 Hello, hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to today's video, which are the best books I read in 2022. So I have here a list of 12 books that were the best books that I read in 2022. And let me tell you, this was a very hard decision to make. Like I put off making this list for so long because there were so many good books that I read in 2022. Like it was insane. I will say all of these books were five star books. Like I had quite a few books. It's a list of 12 because there are 12 books in the month, although I did not necessarily pick the best book from each month just because you know, some months were better than others. And a lot of times, if there's a book that is a series, I that whole series is most likely roped into this one. Or you know, I'll talk about it. I'll mention it when we get there. So it makes sense. But there were a lot of good books that I read this year. I'm so happy. So unlike with my worst books of 2022, I will actually start with the 12th book and go to the best book of the year. So let's just get started. Also, like I just said, I do have a worst books of 2022. But you should subscribe and hit the bell to be notified. And you should check that video out because why not? The 12th book that was the best book for me this year was Anatomy A Love Story by Dana Schwartz. This book was a Gothic romance set in 1800s Scotland with a female main character who just wants to examine dead bodies. And so in order to get into this professor's class, in order to study and help her do so, you know, women aren't really allowed to do that because it's 1800s Scotland. And so he says, if you can pass the exam, then you can enter my class. So she teams up with this grave digger named Jack. And he helps her dig up bodies so that she can study them. And it was just an amazing, adorable, I mean, adorable, Gothic romance, like the dark creepy Scottish vibes were there. It was wonderful. And there will actually be a sequel coming out this year. Initially, I thought it was a standalone, but soon later this year, we will get immortality a love story. So I said the vibes were all there. It was very atmospheric. That was kind of the number one thing about this book was the atmosphere was amazing. Number 11 was an enchantment of ravens. I was kind of surprised at how much I love this. It's a fantasy standalone. And it's a fey fantasy, which I mean, I like fey fantasy, don't get me wrong. But I just didn't think that I would love it this much. Just because there's so much of it, it can't all be good. But this was great. An enchantment of ravens follows this girl who is a painter. She's really well known for her for her portraits that she paints with people. And so she was one day visited by the Prince of the Autumn Court, asking her to paint his portrait. However, she does a great disservice to him by putting the tiniest little bit of emotion in his expression, which was terrible. How dare she? Now she has to go to the Autumn Court to answer for her crimes. Except that they're adorable together. They captured my heart. The chemistry between them was amazing. And again, with this book, The Atmosphere, The Vibes, it was so good, so comforting. I just ate that story up. Honestly, for me, atmosphere and feel of the book goes a long way. And you're going to see that with a lot of the books on this list, but an enchantment of ravens, it really snuck up on me out of nowhere. Number 10, another fey fantasy was Autumn's Tithe. And the second book to this Autumn's Trader just came out. I have not yet picked that up, but I want to very soon. So this follows this girl who lives in a town where the fey come and they select a woman between a certain age and her families come and say beautifully and they don't really know what these women are doing. They just know that they're the tithe and that they're important to the fey for some reason. And so the best friend of our main character gets chosen one year. And so when they come back the next year, she's like, I want to be chosen because I want to know what's happening to these women. And so we'll go from there. I won't say anymore. She travels with a group of fey men and it's hilarious, but the romance between her and one specifically just captured my heart. And again, it's very autumnal. It's a great atmosphere. And I read it kind of in the Autumn's month, I believe. So it was it was perfect. It was spot on. And let me tell you the twists at the end, the turns. It was so unexpected. I was so happy and the cliffhanger. Yeah, I'm ready to read the next book. I'll leave it at that. Book number nine is Warrior of the Wild by Trisha Levenseller. So I went on a mission to read like all of Trisha Levenseller's backlisted books after I read those between us and loved it. And this book, this is one of her earlier books, if not like one of her first books. And I loved it even though I was like, I had read some of her later books. And so I can see how her writing has gotten better. But this book was still great. It was such a unique premise. And I loved so our main character is training to be a warrior in her clan. And she is the daughter of the chief and whatever. However, during her test, she actually gets disqualified and is banned from the clans and she is outcast. And the only way she can return is if she kills this god that they have to pay tribute to all the time. So she has to go out in the woods and figure out how the heck she's supposed to kill a god. Like how? And she meets some other outcasts in the wood and they band together to like get themselves reinstated to society. And it was really good. Very like Norse viking ish inspired, but like, I don't know, it was a great summer read. You know, you're just in the woods fighting creatures, figuring out how to get back to your clan. It just, it was great. It was great. Like again, still kind of obvious it was one of her earlier books, but I didn't care. It was still really good. Number eight is Tokyo Ever After by Amiko Jean. I read this book really early last year and I actually did an impromptu reading vlog, which I will have linked this side, this side. So you can watch it. I did not plan on vlogging this book, but I started reading it and I was like, you know, I need to express my thoughts and my opinions about this book. So I started the vlog. It took me like a day to read. I loved our main character. She had such a fun personality, such a unique person to read from her point of view. The book is basically Princess Diaries, but with Japan. This girl finds out she is the daughter of the crown prince of Japan, and she wants to introduce herself to her family and see what life would have been like for her had she been raised by her dad in Japan rather than her mom in the States. I love Princess Diaries and if you love Princess Diaries, then you're probably gonna love this book. The second book, Tokyo Dreaming, is out. I haven't read it yet. I heard it's not quite as good, so I'm like distancing myself a little bit until I'm ready to read it. But honestly, I'm excited for it anyway because this book was so good that even if the second book isn't as great, it's still going to be a really good book, I think. Number six is Six Crimes and Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. Is anybody surprised that this is on this list? Because if you watch my channel, you really shouldn't be surprised. I loved Elizabeth Lim's duology last year, and I just loved her writing. She was like a new emerging author that I was really excited for, and I'm like, I'm probably gonna read everything she puts out. So Six Crimes and Cranes, of course. This is based off of Chinese mythology, and we follow our main character who has this forbidden magic. And when her mother finds out that she has this forbidden magic, she actually curses the main character, which is like, wait a minute. And so she cannot speak, and her brothers have turned into the Six Crimes and Cranes, and if she speaks, her brothers will die. She also has a bowl on her head. And if you're curious to know what that's about, then read the book because I highly recommend it. Like, this one just kept me on the edge of my seat. It gave me a reminiscent feel to, like, older fantasy while still being something new and fresh and based off of mythology, which is the oldest thing. But just how, like, she's on this mission, she can't talk, and then she faces the setbacks as she's going through it, and just so much is happening. The second book, The Dragon's Promise, is out, and I cannot wait to read that one as well. Don't want this duology to end, which is why I don't want to read The Dragon's Promise, but I need to just get over myself and read it because I know I'm gonna love it because this first book was so amazing. Like, just the richness of the mythology and the storytelling and the plot is so good. Like, for a main character who can't speak, so good. So she needs to find her brothers and break the curse. Number six, Kingdom of the Wicked by Kari Menescalco. I just read this in December, and I did not think I would love it as much as I did, which I don't know why, because I read Stocking Jack the Ripper by Kari Menescalco and absolutely adored that series. It was so incredibly good. In fact, like, I don't have it on this list, but capturing the devil could have been on this list very easily. It was so good. So, of course, Kingdom of the Wicked is on here. First book was absolutely amazing. I love the Italian food influences that are in here. The magic is adorable, honestly. And the chemistry between our main character and Prince Wrath. So this book follows our main character whose twin sister is murdered, and she ends up summoning a demon to help her solve her sister's murder because she believes the underworld has something to do with it, except she doesn't summon any old demon. She ends up summoning one of the seven princes of hell, the Prince of Wrath, and he's flipping dark and mysterious and sexy as hell. So, I immediately read books two and three after this, but I read them in January, otherwise they would be on this list. But I guess, you know, yeah, if you haven't read this, what are you doing? Read it. If you like dark fantasy romance, read this. Just also note that the second book gets real spicy, and it's number five is actually Namesake by Adrienne Young. I read this over the summer, and I didn't think I would love it as much as I did. It was it's a very different style of storytelling than what I'd been reading, and it worked for me, and I appreciated it. So this follows this girl who has been abandoned on an island by her father, who is this huge gem merchant, and she kind of wants to do it. He does. She wants to explore the world, find her place, and sail the seas. So she gets on this crew to help her do so. She falls in love with the captain. It's so good. The reason is that it's a very different style of storytelling because you don't go and like have this climax at the end of the book. I mean, you kind of do, but not in the same way. Like it's like a wavy, you know? It's not just a crescendo, it's a wavy. But there was always something I was looking forward to and on the edge of my seat about throughout the entire book. And I loved that and I appreciated it. And again, the banter, the banter between our characters was just, it was amazing. And it made me so incredibly happy. It was like the perfect summer read. Plus the whole gem merchant thing was so fun and so unique to read about. I read the first book and the second book. It's a duology. And then Saints came out at the end of November. And I read it in January and anything in this world I will always pick up as soon as I can. Number four is Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller. Of course, I have more Tricia Levenseller on this list. Blade of Secrets and honestly Master of Iron II kind of like go together like namesake does because both books and the duology were just fantastic. It's about our main character who is a blacksmith and she has severe general or like social anxiety. And she ends up creating this magical blade so powerful. And when she realizes that the person she made it for is a warlord and would do some terrible things with this blade, she decides that she and her sister have to go on the run. They also take along like the scholar in this mercenary at the same time too. So you know, there's a good romance of plot. And I was able to really connect with the anxiety of our main character. I, my anxiety is very similar to how she looks. So I just felt so seen and so heard in this book. And then to have that be our main character for a fantasy novel and to still have her be like badass, it was just uplifting to read. And I will always support this book. It just, it struck a very emotional chord for me. Number three is another Tricia Levenseller book. But again, it's the duology together. Daughter of the pirate king and daughter of the siren queen. This, I don't, it does beat out blade of secrets, but just barely. And it's really because of the banter. Like, I was listening to the audiobook of this, and I was literally just sitting on the bed doing nothing, just listening to the book. Because it was that good. It was, it captured my attention so much that I didn't need to be doing something else. I didn't need to be physically reading along. I didn't need to be cleaning or walking or any of the other things I normally do when listening to an audiobook. Because I was just sitting there happy and squealing and shaking and just loving it. Mostly the romance and the banter between the characters. Because the first book is almost entirely just like enemies to lovers banter with forced proximity. That's essentially the first book. And then the second book has like the actual plot, which was also really good. But like honestly, I want to redutter the pirate king again. And again. And again. Like, I thought it was that good. Second place is another series. But I would say it's the first book, the fourth book, and the fifth book. Those all are all tied together as the second book. I mean, as a second slot, the first book in the series is probably still my favorite. So that's the book I'm gonna like have here. But also the fourth and fifth book were also just amazing. That is the romance book club by Alyssa K Adams. Of course, you should not be surprised this is on this list because I've been raving about it all year. I read the first one in February, then I immediately picked up the second one, and then immediately the third one, and then immediately the fourth one. And then when the fifth one came out in November, I immediately purchased it. I just loved the first one. It's, it really is a romance book club where these men read romance books to figure out what women are looking for in a relationship and just kind of like, like they do a much better of describing it than I do where they read these romance books written by women to just kind of see what, what it means to be in a relationship and everything like that. And so our first one is he's trying to repair his marriage before his wife divorces him. He is a baseball player, so he's kind of a way a lot. They have kids and he wants to save their marriage. And it just hits so deep in this book. Like it's a, it's a fluffy contemporary, but at the same time they're like trying to break down toxic masculinity and they're trying to get in touch with like the feminine side or just be healthier human beings so that they can be healthier in their relationships. And it was just amazing to see that, you know? Like there are so many men who I want to read these books. It had to be high up on this list. Like I appreciate them so much for the best book that I read this year. I wonder if you can guess it. Honestly, comment down below your guess what you think my, my favorite book of the year was because I'll say I talk about this book a lot this year. It took me a while to read the second book on the duology, but when I did I really enjoyed it. The first book is really what I'm gonna talk about here For the Wolf by Hannah Witton. Of course, it's a dark fantasy romance and it has blood and nature magic, which are my two favorite kinds of magic. It's like very little red riding hood-ish. You've got these twin sisters. One is for the throne. She's meant to be queen and the other is for the wolf. She's meant to go to the beast in the woods to keep the dark creatures away. And there's, there's such an interesting underlying like dark religious ask to it, but then the romance between red and the wolf was phenomenal because it's not enemies to lovers, but it's definitely like wrong foot. And it's, it's very dark and it just made me so happy. Like, and this was a book that got me back into physically reading this year. Like, I just was so excited and so motivated to just keep physically reading it. I didn't have an audio book for it or anything and it, I loved our characters. There was so much to it without it being too much. And yeah, I just, I've raved about this book all year long. So of course it's my favorite book of the year. Yeah, those are all of my favorite books of 2022. It was such a good year. Like for every single book on this list, all 12 books to be five star reads. And then there were still other like honorable mentions I can make like The Car of All trilogy. That was another five star read. And they're just so many good things. I'm really excited for what this next year has coming up in store for me. So yeah, if you like this kind of content, please feel free to subscribe. I post videos twice a week. Like I said, I'm really excited for all the reading I'm going to do this year. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up, comment down below what were some of your top reads of 2022. I want to know what some of your favorite books were so I can add them to my tpr or if I've already read them or even if they were on this list, I would love to chat with you about them. Otherwise, I have bookish social media linked down below. You can follow me on what I am currently reading and get updates more real time there. But until I see you all in the next video, I wish you happy reading.