I have always enjoyed reading but with college I never seem to have the time, or when I have the time, there are other activities I end up doing instead. The books that follow I would recommend to anyone but they are all a little different from each other so be warned that they may be different from what you normally read. Not all of the books I read in 2023 are included in this but more of the notable ones. Caution: some spoilers may lie ahead.
It starts with us – Colleen Hoover
It starts with us is the sequel to the popular book ‘It Ends with Us’ by Colleen Hoover. I read this book back in July and I thought it was good, but you could tell it was the sequel/continuation of another book and was working to conclude the storyline. The first book had a lot of spicy moments, but this one seemed to troll readers to only get a few towards the end of the story. Hoover added a few new characters within Atlas’s storyline. This was nice to finally learn more of his backstory and find out the real reason he left Lily in the first place. We are introduced to the brother that Atlas didn’t know he had which I thought was somewhat corny. Everyone was hunky-dory at the end and made a new family but I wasn’t impressed. Compared to the first book, there wasn’t a lot of drama or tragedy in this story other than in the characters’ pasts. Overall, I would give this book a 6.5/10. It just wasn’t my favorite ending and just left me feeling kind of meh.
Regretting you – Colleen HoOver
I bought this book a LONG time ago and only got around to reading it in May. It’s about the relationship between a mother and daughter while navigating the tragic death of the father and aunt. This book has a lot of twists and turns and I found it to be relatable from both the mother and daughter’s points of view. The ending is somewhat predictable but it worked for this book. There are a few love triangles and the entire situation within the book is COMPLICATED to say the least and I was so here for it. The father was having an affair with his wife’s sister but the wife had loved his childhood best friend for the last 15 years. There is so much good and bad to this book but I would definitely recommend it to others. I’d rate this one a 7.5/10 just because I loved the messiness of the storyline and it had a really cute ending.
Twisted Love – Ana Huang
Warning: I have NOT finished this book but am just over halfway through and WOW. There is so much going on and I love it. It’s a typical falling for your brother’s best friend story but the two started out as almost enemies and it’s so fun to watch them slowly fall for each other. Both characters have dark pasts and it’s sad, but more creepy; it definitely adds to the chemistry between Alex and Ava. This book is definitely on the spicier side, but its not all smut. There are major plot twists as the storyline continues between all of the characters and everyone seems to be intertwined in some way. Although I haven’t finished this one, I’d rate it an 8/10 because there are so many plot layers you have to peel and you could spend all day reading the book without even trying.
Verity – Colleen Hoover
This book was recommended to me by so many people, and they all raved about it. Going into this book, I had no idea what it was about and just read it because people told me to. The book really got into the meat of it over halfway through which was annoying but necessary for the background and buildup of the ending. I thought the book was somewhat creepy but also 100% predictable. like come on, the wife was TOTALLY faking!! The ending did take me for a spin but it makes sense for the context of the story. This was definitely a good read but I was disappointed just because it took so long to get into the story. I’d rate this one a 7/10 just because everyone raved so much about this book and I wasn’t all that impressed. I will say, this one was outside of my normal genre selection which probably contributed to my disliking it.