Choice Awards - Les's Version

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Well if there was one thing (almost) all of the Goodreads users agreed on this year it was that the Goodreads Choice Awards this year SUCKED. I had only read one book that was a nominee. I read a lot of new releases this year and was disappointed not more made the nominee list. Many people had a similar feeling and even more were disappointed that several well-loved categories were eliminated from the docket. This was the first year I would be able to participate in the Goodreads Choice Awards and I had been looking forward to it all year and it really fell flat. So instead I am doing my own, I am naming my favorite book from each genre I read this year and telling you why below. They will not be all new releases because I think all books deserve love, not just the new ones! 



Best of Thriller 

Verity - Colleen Hoover

Released - 2018
Pages - ~ 336 
stars ⭐ - 5

I know I've talked a lot of shit about Colleen Hoover this year, but Verity really is different than her other books. If you haven't read this book solely because it is a Colleen Hoover book I urge you to give it a try. In the first 30 pages, I wasn't sure I'd get into this book, but then it picked up and just kept getting crazier and crazier. 
I can't say much about the plot without being worried I spoiled something. Honestly, if you can I'd go into this book blind that what I did and it was a great decision. 
Every spare second I had was spent reading Verity, I think I read it in about two days. The just absolute mindfuck this book is leaves you spinning for a while. I haven't read a book like it since. For that alone I think it deserves to be first in this category. 



Best of Mystery 

Local Woman Missing - Mary Kubica

Released - 2021
Pages - ~ 353
stars ⭐ - 5

Local Woman Missing is by far the best book I have read that has multiple POVs. There are a decent amount of POVs in this book and they all intertwine perfectly. I remember this book freaking me out. There isn't anything particularly scary in this book, but I think that's why it freaked me out so bad. This book could happen. The fact that these terrible horrible things could pretty easily happen in real life is just something that can keep you up at night and make you a tad paranoid. Now, I'm not saying this was bad, if anything it was good. Books are supposed to affect you and make you feel things. Local Woman Missing just happened to make me feel scared as shit. 
Just like Verity, I don't want to say much about the plot because I may accidentally spoil something. Just trust me and read it, you won't be disappointed. 


Best of Romance

Meet Me at the Lake - Carley Fortune

Released - 2023
Pages - ~ 336
stars ⭐ - 5

Every single thing about this book was a chef's kiss. Now, this is the only Carley Fortune book I have read and I am obsessed with her writing style. I was dying to read her other book Every Summer After. That excitement died quickly after hearing shit review after shit review. On the flip side, if you have read Every Summer After and despise Carley Fortune because of it - this is me urging you to read Meet Me at the Lake. 
Meet Me at the Lake has two different timelines in two different settings. Both settings and timelines were amazing. I created a Pinterest board called "Places Books Make Me Want to Go" just because I loved the setting of Muskoka so much. The first timeline is based in Toronto, and the second timeline is set ten years later in Muskoka. 
Think Hallmark movie, but ten times better and that is how I would rate the plot. There is not a misstep by Fortune; by the characters - absolutely, but that just makes the plot better in my opinion. While this book is the perfect summer read, you can read it anytime when you need a good romance to lighten your spirits. 


Best of Fantasy

A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas 

Released - 2016
Pages - ~ 624
stars ⭐ - 5

I read two fantasy books (still getting into this genre) this year and they are both in the same series. I read A Court of Thornes and Roses at the very beginning of 2023. It was the first fantasy book I had read since The Hobbit in middle school. It took me a little bit to get into and the end did drag on for me, but the middle was so good I figured I should continue on to the second one. If I didn't like the second one I could cut and run. Oh. My. God. The second one. A Court of Thorns and Roses is simply the entry fee you must pay to get to this masterpiece. A Court of Mist and Fury is probably not the best thing I have read all my life, but it did some things a book has never wanted me to do before: 
1. have outlandish facial expressions based on what I just read
2. throw the book across the room
3. stare at the ceiling while I think about my recent life choices upon finishing the book
4. make my boyfriend soup
5. possibly fall in love with a fictional character 
I have not gotten to the third one yet, but plan to get to it in early 2024. I needed time to recoup after A Court of Mist and Fury. If A Court of Wings and Ruin goes up on the crazy scale as much as A Court of Mist and Fury did, I may die. 
Obviously, as this is the second in a series, I can't give many details. Just read it!


Best of Nonfiction

Floriography - Jessica Roux

Released - 2020
Pages - ~ 213
stars ⭐ - 5

Can I put a picture book as the best of nonfiction? Absolutely because this is Les's mother fucking version. 
Floriography is so much more than a "picture book". While the illustrations are BEAUTIFUL (done by the author herself) there is some fascinating information regarding Floriography in here. First of all, Floriography to begin with is so cool. Being able to tell someone one castle over that her boyfriend is trash via bouquet is dope as hell. 
While Floriography may not be your most challenging nonfiction read it has so much going for it I think almost anyone can enjoy. I will forever be dreaming of having the ultimate flower garden to make these bouquets for people while simultaneously trying to convince you to get this book. 


Best of Horror

The Whisper Man - Alex North

Released - 2019
Pages - ~ 373
stars ⭐ - 4

This is the first non-five-star read on the list. Horror books are hard, there are just so many ways for them to go not right. There are a few things that need to go right in a horror book to get a full five stars from me. 
1. be unpredictable 
2. have an actual plot
3. character development 
A lot of horror books just like to string a bunch of scary scenes together with no actual plot or characters and call it a horror book. However, it still needs to be a book first and foremost. The Whisper Man checks off almost everything, a few things were just lacking for me personally for it to receive the full 5 stars. Regardless of that fact, The Whisper Man is still a VERY GOOD book and I recommend it to people all the time. 
The plot is very unpredictable, it took me through twists and turns the whole way and the ending threw me for a loop. The plot while unpredictable was lacking in some areas where it just got slow and droned on some character's inner monologues. Speaking of characters, almost all bugged me at first. The male characters were all very self-deprecating and negative and I HATE that in books. Once the plot started to further though that aspect died down and I enjoyed the characters much more. 
The Whisper Man makes a perfect spooky Halloween read, but you can read it at any point and I hope you do. 


Best of Historical Fiction 

The Road to Somorrostro - Julia Slack

Released - 2023
Pages - ~ 399
stars ⭐ - 4

I only read one historical fiction book this year and you are looking at it, The Road to Somorrostro. When I started thinking about making this blog post I figured if I only read one book in that particular genre I'd just count it out. Then I got to the historical fiction genre and just couldn't do it. I read several books that have some historical aspects, but this was the only true historical fiction book. It was such a great read though I knew I had to include it!
The Road to Somorrostro is based in the 60s in Barcelona, Spain, and details the lives of 4 families. One is a working-class single-mother household, one well-to-do family, and two gitano families. All the families intertwining through time was so spectacular and the writing was superb, especially for a debut novel. 
The plot itself starts a little slow but about halfway you find out all that past drama happened for a reason and it's all intertwined in the best way. I highly recommend this read even if you aren't a big historical fiction reader, I'm not either. 


Best of Fiction 

The Rabbit Hutch - Tess Gunty

Released - 2022
Pages - ~ 352
stars ⭐ - 4


The Rabbit Hutch was one of my most recent reads and I am still not convinced it even exists. What a fever dream of a book. 
I'd had my eye on reading The Rabbit Hutch for a while, and then my boyfriend's godsent of an aunt let me borrow her copy. I was so stoked. Of course, by the time I got my hands on a copy, I had a stack of books waiting to be read, but I kept thinking of The Rabbit Hutch. When I got to it I was excited before I even cracked the cover. I flew through the first hundred or so pages within a couple of days. Characters were being built up and Gunty had a refreshing way of writing where the information was inserted in the actual layout you'd expect, not converted into a novel format. I was hopeful this would be my favorite book of the whole year. I got about halfway and then the plot fizzled. It still moved forward, but not even close to the rate it was and everything got very disconnected and a lot of plotlines seemed to be forgotten by Gunty and pushed to the side. If you are going to introduce a character do them the justice they deserve by giving them an actual plotline and not just a blurb here or there. Honestly, two whole plotlines, if you can even call them that, could have been removed altogether. The book would have been much more cohesive this way. Or better yet Gunty could have actually focused on the people living in the Rabbit Hutch, which was what was supposed to be the plot instead of bringing a lot of characters in that could have been easily left out. 
Overall, the book was good and had a lot of redeeming factors. This was Gunty's debut novel and it showed. While her writing itself was exquisite the plot and continuity throughout could be improved on. 
I still think people should read this book because it truly is different and that cannot be said much these days. 


I read a lot of fabulous, thrilling, and heartwarming books this year. All the books above I would recommend to just about anyone. Below each book is the Amazona and Goodreads links, you can find additional information or purchase them through there. I always encourage people to support their local bookstores, but I also know that money is a factor to many so Amazon is always a more affordable option. 
While I am proud of myself for covering eight genres I hope to cover more next year. I also hope to have more choices in a few genres to make my reading more diverse. It's a constant struggle of "I need to read something out of the box!" and "Just read a book you know is in your wheelhouse cause you know you'll love it!". It's a balance I have nowhere near mastered. If there are books you love that are not in any of the genres above, please reach out! I love recommendations, especially for new genres so I'm not going in blind. 

Stay tuned for my top five and worst five books of the year. It will highlight some of the books above, but will also bring a lot of other books to your attention! 


❤ Les





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