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13 Incredible Books I Have Loved Reading In 2022

Happy New Year everyone! It’s my first post of 2023. And I couldn’t pass up the chance to share the 13 incredible books I have loved reading last year. 2022 has been a total rollercoaster, mostly the last few months for us. We are far from settled back home in Italy so that’s absolutely scary and frustrating at the same time.

After a camper journey from the UK to Italy, the holidays in between and other unexpected things. Living off boxes is still not the best. As well as having to live far from Fred for most of the year. But, I am still so excited to take on this freelance life and also see where The Grumpy Olive will get to!

Anyway, after all the Christmas content all I want to do is get back to writing about books. And also make it more of a priority this year, as it’s something I love.

Between the 13 books I loved reading last year there were some re-reads, and some newly discovered authors (because I am always late to things) and finally got back to reading graphic novels and manga after years. Also, the newly discovered thing is that I love to read more than two or three books at a time, mostly in different formats. Will see if this will still help this year that I don’t commute to work!

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*ARC (advanced readers copy) Some of these books were given to us in exchange for an honest review.

Before I get lost, let’s talk about the 13 incredible books I have loved reading in 2022.

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. SCHWAB

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Let’s start off the books I have loved reading in 2022 with this masterpiece. First of all, V.E. Schwab was a new author to me. Yes, I come late to anything, not news. I had ‘A darker shade of magic’ still unread on my shelves after an impulse buys and I ask myself why.

Schwab has a way with words that got me right in the story, made me laugh and left me crying in bed at two in the morning.

Although the rollercoaster of emotion, the worldbuilding, settings and characters she creates feel so real.

I honestly have marked with post-it so many quotes and could spend days writing them down, but I will leave one description that got to me for the world-building.

“Day breaks like an egg yolk, spilling yellow light across the field.”

And another one because there are far too many and one doesn’t make it justice.

“Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.”

SYNOPSIS

When Addie LaRue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there’s always a price – the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.

Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day.

Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him.

Until one day, in a second-hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can’t escape her fate forever.

BOOK LOVERS by EMILY HENRY *ARC

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Came late to the party for Emily Henry too, because I love coming fashionably late. But every book I read made me fall in love with her characters more and more. I started off with ‘People we meet on vacation’ and followed with ‘Book Lovers’. Ended the year reading ‘Beach Read’ and as far as I enjoyed all of them, Nora and Charlie hold a dear space in my heart.

I loved Nora and Libby’s relationship because it reminded me so much of mine with my sisters. It made me roll with laughter and cry too. Nora is the kind of character that is her own person and career-driven woman, which you don’t find in books that often if not ever.

And the banter between Charlie and her, and should we add big foot erotica? I am more of a friend-to-lovers trope, but this enemies-to-lover truly made me swoon over it!

SYNOPSIS

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story.

But instead of picnics in meadows or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city.

It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

LORE OLYMPUS by RACHEL SMYTHE

BOOK DEPOSITORY WATERSTONES AMAZON

If I have to suggest a graphic novel I truly enjoyed to anyone, it would be this, hands down.

Whether it’s for my passion for Greek Mythology, or because I am a total sucker for graphic novels (it used to be a dream of mine to become a graphic novelist) or because I stumbled on fanarts of it, Lore Olympus has been a true gem the past year.

Smythe takes the story of Hades and Persephone to another level. Told from Persephone’s perspective, the use of colours and drawings will draw you in immediately!

And in case you are as impatient as I am, coming from a Webtoon, you can follow Lore Olympus on there. It’s my Sunday reading treat! Nevertheless, the printed book was absolutely breathtaking!

SYNOPSIS

Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she’s allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods. When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld. Now Persephone must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place—and her own power.

This full-color edition of Smythe’s original Eisner-nominated webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story, and brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY by KATIE O’NEILL

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Plenty of graphic novels between these books I have loved reading from last year because I truly got back into them. I had heard so much hype over ‘The tea dragon society’ so had to check it out.

Let me tell you that it lived and went over the hype. What I loved the most were the diverse cast of characters and the illustrations because they were breathtaking. The colours and softness of the settings helped to create a fantasy world you want to come back to again.

The story follows Greta, an apprentice blacksmith. From discovering the Tea dragon society to making new lifelong companions, from the ward of the society to the tea dragons.

SYNOPSIS

The Tea Dragon Society is the two-time Eisner Award-winning gentle fantasy that follows the story of a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons. 

 From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY, the beloved and charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons. After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives–and eventually her own. 

THE MAGIC FISH by TRUNG LE NGUYEN

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Another graphic novel I had on my TBR for a long time and it became one of the books I have loved reading in 2022. Intertwined between illustrated fairy tales and real life, this graphic novel shares how stories can bring us together, even when words fail us.

Tiến is a young kid son of Vietnamese immigrants that struggles to put words to his feelings and share them with his family and friends. Reading is the shared activity with his mother that will help him find a way to express his feelings and new possibilities to communicate, closing the language barrier between them.

The plot and illustrations intertwine together to create a wonderful story of unconditional love and acceptance in this coming-of-age graphic novel.

SYNOPSIS

Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he’s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.

Real life isn’t a fairytale. 

But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through? 

Is there a way to tell them he’s gay? 

A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that is accessible to readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what–we can all have our own happy endings.

THE SILENCE THAT BINDS US by JOANNA HO* ARC

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This book had me feeling everything. It was poignant and raw at times. It goes through many themes from mental health to racism, AAPI discrimination and grief.

After her brother’s death gets pinned on the pressure of her Chinese family by a bigot in town, Maybelline knows she can’t leave the stereotypes to live.

She goes through a growth journey dealing with the loss of her brother but also learning to find her voice and amplify together with others, the importance to tell your own story. I loved the relationship Maybelline had with her friend Tiya, as well as with Mark and Danny.

SYNOPSIS

Maybelline Chen isn’t the Chinese Taiwanese American daughter her mother expects her to be. May prefers hoodies over dresses and wants to become a writer. When asked, her mom can’t come up with one specific reason for why she’s proud of her only daughter. May’s beloved brother, Danny, on the other hand, has just been admitted to Princeton. But Danny secretly struggles with depression, and when he dies by suicide, May’s world is shattered.

In the aftermath, racist accusations are hurled against May’s parents for putting too much “pressure” on him. May’s father tells her to keep her head down. Instead, May challenges these ugly stereotypes through her writing. Yet the consequences of speaking out run much deeper than anyone could foresee. Who gets to tell our stories, and who gets silenced? It’s up to May to take back the narrative.

Joanna Ho masterfully explores timely themes of mental health, racism, and classism.

THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE by CHARLIE MACKESY

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If I have to choose a book to suggest to everyone between these books I have loved reading in 2022, this comes to mind. Now whether you love reading or not, this is one that you should pick up. Read to your kids, your grandma and whoever you find.

All I should tell you about this one is that I cried on the bus on the way home from work. Cried like a baby and screenshot half of it, because it was beautiful.

This book might be tiny, you might think is a children’s book, but it’s far from that. It came at the right time for me!

SYNOPSIS

A book of hope for uncertain times. Enter the world of Charlie’s four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons. The conversations of the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse have been shared thousands of times online, recreated in school art classes, hung on hospital walls and turned into tattoos. In Charlie’s first book, you will find his most-loved illustrations and some new ones too.

THE VANISHING HALF by BRIT BENNETT

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I had a copy of this lent from a friend at work as she highly recommended it. Needless to say that even if it took me a couple of chapters to get into it, Bennet knows how to get you tangled in the story.

Following the Vignes’s twin sisters and how their decisions shaped their future and distanced them from each other. Bennet follows the two young girls until adulthood when they need to come to accept the consequences of their decisions.

Facing trauma, privilege, colourism and identity. A gripping novel and the characters will leave you asking for more!

SYNOPSIS

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past.

Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins. 

BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD by TOSHIKAZU KAWAGUCHI

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Another greatly hyped book around and one that does deserve the hype too. I have been wanting to read more Korean, Japanese and Chinese literature for quite a long and when this became available at the library I knew it was time!

Set in a small café in Tokyo, the story tells the story of four customers who set out to visit the coffee shop to travel in time. All you have to do is sit in the right spot, come back before the coffee gets cold and follow the rules. But what would you do if you could meet someone in the past but not change the present?

Told from the point of view of four different characters in different short stories, they all revolve around dealing with the past or healing from it. A refreshing way to the usual time travelling trope.

SYNOPSIS

What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer’s, see their sister one last time, and meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

GALLANT by V.E. SCHWAB

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I had already fallen in love with V.E.Schwab writing with the first book I mentioned in the post. I found myself picking this up for that reason even if I am not the biggest fan of horrors. But let me tell you, this was an amazing read nonetheless!

Gallant follows the story of Olivia, a nonverbal girl living in an orphanage that receives a letter to come home from an uncle. But that letter has more to it than the words written on it. With only her mother’s book – the only thing she had left of her- and few possessions, she travels to Gallant, to discover that there’s much more to the story.

In Gallant, the author shows even more of what I love in books, extensive descriptions. Schwab has the power to bring your right in. Describing every nook and cranny to bring you into Gallant and walk beside Olivia.

Schwab creates an atmospheric setting in Gallant. Scary and full of shadows and death, but that still feels real and palpable.

SYNOPSIS

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for Girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home; it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile, or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways. 

Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from. 

Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him? 

EMPRESS CROWNED IN RED by CIANNON SMART *ARC

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This was one of my most highly anticipated reads from 2022. And I must admit that it did live up to the hype at some points. But also left some things I would have loved to get answered. Nonetheless, it did make the list of books I have loved reading last year.

Empress Crowned in red brings us back to Aiyca, where the doyenne is dead and the throne is now empty. Forces are at work to create a deadly army and claim the throne from Iraya and Jazmyne.

Needless to say, that the journey in this book is more entertaining as well as being more action filled in comparison to the first book. What I think left me a bit unsatisfied was the end, which seem to have been rushed in some points.

Even if a duology, I hope that it might get more work done on it. As I would absolutely read more of this world. The author made a great work to get you invested in the characters!

SYNOPSIS

The Doyenne is dead, and the throne is empty.

Iraya, her revenge taken and magic unfettered, turns her sights on a bigger goal: freeing Aiyca for the Obeah. But first she must shed the guise of the rogue warrior and become the Lost Empress her people need. 

Jazmyne’s mother has been overthrown, but her people aren’t ready to call her doyenne. She’s no stranger to a fight, though, and she’s prepared to go to extreme lengths. And court ruthless danger—to secure her title.

But a new threat is awakening—an enemy with vicious intent and an army of nightmares from beyond the veil. An enemy who has waited a decade to strike, who would claim both Iraya’s birth right and Jazmyne’s bloody crown.

Trust is scarce, and betrayal a breath away. And Iraya and Jazmine must once again turn to each other. After all, better the witch you know than the nightmare you don’t. 

PACHINKO by MIN JIN LEE

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I listened to Pachinko early on during the year. And it was probably the longest audiobook I checked out on Libby. When I checked it out, I honestly didn’t expect that this book would stay with me so much.

Pachinko follows four generations of the same Korean family who immigrates to Japan. All the characters are connected through the story by prejudice, struggle and discrimination for the Koreans in Japan.

What though stayed with me for long after was the character of Sunja, whom the story starts with. Her love and resiliency show through the whole tale. A generational tale of family, resiliency, love and struggle.

SYNOPSIS

Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.

Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country. In which she has no friends, no home, and whose language she cannot speak. Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.

Through eight decades and four generations, Pachinko is an epic tale of family, identity, love, death and survival.

ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by TALIA HIBBERT

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Last but not least on the books I have loved reading in 2022 is Act your age Eve Brown. It was a re read and surely placed Eve right at the top of my list of the Eve’s sisters. Even if Dani is just right after.

Hibbert’s books has been a true gem for me and plenty of others and I see why they are so hyped! This was a re read and I think there might be a third time coming this year too because I find myself in Eve so much.

It’s one of those books that I can keep re-reading and still notice new things every time. The characters Hibbert creates are what always keeps me coming back as well as the banter and chemistry in every book is what keeps me coming back again and again.

SYNOPSIS

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

While looking at my StoryGraph wrap up for the year, I noticed that I have a hard time giving low rating. As well as leaving book unfinished if I don’t like them. This year I will try to be more mindful with my reading. Because let’s admit it, as hard as it can be to hear it, we don’t have the time to read all the books.

Therefore, I am starting off the year digging some old books I have loved in the past while redoing my bookshelves. As well as digging in my TBR as I promised in my last year favourite’s book post and get back to my Greek mythology list.

Anyway, which books have you read from this list? Are any of these books I have loved reading in 2022 in your reading list? Let me know down in the comments!

PIN THESE 13 BOOKS I HAVE LOVED READING IN 2022 FOR LATER!

The post 13 Incredible Books I Have Loved Reading In 2022 appeared first on The Grumpy Olive.



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