I may have done a terrible job in keeping up with monthly reviews for 2022, but I figured this would be a fun way to share with y’all everything I read in 2022. The year started off strong and even had some very good reading months throughout the year, but I did get into a reading slump in the last two months of the year and the holiday season at the restaurant did not help. This post was heavily inspired by Grace Atwood’s 2021 books read post and I knew I had to do the same this year. She’s an influencer that I love to get book recommendations from if you’re looking for someone new to follow.
This year I read 76 books, which is the most I’ve read in a long time, if ever. I found myself reintroduced to graphic novels to help with reading slumps and I finally decided to get over the initial dislike for audiobooks and finally tried them out for the drive back and forth to Dallas during my Broadway Dallas season. I also started to use Kindle Unlimited a little bit and also went a little (okay, a lot) crazy with adding on books to my Book of the Month subscription.
One challenge I also did this past year was fun reading challenges. What started as just two Taylor Swift album inspired reading challenges, lead to me trying to do all her albums at once. I think I put a lot of pressure into finishing those and reading books specifically to complete a prompt, that it didn’t help my contribution to the rough reading slump, but I’m looking forward to finishing them this year and sharing them on the blog/social media channels.
Below are all the books I read this year separated by genre. All books will be linked to Amazon to be able to read a plot summary. As much as I appreciate the support in shopping through these commissionable links, I would love for everyone’s focus, including my own, to be purchasing books through their local bookstores!
*Any books with asterisks were a five star read for me.
Romance
Eight Perfect Hours – Lia Louis
Always in December – Emily Stone*
The Singles Table – Sara Desai
The Soulmate Equation – Christina Lauren
The Ex Talk – Rachel Lynn Solomon
The Bromance Book Club – Lyssa Kay Adams*
Well Met – Jen DeLuca*
Head Over Heels – Hannah Orenstein
Hooked (Never After #1) – Emily McIntire
The Wrong Game – Kandi Steiner*
Love and Other Words – Christina Lauren*
Irresistible (Cloverliegh Farms #1) – Melanie Harlow
Dating Dr. Dil – Nisha Sharma
Hook, LIne, and Sinker – Tessa Bailey*
The Spanish Love Deception – Elena Armas*
In a New York Minute – Kate Spencer
Fool Me Once – Ashley Winstead
You Deserve Each Other – Sarah Hogle
Part of Your World – Abby Jimenez*
The No-Show – Beth O’Leary
Love at First Spite. -Anna E. Collins
Book Lovers – Emily Henry*
Something Wilder – Christina Lauren
Meet Me in the Margins – Melissa Ferguson
Every Summer After – Carley Fortune*
Set on You – Amy Lea
Get a Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hibbert
The Roughest Draft – Emily Wibberley
The Cheat Sheet – Sarah Adams*
The Bodyguard – Katherine Center
Reminders of Him – Colleen Hoover*
Love on the Brain – Ali Hazelwood
The Kiss Curse – Erin Sterling
Window Shopping – Tessa Bailey
The Rewind – Allison Winn Scotch
Thriller
A Flicker in the Dark – Stacy Willingham
The Golden Couple – Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkananen*
The Lies I Tell – Julie Clark*
Daisy Darker – Alice Feeney*
Verity – Colleen Hoover*
The Paris Apartment – Lucy Foley
The Family Game – Catherine Steadman*
The Night Shift – Alex Finlay*
Historical Fiction
The Magnolia Palace – Fiona Davis
The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont
Play the Game – Joel Crowson
The Girl in His Shadow – Audrey Blake*
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus*
Literary/Contemporary Fiction
The Love of my Life – Rosie Walsh (put here because it is basically a mix of multiple genres)*
Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson*
One Italian Summer – Rebecca Serle
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt*
Magical Realism
Other Birds – Sarah Addison Allen
Fantasy
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J. K. Rowling *
Once Upon a Dream – Liz Braswell
Young Adult
Anna K – Jenny Lee
I Kissed Shara Wheeler – Casey McQuiston
Loveless – Alice Oseman
Rivals (American Royals #3) – Katharine McGee
Graphic Novels
Heartstopper: Volume 1 – Alice Oseman*
Heartstopper: Volume 2 – Alice Oseman
Heartstopper: Volume 3 – Alice Oseman
Heartstopper: Volume 4 – Alice Oseman*
The Girl from the Sea – Molly Knox Ostertag
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms – Crystal Frasier
Lore Olympus: Volume 1 – Rachel Smythe
Lore Olympus: Volume 2 – Rachel Smythe
Chef’s Kiss – Jarrett Melendez
Novellas (Short Novels)
Under One Roof – Ali Hazelwood
Stuck with You – Ali Hazelwood
Below Zero – Ali Hazelwood
Teach Me A Lesson – Dyrion Knight
Evidence of the Affair – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Memoir/Biography
Broken Horses – Brandi Carlile*
Science Fiction
The Employees – Olga Ravn
melissaleighblog.com 
That is a lot of books – thanks for sharing your 5 star reads!
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Thank you for reading the post! Hope you find some books out of the list that interest you
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You read a lot of great books! I hope 2023 is the same.
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So far it’s starting off pretty strong! I finally read ACOTAR and have also listened to some great audiobooks
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