Tag: 2022 reading

Book Lists

Best Books I Read In 2022

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Although I read a lot of new releases this year, I also just decided to read books I wanted to read. Books that sounded intriguing or engaging or just right up my alley. And what better way to end the year than by talking about the books I loved that I haven’t had a chance to talk about this month. Let’s just jump right in, because I’m so excited to get to discuss these books again!

The last time Emma Davis was at Camp Nightingale, her three friends and cabin mates went missing. Now, fifteen years later, Emma has a chance to return to once famous camp which has reopened its doors for the first time since the disappearances. And she’s determined to find out what happened to the three girls who vanished into the night.

As the first book I read this year, I talked a lot about it already. It’s even in my post about Books That Should Be Made Into Movies. So the short version is that I loved the summer camp thing, I loved the cold case theme, and I really, really liked the writing style. It was engaging. I literally did not want to put this book down, because the world was so strong that I was completely lost in it! Sager’s best work, in my humble opinion.

It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party and everyone is excited to rub elbows with the famous Rivas family in Malibu. By midnight the party will be out of control and by morning the mansion will be up in flames.

Everyone knows I have very mixed feelings about Jenkins Reid. I don’t think she’s a bad writer, I just don’t think she’s the greatest of all time. With that being said, I talked about this book in my Hot Books for Summer Reads, and it’s probably my favorite Jenkins Reid novel of the three I’ve read so far. Which is weird, because I think it’s probably one of people’s least favorites all the way around, but whatever. I liked the throwback to old Hollywood and Malibu. I liked the whole take on stardom. And in this one, I liked Jenkins Reid’s writing style.

Mark Watney’s team thought he was dead when they left him behind on Mars. By the time the astronauts and their base realize he’s alive no one knows if they have enough time left to rescue him before he succumbs to the elements and lack of resources.

I am most definitely not a sci-fi lover. In fact, I almost never read sci-fi, because while I appreciate the genre and get why people love it, it’s just not my thing. But when I say I enjoyed this book immensely, I mean that. It as a survival story at its best mixed with science that I didn’t even mind at all. I’m so used to reading research and studies on education and neuroscience, that the horticulture in this one was actually really cool. I really, really liked this one.

Rachel Krall leapt into fame with her true crime podcast. Now she finds herself in the small town dealing with a rape trial she’s trying to cover, while also being confronted with a cold case that she’s determined to solve, even if everyone else thinks it’s all said and done.

I talk about this one in my Thriller Beach Reads Reviews. Overall, though, I was so intrigued by this one because I have my AP kiddos listen to a true crime podcast for our synthesis unit (Serial if anyone is interested. The Adnan Syed case that has gotten tons of attention this year, so it was particularly fun to teach this time around, with all the new information, but I digress). This one was cool. I’ve been interested in podcasts bleeding into novels and this one was one of my first forays into the realm since Sadie. But I thought the mystery was good, the characters were okay, but the whole plot was just interesting. Even when it was dragging I was still engaged enough to not mind, which is pretty hard to accomplish.

Adam and Amelia think the trip they won for a weekend getaway is the answer to all their marital problems. But when they find out they didn’t just randomly win the trip and one of them is lying, their anniversary quickly becomes one they could never forget.

Although I don’t particularly love Feeney’s style (some of the writing felt a little clunky and disjointed, but I get that it’s a style, just not my style), I thought this book was great at the end. It had all the right kinds of misdirection and unreliability of narrators that makes a good suspense and thriller really come unraveled at the end. It was super twisted and well put together. By the time you get to the last page, you’re glad you’ve held on!

There you have it folks! All the books I read this year that I loved in a month of super fun posts! What books did you love this year, new release or not? Let me know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow my blog for more reading adventures next year. I’ll see you all in 2023!

Happy reading,

-kj

Book Lists

Books that Surprised Me In 2022

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If you’ve read my blog at all this year, you know that one of my reading challenges for 2022 was to read books that are outside of my comfort zone. So that meant less thrillers and more…well whatever else I could get my hands on. And I was really pleased with the experience. Of course a lot of the books I tried out of my comfort zone I appreciated, they just weren’t for me, however, a few really surprised me and I ended up really liking them. So, since it’s the season about grace and love, I thought it would be fun to talk about them. Let’s jump right in!

In an effort to convince her best friend to date her ex-boyfriend (which, she’s totally okay with, honestly), Olive Smith starts fake dating one of the most well-known, most hated scientists: Dr. Adam Carlsen.

I’ve talked a bit about this book this year, because I was legitimately so shocked about how much I enjoyed it. In fact, Hazelwood actually made my list of New Authors to Watch, because I felt like it was such a strong, fresh offering for the romance genre and I loved the STEM twist. This year she’s released another novel and a few novellas, which I haven’t checked out yet, but I think I should. This was just so cute and light hearted and not at all what makes me scared to read romance.

Frankie Elkins is an average middle-aged recovering alcoholic who spends her life searching for missing people. Now she’s confronted with the case of Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from high school and hasn’t been heard from in months.

I have this thing where I really want to love detective series and I end up just feeling rather meh about them. To me, stand-alone mysteries and thrillers tend to be more exciting (maybe because if it’s a series, I kind of know the problem gets tied up or else this detective wouldn’t have a career that necessitates multiple books to explain. However, I picked this one up because I was intrigued by the idea of Elkins not actually being a detective. And I was pleasantly surprised. It totally could’ve been a standalone and I didn’t find it as bleh as I find a lot of detective books. So bravo!

When Olive’s twin sister gets food poisoning at her own wedding, Olive is forced to go on her sister’s honeymoon with her enemy, the groom’s brother, Ethan.

I read this because it was so, so popular heading into summer, and why wouldn’t it be? It’s about love. It’s got the vacation vibes, because it’s about an island honeymoon getaway. And I talked about this one in my post about Romance Beach Reads Reviews, but the short of it is, that I actually enjoyed the enemies to lovers business (even though the reason they were enemies was stupid). Plus, it was lighthearted and a quick, easy read. Perfect for my challenge to step outside my comfort zone.

Augustus Everette and January Andrews both write novels of very different genres. When they both find themselves in ruts, they strike a deal: they’ll both help the other write in their genres, because how could it go wrong? Everyone finishes a book and no one fall in love, right?

I was reluctant to pick this one up after reading People We Meet on Vacation, but I did anyway, because I knew I didn’t dislike Henry’s style and I was still looking for popular books outside of my comfort zone. Honestly, I’m so glad I went ahead and bit the bullet on this one. In fact, I talk more about it in my post of Romance Beach Reads Reviews. Overall, though, the idea was just nice. It was a cute story, low stakes. Easy read and super popular so you’d be able to have tons of conversations about this book with lots of people. And that’s one of the things I love most about reading: getting to talk to others about what you’ve read.

Nicolette Farrell left her hometown when her best friend, Corinne disappeared. When her father’s health starts failing, Nicolette returns home right as another girl, her former neighbor goes missing. Told in reverse chronology, this is the story of how one girl’s disappearance tore an entire town and family apart.

This sounds like something that would be right up my alley, but at the time that I read it, I’d just read about four mystery/thrillers in a row and I was honestly disappointed in them. It wasn’t that they were bad, it was just that they were so predictable and after a while formulaic. And the twists weren’t nearly as twisty as I wanted them to be. But this one had that cold case vibe, it had the smile town setting, and it had that kind of weird timeline thing that I don’t usually care for, but in this novel, it worked well. This was another book that had me excited to read again and really helped pull me out of that fourth quarter slump, which I am so grateful for.

How about you guys? Did you read anything out of your comfort zone this year? If so, what were your thoughts? Or what did you think about the books on my list? Let me know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow my blog for more year-end reading roundups.

Happy reading,

-kj

Book Lists

2022 Books That Weren’t For Me (2022 Miss List)

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Tis the season to be kind and hopeful and thankful. And believe me, I am. Just look at last week’s post about all the new releases I really liked this year. However, with the good, come the bad, so of course I have to make my miss list for 2022.

My usual disclaimer before I jump in: I’m not saying any of these books are bad. In fact, I can see how someone might enjoy any of them! However, they were just really not for me. Sorry.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s jump right in, because I have so much to cover.

Lux McCallister and her boyfriend, Nico, have been hired to sail two women to a remote island, but the job quickly turns into something neither of them could have ever imagined out of what should have been easy money.

I’ve talked about this one in my post about Hot Books That Weren’t For Me when I was talking about a different Hawkins book. Overall, though, the main character spent too much time telling me she was tough than actually being tough and the whole story just wasn’t as interesting as I wanted it to be. Cool concept, just wasn’t executed in a way that meshed with my taste.

Chloe Davis has believed her father was behind the six teenage girls who went missing in her small Louisiana town when she was a child. Now he’s in prison and Chloe starts to question whether or not he’s really guilty.

I wanted to love this book. I even talked about it in my Thriller Beach Reads Reviews, but I was just bored. It was a generic mystery where I didn’t love the writing style and I just felt like I had to pull myself through the story. Honestly, I only didn’t DNF it because of the Netflix series (which I haven’t watched) and because I knew it was going to blow up, so I wanted to be able to have conversations with people about it. Now I wish I had just picked up something else, because this one just really wasn’t for me.

When Merritt Coletto opens the door and finds her husband’s first wife, Lydia—a woman who had been missing for ten years and was presumed dead—she doesn’t know what to think. Lydia has a harrowing tale about how she escaped from her kidnapper and his torture, but the more Merritt tries to help, the more she realizes that Lydia has more secrets than just her disappearance.

Actually, I read this book because of a March Bingo Competition we were doing at school. And I picked this one because it was a one word title, it was relatively short, and it was a new release, which gave me a bingo and another check on my reading goals. I talk more about the book in my Thriller Beach Reads Reviews, but overall, I was kind of bored with the style. It just wasn’t a real page turner like I had wanted. The premise is awesome, but the execution just wasn’t what I expected from the synopsis.

Shea Collins runs a true crime website where she attempts to solve cold cases—or at least figure out whether there’s more to the story. Then she gets the opportunity to interview Beth Greer, the rich woman who seems to be the perfect suspect for Lady Killer Murders that were never solved forty years earlier. Shea may be the only person who manages to uncover the truth before it’s all too late.

Another book I talked about in my Thriller Beach Reads Reviews, and the whole reason I didn’t like this book is entirely my fault. I saw it blowing up everywhere and it sounded interesting, so I knew I had to get my hands on it, but I should’ve done my due diligence. This is a horror story, which I don’t mind, I just wasn’t expecting. So the twists were cheapened (wouldn’t have been if I had been wanting a horror instead of a straight thriller). I can get why it was so popular, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Reece has always dreamed of working on the popular cooking show Friends of Flavor, and when it finally happens she gets more than she bargained for, including her own series with the other intern Benny. The only problem is, they’re both competing to earn the same fall job.

I talked about this one in my Romance Beach Reads Reviews. And I don’t like to be rude at all, I don’t like to be totally negative about books, but I gave this one a one star review, because I genuinely did not like it at all. Honestly, I can’t tell you why I finished it. After twenty pages I knew I was going to really, really not like it, but I soldiered through, thinking it would be huge with my students (which it’s done okay). But it was so preachy and so self-important and so wannabe relevant that it hurt. Nope. No. Just not for me at all.

Solange Pereira was just supposed to help her wedding planner cousin on a random couple’s big day when she accidentally ruins the entire event. Now the would-be-groom needs a pretend girlfriend to impress at his job just as badly as she needs a pretend boyfriend to impress her family.

I don’t really like romance, but this one kind of got big overnight for a while, so I thought why not try it out. It was poised to be the new The Love Hypothesis so I grabbed it. And it’s basically just smut with a fake dating plot somewhere in the background. If that’s your thing, you would love this book. The writing wasn’t terrible or anything. It’s just not what I’m crazy for in a book.

Leo wants to reconnect with his first love, Lily Wilder, who is trying to buy back her beloved family ranch by taking tourists on fake treasure hunts. Except, what happens if the treasure appears to be real?

Everyone loved this one and I wanted to love it to. I love the idea of a treasure hunt and this kind of adventure/mystery vibe. I was even prepared that it was supposed to be a romance. But overall, I just didn’t care for it. The characters didn’t really grab my attention, the premise wasn’t as high stakes as I felt like it seems in the synopsis. It just didn’t fully deliver on any of its promises of being a good adventure, a good mystery, or a good romance. It was just kind middle level in my opinion. Not a bad book at all. I can see why people loved it. I just didn’t.

Violet is a morally gray witch who falls in love with a cursed prince and must help him survive the prophecy that predicts his death and the destruction of his kingdom.

I talked about this one in Sequels I Won’t Be Reading, but basically, it’s like every other YA fantasy on the market from the last five years. MC is a bad, tough girl that just wants to tell you she’s bad and tough and also that she’s morally gray instead of just doing what she needs to do in the story. It’s very much a telling story as opposed to a showing story. That’s just not what I enjoy. It’s fine as a YA fantasy, just not what I want.

Anastasia Allen has her sights set on the USA Olympic figure skating team when suddenly her college’s ice rinks are combined and she’s forced to share practice time with Maple Hill’s hockey team, including their dreamy captain Nathan Hawkins.

This book was only a little teeny-tiny bit better than Love From Scratch in my opinion, because instead of just making broad statements about how relevant it was, the story just kind of was more relevant (if that makes sense). The characters were annoying and I kept waiting for them to grow and change and become…better? But they just never did. And I forced myself through this book for essentially nothing. People that love no stakes romance will love this. I just don’t.

What did you guys think this year? Were there any new releases that just weren’t for you? Did you like (or hate) any of the ones that made my miss list? Let me know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow my blog for more reading roundups.

Happy reading

-kj

Book Lists

Best Books of 2022 (2022 Hit List)

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It’s that time of year again where I do my year-end round ups! I always love these, because I get a chance to just really review what a year I’ve had for reading. This year, I hit a serious reading slump in the fourth quarter, just because I was so, so busy at work, so even though I hit my reading goals, I still feel like I didn’t read quite as much as a I wanted to. Nonetheless, I did read a lot more new releases this year than I ever have before and I wanted to get through as many of the books as I could.

I try to avoid super big posts because I’m busy, you’re busy, I like things to be short and sweet, but I will say that I compiled this list by going back and looking at my Goodreads and picking which books stood out for me. I’ve talked about each one before, so I’ll just share a few thoughts on each, but please keep in mind that sometimes the timing and distance has made me change my feelings about books a little (but probably not a lot).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s jump into the best 2022 releases I read:

As a senior in high school, Micah Wilkes boyfriend was convicted of murdering her best friend. Now, ten years later, she starts to question everything she thought she knew about her friend’s death.

This one I talked about in my Thriller Beach Reads. Overall, the mystery was solid, the writing was good, and the whole premise was engaging. I’m not saying it’s my favorite thriller ever, but it was definitely one that I got some enjoyment out of!

When Kit Walker was abducted by Manny Romero, she found herself becoming his partner-in-crime. But as he becomes abusive, she makes her escape. Now, thirteen years later, she’s made a home for herself and her daughter when Manny shows up, claiming to be a changed man.

I’ve talked a bit about this book already, (and even did a full review), so some of you know I was way more interested in the flash backs than the “present day” parts of the novel. Still, even though I was disappointed with it, I realize that disappointment stemmed from my expectations being so high. Overall, this was actually a good, enjoyable book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes that kind of southern gothic feel.

The story of a serial killer on death row told through the eyes of the women who shaped his life and inevitable downfall. This tells the story of Ansel, who is scheduled to die in twelve hours, his mother, the homicide detective responsible for capturing him, his ex-wife and her twin sister who was Ansel’s wife.

I mentioned this book in my “Next Big Book” Beach Reads and overall, I still have pretty fond feelings of this one. Just the style, the characters, the way it all came together. I found myself engaged from beginning to end. It had some hard topics, so uncomfortable matters, but that’s what made it a book that I really did enjoy.

Sally Holt’s older sister, Kathy disappeared fifteen years earlier. Now the only one who can possible understand how it feels to be left behind, always wondering is Kathy’s boyfriend, Billy, who is strictly off limits. This is the story of how the absence of one person can leave a gaping hole in the lives of so many.

Even though I was taken aback by the title and how the book was pitched (spoiler: it’s not a mystery!) , I actually really enjoyed this book. I did a full review, but to summarize my thoughts, I loved the atmosphere. I loved the hurt and anguish coupled with the nostalgia and love. I just thought it was really well rounded and very engaging.

At just six years old, Margot’s best friend, January Jones, was murdered in small town Wakarusa, Indiana. Now, twenty years later, news breaks of five-year-old Natalia Clark going missing one town over at the same time that Margot moves back to Wakarusa to take care of her ailing uncle. She feels she owes it to her childhood best friend to solve the case, but Margot soon realizes that small town secrets are darker and more twisted than she had ever imagined as a small child.

Even though I talked about how I didn’t really care for the woe-is-me-small-towns-are-the-devil-and-the-only-reason-I’m-not-a-good-person-now cliché I talked about in my full review, I really, really liked this book. I liked the atmosphere and the setting (even if the social commentary got super preachy at points). The mystery was good, I liked the characters, I liked all their flaws. I liked how the whole story developed and I especially liked that the twist was a twist, but not, if that makes sense? Anyway, it as one that helped pull me through the fourth quarter lull!

When John Neville, the man convicted of murdering April Coutts-Cliveden dies in prison, her best friend, Hannah (aka, the girl who put him in jail) starts to wonder if he was the real killer.

I took a while to read this one, because it came right in the middle of my busiest time at work so far, but it was one that, while long, was engaging enough to keep me coming back. It was a solid story with enough interest to make me want to know the end. I will say, it could’ve easily been 100 pages shorter and still been a good book. Probably even a better one without that kind of drag that long books often get.

The third book in the Beartown series about those who run toward fire.

This book destroyed me. “This hurts too much to touch with words.” Expect a full review on this one. I am still reeling.

What new releases did you fall in love with this year? Did you read any on my list? What were your thoughts? Let me know the answer to these questions in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow my blog for more year-end roundups.

Happy reading,

-kj

Book Lists, Challenge

Most Anticipated Reads on My TBR Brackets

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Honestly, I’m still so hopeful and excited about all the books that are waiting to come out this year. It was a lot of fun ranking some of the popular ones last week (though a lot of the most popular ones just didn’t feel exactly like my cup of tea). That’s what inspired me for this week’s post, because I have so many books still on my TBR and some of them have been out for years, I just haven’t gotten to them yet. So, today, for our final bracket (even though I’m having an absolute blast with this theme and would love to do it again in some form or capacity in the future), I wanted to talk about the books on my TBR that I’m most excited for.

The hope is that by ranking them in this fashion it will give me a clear order of how I want to knock out that list. That’s actually become one of my major goals this year: stop piling up books and actually start reading ones I’m interested in. It seems like sometimes I get overwhelmed with the options and just go in a different direction altogether, so here’s my excuse to do that no more, because they’re already going to be ranked for me. So let’s jump right in:

Continue reading “Most Anticipated Reads on My TBR Brackets” →