9 of My Favorite Books of 2022

2022 has been a great reading year for me. I met and surpassed my reading goal. I hit my goal of 6K Bookstagram followers. I’m part of several influencer programs with publishers. Even better, 2022 was incredibly overflowing with fantastic books. These are just a few of my favorite books of 2022.

My favorite books of 2022

Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

This story thoroughly charmed me. The book alternates between Dahlia and London’s POV so we get to read about all of their feelings – hopes, fears, insecurities, and desires.

Dahlia is the relatable, sunshine-even-in-the-face-of-adversity klutz. Her first big moment in the competition is tripping and sending her plate of food sailing then crashing.

London is the more reserved one, feeling the weight of being a very visible nonbinary person.

So many feels in this book! Serious ones like anger at haters but there were sweet, tender, and sexy moments too. And some laugh-out-loud funny ones – London trying to milk a cow had me gigglesnorting.

Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

First, I love the nod to classic Nancy Drew books with the series name – Secret Staircase Mysteries.

Tempest was so relatable in her determination to not be defeated and to get to the bottom of what was going on. Her loyalty to her family and friends was heartwarming. The extended family that her father created with his business made me happy.

So many quirky characters that I wanted to hang out with. A library with a train car! A secret garden! So many amazing places. The author’s gift for writing captivating and lush descriptions is incredible.

And the mystery kept me guessing right up to the end.

Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score

MAGGIE MOVES ON is very much about finding/making family and creating a community.

This had a Hallmark movie feel but with extra spiciness added. In addition to the romance, this has a secondary mystery involving a stagecoach robbery in the past, missing gold coins, and the author who had the original house built.

Fast pace, lots charm, lots of lols, some incredibly tender moments along with serious amounts of heat.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is a gorgeous mash-up of fantasy, political intrigue, mystery, and queer romance.

The author uses the stranger in a strange land trope via an arranged marriage/alliance to great effect to explain the cultures. There’s fantastically detailed world-building with multiple countries, races, religions, politics, and mores on display.

And while the contrast of one country’s repressed, patriarchal, homophobic ways with the other country’s acceptance of women in power and acknowledgment of nonbinary and gender fluidity, is a bit on the nose. The positive representation delighted me.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Sunyi Dean’s created a fascinating race of people. Imagine that you learn by literally eating books, but remain illiterate, unable to even write your name or text. How do you keep your race going when fertile women are rare. And children are even rarer.

I love that despite growing up with a head filled with passive princess tales, Devon refuses to accept a passive role. She carves out space to be strong even with the weight of society’s expectations against her.

Sunyi Dean shows us love, found family, and the determination to follow your heart even when doing so could lose you everything.

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty has done amazing worldbuilding. She’s created multiple alien races and how they interact with each other, their species’ history, their roles on the space station, and even the food they eat. The space station itself with its sentience and its humanoid symbiote that interacts with people is a marvel.

The author uses flashbacks to show the reader the backstory and history of characters and events. We learn more about Mallory’s history of being near murders and how she’s helped solve them and why she wanted to get away from that life.

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

Gina Chen’s created a lush richly imagined world full of complex characters and magical mysteries. I loved how unapologetically prickly and cranky Violet is. Even tho she’s a seer, she doesn’t have all of the answers and is caught between trying to find a way through the intrigue and hoping her country can avoid war and she can keep her place. Violet’s emotional turmoil is so well depicted that you feel it too.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

WHAT MOVES THE DEAD by T. Kingfisher is a retelling of the classic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar A. Poe. This book will give you all of the Gothic chills and body horror feels that you could ever want. Along with a shoutout to Beatrix Potter!

This cover is gorgeous. Although there’s a scene in the book that turns this artwork from an homage to Dutch still-lives to something insidiously horrific.

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

This is a smart and snappy series debut featuring a warm and resourceful amateur sleuth set in a small Michigan lakeshore town. You get a great group of friends, a charming English Mastiff. And so many suspects!

Maddy was relatable in her determination to not let people see her fail. Or to take the easy way out. I loved her kindness to other business owners and residents. I also appreciated how the Irregulars adopted her into their group.

In closing

I’ve only listed 9 of my favorite books of 2022 but there are so many more! What a great year to be a reader. To keep up with what I’m reading, follow me on Goodreads. Subscribe to my blog, Undine Reads, or follow my Bookstagram to get even more bookish content.