2023 Year End Book Review
2023 was a fantastic year of reading! I think I only rated a few books at 3 stars, and the rest earned 4 or 5 — not too shabby. (I am known to be a generous book ranker, though, because I genuinely enjoy most of what I read.) This post features the books I read during the second half of the year. If you’re curious about books 1-20, check out this article. Enjoy!
Note: All book descriptions are excerpts from Goodreads or directly from the back of each book (with edits by moi, because I don’t like when big twists are included in the book descriptions!) Also, if you buy a book through one of the links below they are affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
Books 21 - 25
TAYLOR JENKINS REID
Carrie Soto is Back - 5 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Contemporary | Sports
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach. Six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
ELIN HILDERBRAND
28 Summers - 4 Stars
Genres - Romance | Fiction | Chick Lit
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.
There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere—through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise—until Mallory learns she's dying.
HARVEY KARP
The Happiest Baby on the Block - 4 Stars
Genres - Non Fiction | Parenting
In a innovative and thought-provoking reevaluation of early infancy, Dr. Karp blends modern science and ancient wisdom to prove that newborns are not fully ready for the world when they are born. Through his research and experience, he has developed four basic principles that are crucial for understanding babies as well as improving their sleep and soothing their senses.
Maggie Note: This book could have been half as long; however, it was incredibly insightful for a first time parent who knew absolutely nothing about infants. You could easily look up “The 5 Ss” to get a quick list of the soothing techniques presented in the book, but gaining an understanding of why those soothing methods work can help you understand when best to employ them and how to tweak them for your unique little one.
PAMELA DRUCKERMAN
Bringing Up Bebe - 5 Stars
Genres - Nonfiction | Parenting
When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special.
Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play. French mothers assume that even good parents aren't at the constant service of their children and that there's no need to feel guilty about this. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy.
With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman-a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal-sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is.
Maggie Note: Take what you want from this book and leave what you don’t, but this book includes a powerful reminder that you are still YOU after having kids — something often left out of parenting dialogue that creates immense amounts of guilt for American parents. I truly loved the alternative perspective presented in this book and will likely re-read if we have more kids!
ANABEL MONAGAN
Same Time Next Summer - 4 Stars
Genres - Contemporary Fiction | Romance | Chick Lit
The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn't seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.
Books 26 - 30
MARISA MELTZER
Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier - 3 Stars
Genres - Non Fiction | Business
Called “one of the most disruptive brands in beauty” by Forbes , Glossier revolutionized the beauty industry with its sophisticated branding and unique approach to influencer marketing, almost-instantly making the company a juggernaut with rabid fans lining up for a chance to buy its coveted products. It also taught a generation of business leaders how to talk to Millennial and Gen Z customers and build a cult following online.
In Glossy , journalist and author Marisa Meltzer combines in-depth interviews with former Glossier employees, investors, and Weiss herself to bring you inside the walls of this fascinating and secretive company. From fundraising to product launches and unconventional hiring practices, Meltzer exposes the inner workings of Glossier’s culture, culminating in the story of Weiss herself. The Devil Wears Prada for the Bad Blood generation, Glossy is a gripping portrait of not just one of the most important business leaders of her generation, but also a chronicle of an era.
TAYLOR JENKINS REID
One True Loves - 4 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Contemporary Romance
In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing.
Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.
REBECCA YARROS
The Empyrean #1: Fourth Wing - 5 Stars
Genres - Fantasy Romance | Fiction | Action
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
KATHARINE MCGEE
American Royals #4: Reign - 5 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Romance | Drama
America's royal family is in shambles. Queen Beatrice is in a coma and Princess Samantha has gone missing—from the look of things, she ran away with her boyfriend, Lord Marshall Davis. Which means that Prince Jefferson is currently on the throne. For some in America, it's exactly what they wanted: a King ruling the country. And for Daphne Deighton, who has tricked Jefferson into dating her again, it's the ultimate dream come true.
Surely this is all just temporary. Won’t Beatrice wake up and reclaim her rightful place? Samantha can't really be gone…can she? And Prince Jefferson will never truly be over his childhood crush, Nina Gonzalez. Right? For the Washington family, the stakes are higher than ever. Love might save the throne….if secrets don’t destroy everything first.
NITA PROSE
The Maid (Molly the Maid #1) - 4 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Mystery | Romance
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed.
A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.
Books 31 - 37
REBECCA YARROS
The Empyrean #2: Iron Flame - 5 Stars
Genres - Fantasy Romance | Fiction | Action
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
ANN GARVIN
There’s No Coming Back From This - 4 Stars
Genres and Themes - Fiction | Romance | Chick Lit
It seems lately that Poppy Lively is invisible to everyone but the IRS. After her accountant absconded with her life savings, newly bankrupt Poppy is on the verge of losing her home when an old flame, now a hotshot producer, gives her a surprising way out: a job in costumes on a Hollywood film set. It’s a bold move to pack her bags, keep secrets from her daughter, and head to Los Angeles, but Poppy's a capable person—how hard can a job in wardrobe be?
Floundering and overlooked, Poppy has one ally: Allen Carol, an ill-tempered movie star taken with Poppy’s unfiltered candor and general indifference to stardom. When Poppy stumbles upon corruption, she relies on everyone underestimating her to discover who’s at the center of it, a revelation that shakes her belief in humanity. What she thought was a way to secure a future for her daughter becomes a spotlight illuminating the facts: Poppy is out of her league among the divas of Tinseltown.
CHANTEL GUERTIN
It Happened One Christmas - 3 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Christmas | Romance
A charming and rollicking holiday rom-com about a big-city film director who must convince the dreamy, yet grumpy, mayor of a small town to give her the permit to shoot her Christmas movie in his idyllic hometown. Perfect for fans of Hallmark holiday movies, and readers of Maggie Knox's All I Want for Christmas and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.
BILL BRYSON
The Secret History of Christmas - 4 Stars
Genres - Non-Fiction | Christmas
Christmas is the single biggest annual event on the planet, a time for merry-making, over-indulgence, peace, goodwill, and the occasional family row. It’s as comfortable and familiar as a pair of old shoes and yet still glittery and exciting. But what do you really know about it? It’s stuffed full of traditions and rituals that most of us have been observing all our lives without having the slightest idea of where they come from.
Christmas, and how it got that way, is full of surprises. Join Bill Bryson to reach into this Christmas stocking and pull them out – along with the inevitable tangerine.
ANNIE RAINS
Through the Snow Globe - 5 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Romance | Holiday
It’s been three weeks since Diana Merriman’s fiancé Linus was critically injured when a car hit him as he biked home from the toy store he owns and manages. Watching him open his eyes is the only gift she wants for Christmas, but she can’t help losing a little more hope every day.
But an unexpected visit from a friendly neighbor and finding a snow globe of her town, Snow Haven—a gift Linus had hidden in the closet—the night before Christmas Eve changes things in ways Diana never would have imagined. Because on Christmas Eve Diana wakes up to find that it’s not—Christmas Eve, that is. Instead, it’s somehow December 4 all over again, the day Linus got hurt, and as mystified as Diana is, she immediately starts a plan to save her partner from his fate.
Diana finds herself in an endless loop of December 4, experiencing every possible variation of events. Along the way, she uncovers startling truths about herself, her relationship, and even her career that illustrate the ways she’s retreated from her life—and in the face of life’s slights and outright blows, from her deepest feelings.
JENNY BAYLISS
A December to Remember - 4 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Holiday | Family
Wildly different half sisters Maggie, Simone, and Star have hardly seen one another since their sprightly summers at Rowan Thorp, their eccentric father Augustus’s home. Known for his bustling approach to the knick-knack shop he ran, Augustus was loved by all and known by none, not even his daughters.
Now, years later, the three estranged women are called upon for the reading of Augustus’s will and quickly realize he's orchestrated a series of hoops through which they must jump to unlock their inheritance. Through hilarious goose chases, small-town mishaps, and one heart-warming winter solstice celebration, love, hope, and reconcilation is in the air, if only the three sisters can let themselves grasp it.
JENNY BAYLISS
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe - 4 Stars
Genres - Fiction | Romance | Holiday
Elinor Noel—Nory for short—is quite content running her secondhand bookshop in London. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates’ extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So when two of her oldest friends invite their whole gang to spend the time leading up to their wedding together at the castle near their old school, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days.
The reunion brings back fond memories, but also requires Nory to dodge an ill-advised former fling. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the castle’s head gardener, who has nothing but contempt for the "snobby prep school kids," the attraction between them is undeniable. And as Nory spends more time with Isaac during the wedding festivities, she finds herself falling hard for the boy she used to consider an enemy. Nory must decide what kind of life she wants to live and what sort of love is worth the risk . . .