The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

Join 1,708 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Wolf Den

Gill Arbuthnott I this book because...

I loved this book for so many reasons!

The setting, which brought ancient Pompei to life as a vibrant, dangerous city; the immersive plot, which kept me reading when I should have been doing many other things…

Most of all, though, the characters, Amara and her fellow she-wolves (Pompeian slang for prostitutes) are loyal, inventive, and strong, even in the dreadful circumstances they have to endure.

I felt utterly involved in their lives and struggles and terrified about what might happen to them, all the way to the very last page. I’m saving the other two books in the trilogy, even though I want to gulp them down because I don’t want to run out of story and have to leave them behind.

By Elodie Harper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wolf Den as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den...

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara's spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Code Name Verity

Gill Arbuthnott I this book because...

Maddie, a pilot, and Verity, an SOE agent, are two girls from very different pre-war lives who forge a deep friendship during World War II.

Verity has been captured and, while being interrogated in France, is forced to write a confession. Into this, she weaves the story of how she and Maddie came to know each other. Maddie’s version of events comes later in the book and provides a different reading of what happened. To say more would involve spoilers, so I won’t go any further.

I was gripped by the plotting – Verity is under a death sentence – and by the vivid writing: two young women pouring their all onto the pages. It’s a harrowing read at times, thrilling, beautiful, and heartbreaking. And it’s the first book that’s made me cry for a very long time.

By Elizabeth Wein,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Code Name Verity as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

'I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.'

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Code Name Verity is a bestselling tale of friendship and courage set against the backdrop of World War Two.

Only in wartime could a stalwart lass from Manchester rub shoulders with a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a special operations executive. When a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France, she is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Gill Arbuthnott I this book because...

OMG, this book is such fun! I love fantasy, but there's only so many times you can read about someone saving the world… sometimes it's good to have a smaller focus.

Emily Wilde is an intrepid Victorian academic, and the book is her research diary (complete with footnotes) of a field trip to the village of  Hrafnsvik to catalogue the local faeries.

I loved Emily's spiky character – she's not very good with normal people – and the slow development of her relationship with Wendell Bambleby, who she suspects of wanting to steal her research.

The writing is lovely, both humorous and lyrical, and I love how unaware Emily is of how other people see her. I'm delighted to find she will be continuing her research in another book.

I'm never too sure about the term "cosy fantasy," so let's call this one "fun fantasy"!

By Heather Fawcett,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

“A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic.”—Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Keepers' Daughter

By Gill Arbuthnott,

Book cover of The Keepers' Daughter

What is my book about?

Nyssa is a teenage orphan haunted by dreams of someone else’s life.

The arrival of strangers on the quiet island she calls home hurls her into danger.

Why are they hunting her? Why is the despotic Alaric so keen to track her down? She must journey to the drowned city of Thira to find answers about herself, her past – and the twin she’s never known but whose frightening life she dreams of. What is written on their skin in secret tattoos, and why does Alaric want it so badly?