Welcome to the Love Bytes Reviewers’ Best of 2022
Another year has passed in which books have brought all of us a much needed escape and sense of comfort. Our Love Bytes team reviewed approximately 1,300 LGBTQ+ books in 2022, from contemporary romance to fantasy, paranormal, historical, adventure, mystery, comedy and everything in between. Each day for the next few weeks, we will feature one of our reviewers’ top picks from books and audiobooks published in 2022. These lists highlight how diverse our tastes in reading are, and offer something for everyone. With thousands of fantastic new books each year, written by hundreds of creative and talented authors, it’s so difficult to narrow our lists down. We all have many favorite authors not featured here and wish we could acknowledge them all.
Cheryl K’s 2022 Favorites
The Foster Brothers Series by Nora Phoenix
I love this series. Nora really did a fantastic job with creating a wonderful universe in this found family series. So diverse and really pulled at the heart strings. I’m really looking to Nora’s book in 2023.
Prince of L.A. & Leo on Fire (FBI Files Series) by Patricia Logan
This is series is a wonderful addition to Patricia’s several law enforcement series. I think it might even be darker and grittier than her previous LEO series.
Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed Series by Vawn Cassidy
I seriously loved this series by Vawn Cassidy. It’s a fresh take on paranormal stories. A dead drag queen helps solve the mysterious deaths of the ghosts that come to visit Tristan. I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Sons of Darkness Series by Shannon West
I love a good vampire tale and this one is exceptionally good. I wished there were more books in this series.
Tides of Change Series by John Patrick
If you’re a history buff, this is the series for you. With the mm romance twist, theses stories shed a different light on the events of World War II and the beginnings of the cold war. Book three is due out in 2023, so excited for its release.
Audiobook – The Gilded Scarab: Lancaster’s Luck, Book 1 by Anna Butler (author) and Gary Furlong (narrator)
This book, which was written a while ago – was released in audiobook, this year. I am not normally a fan of the steampunk alternate universes, but this book was stellar. Gary’s narration was spot on and made the telling of this story even better.
Audiobook – His Cocky Prince (Undue Arrogance #3) by Cole McCade (author) and Joel Leslie (narrator)
This story just about broke me. It left me sobbing at times and I was crazy enough to keep on listening to this dark yet timely story. Kudos to Joel Leslie, he might have just pulled out all the stops on this one.
Audiobook – Second Shot (Jimmy McSwain Series #7) by Adam Carpenter (author) and Joel Leslie (narrator)
Ok, I’ve been waiting for this book to come out since early last year, when I finished the last book. I read this one as soon as Adam released it and then went back and listened to Joel’s brilliant performance of Jimmy McSwain. I hope there are more books to come in this series – as it’s a fantastic mystery series.
Audiobooks – R’iyah Family Archives Series by AJ Sherwood (author) and Tim Paige, Michael Ferraiuolo, Greg Boudreaux, and Copper North (narrators)
I just had to include this series by AJ Sherwood. The premise of these books is just so fun and a little outside the box. But I loved them. Also, to be honest I am not usually a fan of dual + narrations. But I will admit the narrators for these books, blended nicely and pulled it off so well – I wasn’t taken out of the series, when there was a narrator change. AJ, I hope there are more books coming in this series. It was truly amazing.
A Drag Queen Detective Series by Shane Morton