Since we’re now halfway through 2022, I thought I’d go through my reading log and pick my top ten for the year so far. I count series as one book if I read them all back to back, so this list includes seven standalones and three series.

10. Sacrificed to the Fae King (Series)
by Lola Glass

When the Fae came to Earth, they brought destruction with them. In exchange for leaving in peace, they demand three human woman to be the wives of the kings. Noa is one of the three, selected for her “averageness”. This book series involves arranged marriages, enemies to friends to lovers, Fae shifters, and more.

9. Unperfect
by Susie Tate

Mia needs this job desperately, but she doesn’t want anyone else to know that. She’s on the run from an abusive husband and living on the streets, this job is her last chance at survival. Even if it comes with a grumpy boss that terrifies her, and doesn’t want her there in the first place. But she slowly wins him over as her struggles become apparent. The last thing she wants to think about is love, but Max is nothing like the man she fled.

8. Tangled Crowns (Series)
by Ann Denton

Future Queen Bloss fled the night before her wedding to her four husbands and has been in hiding, but a threat to her sister brings her back to her kingdom. Unfortunately for her, that brings her face to face with her jilted would-be-lovers. Unable to tell them why she left, she’s forced to try to win them over the old fashioned way to protect her sister. This is a fun reverse harem, but beware. All magic comes at a cost, dearie.

7. That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon
AND
That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf
by Kimberly Lemming

These two are listed under their individual titles instead of the series title because these are the best book titles I’ve ever seen in my life. Mead Mishaps as a title just doesn’t do this series justice. These books are wonderful, ridiculous, and over the top. The first book has so much plot it could have been dragged out into five books but we get a fun adventure instead and it’s great. Why doesn’t anything this cool ever happen to me when I get drunk?

6. Glow
by Raven Kennedy

I’m as surprised as anyone to find this book so low on the list. The Plated Prisoner series was my favorite read of 2021, but this book just didn’t hit as hard as Gleam for me. It’s a good book, but it feels very much like Mockingjay did to Catching Fire. We reached this incredible peak, and nothing after it lives up to it. The good news is there’s still book five Gold coming out next year, so we’ll see how it ends!

5. The Double
by Helena Newbury

I will be the first to admit this plot is straight out of soap opera, but hey, I like soap operas. Hailey has plastic surgery to pose undercover as mob boss Konstantin’s girlfriend Christina. Except she’s not really his girlfriend. More of a friends with benefits. Things don’t go according to plan as they both begin to develop real feelings for each other, but Hailey can’t be sure if his feelings are for her or Christina. A ghost from Konstantin’s path puts them both in danger. Konstantin was first introduced as a minor character in Kissing My Killer. Characters from Alaska Wild appear in the epilogue.

4. Mount Mercy
by Helena Newbury

Dominic Corrigan is the new ER doctor at Mount Mercy Hospital. Amy Beckett has been a surgeon there for two years, not that anyone’s ever noticed. She’s shy, and often goes unnoticed, until she catches Dominic’s attention. A massive approaching winter storm threatens to shut down the hospital, but Beckett insists it stays open because of a little girl who won’t survive transport to another hospital. Their lives are thrown into chaos as a robbery gone wrong threatens not just them but the entire town.

3. Alaska Wild
by Helena Newbury

Kate is a dedicated FBI agent, so dedicated she follows a lead on a witness all the way to Alaska. When she hitches a ride on a plane with a couple of US Marshals escorting a pair of prisoners, she gets more than she bargained for when the Marshals turn out to be dirty, and sabotage the plane. She frees the other prisoner, Mason Boone, and they survive the crash. Together, they might be able to survive the Alaskan wilderness, but Boone has a secret. He can’t go back to jail. And Kate, she can’t let him go.

2. Deep Woods
by Helena Newbury

When Bethany is told she has to move to another city or find a new job, she agrees to the transfer, only to find herself in the clutches of an exclusive club that sells women. She escapes into the woods, only to run into the dog she helped six months ago, and his handsome owner, Cal. Cal and Rufus vow to protect her from the men hunting her. Despite his growing feelings, Cal is determined to keep Bethany safe and at arm’s length. But, plans change. This book has connections to The Double and Saving Liberty.

1. Outlaw’s Promise
by Helena Newbury

This was the first Helena Newbury book I ever read, discovered from an Instagram ad, and it kick started a whole thing where I read all of her books in a month and a half. When she was eight years old, Annabelle saved a seventeen-year-old biker named Carrick O’Harra from a rival MC. When her dad tries to sell her twelve years later, she finally calls the number Carrick gave her that night. He rides to the rescue and is determined to keep her safe, even if he thinks he doesn’t deserve to be with her. But someone’s hunting her. Someone dangerous. And it’s going to take all of the Hell’s Princes to keep her safe. This book is the last in the O’Harra Brothers series but they can all be read as standalones: Punching and Kissing, Bad for Me, and Saving Liberty. There is a fifth book that ties the other four together available for free on Helena Newbury’s website.