Hello! Thought this would be a good way to sum up 2022 by sharing with you the books I have read throughout the year! I set a challenge on my Goodreads to at least read 12 books by the end of this year and I am so happy that I have achieved this goal! I am not the quickest reader, but I thought by setting myself the goal of reading one book each month it could easily be achieved! Next year I might up the challenge and see how many books I can read then. This will be like a mini book review type of blog so I hope you enjoy!
1) Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
The first book I read this year was part of my book club with my uni girls that we created back in 2020 when the first lockdown was happening, a great way to get reading and have discussions with friends about the same book you are reading. Since we all lead busy lives and we live quite far away from each other it was a great way to connect with each other. It’s quite interesting to see the different opinions of your friends. This book was picked by my friend Alice as I believe she got this book for Christmas. Looking back on my Goodreads which I will link on here so you can have a look if you wish, I gave this book 2 stars. Looking back it feels a bit harsh, but it took a while for me to get going on this book. I won’t reveal all about what these books are about, but I will give a lil snippet just in case you do want to read these books I don’t want to spoil it all!
This book was basically about a Nanny who lived in Oxford and started looking after a little girl called Felicity who was mute. The family was a weird dynamic and they were quite a well off family. There was the father who didn’t really have much time for the daughter and a Step mum that also thought the daughter was weird and didn’t have time for her either as she had a new baby on the way. The Nanny however managed to form a bond with Felicity and the nanny was the only one the girl would talk too. I actually don’t know why I scored it 2 stars, because there was some more depth and secrets revealed in it, but maybe I thought it wasn’t my type of book at the time and some of the interests the girl had were quite harrowing. Nevertheless, if you like dark books it’s not horrendous, but it’s not the most riveting either. I will give my honest opinion in this blog!
2) Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka
The next book I read was Girl in Snow. One year, I think it was either for Christmas or birthday my friend Alice (she seems to be a common denominator in the books I’ve read as she is a massive bookworm and has turned me into one too!) she brought like a surprise book parcel which contained books that the author may not have been well known or titles that you might have not seen before. There are many of these type of things about and they make great gifts for people as you may not have even discovered these books otherwise. This book I gave 3 stars on Goodreads so a little bit better than the previous book. This book is about a murdered popular school girl called Lucinda. It was one of those books where it changed direction of who you thought had done it. I was actually surprised by the ending of this book as the obvious suspect it was not and it was someone that wasn’t mentioned much in the story but turned out to be the main part. I thought the writing was quite clever as it was written by different views of the characters and each one was connected in some way to the murder.
3) This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes
This next book I could really write home about! Miriam Margolyes is one of my favourite people (not that I’ve ever met her as much as I would love to!) I just had to read her book as I know it would not disappoint. If ever I’m sad and need cheering up I’ll watch YouTube clips of Miriam on the Graham Norton show and it instantly puts me in a better mood. I was giggling to myself so much whilst reading her book and of course I gave this 5 stars, This book is just all about Miriam, its fun, it’s witty and she has a lot of weird situations to talk about. My motto in life is to be more Miriam, the world would be more brighter with more people like her. This was the most heart warming book I have ever read and I love her even more now!
4) Bad Twins by Rebecca Chance
I read this book in Cornwall on my 30th birthday hence the gold chocolate bunny as it was April and that meant easter! This book was again from Alice’s box of stories she had given me, so I had no idea what this book was about. Looking back at my Goodreads I gave this book 4 stars which is a pretty generous rating. I actual quite enjoyed this book it was full of drama and unexpected situations. This one was about 4 children (Two boys and two twin girls) who are about to inherit their father’s business of this big hotel chain. The father pits them against each other as it can only be one of them that inherits the fortunes. Like I said there is lots of drama along the way, an enjoyable juicy read I would say!
5) F*ck No!: How to Stop Saying Yes When You Can’t, You Shouldn’t or You Just Don’t Want To by Sarah Knight
This book was a little different from the rest as not a fiction book. I picked this up randomly when I was in town and I had a look in Oliver Bonas, this caught my eye not only does it have a beautiful pink cover, but it also spoke to me because of the title. I have always been bad at saying no to things. This was a great book as it gave you advice on how to say no, but in a good way so that it wouldn’t offend the other person and it made me feel that I should feel guilt-free for saying no. Whether I have practiced this in real life is another question. Think I need more practice and I might re-read this book again if I go down a tunnel of saying yes to things that I don’t want to do again. I loved this though and I love Sarah Knight’s frank way of writing!
6) Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
This book I read through June going into July. This book is about a girl called Kya and her family who live in the marsh. A very poor and deprived family, when all her family seem to abandon her then she has to survive on her own in the marsh. A very sad story, one where the young girl is a victim in this story, however when a murder occurs near to where Kya lives she is blamed for murder. I loved this book although very sad it kept me guessing as to who the murderer was and there was a twist at the end. Although very sad I may add I was very invested in the love story of Kya and Tate. This book also was made into a film which was also a great adaptation of the book and Taylor Swift also released a song for this film, so you know I had to love it!
7) So Lucky by Dawn O’ Porter
Got this book in a charity shop which I featured in one of my previous blog posts. This book was an easy read I flew through it because of it’s humour. This book is a about 3 different woman each that have some sort of problems with their lives, but then at the end they all see what good is in their lives. There is also some twists and turns in this book that make for a good book! I love a juicy twist to books, ones that you don’t expect! I really liked how easy this was to read so I will definitely be purchasing in future more of Dawn O’ Porter’s books.
8) The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
I absolutely adore Beth O’ Leary’s books thanks to my friend Alice who recommended her. I saw she had this new one which popped up as an ad on Instagram, I went straight to amazon to purchase. Again, I flew through this book as it was such an easy read. The story goes that this guy called Carter is dating 3 girls at the same time. I automatically thought oh my god I hate this guy Carter, but again there is a very good twist that happens, which I thought was very clever! All is not what it seems and you actually see Carter in a different light afterwards.
9) The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
This book was gifted to me by my fellow book lover my good friend Alice who I’ve featured quite a bit in this blog haha but she is my book lover buddy! I always love a good who did it murder mystery book so I had high hopes for this. I’ll be honest I got a bit bored of this writer talking about himself as in the book he has put himself as one of the characters. It gets a bit tedious with him saying all his work he has done and who he’s met. I just want to know about the murder not the authors life. However, saying that getting past those bits the storyline is good whereby a lady arranges her own funeral and I have to say it ended with a good twist at the end. So if you love a murder mystery and can see past the author’s love for himself this one is for you! I rated this 4 stars in the end which I think is generous, looking back I would have given it 3 stars as I really struggled reading through the author’s tales of his life! Sorry to Alice just being honest but I think you agree with me on this!
10) How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
I was intrigued to read this as I’d seen many people say that it was good and lots of people had picked it up. I did enjoy it but I struggled at times with this, as I am a girl that likes to have short snappy chapters. I like to go to bed read a chapter and then the next day start on the next chapter as I feel I get lost in between the story and have to re read because I’m in the middle of the chapter. So this book was one that had long chapters which is not my fave. This book was very dark and is basically what it says on the cover. I gave this book 3 stars, I think again as struggled getting through it with the long chapters and don’t think the humour was my type of humour.
11) The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I heard mix reviews about this book before I read it, some people really didn’t enjoy it and some people absolutely loved it! I was in the love club for sure! This was passed onto me by my good friend Ujal who loved it too! We did a kinda of book swap/pass on which is a great idea to read more books and discover books your friends like. I loved the concept of this book and it’s very cleverly written. However, I do feel you need to be in the right frame of mind when reading this book as it’s about a girl who attempts to take her own life. The meaning behind this book is so simple but brilliant. So Nora goes into the library and each book she chooses she has a different way that her life pans out. I gave this book 5 stars, because I loved it so much! I will definitely be giving another one of Matt Haig’s books a try, this was also an easy read with no long chapters!
12) It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
My last book of 2022 was one that I’d seen everywhere and was very much hyped up about. This book was not what I expected but then at the same time I didn’t actually know what to expect. The basic concept is there is a girl called Lily that moves to Boston after her father has passed away. She sets up a new florist her own business there and meets a neurosurgeon called Ryle who she starts dating, everything seems perfect until something happens that sees her reliving her past. I did really enjoy this book, but like Midnight Library read this with caution as it does have domestic violence in it. I gave this one 4 stars not a bad book to end with!
So that’s a wrap that’s all the books I have read in 2022! I have set a challenge on my Goodreads this year to read 24 books in 2023 which is double the challenge to last year! So far I have finished one book and I am half way through my second book which isn’t too bad for me considering it’s only mid January!
What books have you read recently? Is there any books you are wanting to read and would recommend? Any book recommendations you have let me know I am all ears 🙂 If you would like to follow me on my reading journey I will link my Goodreads down below:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/106625749-charlotte-heather
Thank you for visiting my scrapbook! Join me again when I will post another new blogpost soon! I hope you enjoyed this book lovers blog post!
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