Reading in 2023, all things considered, was abysmal, if I do say so myself. According to Goodreads, I only read 17 books in total, and of those 17, only 7 of them were Reader’s Reviews books. That is why I chose to divide up my usual “complete Upstream Update” post into two parts, instead of talking about all of everything on one long post. So, without further ado, here’s a ranked list of all 17 books I read in 2023!
17–A Tree of Bone and Mist by Melissa E. Beckwith
Starting off fairly strong with this one! Just your garden-variety portal fantasy with a female MC with a chip on her shoulder thrust from her mundane Montana ranch life with her domesticated pet wolf (which was never explained how she ended up with an actual wolf, not a “wolf-like dog” or even a “wolfdog”, just a straight-up wolf!) into a fantasy world where she’s somehow connected to the lost royal family and possessing special powers and hence all the evil forces that would like to have said power for themselves are all gunning for her and she has to find her footing and get to safety even though nothing in this new world is remotely safe because she has no idea where things are or what she’s supposed to be doing… it was a trip, the world-building was awesome, but it just didn’t hit me in the fantasy feels. To read my full review, follow >this linked text<
16–What The Chat Dragged In by Cyn Mackley
With as much as I really enjoyed the Goode-Grace Mysteries, I was hoping to put this a little higher on the list… but with all things considered, and how few books are on this list in the first place, this isn’t half bad! It carries Mackley’s signature charm in her main characters and the pages of tantalizing food that’s introduced throughout the adventure–but I think the thing that sort of downgraded it for me was the subject matter. FMC is a federal forensic investigator, so she sees (and thus the reader “sees”) a lot of really sick and twisted stuff… and MMC turns out to be a survivor of abuse and trauma himself, so while on the one hand it makes for a really sweet story of being vulnerable and trusting one another… on the other, it’s a lot of secondhand trauma for the reader to experience, albeit in a fictional book with fictional characters! To read my full review, click on >this linked text<
15–A Change in Crime by D. R. Perry
Not my first vampire novel, but my first time reading this indie author! Don’t get the wrong idea about its placement on this list… yes, it’s not a “top 10”, but the 4.5-star rating should speak for itself.
In fact, if you want a more in-depth review of this book, follow >this linked text< for my full Reader’s Review.
14–The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
I was a little excited to find the whole Bourne trilogy at a book sale a couple years ago, thinking of how much I enjoyed the movies and wanting to see how the books compared.
Imagine my surprise to learn that the film trilogy had very little to do with the book trilogy at all! Movie Bourne is innocent, instinctual, young, with an altruistic streak. Book Bourne feels much older, is more jaded, more traumatized, and seems to just react to things with little thought except for how it might benefit him. Movie Bourne goes on the run because he wants to find out the truth of himself and he wants out of the life he finds attached to his name; Book Bourne is on the run because he wants to escape the truth of himself, but he cannot escape all the trauma and baggage attached to his current identity. Almost as if Movie Bourne finds his aim to seek out and establish a new iteration of “Bourne”, the independent citizen, while Book Bourne is obsessed with finding any sense of “Identity”, and that becomes his driving motivation, whatever rises against him.
Still rather interesting though, and I’d keep reading the trilogy, now that I know it is completely separate from the film trilogy’s arc.
13–Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemmelman
The second book in the delightful Jewish-centric cozy mysteries my grandma recommended and gifted to me! I’m quite enjoying this series, Rabbi David Small is just the right mix of Poirot and Father Tim from the Mitford series: more American than European Poirot, but also heavily integrated into the relatively small community like Father Tim. He leads his synagogue with studious grace, and yet he’s not so steeped in the religious traditions like some of the other synagogue leaders that he misses important details and changes among the people.
This time, it’s the middle of a Yom Kippur fast, and a man is found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage–but the Rabbi happens to notice that the car wasn’t on by the time the police arrived, which means someone had to have turned it off before the man was dead… and what does this stranger have to do with an ailing wealthy Jew and a pharmaceutical testing lab where the man supposedly used to work? Can Rabbi Small put the pieces together before the members of the temple board find grounds to fire him as their Rabbi?
It’s quaint, it’s fun, and it lays out all the clues beautifully before matching them to their respective part of the solution as a whole.
12–The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
I’ll say it, I’m a fan of Ruth Ware. While this wasn’t her best work, there’s just something poignant about reading a book about a travel writer embarking on a North Sea cruise where nothing is as it seems, while sitting on a beach in Hawaii. Yes, I brought this one along with me on our beach vacation–and it was well worth it. What started out as an innocent moment of “I forgot which cabin door was mine” turned dark very quickly when the titular Woman of Cabin 10 disappears on the same night the travel writer is convinced she saw someone toss a body overboard… but when all the guests are accounted for, and no evidence of the woman she’d seen the night before, how can she prove what she saw? There were some parts I was easily able to predict, and probably a savvy reader will pick up on the clues much quicker than I did–but if you’re looking for a beach-read or a titillating mystery to entertain you while on vacation–this is definitely a good one!
11–"V" is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
I can’t believe I’m almost finished with this series! While yes, there are 4 more letters of the alphabet, unfortunately the author passed away shortly after releasing the book for “X”, and so the final book is letter “Y”--which means I have only 3 books to go and I’ve finished this series that I started literally 10 years ago.
This one had a lot of flashbacks, as Kinsey starts out investigating a potential shoplifter she busts who might be part of an organized ring connected to the Mob, and gets embroiled in the death of a woman who ostensibly jumped–or was thrown–off a bridge. A lot of the story is told through flashbacks of the woman’s point of view of the circumstances that led to her ending up on that bridge, and also the Mob family’s point of view, so Kinsey is more of an additional or backup player in the whole narrative, but it’s interesting, the latest in a long line of plots that manage to be distinct and intriguing enough to keep one guessing all the way through!
10–The Seven Towers by Patricia C. Wrede
This was one I found at the same book sale I bought the Bourne trilogy at, and I was excited because it looked really intriguing and I remembered how much I’d enjoyed Wrede’s take on Snow White and Rose Red.
The ensuing adventure was entertaining enough in the moment, but even now as I write this I’m struggling to remember any stand-out parts. The magic system was pretty cool, and the conflicts were suitably devious, if I recall… but that’s about it. A nice, fun sword-and-sorcery novel that I can recommend to friends if they’re interested in that sort of thing. (Although really, if they’re into sword-and-sorcery, there is a whole indie series I think I’d rather recommend over this one!)
9–Moonblood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Now that we’re solidly in the top ten, I’m feeling many more memories of the individual stories coming back! Like this one, a tale in which a goblin princess is trying to remain in exile from her manipulative father, while there’s conflict with the human kingdom brewing that may yet give the Goblin King power over that kingdom while he waits for his daughter to inevitably fall within his clutches again…
There’s just something so ethereal and enchanting about the way Stengl writes that never fails to drag me in and captivate me, no matter how long it’s been since I’ve read the previous book in the series!
8–Undying Light by Aurora Wildey
This one was quite fun! A random contact through my author page netted me an advance copy of this new release, and I quite enjoyed it more than anticipated! I'm not usually a fan of PNR (paranormal romance) because it’s always the angsty immortal that can’t keep himself in check around the innocent, naive mortal… but come to find out, she’s got secrets of her own!
7–Sahara by Clive Cussler
Yet another book I picked up because of how much I enjoyed the movie adaptation–but unlike The Bourne Identity, this adaptation at least managed to hit the highlights of the original plot!
Most of the main cast is still there, and although the book descriptions differed greatly from the actors’ appearances a lot of the time, I had no trouble inserting the actor into my “headcanon” anyhow! Yes, I did roll my eyes at the over-campy descriptions of Dirk Pitt (small wonder McConaughey was drawn to the role!) and I found myself giggling at Cussler’s own self-insert scene… but it was a pretty well-told story itself, and I enjoyed going even deeper into the lore and the technical aspects that the movie could only gloss over!
6–The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness
Two books down, one more to go and I’ve completed the trilogy! (Whereupon I will be ready to watch the film! Although I have little hope that it will be anything like what I’ve been reading) Ness is a fantastic author and I kind of like the unorthodox, nearly-stream-of-consciousness style he’s adopted for this series. The plot development is fascinating, I wish Prentiss would die in a hole and never come back, and I’m really invested in the survival of both Olivia and Todd at this point!
5–King of Hearts by Patricia Loofbourrow
You’d think I’d be a little bored with a book that deals in courtroom trial scenes almost the whole time, in the midst of a series with such phenomenal world-building, superb characters, and an intriguing plot that keeps me on my toes the whole time. But no, this book caught me in a time when I was watching a lot of random scenes and episodes of Law & Order: SVU. Didn’t bore me a bit! For my full review, follow >this linked text here<.
4–The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz
Booyah! I found this on a library shelf when I was least expecting it! This series is turning out much longer than I expected–but I am not at all mad! Yes, I’m talking about the Gratuitously Self-Insertionist Inspector Hawthorne series. This time, “Tony” is invited to the performance of a play he himself wrote, and not long after, one of the actors is found murdered, and the only prints on the murder weapon belong to Horowitz himself! He’s got to find Hawthorne (they’d parted on bad terms after the last adventure) and beg the inspector to exonerate him, before Scotland Yard puts him behind bars for “finally committing that perfect crime he’s always writing about in his books.” It’s hilarious, there are so many Princess Bride references, and there’s hints at the end of more to come, so I’m here for it!
3–The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman
This series continues to surprise and delight me! It was very fun getting back into it after it being a while since I read The Masked City. Irene and Kai are still dealing with shifty Fae and overly-scrupulous Dragons–and this one is probably my fastest-read of 2023 (from what I can tell… it’s hard to know sometimes on Goodreads when you’re inconsistent with your “Currently Reading” status, as I am!). Irene has to find answers and stop Alberich from destroying the Library from within–all while not knowing who she can trust, and who has been turned against their own organization, threatening the stability of all worlds in the Library’s network. It was very enjoyable!
2–The Wendy by Erin Michelle Sky
And here we are at the Best Featured Indie Read of 2023! I love a good retelling–and this one had a unique take on Peter Pan lore that I really enjoyed! To read the complete review, click on >this linked text<.
1–Supernova by Marissa Meyer
And finally, the Best Read of 2023! This trilogy was absolutely masterful. I loved the uniqueness of the powers, both their strengths and the limitations presented with each. The character development was excellent, and the build up matched with the payoff every time! I am immensely satisfied with how this series turned out, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a YA superhero-themed series!
So there you have it, my Ranked Reading List of 2023. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to finish even more books in 2024! What was your favorite (or Top 3!) from 2023? What are you looking forward to reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments!
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