We’ve reached the end of our individual Best of 2023 lists, so now it’s crunch time, and we’ve all narrowed our choices down to a single (mostly!) Best Book of the Year. Without further ado, here are the books the AAR team have chosen as their 2023 favourites.
Caz
Until You by Briar Prescott
Picking a favourite book from my Best of list each year is always difficult and I find myself wavering backwards and forwards between two or three titles. I hate playing favourites because my choice often depends on how I feel on any given day! It came down to a choice between Briar Prescott’s Until You and KJ Charles’ A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel – and I went for the Prescott simply because I remember how I felt when I read it and how completely blown away by it I was. Everything about it just… works. The way the author orchestrates the reveal is masterful, the slow-burn romance is funny, sexy and utterly charming and the characterisation is superb; the PoV character, Jude, is complex and endearing, and I loved that, unlike so many emotionally scarred romance heroes, he’s reached a stage where he’s able to admit that the life he’s built is no longer the life for him and is willing to open his heart, take a chance and build a life with someone. The story is single PoV, so we don’t (for good reason) get Blake’s PoV, but he feels just as vibrant and well-drawn, and the love letter he writes near the end is one of the best I’ve ever read in fiction. (Maybe not quite Wentworth standard, but pretty close!) In my review, I said:
Until You is Briar Prescott’s best book yet. The prose is thoughtful, insightful and romantic in the best of ways – emotional without being sappy; she writes banter that is genuinely witty, and Jude and Blake are beautifully drawn, complex, three-dimensional characters who will make you laugh, make you cry and (sometimes) make you want to bang their heads together…
I stand by every word.
Buy it at Amazon
Charlotte
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
Dabney
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.
I adore this book. As I wrote in my review, “Ariel Lawhon’s latest work is my favorite book of 2023. This whopper of a novel delicately peels back the layers of history to reveal the intricate struggles and enduring resilience of women in post Revolutionary War 18th-century America. Through the eyes of Martha Ballard, a local midwife and guardian of the town’s hidden stories, Lawhon brilliantly illuminates the profound absence of women’s rights in the burgeoning American legal landscape, all without resorting to heavy-handed messaging.”
It’s a perfect read.
Buy it at Amazon
Jenna
Best Book of 2023 is, for me, tied between Five First Chances by Sarah Jost and Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes
Five First Chances was a great read because of the way Jost constructed the story. With each retelling of the “chances”, she reveals more about the characters and provides the connections between them. Too, the way that she presents very unique results for the changed decisions of the main character is refreshing. If you want a story that involves time travel without any of the messy mental gymnastics, this is the book for you.
Buy it at Amazon
In Someone Else’s Shoes, Moyes presented two characters with very different lives and personalities and yet managed to put them together in a story that made sense. Too, while I didn’t like one of the main characters very much, Moyes did an amazing job making this woman sympathetic and redeeming her in a realistic way.
Buy it at Amazon
Jessica
A Kiss in the Moonlight by Cathy Maxwell
I gave this title five stars on Goodreads because I absolutely loved it. I am a complete sucker for the hero falling first, and though Dara was for sure attracted to Michael from the beginning, he’s the first to realizes he’s catching feelngs for her. I couldn’t put it down!
Buy it at Amazon
Kayne
The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella
The Burnout had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. It’s Sophie Kinsella at her best. Sasha works for a travel app and she is burned out. Finn is an overworked management consultant who had a meltdown at work. They meet at a hotel where they both used to stay when they were young. It’s a heartwarming story and a must-read for anyone who has experienced burnout or is looking for a fun romcom.
Buy it at Amazon
Lisa
Marrying Off Morgan McBride by Amy Barry
I didn’t have a better time with a romance this year than I did with the second volume of Amy Barry’s McBride sibling series. The first one isn’t half bad, but the second is even more delightful.
Buy it at Amazon
Maggie
It’s a tie between Code Name: Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem and Julie Heaberlin’s Night Will Find You. The Heaberlin boasts fascinating characters, an engrossing mystery, and an intriguing love story make this stellar book one of my favorites of the year, while the Landsem is rich in the history of the battle for the American soul fought during the years preceding WWII. Both are outstanding books and people read them and loved them because of my reviews, which makes them extra dear to me. 😊
Buy Code Name Eidelweiss at Amazon
Buy Night Will Find You at Amazon
Maria Rose
Once a Rogue by Allie Therin
Picking a best book of 2023 wasn’t hard for me this year. From the moment I read Proper Scoundrels in early 2022 I was hoping there would be more books in this world and anticipating Once a Rogue for over a year meant I had high expectations for the next magical adventure. Those expectations were definitely met! Once a Rogue continues the growing romance between very non-magical Lord Wesley Fine and his companion Sebastian de-Leon, a magic user, as they travel to America to respond to a mysterious message from a friend. The worldbuilding and characters are what make this series, and its original Magic in Manhattan series, some of my absolute favourite reads.
Buy it at Amazon