2022 has been over for a good little bit now. With my health on the upswing, I am finally able to share my year in review!
When it comes to life, 2022 was an interesting year. All in all it was just a decent year. February had the health issue with my oldest child, March was our annual trip to Wisconsin Dells, May began the remodel of our kitchen, July and August had 4 of us sick with a random respiratory illness, September marked the kids return to school which brought on a few mental health and behavioral issues during that time, and then my health issues in December. 2022 ended with us visiting Wisconsin where a fun time was had with that side of our family.
As for my reading life; in 2022 I continued to use my kindle on almost a daily basis. This seriously was the best gift ever, and one that I definitely use constantly. Goodreads and I still have a great relationship. I keep up on my reviews there, and I love the end of year stats that they roll out. Now don't get me wrong, I do have a couple of complaints with the website (and app). The biggest of which is that the page count is in accurate. I keep track of pages read, and my number does not equal their number. So Goodreads (ahem: amazon) get your stuff together. My other issue slash complaint is that I can't review all my reads on there. A lot of author freebies are not posted, so that means my end of year total doesn't match with my monthly lists. Maybe one day the app will be 100% to my liking.
2022 was also the year where I tried to focus on my blog a lot more. Now there were a couple of times that I had to take a break (summer and December), but I tried my best. I'm hoping that 2023 will have me posting here on a regular basis.
This is my third year doing this year in review! It's nice to look back at how 2020 and 2021 went with reading!
The first book that I read was Our Finest Hour by Jennifer Millikin. This was a book that I had found through TikTok, and the way the author described it just had me beyond curious. If only the hype had lived up to the promo.
My final read for the year was Hero's Risk by Gina Azzi. I am loving her Tennessee Thunderbolts series, and this story was by far one of my favorites. Plus ending the year with a 5 star read is always a good thing. Or at least in my mind.
I read 216 books this year! So I definitely exceeded my Goodreads goal of 150. Love that for me! I will say that this number is lower than 2021, but I'm okay with that. I pushed myself way too hard in 2021, so slowing things down in 2022 was a good thing.
I calculated my page total at 55,924! (Goodreads says 31,266 which is obviously a large discrepancy.) That makes my average book length about 259 pages.
My page count is slightly up from 2021, but is no where near 2020's numbers. How did I even manage 80k in 2020?
This year I chose once again to select a favorite each month. This time though, I put them into a bracket. From there it was my top 3, and then my ultimate favorite of the year.
As you can see, Obsession by K Loraine and Meg Anne came out victorious. But considering the fact that 3/4 books received a 5 star rating, I am not surprised this was my favorite of 2022.
In no particular order:
- Gina Azzi
- Piper Rayne
- Natasha Madison
- Samantha Lovelock
- Kristin Turnage
- Elise Faber
I felt like I didn't read a lot of "new to me" authors, but looking at this list, I did okay.- Jennifer Millikin
- Kayley Loring
- JB Heller
- S Massery
- Allie York
- CW Farnsworth
- Dee Lagasse
- Julia Connors
- Sophie Gonzales
- Alison Rhymes
- JS Wood
- Cali Melle
- Brooke Ramsey
- Bianca Borell
- Amanda Usen
- Tempest Phan
- Alice Hoffman
Um, as per 2021, it's Romance.
This is not new information.
Anything other than romance. 🤷🏼♀️
If you know me, you know that this list should be extremely long. I am an emotional person, and certain scenes and/or storylines cause me to tear up. Some hit harder than others, that's for certain.
Off the top of my head, this is a snippet of my list:
Series are my weakness!
My favorite of 2022 was The Mate Games: War by K Loraine and Meg Anne. The first book is called Obsession, and I was definitely obsessed with this series. It's why choose plus paranormal, and I could not get enough.
My reading goal is once again going to be 150 books. I feel confident with this number, and should I exceed my goal then yay for me.
Books I want to read that are not my usual reads:
As for reading challenges...I plan on participating again in the A-Z title challenge, as well as the A-Z author challenge. Hopefully in 2023 I can complete these challenges. Are there others I'd like to participate in? Oh absolutely. I have my eye on Buzzwordathon, and a few others. Time will tell though if I can follow through.
In regards to my blog, I am in the planning stages. Here's what I know as of now:
- I know I want to write more trope posts that offer book recommendations.
- I also have an idea for a series on book series. I even have a title in mind for it. But I'll share that once I plan things out a bit more.
- Continue to write my reviews here.
- I'd also like to maybe do posts on my favorite authors.
Let's talk social media...As you may know, I have a Facebook page, and I'm also on Instagram. Am I active on both? Nope. Do I want to be? Yes, yes I do.
- Learn more about Reels, and post one per week. (content planning, editing, etc)
- Post 3 photos per week.
- Post stories 4 times per week perhaps discussing my current reads, or book hauls.
- Share my blog posts daily whether new or older.
- Post new releases and teasers for books I'm excited about.
- Share memes and quotes.
Last year I talked about my goals regarding advanced reading copies and I want to discuss that again. I felt comfortable with the amount I accepted for 2022. It wasn't overwhelming, and my stress was a lot less. I loved the majority of the books that I read, and have found some authors that I truly enjoy. That being said, I am thinking of pulling back again. Here's what I'm thinking: - Work with specific authors directly
- Reduce PR companies I team with
- Only choose books/authors I am passionate about vs just accepting any arc.
How did your reading go in 2022? Did you accomplish everything you wanted to? What are your goals for this year?
Happy Reading,Laura
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