The Best of 2023 – Charlotte’s List
This year my reading included many backlist titles and rereads. I didn’t get to as many of my 2023 TBRs as I’d like, but I did squeeze in more than a few new books that I pleasantly passed the time with. That said, for me, labeling anything ‘best’ requires a little more than just enjoyment. I need a story to be memorable – either by what happens in it or how good I felt after reading it. So, my list is a little short this year.
Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey
Narrated by Callie Dalton
One of the defining factors of whether I buy into a romance is how sensitive the protagonists are to each other’s unspoken needs/motivations. Natalie and August, the couple at the center of this marriage-of-convenience contemporary, do that really well. I listened to the audiobook while packing for a move – which I always find exhausting – and I think that made me particularly vulnerable to the sexiness of August, former Navy SEAL, and, as I like to call him: King of the Emotionally Intelligent. This man can do the heavy lifting of moving boxes AND the heavy lifting in a romantic relationship. I really enjoyed the audio – August and Natalie sounded very real to me, not just like characters performed by someone, and it made for a cozy, immersive listening experience.
Buy it at Amazon
Hello Stranger
by Katherine Center
I’ve read a number of Center’s novels and I usually tear through them in a night and an afternoon. Center’s women’s fiction/romance mash-ups often tackle serious subjects – complicated family relationships, life-changing medical events – but with an underlying sense of hope and a belief in the value of human connection. Hello, Stranger is an excellent example of her work.
Buy it at Amazon
I did some rereads and backlist reads this year too so I also didn’t get to as many new releases as I would normally. I need to catch up on newer Tessa Bailey books! I noticed a whole bookshelf devoted to her stuff (new and old, though none of the Entangled Brazen books she used to write) at the bookstore today. BookTok has certainly gotten her noticed!
Tessa Bailey is not really a hit-or-miss author for me but more like a hit-or-OK. The last book of hers that I read was My Killer Vacation (which was a while ago) and it fell into the OK category so I haven’t read any more. Maybe I need to try her again! Thanks for the list!
I think she’s writing so fast that the quality isn’t what it used to be.
Did you have 10 or so best backlist/ best rereads? I read older books a lot and would be curious, if it is not too much work.
Thank you!
I’m hoping to run one of our “Best Belated Reads” posts, where reviewers talk about books they read in 2023 that weren’t published in 2023 – watch this space!
I need to try the Bailey!
I also liked Hello Stranger. Center has a new one coming out this summer, The Rom-Commers, that’s also really good.
She is very hit or miss for me. I so didn’t enjoy The Bodyguard, and What You Wish For fell completely apart for me half-way through. But I love Things You Save in a Fire.
That’s how I feel about her too; she might just not be for me, since some of our readers rave about her.