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Quiz: Plan Your Perfect New Year’s Eve Celebration and Get A 2023 Book Recommendation

Emily Martin

Contributing Editor

Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.

As 2022 comes barreling to an end, there’s only one thing I’m looking forward to, my favorite holiday of the year. No, it’s not Christmas. It’s New Year’s Eve. NYE is truly the best holiday because it’s all about optimism. It’s about celebrating everything the last year represented and hoping for the best in the year to come. It’s about reflecting on the past while also looking to the future. It’s about possibilities.

We’re all book lovers here at Book Riot, so you know what we’re all looking forward to in 2023: the new books. There are so many exciting new releases to add to your TBR in the New Year. But which of the many exciting 2023 reads should head to the top of your to-read pile? There’s only one way to find out…

Tell us how you’re planning to say goodbye to 2022 and ring in the new year, and then you’ll find out book you should read in 2023. One book not enough for you? You’re in luck. Stay until the end to find out all of the possible results you could have gotten.

Need even more 2023 book recommendations? Here are all the books included in the quiz results. Why not read them all?

highly suspicious and unfairly cute book cover

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (Joy Revolution, January 3)

You should read Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. Bradley Graeme and Celine Bangura are ex–best friends. They hang out with totally different crowds and don’t have much to say to one another outside of exchanging insults. But fate brings them back together when they have to work as co-competitors in an outdoor survival competition. Will they be able to work together and win?

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix - book cover

How to Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (Berkley, January 17)

You need to read one of the most highly anticipated horror novels of 2023, How to Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. Siblings Louise and Mark Joyner are totally different from each other and basically never speak. But when their parents die at the end of the coronavirus pandemic, Louise and Mark are forced back together to get their childhood home on the market. But there’s something weird about the house. Before their parents died, they taped newspaper over the mirrors and nailed the attic door shut. And that’s just the beginning of the disturbing events Mark and Louise will experience in that house.

daughters of victory book cover

Daughters of Victory by Gabrielle Saab (William Morrow, January 24)

Your book for 2023 should be this thrilling historical fiction novel: Daughters of Victory by Gabrielle Saab. Svetlana Petrova is a revolutionary who was imprisoned for years. When she is released from prison in 1917, she discovers that her beloved uncle was murdered by a mysterious assassin who blinds her victims before she kills them. And Svetlana resolves to avenge his death. Decades later, in 1941, Svetlana is living in a remote village and meets her 18-year-old granddaughter Mila Rozovskaya for the first time. In Mila, Svetlana recognizes that same passionate idealism that she displayed in her youth. As Mila joins the resistance against the Nazis, dangerous secrets and old enemies resurface.

someone else's life book cover

Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler (Thomas & Mercer, February 1)

Does a fun psychological thriller set in Hawaii sound appealing to you? Check out Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler. Annie Lin’s life is falling apart. First, her dance studio goes bankrupt. Then her mother dies. And her dog dies. And her son gets into an accident. Annie is desperate for a fresh start, and she thinks Kauai could be just that for her and her family. But then unexplainable things start happening, and a strange woman shows up on Annie’s doorstep one stormy night.

chain-gang all-stars book cover

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon, April 4)

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the book for you. This dystopian novel is set in a world where a controversial program called the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) allows prisoners to fight to the death for their freedom. Chain-gang all-star Loretta Thurwar is only a few fights away from winning her freedom. But will the system ever really allow her to be free?

Looking for more to get excited about in 2023? Here are 10 book festivals announced for next year! And here are 2023 YA book title earworms. And this list has a few middle grade novels to preorder for 2023. It’s going to be a good year, friends!