Hi there, friends! As the last post before the new year rolls around, I thought I’d share one of the challenges I’ll be participating in next year and that’s the ✨ 12 Book Challenge: 12 friends, 12 books, 12 months! ✨ I started seeing tons of bloggers participating this year but I was a little worried about putting myself out there and getting zero responses in return. When I saw this challenge making the rounds again this year, I thought, screw it—let’s just do it! So I did and (thankfully) people responded!
Below are the 12 books that I was recommended by 12 lovely friends over on book Twitter! I’d not heard of a few of these and a few were already on my TBR, but all of them sound interesting and I’m super excited to read them in 2023! These are listed in no particular order.

1

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Recommended by: Chris @ Biblio Nerd Reflections
📖 SYNOPSIS
Set in an alternative Edwardian England, this is a comedy of manners, manor houses, and hedge mazes: including a magic-infused murder mystery and a delightful queer romance.
For fans of Georgette Heyer or Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton, who’d like to welcome magic into their lives. . .
Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he’s actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.
Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor – but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.
2

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows
Recommended by: Louise @ Foxes Fairytales
📖 SYNOPSIS
“Stolen me? As soon to say a caged bird can be stolen by the sky.”
Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.
Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.
With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love – as both will learn – is quite another.
Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry. Foz Meadows’s A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you finish the last minute.
3

Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney
Recommended by: Mayri @ BookForager
📖 SYNOPSIS
Life gets complicated when Death gets involved.
To be born into a family of royal assassins pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be… rather unusual. Especially if, like Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones, you also have a vicious allergy to all forms of violence and bloodshed, and an uncanny affinity for bringing the dead back to life.
To make matters worse, family debt looms – a debt that will have to be paid sooner rather than later if Lanie and her sister are to retain ownership of the ancestral seat, Stones Manor. Lanie finds herself courted and threatened by powerful parties who would love to use her worryingly intimate relationship with the goddess of death for their own nefarious ends. But the goddess has other plans…
4

Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Recommended by: Nicole @ Thoughts Stained with Ink
📖 SYNOPSIS
The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.
5

Bright Side by Kim Holden
Recommended by: Deanna @ A Novel Glimpse
📖 SYNOPSIS
Secrets.
Everyone has one.
Some are bigger than others.
And when secrets are revealed,
Some will heal you…
And some will end you.
Kate Sedgwick’s life has been anything but typical. She’s endured hardship and tragedy, but throughout it all she remains happy and optimistic (there’s a reason her best friend Gus calls her Bright Side). Kate is strong-willed, funny, smart, and musically gifted. She’s also never believed in love. So when Kate leaves San Diego to attend college in the small town of Grant, Minnesota, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with Keller Banks.
They both feel it.
But they each have a reason to fight it.
They each have a secret.
And when secrets are revealed,
Some will heal you…
And some will end you.
6

Thorn by Intisar Khanani
Recommended by: Julie @ One Book More
📖 SYNOPSIS
A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own.
Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future.
When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.
But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever.
With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.
Includes The Bone Knife, a bonus short story set in the world of Thorn.
7

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Recommended by: Shazzie @ Reader at Work
📖 SYNOPSIS
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 this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
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 not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
8

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Recommended by: Leslie @ Books Are the New Black
📖 SYNOPSIS
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
9

Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
Recommended by: Timy @ Queen’s Book Asylum
📖 SYNOPSIS
A little bit of sin is good for the soul.
Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, has a bit of a gambling debt. Fortunately, her angelic bookie is happy to let her pay off her debts by doing what she does best: All Gadriel has to do is tempt miserably sinless mortal Holly Harker to do a few nice things for herself.
What should be a cakewalk of a job soon runs into several roadblocks, however, as Miss Harker politely refuses every attempt at temptation from Gadriel the woman, Gadriel the man, and Gadriel the adorable fluffy kitten. When even chocolate fails to move Gadriel’s target, the ex-guardian angel begins to suspect she’s been conned. But Gadriel still remembers her previous job… and where petty temptations fail, small miracles might yet prevail.
Olivia Atwater explores love, grief, and the very last bit of chocolate in this sweet modern fantasy, full of wit and heart. Pick up Small Miracles, and enjoy a heavenly faerie tale from the author of Half a Soul.
10

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Recommended by: Jess @ Jessticulates
📖 SYNOPSIS
The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend… and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.
11

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Recommended by: Queenie @ The Erudite Labyrinth
📖 SYNOPSIS
A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family–and a new love–changes the course of her life.
As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….
12

Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend
Recommended by: Kaya @ A Fictional Bookworm
📖 SYNOPSIS
Morrigan Crow and her friends have survived their first year as proud scholars of the elite Wundrous Society, helped bring down the nefarious Ghastly Market, and proven themselves loyal to Unit 919. Now Morrigan faces a new, exciting challenge: to master the mysterious Wretched Arts, and control the power that threatens to consume her.
But a strange and frightening illness has taken hold of Nevermoor, turning infected Wunimals into mindless, vicious Unnimals on the hunt. As victims of the Hollowpox multiply, panic spreads. And with the city she loves in a state of fear, Morrigan quickly realizes it’s up to her to find a cure for the Hollowpox, even if it will put her – and everyone in Nevermoor – in more danger than she ever imagined.

So these are the 12 books I’ll be reading for this challenge and I’m looking forward to it. Have you read any of these books? Are you also doing the 12 Book Challenge and are you looking forward to the books you’ve been recommended?

The Rage of Dragons is one I have been wanting to read!
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I see two I loved (Chemistry, Witches), and one I swore I would read forEVER (Bright Side). I renewed that promise in 2015 when I went to a con where Holden was a keynote speaker. Still unread. I hope these are all hits for you!
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hope you enjoy The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches! 💙💜
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Ooohhh these are some fantastic choices!! Several of these are already on my TBR. I’m so excited about Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries!
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I can’t wait for you to read Bright Side!
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This is a great list! I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve read from it, and several of the others are on my TBR too. I hope you enjoy A Marvellous Light!
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AHHHHH, I am so excited you’re considering reading THE RAGE OF DRAGONS. (It’s so good, Dini. So, so good.) I am also hoping to read Foz Meadows next year!
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So fun! I hope you enjoy them all, Dini! I’m super excited to hear what you think of Thorn. 🙂
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[…] 12 Book Challenge – 2023 […]
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I have a few of these on my TBR. I hope these are all enjoyable reads for you.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
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There are so many great books on here! Many that we will probably buddy read, haha. Thorn is another!! Julie recommended it to me as well. 😊
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these look like so much fun!! i hope you adore all of these dini💜
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Enjoy these books! I’ve always wanted to read Thorn but never picked it up, don’t know why lol.
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I didn’t see your request for recs or I’d have totally jumped on board, too. I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed a few of these. Enjoy!!
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[…] 12 Book Challenge – 2023 & Let’s Talk Bookish: 2022 Reading & Blogging Reflections (Dini @ dinipandareads) […]
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[…] 12 Book Challenge – I’m excited to dive into this one. I’ll be flexible but I’m going to try for one recommended book each month but I don’t know which one I’ll start with first! […]
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This is an interesting challenge, Dini. I have read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and I liked it. Good luck with this challenge and I hope you enjoy all of these books. I think I might give this one a try, we’ll see.
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Great list! Some of these are on my TBR. Happy reading, Dini!
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Happy reading to you as well, Andie! I hope you enjoy all your reads 💜
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[…] have a goal to complete the 12 Book Challenge this year and I was really excited to be participating in this challenge for the first time this […]
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