I know everyone is saying this right now, but I genuinely can’t believe that 2022 has already ended. I feel like I blinked and suddenly we were in December. It’s surreal to me how quickly time has flown.

At the start of this year, I set what felt like an extraordinarily ambitious reading goal of 50 books. At the time, the most books I’d ever read in a year was 13, so to say it felt like a stretch that I could achieve 50 books read by New Year’s Eve is an understatement.

I hadn’t yet predicted that reading would become my most significant passion of 2022. Reading, posting about reading, following other bookish accounts, and nerding out when a particularly good book came along; these all became the highlights of my days. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had a hobby that I could sink my teeth into, one that was more multifaceted than “reading” sounds at face value. I’m super proud to say that as of New Year’s Eve, I hit 60 (!!) books read for 2022, blowing my original goal out of the water .

Of the 60 books that I read this year, there are some that I’m exceptionally passionate about. I think about the books on this list regularly and will likely continue to go back to them for some time. I don’t pay much attention to publication dates, so in lieu of creating a list of “Best Books of 2022”, I decided to focus on the best books that I read in 2022. These books were all new to me, so hopefully some are new to you as well. These are the only books I read this year that I gave 5-stars to.

Methodology of the list

This list represents my favourite books read in 2022.

For the sake of organization, I’ve grouped together books from the same series as a single item. I haven’t always included all books in each series because I don’t always find all books in a series to be 5-star reads. In some cases, I haven’t yet finished the series, so I’ve yet to rank some of the books.

All books were awarded 5-stars strictly on my level of enjoyment of the book, not based on any kind of literary acclaim. Reading is a very personal thing, so it’s likely that your list of best books read in 2022 would be different from mine. Neither is wrong, just a reflection of different tastes.

Where possible, I’ve linked any books that I’ve written reviews on. As most of these books predate the start of Forests and Fictions, many don’t have full-scale reviews, but you can find some of my thoughts on Instagram or on Goodreads.

Now to the good stuff!

Best Books Read in 2022

1.       The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

This was one of my first reads of the year and I loved everything about it. It was an interesting premise, based around a girl who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever. Much of it felt like a really layered approach to “be careful what you wish for” told in an immensely enjoyable and captivating way.

Addie LaRue, the protagonist, might actually be one of my favourite heroines of the year. She exemplifies the struggles of what it’s meant to be a woman over the 300 years that she’s lived, and the sacrifices and grit it takes not just to live, but to find a life that is yours, and that you can enjoy.

VE Schwab has a really beautiful writing style that elevates the plot and the characters and makes for a really memorable story. Highly recommend.

2.       The Mask of Mirrors (Rook & Rose #1) by M.A. Carrick

The Mask and Mirrors is a dark magical fantasy collaboration written by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms writing together as M.A. Carrick. The story follows Ren, a con artist who has come to the city of Nadezra to run a long con that will set her and her sister up for life. As she engrains herself in high society, positioning herself as a long-lost relative of one of the more respected families in the city, she finds herself intertwined in intrigue, dark magic, and more complex relationship dynamics than she expected.

This was such a beast of a book that it felt a bit like several dense books pulled together into one large story. The world-building was extensive and the magic unique, but once I was able to really wrap my head around the structure, it became a captivating story with a lot of emotion and a twisty plot. Ren was also a delightfully flawed character that you get to see grow and shift in all sorts of ways as the plot turns. I really enjoyed this book, it felt like a unique twist on a fantasy that I hadn’t been exposed to before.

3.       A Game of Thrones, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons (Game of Thrones Series) by George R.R. Martin

I am very late to the party on this one, but I finally read the Game of Thrones series this year and I absolutely loved it. The series follows a whole host of characters across multiple continents as families and rivals compete and scheme for an Iron Throne while also battling an oncoming winter that promises to be full of deadly creatures and destruction. While I could say a lot more than that, the “game of thrones,” if you will, is the thread that ties most of the perspectives together.

The first book, A Game of Thrones, was incredibly action-packed and provided a ton of background and detail into some of the core characters that Martin would explore over the course of the series. Somehow, he balances a huge number of perspectives, building out robust and relatable personalities while also moving the dense plot forward. It was executed beautifully and kept me captivated right through to the last page.

While I don’t have A Clash of Kings or A Storm of Swords on this list, they were still 4-star reads for me. Excellently told, but a huge amount of build over both books that made them feel a little more like marathons to me.

When we get to A Feast for Crows, Martin splits the characters, choosing to only focus on half and leaving the other half for A Dance with Dragons. I loved this approach, it gave the ability to focus on characters that we hadn’t seen as much perspective on, like Cersei. It allowed you to see more depth and complexity in the politics that were ongoing, but still felt action-packed and like it moved at a great clip.

From there I headed into A Dance with Dragons, which felt like a much quicker pace and more action. It also had some of the stronger characters that had been absent from the previous book.

Martin has such an exceptional ability to weave a complicated, bloody plot. He builds up your hopes for the good guys, and then consistently dashes them with what feels like the cruel reality of what the world is like. The books are all marathons, but they were well worth it to me.

4.       Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass Series) by Sarah J. Maas

In my humble opinion, I find you either love Sarah J. Maas’ work or you don’t. Personally, I’m a huge fan, though I read her series a little out of order, reading Throne of Glass after A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City.

I didn’t initially love this series. I really didn’t like the first Throne of Glass novel, though I recognize that this was a very early novel for Maas and not particularly representative of what was to come in the rest of the series. I powered through to the second book and noticed the style of writing evolved a lot and the cadence of the plot improved, and by the third book, I was hooked.

The story follows Celaena Sardothien, an assassin who is given her freedom in exchange for serving a vicious crown that has outlawed magic. She’s survived trauma, torture, slavery, and other unspeakable tragedies only to be forced to work for the crown responsible for it all. Over time, Celaena rediscovers who she truly is (with the help of a great many friends who also become pivotal to the plot) and sets to work at saving the world from the evil magical forces that are released upon the realm.

Heir of Fire was the third book in the Throne of Glass series and to me, that’s where it starts to build beyond a simple YA fantasy into a captivating story. Much of the book is spent with Celaena trying to pull herself from a deep and dark depression and the evolution of her character is executed wonderfully.

Queen of Shadows follows and was the most action-packed of the series yet. A lot of long-terms arcs were either resolved or moved forward in a way that felt really satisfying.

Empire of Storms came in as the fifth to the series, and my last 5-star read for now (I still need to read The Assassins Blade, which is a prequel to the series). It was also incredibly action-packed and provided new perspectives, which helped keep the momentum going after so many books. An enjoyable read as a whole.

At some point I’m going to put together a summary review of the full Throne of Glass series because with the exception of the first book, all of the books were really quite solid, and the ones that I didn’t give 5-stars I typically gave 4. I thought it was interesting to see Maas’ writing evolve and grow so much and by the end, you’re really invested in the characters and their outcomes. I feel like it’s a very reliable series, particularly for the YA crowd.

5.       House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City 2) by Sarah J Maas

As I’ve now established, I’m a huge Maas fan. I think House of Sky and Breath is the best book of hers that I’ve read.

The story is a sequel and follows Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar after they’ve saved Crescent City. They originally intend to lay low and enjoy their new-found peace, but quickly find it impossible to ignore the inequality and oppression that’s pervasive in their city. They get wrapped up in a plot that’s bigger than they originally expected, and the plot quickly spins into action.

The Crescent City series is the first adult fantasy series that Maas has written and it shows. The world-building is a lot more complex, and the characters feel more maturely oriented.

While this series is dense, it’s rich in detail and weaves wonderful characters and relationships together that you become really invested in. There are also some very Maas-characteristic twists and cliffhangers, one of which literally had me gasping out loud and calling my friends to scream about. I loved this book and cannot wait to see where she takes the next installment.

6.       The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

This book completely consumed me for three full days until I finished it. A blend of sci-fi and fantasy, the story follows The Alexandrian Society, a secret society of magical academicians who are the caretakers of knowledge. Six uniquely talented magicians are selected to join the society with the knowledge that only five will make it through initiation, which they have one year to prepare for together.

Olivie Blake is a master of creating deeply flawed characters and anti-heroes. The shifting perspectives throughout the book give you the opportunity to see the plot through their unique lens and it’s an immensely enjoyable experience. I found the writing style quick and smart and the storytelling really compelling. I haven’t read the second installment yet but the first was a delightful change of pace for me.

7.       When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill

This was a truly fantastic book. A twist on the story of Marie Antoinette set in Montreal in the nineteenth century and told through the perspective of two sociopathic women. One narrative follows Marie Antoine, a sugar heiress who wants for nothing and is exposed to very little, leaving her with an incredibly bourgeois view of the world. The other narrative follows Sadie Arnett, who is brilliant but brutal and takes the fall for the girl’s reckless and deadly behavior.

The story was a beautiful exploration of gender, class structure, and inequality at the time. Each girl represents a different side of the wealth spectrum and through their stories, you’re able to see the brutality of factory work and the contrasting lives of the wealthy. It was a unique way of approaching these themes and the personalities of both Sadie and Marie have stuck with me long after finishing the book.

8.       The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I didn’t know what to expect from this book as it was such a marked step away from the fantasy and sci-fi books I’d been reading this year, but it turned out to be one of the only books that I read this year that made me sob uncontrollably.

The story follows celebrity Evelyn Hugo, who is ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life (including all seven of her past husbands), to relatively unknown writer Monique Grant. The story shifts back and forth between past and present as Evelyn unveils what it took, and what it cost, for fame and fortune over the course of her life.

I loved Evelyn as a character. She was cunning and smart and willing to do whatever it took to change her circumstances, and yet at the same time, she was still so bound by convention and societal norms that she could only rage so far against the boundaries that tied her in. She’s morally grey at best, but there are so many layers that makeup her and her decisions. I haven’t read any other Taylor Jenkins Reid but this book made me add a few of her other works to my TBR.

9.       Educated by Tara Westover

This is the only 5-star biography that I read this year as I was mostly focused on fiction, but wow, what an incredible story. Westover explores what it was to grow up in a survivalist Mormon household without access to modern medicine or education, and her journey to eventually attending university and becoming a lifelong academic.

The exploration of the power of the narrative that you’re raised in and the lasting impacts that it has on your development was particularly powerful to me. The way she talks about how education can cause you to challenge your core beliefs and what it takes to unlearn things you’ve taken for granted were told in ways that were both chilling and resonating. One of the best biographies I’ve read in a long time.

10.   Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang

Babel was such a richly complex read. It follows the story of the mythical Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University, otherwise known as Babel, which serves as the centre of the world’s translation and magic. Robin Swift, the main character, is an orphan native to China, who is brought to London by a mysterious Oxford professor and spends his entire childhood training to one day enter the ranks of the Oxford University elite Babel students. When he does, he finds it is not what he expects, and the inequality even within the ranks is impossible to ignore.

This book was stunning. It was intellectual, thoughtful, emotional, and an exquisite examination of race, class structure, and colonialism wrapped in a dark academia setting. The nature of the magic feels unique, and the commoditization of it is an interesting way to demonstrate the systemic inequalities that were pervasive at the time, particularly in colonized nations. It was a story that had me really invested in the characters, but also in the themes that undercut everything they did and all that they accomplished.

11.   The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves were the last two books in the Scholomance triology by Naomi Novik, which has quickly become one of my favourite trilogies.

The first book, A Deadly Education, follows a budding dark sorceress named El who is being educated at a murdery magic school designed both to protect children with magic and, just as often, kill them. In The Last Graduate, El and the other students find themselves preparing for graduation, which is a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive at the end.

I would have been satisfied if the students had just focused on the magical education, which in and of itself I found interesting and unique, but Novik was able to swerve the plot towards a different end that saw the characters coming together in a less survivalist way that added a lot of depth. The cliffhanger was also superb and had me counting the days until the final installment.

With the release of The Golden Enclaves came the conclusion to the series, which I also thought was superbly executed. I had no idea how a series whose entire premise was based on a magic school would continue without the characters at said magic school, but I loved where Novik took the plot.

It’s difficult to say much on this without spoilers, so I’ll just leave it with the fact that I thought it was a really satisfying end.

12.   War Storm (Red Queen # 4) by Victoria Aveyard

War Storm was the conclusion to the Red Queen series and, in my opinion, the best installment. The story follows Mare and Cal as both try to navigate the goals of their respective institutions and the coming revolution between those with red blood and those with silver.

There were a few things that I really appreciated about this book. First, because all of the characters were so well established, it felt like Aveyard was really able to flex her ability to build the nuance between their relationships. There were a lot of scenes where characters interacted with each other that just felt really familiar and enjoyable because all of that world-building and establishment was done.

I also really appreciated how she chose to bring various storylines to a conclusion. The arcs felt authentic, even for Maven Calore, where it would have been easy just to vilify him and leave it at that.

The way that things wrapped up (or sometimes didn’t) felt like really good storytelling. A solid end to a great YA series.

13.   The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A.Chakraborty

The City of Brass was one of my biggest surprises of the year. It sat on my TBR list forever, and then when I finally got to it, I regretted not reading it sooner.

The story begins with Nahri, a woman living in eighteenth-century Cairo as a con artist and sometimes-healer. She unwittingly summons a Djinn and her whole life is turned upside down as she discovers she’s a member of a nearly-extinct class of healers in a magical realm steeped in the same sorts of class structures and inequalities present in her own human civilization.

For me, this was a really, really good story. You can read my full review here, but essentially, I felt like the characters were strong and flawed, the plot twisted several times in ways I didn’t expect, and the world was exquisitely built. It also had a cliffhanger epilogue that has me incredibly eager to read the next installment. This has become one of the most promising series I’ve picked up in a long time and I can’t wait to continue.

14.   Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

This was one of the darker books that I read this year. Set at Yale University, Galaxy “Alex” Stern is plucked from the scene of a murder and selected as the newest freshman to Leith, a society responsible for overseeing the responsible use of magic across a range of magical societies at the University. She quickly finds herself wrapped up in a sinister plot that involves more murder and a whole host of privileged, detestable, spoiled ivy-league students.

You can read my full review of Ninth House here, but the short version is that I really enjoyed this book. It was a well-designed and flushed-out world, Alex was a wonderfully flawed character, and the plot moved at a great clip. Bardugo also did a great job of making the characters feel realistic and relatable despite the occult and magical setting in which the conflict was often placed. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to this when it comes out in January.

15.   Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager (Outlander Series, 1-3) by Diana Gabaldon

This is another series I’m late to, but nonetheless, it has become one of my absolute favourites of all time. The Outlander stories follow Claire Beauchamp, an Englishwoman in Scotland after the second world war who accidentally travels back two hundred years through a series of stones. As she’s getting her bearings, she meets Jamie Fraser, a large red-headed Scottish man who quickly steals her heart.

I won’t go into a ton of detail on these books because to describe what happens in book two and three would be to ruin some of the biggest plot twists that come along. That said, the weaving of actual history through the story, the exploration of the persecution that many experienced during these times (be it Scots, women, Africans, or anyone outside the norm), and the epic love story that is Claire and Jamie are all elements that keep me picking up these books. I already have the fourth installment on my shelf at home and I can’t wait to get to it.

So there you have it! All of my favourite books read in 2022. For a more comprehensive list of all the books I read in 2022, check out my Instagram or Goodreads for more detail.