my favorite books of 2023

it's time to go through my favorite books of this entire year or I guess 2023 cuz now the year is over cuz I'm a little bit late this is a video I've done for the past I think 2 years and I really really love doing it to look back at like what my favorite books at that time were I did top 10 books I think last year but I think this year I'm going to do top 23 of 2023 and this was kind of hard for me honestly to find 23 books that I was like this was amazing which I read over 100 books or exactly 100 books I forget so Nar it down to like the top 23 shouldn't have been that hard because there should have been a lot of books I liked but for some reason this was like hard because there's a lot of books that I liked equally and there was only 10 books that were like this is probably a five star I'm a little bit not stingy but I'm a little bit protective of what I give five stars and also disclaimer before we get into this before you start coming for me I never said these books were good I said they were my favorites okay so before you try to hate on me saying that was the worst book you've ever read or whatever you're going to say I rate books based on how they made me feel at the time not on the literature not on the word choice not on the writing style I don't really look at that I read contemporary romance for the most part so if you're new here and you're about to judge me and say you read Charles Dickens and it was a way better book than whatever I'm about to tell you then okay I never said anything like that I never claimed to be a book critic I'm here for a good time okay just need to say that before we get into it but yeah I was going to do a top 10 cuz I had a very obvious top 10 favorite books I think there was only 10 books I gave five stars to but I thought it'd be more fun to do the top 23 of 2023 and I kind of want to make that a tradition like every year but the problem was I had a lot of four and a halfs and four stars that I feel like I liked equally so then I had like 40 books that I were like these are all kind of four stars so then I had to kind of narrow it down from there about like what was a little bit better than the next and honestly I have the worst memory ever like I literally swear I have like book Amnesia nowadays like I swear I forget what a book is about I used to be so good at remembering books and and now I can't remember anything like suddenly my mind is blank when I think of these books there are some books that I gave 4 and a half or 4.75 Stars I cannot even give a summary on what those books were but I kind of remember how they made me feel and obviously at the time I thought they were really really good I'm trying to decide if I should start with my five stars or start lower and work my way up I think I'm just going to start with my five stars you know that's the most fun part so without further Ado let me go grab some books I feel like every contemporary romance reader has this book on their favorites of the year and that's because it deserves it it was so so good and that's the right move by Liz Tom Ford I've thought about this book at least once a week since I read it and I think I read it in the beginning of the year this one was a sports romance he's a basketball player and he's kind of like the best basketball player in the world the romance is between his twin sister's best friend and she needs a place to stay and she ends up moving in with him in his extra room cuz he's barely home she's just going through a breakup with like this terrible ex-boyfriend I always love that Trope you know so as soon as that was happening I was loving it it's also a kind of very serious guy fun sunshine girl I wouldn't say he's grumpy but he's very serious he follows the rules he gets done so she lives with him and then there's a little bit of a fake dating kind of Trope in there but the reason I love this book so much is because the boy the man in this book he's not a boy he's a man is everything I've ever wanted in a boyfriend and more like I don't even want to spoil like the things he does but I've said this and I'll say it again is his acts of service are unmatched the way he pays attention and remembers things like this raised my standard for a man so high and I just really really loved it and this was one of my five stars I'm not going to cheat in this video like I'm actually going to 23 books I'm not going to be like a whole series is one of them so two of my next top five star books are both from the boys of tommen series these books both came out in this year saving six and redeeming six they're the biggest books ever okay they're so big and the font is so small but I want more I couldn't have enough like this wasn't enough for me so this Series has followed two books about one couple and then these two books about the next couple and then I think the next couple's coming out soon very excited about that but they have discreet covers now so I have the old ones but but look up the trigger warnings before you read these Series this series but if you love a found family deep meaningful romance that will stick with you obviously look how long this is so much more than romance there's so much plot to it it's one of those ones you get so attached to the characters they have the found family there's the whole friend group everyone's going to get books it's so deep and it deals with such deep dark depressing topics I Bal my eyes out in these books but also like I it was so impactful to my life and it just like changed my perspective on everything I've talked about this series so much last year because that's when I discovered it if you like the addicted callway sister series you'll equally love the boys of tommen series it's the same kind of vibe except it's still being published so you have something to look forward to it is so painful and so good and the romance is insane it's soulmate relationships and just it's set in Ireland that convinces you it's just so good I love a good thorough well-developed story and characters and that's exactly what these are this is not like your normal contemporary romance fun book it is a romance but it is so deep okay my next five star of the year was my first Venture into fantasy which everyone always is talking about this book it's Fourth wi you can tell by my annotations I had a book club with this book which was super fun but yeah this was just my first like Taste of fantasy and I think I really really enjoyed it which is why I gave it five stars cuz it's something I was not used to it was something new and also it was just really entertaining I haven't read the second book yet that's why that one's not included in this video but I'm sure I'll love that one too um but something about the World building in this book while also being super entertaining it just made me want to completely switch my favorite genre into reading only Romany so I feel like that alone the power of that is enough to give it five stars and also just the romance was so good which is like my favorite part and it felt like I was watching a movie and I was never bored while I read it so that's why that one got five stars next are books I discovered when I was doing my reading dark romance for a week video which I'm not a big dark romance girl as you can probably tell but this again it changed my mind cuz this is not what I consider dark romance I consider dark romance a lot darker than this which I think it does get a lot darker than this but the predator and the reaper are my next two by rxs I don't know how to say that these are kind of Mafia style romance is is that a thing I don't know these two are about the same couple and these were definitely my favorites and my five stars I feel like these could have been combined into one book but nonetheless I'm obsessed I need to finish this series in the new year it starts off right away with them trying to kill each other which right off the bat I was like oh my God I love this and I need more and it's a slow slow burn like throughout two books there's a lot of plot in this it's not just about the romance but the romance is like the main part but there is a lot of like mystery trying to figure things out I was trying to figure things out before they could figure it out which I think is what I realized in this year that I really enjoy like I like when there's a plot added onto the romance which is why I'm going to be switching up genres we'll talk about that in another video but the coupless was just so cute so they're like enemies basically Tristan is in one mob I don't know what it is and then their rival or like the other one her dad is the the leader of and so it's like the enemy's daughter Trope which I loved she's also like a a Super Genius badass which I love cuzz I just don't enjoy like the helpless girl Trope all the time like you kind of just want a badass every once in a while I feel like this one was so good like the romance development in this book obviously this is like the the buildup and then this was like the actual romance and just together incredible I need to finish this series I did read the third one but I definitely prefer these okay the next five star this is part of a series that I read last year and I actually finished this on New Year's Day of 2023 so I think I talked about this in my 2022 wrapup but Tech I finished it in 2023 so I'm including in this one this is Daisy hates the great undoing by Jessa Hastings part of the Magnolia Park series which is one of my favorites again I talked about this series a lot last year but this is the most messy sloppy drama filled crazy romances that I've ever read I wouldn't even like consider them romances because like half the time you're not even rooting for the couples to be together because they're so toxic it's giving Gossip Girl you sold me for a hotel kind of Vibes like they just do and you're like do you even like each other but then at the same time you're like their soulmates like they have to be together there's two books about one couple and two books about another couple this couple's my favorite Daisy hates and Christian but the reason I loved this book was not because of them at all I actually loved it because of Magnolia and Julian which are Side characters in this book honestly Julian's a main character you get his POV too but it's not the main romance but to me it was it's all I cared about and I Shi them so hard I don't even want to read the rest of the books because I know what's going to happen Julian's point of views in these book literally made me cry it made me give it a five stars his character development to me like and my feelings towards him has developed and changed so much since the beginning of the series like I used to not like him at at all and now he's my favorite character in the series because of this book if you haven't read these books and you need a series to get you out of a reading slump or you want to feel like you did when you used to read wpad messy romances read the Magnolia Parks Universe because you won't be able to put your book down you'll be feeling every emotion from anger issues to Falling your eyes out so okay two more books again from the same series but only one of these is actually a five star I think the other one was like four four and a half but I'm just going to talk about them at the same time my five star was Heartless by Elsie silver this is part of the chestnut spring series my second favorite in that series is Flawless which is the first book which which was really good because reading the first book and loving the first book I feel like is so important to a series I hate when there's a series and then it doesn't get good to like the third book and every time you tell someone to read it you're like no keep reading like you have to get to the third book and they're like I don't want to get to the third book like the first two suck I hate when I recommend series like that because then no one wants to stick to it so I loved that I actually loved the first book in the series and these are like small town Cowboy romances which were my this year like that was my favorite Trope of the Year by far probably mostly because of this series to be honest this was the bull riter and his like publicity who is also his boss's daughter force proximity grumpy Sunshine something about a bull rider it was giving the longest ride and I loved every second of it but then completely outshined that one was heartless which I think is the third book is it the third book no it's the second book oh yeah it's the second book this one was five stars it's small town single dad grumpy Sunshine Nanny Trope do I have to say anymore age Gap a little bit but like not a weird age Gap like she's in her mid 20s she's the living nanny for his son so it's Force prox I need this man biblically if you want to read this one as just a stand alone you can those two were definitely my favorite okay another small town romance that I loved that is super short and sweet is When in Rome by Sarah Adams my best friend is currently reading this right now so it's been like refreshing my memory cuz I read this a while ago if you like Gilmore Girls you'd love this book it's the same kind of small town feel where he owns a bakery so like he's giving Luke with Luke's Diner so she's like the most famous pop star in the world and her car breaks down while she's driving through the small town he's super grumpy but he ends up helping her and the parts where her car aren't going to be in she's also trying to escape her reality a little bit and she ends up staying with him until her car is ready she stays with him he's really mad about it he's like I don't want this celebrity in my small town I just want to mind my business like why is everyone taking pictures why there Paparazzi outside my house whatever he doesn't like her right away it's kind of like her feeling the burnout of her Fame and then moving to the small town and realizing what life could be like for her then this is also a series and there's a second book that I also really enjoyed and I don't know if she's continuing the series but I hope she is next next is things we left behind by Lucy score i' been anticipating this book for like over a year now maybe 2 years I loved the first book which was things we never got over and then I hated the second one which was things we hide from the light so I was really torn about how this one was going to make me feel like I was like okay I'm either going to love it like I love the first one or I'm going to hate it like I hated the second one so I went into it with kind of low expectations and an open mind but not really because the characters in this book were my favorites from the very start like I needed their backstory so bad cuz you knew that they hated each other and there was an underlying reason and you kind of knew that they knew each other when they were young but you didn't know the full story cuz the other characters didn't know the full story so finally getting their book and learning their whole backstory was so satisfying and it honestly exceeded All my expectations and I think the reason I loved it so much is cuz I went into it with low expectations and then it actually exceeded all of those really low expectations I had so this is childhood friends kind of lovers to enemies to lovers it flashes like back to the past where you can see when they met when they first became friends when they first kind of fell in love when they were in high school and then what happened between them that caused them to be enemies but they're still in the same friend group so all of their best friends are actually like married and in love so they're kind of like forced to be around each other all the time but they do avoid each other and all the friends know that they hate each other but they don't really know why and this book you get to find out why and you get to watch them fix it and fall back in love that was my last five star I think I included Flawless but that was a 4 and a half those are like my top 10 and now I'm going to get into like 4.75 4.5 Stars so next up is happy place by Emily Henry this would have been a five star but I gave it 4.75 or 4.5 I can't remember because I was so angry while I was reading it that like it took away from the pleasure of reading it does that makes sense like I can recognize that this was a great book and I loved it but there was just the anger that I had the frustration I had because it's miscommunication Trope like overrides one during my 24-hour reading challenge so like I'm pretty sure it was like the middle of the night when I read this one or it was like 6:00 a.m. after staying up for 24 hours and I still loved it so that Sayang a lot but I've loved every single Le book that Emily Henry has ever come out with I have no complaints about her books so I wasn't surprised when I also loved this one this book is so special to me I recommended it to so many people that are like around my age or a little bit older that are looking for a good book that will make them feel something because I feel like this is such a like coming of age story it's about this friend group who met when they were in college and they were like Inseparable I'm pretty sure a lot of them lived together it's boys and girls like a whole mixed friend group and now they're in their late 20s or 30s I forget it shows how your friendships have to grow and change over time in order to like fit and adapt different people's Lifestyles there's like relationship struggles and relationship Dynamics in the group and people keeping secrets and people being embarrassed or insecure about things and relationships falling apart but trying not to ruin the friendship and I feel like that's like a main plot is just about like growing up and like trying to remain friends with the people that you were with when you were like a different person so I love that about it and obviously there's also a romance it's a second chance romance where this couple had been in love all the friends are like their soulmates they're getting married whatever but it turns out they actually broke up every year this friend group reunites at this beach house and so the couple decide that they're just going to pretend to still be together when they go to this beach house cuz they don't want everyone asking questions they're like let's just pretend for a week that we're still in love but there's just like so much miscommunication and lack of communication between them that it's so frustrating cuz you're like if you guys would just have one conversation you'd be fine but they would avoid this one conversation and then it went on for the whole book which which was so frustrating for me just be like talk to each other like you guys have known each other for so long why can't you have this one conversation but I guess it kind of is realistic like a lot of people do avoid like hard conversations but I love this book nonetheless and I feel like it did teach me a lot and it also something about a beach house setting is going to do it for me every single time so the fact that this was like a reuniting at a beach house Vibe with all the friends I loved it okay next is yours truly by Abby Jimenez this book I was not expecting to love as much as I did I did love the first one which was part of your world but you can read these as Standalone they're not like really connected it's just the the characters are friends I just thought it was the sweetest cutest most wholesome romance which I just need every once in a while and it was different than what I normally read cuz it was kind of like Shy Boy he actually struggles with anxiety reading like his point of view was like really eye opening to me and I really enjoyed it and the way that the girl character was able to like read him and know how he needed to be like loved and cared for it was just so special like will I ever find someone who gets me like that so basically they get off on the wrong foot they don't like each other he like says something to her that she finds offensive but it's because he has anxiety and he just like didn't know how to handle the interaction and then he feels really guilty and then it's eating him up inside and they start writing each other letters cuz he like writes her a letter to apologize blah BL blah it goes back and forth cuz they work in the same Hospital they're doctors or something like that I don't really remember and they start getting along there's a little bit of a fake dating Trope and I just really enjoyed it there was an annoying third act breakup but like is it even really a contemporary romance without an annoying third act breakup no but I think it was so cute and if you need a good palet cleanser between like some heavier books or some like harder to read books books I think this one would be a really good one okay then is swear on this life by Renee Carino this is one of the ones I read in the beginning of the year and for some reason like I can barely remember what this was about but I did give it 4 and a half stars and I did force my best friend to read it immediately after I did which that means that I must have really liked it but for some reason it went in one ear and out the other like I'm having a hard time really remembering what this book was fully about I do know the general premise the main girl her roommate was like you need to read this book and she starts reading this book that her roommate recommended her and she realizes it's her life story and she's like what the hell who wrote this and it's about all of her trauma growing up like with all of her family problems and everything like traumatic that is happened to her is literally written in this book for the world to read it was like an international bestseller or something she's mortified she's like who wrote this there could only be one person who knows this much about me and it was her ex and she's like how could he so she reads like the first few chapters and stops reading she's enraged she can't believe he would do this to her she's never gotten over him she's in a new relationship with like this shitty guy but she's never gotten over her childhood love like they were in love I think they were like in high school when they were in love and like he was like her anchor during like all of her terrible traumatic home life like he was always there for her and then she went into foster care and he was still there for her and then they had a falling out she ends up like finding him as an adult and you're watching them reall in love and also you're watching the backstory and you're kind of getting to figure out what happened between them in the first place why he would publish this book and how the book ends I remember that but like I don't remember what made me love that so much but I remember I loved it when I read it but I also read before We Were Strangers by this author last year and I think that was my favorite video last year so I think I just really like the way this author writes and the concept of her stories with like plot twists and stuff so yeah okay then one I actually read in December so really recently I feel like this always happens to me as I read books and then for the first like month after I read them I'm like they were amazing and perfect and then as time goes on I'm like were they so right now I'm on the high of thinking this book was perfect I gave it four and a half Stars it was check and mate by Ali Hazelwood I was expecting to hate this book um because it's young adult and usually I just like don't like reading about characters that are a lot younger than me but this book was so cute and so different and I just loved the romance it talked a lot about Chess and I know nothing about Chess but I still enjoyed it so the boy is like the number one chess player in the entire world he's like a super genius and he's also really hot so like he's super famous cuz all the girls love him he's super smart whatever he's making chess cool again like they're watching it on like ESPN okay and then the girl in this book used to play chess but she quit when her dad passed away and we don't know really why she quit but now she's been taking care of all of her siblings because her mom is sick so she just has other responsibilities she hasn't really thought about Chess but then she goes to like some chess event and she ends up beating him and then she goes viral for beating him and then everyone's like how did she possibly beat like the world's best chess player then he's like in love with her because she just beat him I mean not in love but like he's like kind of fixated on her it's this whole story how she gets back into chess but also like they're kind of Rivals but also they're falling in love I just thought it was super sweet and super cute and they're also like kind of getting like famous as this is going on people are speculating about them they're also playing against each other I just thought it was really cute I think Ali Hazelwood just writes cute Books Okay this is another one of those books that I like can't really remember because I read it a while ago and it just didn't stick with me but I did love it and it say you swear by Megan Brandy was not what I was expecting at all so it's a love triangle kind of I mean I don't think it's like really a love triangle but like kind of basically this girl's in love with her brother's best friend or her childhood friend or something I don't really remember the details if I'm wrong I'm sorry I'm getting the premise of it okay she's in love with her brother's best friend her whole life but the brother's best friend like is just kind of a dick like he's not but he is like he does things that you're just like why would you do that but at the same time you're like you want them to be together cuz she's like obsessed with him and like it's brother's best friend like you want them to be together then she's like okay I'm done like something happens between them that was like messed up and then she's like I'm done with him I need to move on with my life even though she was so in love with him so she goes to college she moves away she's heartbroken she's down bad she's like in her bed crying she doesn't go out for like the whole semester and her roommate is like you need to get a grip girl like you need to go to this party with me and get out of the house she ends up meeting this boy at College who is golden retriever so sweet usually I'm rooting for like the Broody misunderstood bad boy but in this book all I wanted was her to have the happy ending she deserved with like the cute golden retriever boy so she meets this guy he's on the football team you're watching her fall in love with this new guy but then the brother's best friend comes back in the picture and he sees that her falling in love with a new guy and he like wait what happened to like us like I thought you were supposed to be in love with me and you kind of like see that he always was comfortable with the idea that she was in love with him but now he was watching her fall in love with someone else and he was like oh my God I'm losing her like I need to get get her back and you were like who is she going to be with who is she going to be with but I thought like I knew how it was going to go but then there was like a plot twist that I didn't really like like this something happens that I just like it threw me off like this probably would have been five stars and then something happened and I was like wo that was unexpected and like I didn't need that to happen honestly I kind of want to reread this book because I don't really remember it but now that I'm explaining it I'm like wait that like sounds good and I kind of want to reread it cuz I want to remember the details maybe I'll listen to the audio book of it on Spotify if it's on there because like I want to remember because like now I'm like I'm convincing myself to read it even though I've already read it okay then I feel like a lot of you guys are probably like okay why isn't she talking about this why isn't she talking about this like you have not brought it up since you originally filmed the video but I read the entire Shatter Me series this year back in the beginning of the year I think and I went in with really high expectations and I think because of that I was like disappointed and I think if I would have read it when I was 14 it would have been my everything to be honest I still enjoyed the series like you guys saw if you watch those reading Vlogs like I did enjoy it it but like in hindsight I'm like it wasn't all that don't come for me don't come for me but there was just so many like plot holes I noticed I think because I read it as an adult I was like what like how is this happening I'm so confused I need more there's not enough of this there's too much of this whatever like I was very critical of it because I think it was meant for a younger audience so like I gave it some leniency because of that but my favorite book from that series was Ignite Me and I did really really enjoy this one because I really loved the romance between Warner and Juliet and I think that if I'm remembering correctly I think that most of it happens in this book which is why this one I'm putting in my favorites video because I remember when I was reading the series whatever book it was that had the most romance I think it was this one I could be wrong I don't really remember I don't know the difference between the books but whatever one had like the majority of the romance that's why I'm including it I I would probably give that one like a four 4.25 star I did like the plot of Shatter Me and I think it has so much potential and I see why everyone loves it and I genuinely loved it like overall I think I said I gave it a four stars out of five but there was just so many things that like it's not developed enough like as a Hunger Games girl where there's like no plot holes in my opinion and like that everything is so welld developed and everything is fully fleshed out I felt like Shatter Me just didn't have that that same effect like I just had so many questions at all times so that's why it wasn't like my alltime favorite but this book was definitely my favorite and I definitely really really enjoyed this one so that's that this is another book I didn't expect to love that much it's the true love experiment by Christina Lauren I've never read a book with this Trope or plot before basically the guy in this book is like a director or he wants to be a director or like I don't really know what his goal is but he wants to be like a director of like nature and like National Geographic esque videos I think or movies or TV shows whatever but his boss assigns him to do a reality show to like prove himself he's like reality show brings in the money so I need you to like produce and direct a reality show like a dating show he remembers this girl he like briefly met one time who like he was really intrigued by and he was like she would be a perfect girl to have on this dating show and he comes with this whole concept he like hits up this girl and is like will you be on my dating show and she says no but then eventually she does it and so the romance is between the girl on this dating show who is dating like 20 guys at once and the director so the guy that's being paid to like get her to date someone is now falling in love with her and they kind of start building this relationship before the show starts there's like an obvious chemistry and connection between them but they know they can't do anything about it because the show is about to start and his whole career is riding on her finding her husband on TV the filming starts and like they're both so in love with each other like you can just tell as The Show Goes On like they have these little moments between them and then he's having to watch her date people on TV and like all these other guys are in love with her I loved the jealousy I really was entertained by this book like the whole time I was like what is going to happen but this is the second book after The soulmate equation which I really liked that one but I like this one more you can read them as Standalone okay the next book is another one that I read in my 24-hour reading challenge which is surprising like two books out of my favorites were all read within 24 hours of each other and not so meat cute by Megan Quinn I have the ugly old cover I'm so disappointed about this because when I bought this book I was like I'm not going to buy it until a discret cover comes out but then I wanted to film the video so I bought it tell me why not even 2 weeks after I bought it the discret cover comes out like that would happen to me but anyways it's fine I'll cover this man it is fake dating Trope which is one of my favorites buildup of fake dating was done so well in this book in my opinion and like the little moments where like you're like are they faking it or like is this real or like he would do something where I'm just like he's in love with her and then there was so much tension between them there was so so attracted to each other but then they like also hated each other it forc proximity cuz they lived together to like add to the fake dating drob and he's a billionaire so she would have to go to like these dinners and like act like they were in love but then like over time you're like they're not acting but yeah I just thought this one was really cute and entertaining mindless fun read the next is Twisted Lies by Anna Hong I don't know what it was about this one that I really really enjoyed I feel like a lot of the books by this author I'm kind of like eh it was good I'll read the rest of the series but it didn't change my life but something about this one I really really enjoyed I think because the I was reading it I found it really relatable and also I just thought that iy this was so hot so it's billionaire romance again what else is do so the girl in this book is an influencer like blogger something I don't know she has like millions of followers but she's also like really shy and quiet in real life but she has a stalker she doesn't really tell anyone about it but it starts getting really dangerous this was definitely boy obsessed but he did not show it he was super serious he's the head of security of this very intense like bodyguard kind of Vibes so this is a perfect Duo cuz she has a stalker and he's the head of security he doesn't know if she has is a stalker though yet he's super protective of her which I really love that Trope yeah I'm pretty sure it was like kind of a slow bur too if I remember correctly but I just really enjoyed this one but next is love redesigned by Lauren Asher I feel like if I would have read this one quicker I would have really really loved it but it took me like 2 weeks to get through because I was really busy at the time but I still loved it which means if I would have read it quicker I just know it would have been hit even harder but this was childhood friends to lovers to enemies to lovers she basically moves back to their like small Hometown after going through a really bad breakup and moves back to this town where now her childhood best friend or her like childhood lover whatever is now a billionaire and he owns like all the real estate in this town he builds homes whatever and then she has like a reality TV show where she remodels homes so their jobs kind of like relate to each other but anyway she gets back to this town she's kind of like just like a sad mess after this breakup he's just like really cold towards her and they like you can tell they just like don't like each other and like you don't really know what happened between them but you know that he like broke up with her but you can tell he's in love with her like the entire time even though he like doesn't want to admit it and she doesn't realize it he offers her to work on this house together I forget his reasoning like he thought if they like worked on it like she'd leave town faster or something I don't really remember but then as the process is going on and she's like okay I'm leaving town in a month he's like realizing he doesn't want her to leave she's realizing she's falling in love with him but yeah I just this book gave me butterflies I was giggling and kicking my feet a lot of the time so I wish I would have read it faster okay next is Wildfire by Hannah Grace this is the second book after Icebreaker which I loved Icebreaker last year so I'm not surprised again that I loved this one this book like when I was reading it I was like oh my God I love this book because I love him like I have to have him this was one of the books where the characters were just enjoyable to read about they weren't annoying they weren't cringy they weren't weird they weren't frustrating like I genuinely liked the characters which made me genuinely like the book I thought it was going to be like a hockey romance so I went into it with completely different expectations but he is a hockey player but this takes place during the summer in between the school year so he's not playing hockey at the time they're actually both Camp counselors at the same summer camp which is like so different than anything I've ever read too they had a one night stand the first night they met and then they like literally thought they were never to see each other again just to find out they were co-workers and living together at the summer camp for the whole summer and they both haven't stopped thinking about each other since the first time they met and he's super awkward and quiet and shy and I just have the biggest crush on him ever he's like a hot hockey player and he works at a summer camp and he's awkward and shy like doesn't get any better than that and she's super happy Sunshine popular girl I love the friend group in this series so much like the friend group in the series is giving off campus like the same kind of energy and I can't wait for the rest of the books he definitely had a fat crush on her but he's so awkward and like can't really like speak about his feelings well so then she's like does he even like me does he hate me like I'm so confused he's been avoiding me at this Camp really he's avoiding her cuz he's so awkward but she's super like bold and outgoing like just like say whatever's on her mind and I really love that about her and yeah I read this during my October reading Vlog so if you want to see me read it but yeah just like a fluffy happy Comfort fun read okay the last book in this video is caught up by Liz tomford which is the book that comes after The Right Move which was the first book I talked about in this video which I didn't even do that on purpose the first and last books but I gave this one four stars I liked it a lot like it's single dad Sports romance he's a baseball player he needs someone to look after his son and he's super super protective of his son and then his coach is like my daughter will look after her he ends up falling in love with the daughter The Nanny the coach's daughter all those tropes you know I'm going to love it seeing her relationship with the sun was so cute the baby in this book wasn't annoying I hate when kids in books are annoying or like they talk like they're adults I just don't like that and that didn't really happen in this book which I liked I like when a child is written well I thought their romance was really cute and like the buildup and obviously was like steamy and fun and they taught each other so much about themselves which I really enjoyed the only reason this wasn't perfect to me is cuz it's one of those books where from the very beginning she's like I have a work assignment in a different state starting in 3 months so I'm going to work for you for 3 months and then I'm moving so the whole book they know that she's moving away so they're trying not to fall in love when they are falling in love they're like okay well you're leaving she's like yeah I'm leaving like I have to work like I have this thing for work and the whole time you're like I I just know you guys are going to end up together so it's so annoying that you keep having this same she's leaving dilemma like it's brought up so much that's the reason I didn't love it like I hate feeling like I'm reading and there's like a countdown for when their relationship is going to end but overall I did have butterflies for like 75% of this book and I really really enjoyed it and I loved all the tropes and I just love this series by Liz Tom Ford and I'm really excited for all the books to come that's the last book I'm going to talk about in today's video those were my top 23 of 2023 I hope you enjoyed seeing and hearing about all of them let me know if you agree with any of them or what your top books were if you want to name all 23 go ahead if you want to name the top three I'd love to know and I'll add them to my TBR for next year but yeah those were my favorites of the Year thank you so much for watching today's video I hope you enjoyed if you want to follow me on my other social medias they're all linked down below as always and I'll see you in my next video very very soon bye

Channel: Steph Bohrer

Views: 270,335

Keywords: book, books, book rec, rec, recs, recommendation, romance, fantasy, enemies to lovers, vlog, read, reading, tour, bookshelf, library, stephbohrer, steph bohrer, haul, nonfiction, fiction, mystery, friends to lovers, trope, tiktok, book recommendations, book haul, bookshelf tour, booktube, booktok, read with me, book shopping, annotating books, wrap up, Colleen Hoover, new adult, young adult, adult, dark, spicy, smut, long, move, moving vlog, video, week in my life, grwm, routine, morning, steph, Steph Bohrer

Id: Fhh7rGeHyf4

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2024