d Be Home Now and How to Make Friends with the Dark, both raw and powerful stories of life. These tales should definitely be on your list of must-read books for this year!
Yellowface by RF Kuang
We’ve added Yellowface by RF Kuang to the must-read books list because of the white lies. dark humor. And, deadly consequences.
June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars shooting to authorial fame. But Athena is a literary darling. And, June, well she’s literally nobody.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: stealing Athena’s just-finished novel, an experimental story about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
June decides to send it to her agent as her own work. What if she’s rebranded as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller is? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring the stolen success crumbling down around her. June is racing to protect her secret. How far will she go to keep what she thinks she deserves?
A Multitude of Dreams by Mara Rutherford
If Mara Rutherford writes it, it will be a part of the must-read books list! A Multitude of Dreams will be Rutherford’s latest release set to debut on September 26, 2023. This tale is so horrifying it will creep up on you, and you will be turning the pages wishing you could look away.
Princess Imogen of Goslind has lived a sheltered life. Boarded up within the wall of a castle for three years. It was said that it was for her and the rest of its inhabitant’s safety from the bloody mori roja plague that’s ravaged the kingdom. But Princess Imogen has a secret, and as the King descends further into madness, it’s at great risk of being revealed. There has been a web of lies woven, and Imogen ultimately has to navigate if they’re going to survive the nightmares that lie ahead.
Thriller Must-Read Books!
The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis
This next one is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Lisa Jewell. A dream girl’s trip to a luxurious French chateau devolves into a deadly nightmare of secrets and murder.
Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation?
In the midst of this shocking crime, a sinister Instagram account pops up, exposing snapshots from the friends’ intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more.
As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine—and is now stalking them—the friends begin to suspect each other. Because the chateau houses many secrets…several worth killing for.
The Chateau will release on May 23rd. Grab yourself a copy on Amazon!
The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen
Two sisters, strangers since birth yet bound by family secrets, are caught up in a century-old mystery on an isolated island.
After arriving on Block Island to find her birth mother, Blake Bronson becomes convinced she’s the heroine of a gothic novel. The kind that allowed her intermittent escape from a traumatic childhood. How else to explain the torrential rain, the salt-worn mansion known as White Hall, and the restless ghost purported to haunt its halls? But before Blake can discern the novel’s ending, she’s found dead, murdered in a claw-foot tub. The proprietress of White Hall stands accused.
Summoned by a letter sent from Blake before she died, Thalia Mills returns to the island she swore she’d left for good. She finds that Blake wasn’t the first to die at White Hall under suspicious circumstances. Thalia must uncover the real reason for Blake’s demise before the forces conspiring to keep Block Island’s secrets dead and buried rise up to consume her too.
This unique tale is a subversive twist on the classic gothic novel, the mysterious past of an island mansion lures two sisters into a spiderweb of scandal, secrets, and murder. Come on you have to read this!
A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen
A Door in the Dark HAD to be on the list of must-read books of the year. This fantasy thriller follows six teenage wizards as they fight to make it home alive after a malfunctioning spell leaves them stranded in the wilderness. A fight breaks out. In the chaos, the portal spell malfunctions. All six students are snatched from the safety of the school’s campus and set down in the middle of nowhere. And one of them is dead on arrival.
If anyone can get them through the punishing wilderness with limited magical reserves it’s Ren. She’s been in survival mode her entire life. But no magic could prepare her for the tangled secrets the rest of the group is harboring, or for what’s following them through the dark woods…
Romance Must-Read Books
Meet Me at The Lake by Carley Fortune
From the author of Every Summer After comes a new story on a random connection that sends two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise. One keeps it and the other breaks it, with life-changing effects.
Meet Me at the Lake releases on May 2, 2023. Grab a copy on Amazon
Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown
A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women, a family love curse, and the secrets they keep for and from each other over one very complicated year. Black Candle Women is richly imagined and so elegantly told, giving you satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists. Black Candle Women is what you want all fantasy stories to be. Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concoct an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder.
Fantasy Must-Read Books
The Battle Drum by Saara el-Arifi
As a sequel to The Final Strife by Saara el-Arifi, we won’t get too much into The Battle Drum. What we can say is The Battle Drum is full of Murder, Secrets, and Sacrifice. Three women seek the truth of the empire’s past. And the truth they find will have the power to ignite a war. This continuation is a visionary fantasy trilogy inspired by the myths of Africa and Arabia.
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Wrapping up this list of must-read books for the year is Hell Bent. This sequel to Ninth House has been one of the most raved-about books on Bookstagram and it has been for great reason. Again, as it is a sequel and we don’t want to spoil anything we will give you the basics of Hell Bent.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory. Even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets and break every rule doing it.
That’s it! That was the list of must-read books you should have on your list this year. We definitely will be doing one of these each quarter so stay tuned for more books to add to your ever-growing TBR list!
For easy access here’s a link to my Amazon Storefront where you can find all the must-read books of the year!
Which books would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments!
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