I haven’t read nor listened to nearly as many books as in previous years, and yet I feel lucky that I loved so many. There are new authors in this selection, in different genres, and that’s been one of my favourite things this year, this opportunity to discover new styles, new worlds. Alicia Gael, Erin Hall, and Nico Vincenty all swept me away in unexpected directions, and I look forward to reading their future books. I also got to reunite with two writers—Ileandra Young and Ashley Bartlett—whose books I’ve loved for years but whom I hadn’t read in a while. Both Virginia Black and Marguerite Grimaud (aka the love of my life) confirmed their debut novel’s promises. And the other two authors—Clare Ashton and Milena McKay—won’t surprise anyone, as they’re always on my lists of favourites and among the first names I give when asked for recommendations.

For the first time since I started reviewing, I experienced more stories in audio than with my eyes, which explains why authors you might have expected to see featured on this list aren’t. I’ll post my favourite audiobooks of the year in a couple of days, and it will all make sense then.

As in previous years, I’m not ranking the books that made my year, so here they are in chronological order of when I reviewed them. Click on the titles to read the reviews.

To these I’ll add two books that were released in 2023 but that I read and loved this year: Paper Daffodils by Titania Tempest and Dark Star by C.X. Myers, whose books I love but can’t seem to read in the year they’re released—Sacred, this year’s release, is waiting on my TBR…

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