Happy New Year everyone! It’s crazy that we’re already in 2023, but I’m honestly so happy about it. Although I had many positives in 2022, I also had some lows that I’d love to forget!
I really enjoyed doing the 1 sentence reviews in September when I came back to blogging and it’s actually crazy that I read more in the last 4 months than I did when I last wrote that blog post. I’m super happy to have ended with 55 books read in 2022. Without much further ado, here are the rest of the books I read last year, summed up and reviewed in one sentence.
NOTE: I just want to make a quick disclaimer that as an employee of Hachette Australia, I may be a bit biased towards certain books (although I generally try to go into books blind) and that many of the books on this list and likely my future reads will be books I get from work.
26. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green ☆☆☆☆
A charming collection of essays that took me way too long to read – despite being interesting, it struggled to capture my attention most of the time.
27. The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk ☆☆☆☆
Highly recommended for anyone interested in reading about strategies to cope and live fully after trauma, this non-fiction book was dense, and interesting but can be very triggering too.
28. Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne ☆☆☆☆
A humourous historical romance that had its charm but still felt kinda lacklustre and was a bit forgettable despite the unique premise.
29. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney ☆☆☆☆
Incredibly thought-provoking with some interesting characters and my favourite Sally Rooney book so far after the disappointment that was Normal People.
30. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
Such a fun romance, with one of my favourite tropes and the perfect amount of spice!
31. Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer ☆☆☆☆☆
The one book that honestly made me tear up and I will continuously push people to read this because it’s amazing, heartwrenching and everything I needed when I read it.
32. Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro Kazuo ☆☆☆☆
Heartfelt, complicated, horrific – this dystopian brings about so many emotions and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t put it down.
33. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton ☆☆☆☆
Wasn’t a memoir I could really relate to and took about half of it to really capture my attention but the messages and stories within were certainly entertaining and one to remember.
34. Book Lovers by Emily Henry ☆☆☆☆☆
This highly controversial book – I definitely enjoyed it because of its fun storyline, different characters than your typical romance and a small town setting done well.
35. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab ☆☆☆☆☆
One of my new all-time favourite books, Addie Larue is everything I hoped it would be.
36. Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
While it might be similar to its predecessor because it’s also within STEM, I still adored and flew through this one as fast as I could and couldn’t put it down!
37. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score ☆☆☆
I hated the love interest, found much of the dialogue to be cringe but it wasn’t totally horrible and some scenes made up for its chunky size and cliched storyline.
38. Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas ☆ – DNF
So it turns out, I hate bully romances – because why would you be interested in an asshole that treats you horribly based on a first impression??
39. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman ☆☆☆☆☆
A new translated fiction favourite that made me laugh and almost tear up, sometimes at the same time!
40. I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee ☆☆☆☆
An extremely relatable memoir that immensely helped my own personal growth despite the sometimes questionable suggestions by the author’s psychiatrist.
41. Twisted Love by Ana Huang ☆☆
The plot of this book just kept getting more ridiculous and unrealistic, and by the end I honestly kept reading just so I could see how much worse it could get.
42. Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
Now, THIS is grumpy sunshine done well PLUS the roommate trope, I feel like rereading this already.
43. Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
Ali just can’t seem to get these tropes wrong as we get another rivals-to-lovers trope, and I’m obsessed with her work.
44. Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
Forced proximity has never been done this well in my opinion and I adore these hot scientist stories – I cannot wait for more.
45. Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang ☆☆☆☆
Interesting but I was hoping for more, full review here.
46. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood ☆☆☆☆☆
I was incredibly privileged to get my hands on this early from work and it did not disappoint, this has to be by FAR her BEST novel yet as it made me laugh, had great character development and the spice was exactly right.
47. Demon In The Wood by Leigh Bardugo ☆☆☆☆
Cute art style with a nice glimpse into the origins of the Darkling, and made me want Shadow and Bone Season 2 even more.
48. Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne ☆☆☆
Pacing was kinda slow, the characters felt pretty average but the setting still pops up in my mind every now and then.
49. Happenstance by Tessa Bailey ☆☆
This reverse-harem is literally pure spice; if you’re not into that, then this will not be the book for you.
50. Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift by Gene Luen Yang ☆☆☆☆
Cute little storyline that gave me a lot of nostalgia.
51. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry ☆☆☆☆
An excellent modern retelling of the main greek myths that I couldn’t put down once I got to about halfway – super interesting but the main message of these myths really is that these gods have 1. too much time on their hands, and 2. no birth control or libido control whatsoever.
52. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ☆☆☆☆☆
A much-needed reread in anticipation of Hell Bent and an extra star rating because it was actually THAT good.
53. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ☆☆☆☆☆
A new all-time favourite that had my heart, my attention, and my world as I couldn’t get enough of this cast of characters and the plot hurt me a little. Review to come.
54. The Guest List by Lucy Foley ☆☆
Pretty disappointing because even though there were some plot twists I didn’t see coming, I hated all the characters and it kept alluding to a supernatural side when there were none.
55. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom ☆☆☆☆☆
Filled with some great philosophies, this book truly is a classic and I can’t believe I didn’t know about its existence until recently.
And that is the second half (kinda) of my reading for 2022 with 1 sentence reviews.
Let me know your thoughts, or if you also read any of the above!
Until next time,
