My top 5 reads of 2023 and my bottom 3 worst
You know you're just going to skip to those bottom 3.
I was asked to write some ranty reviews of classic literature. I don’t have any on tap at the moment, but I do have some ranty reviews of some modern books!
Fortunately, I seem to have reviewed the books I read all last year, so you also get links to the big, long review rants I did of these books.
Number 5: Captain of the Guard by Ron C. Nieto. Underdog prince is sent to whip a distant guard post into shape as their captain. He is disrespected but he's smart and out-thinks his men at every turn. He also out-fights them and kicks their butts, and just as he's getting somewhere, an enemy invasion over the mountains suddenly turns his lazy guardsmen into the absolute only thing standing between his kingdom and being wiped out. Hero constantly out-thinks the enemy. Hero constantly pulls off amazing badass things to win against hopelessly stronger armies. I haven't read a book that kept me guessing and thinking like this in a long time.
Number 4: Baptism by Fire by Alexandra Gilchrist. Buddy cop story where one guy is the human detective with so much grit it got him fired from his old job, and the other guy is a 600-year-old-phoenix trapped in human form. Kind of like the trope of human + vampire, except Dante is about the opposite of any vampire. Rick and Dante patrol Washington DC to protect it from Mythics, which are other monsters in human form. If Dante dies, he resurrects in fire 30 seconds later, and it's Rick's job to watch his back and bring him more clothes. This leads to some very interesting situations, such as Dante needing to resurrect in a closed room and the danger of burning up all the oxygen for Rick.
Number 3: The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas. In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery's pocket and touched the wizard's locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who—or what—is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic. -- That's it and it's wonderful. Read my full review here!
Number 2: The Darkwater Saga by Patrick Carr. A detective in a high fantasy world is the only one to ever escape alive from the cursed Darkwater Forest. Now with the ability to see into people's minds, he begins piecing together a plot by certain evil forces to kill the king and consume the kingdom ... the minions of the Darkwater Forest, of which he may be one. Great wounded warrior main character, a little confusing at first but it gets better. Read my full review here!
Number 1: The Eleven Alliance series by Tara Grayce. A human princess is in an arranged marriage with an elf prince to secure peace between their kingdoms. The trouble is, this is the topmost elf assassin who slays entire armies with magic ... and he has PTSD like you wouldn't believe. Watching these two fall in love and watching him start to heal is the most wonderful thing about these stories. And also when the evil trolls pulled out the repeater gun. So much fun! Read my full review here!
Welp, that's my top 5 reads. I highly enjoyed all these books, and recommend them if you think they sound interesting.
However, as you read loads of books, you do happen across books you disliked. I make it a point to stop reading books I dislike, but for whatever reason, these three got read all the way through. So here they are, in all their dubious glory:
Number 3: The Voice of Power by Melanie Cellier. Lots of people love this book. I am not one of those people. The heroine is one of those shallow, spunky, whiny girls who thinks everyone is out to get her, and therefore manufactures her own enemies. She is the cliche Chosen One who can speak magic when everybody else can only read it. She goes to the Cliche Academy which has only 2 named teachers. She befriends the Bubbly Best Friend who Takes Her Shopping. She is bullied by the Mean Girl Clique and crushes on the Mysterious Dark Prince. Bad guys attack her for no stated reason. The school setting is barely developed. The heroine accuses the Dark Prince of ignoring her when he's obviously trying to protect her from political factions who want her dead. It's a frustrating read with a stupid heroine. Apparently she only gets more powerful and more stupid as the series progresses.
Number 2: By Blood and Blade by Anna Augustine. Heroine has been stuck in the Wife Market for months because nobody wants her for a wife. She gets bought by the prince who didn't want a wife in the first place. This premise alone sold me the book. However, the rest of the book is this heavy handed "oh we have wounds that we must heal from" but it's not written in an organic manner. Instead of healing, like in Elven Alliance, what we get is "sex is the only way we can possibly heal from abuse". It's this weird, hollow, horny message that doesn't ring true. I enjoyed the read, but when I finished, I put it down and went, "What was this author saying???"
Number 1: Smoke and Light by Kristen Ardis. I tried to find a link but this book has apparently been unpublished from Amazon. This is interesting. You get the Goodreads instead.
This is an amnesia book. Heroine wakes up with amnesia with everyone around her telling her that she has been saved from the Evil Rebels and that this Handsome Prince is her fiance. They tell her this so long and so hard that you become instantly suspicious. Heroine gets the Bubbly Best Friend who Takes Her Shopping. She is doted on by Swoony Prince who trots out cliche lines like "you're my everything". This is apparently what passes for lyrical prose. Heroine has Dreams of Hot Boy in a Pagan Grove outside the city somewhere. She meets Hot Boy in the Pagan Grove and he doesn't tell her anything about her past. So she goes back and sleeps with Fiance Prince. Oh wait, he's the villain who gave her amnesia. The Evil Rebels are the good guys. She's a prisoner. And Hot Boy in the Pagan Grove was her real fiance.
Yes, this is a cheating book! And it's set up so, so carefully so she can't be blamed for cheating. Hot Boy should have left her to be torn apart by Evil Prince, since she deserved him, but he takes her back because forgiveness or something. She does not sleep with Hot Boy. I figure that'll be book 2. This author was ostensibly a Christian but there is not the fainest wisp of Christian morality in this book. The Heroine is said to be full of Light, whatever that means. This was hands down the worst thing I read this year. I've been angry that I read it ever since.
That concludes the five best books I read this year and the three worst ones! Hope you enjoyed the ride!