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.

Kat’s  2022 Favorites

Best of 2022

 

I came about this from a different direction than I have in the past. I have sub genres within the Gay Romance foray that I tend to follow and chose over others. I also have a fondness for brand-new talented authors that are putting themselves and their creations out for judgment. That takes a lot of bravery to do!

 

So with that being said I have to say that my favorite type of reads are series where we get to know the characters in the books so much that they become real to us at some point.  A few of those series that truly stood out this year were:

 

Prince of L.A: Patricia Logan introduced a new dark series that is a spin-off of her Death and Destruction series, The FBI Files. It follow Lincoln Snow and his new hand-picked team of FBI agents. Be prepared when I say dark take that as a real warning.

 

 

 

 

 

Dearly & Deviant Daniel by LA. Kay: And going along with the slightly strange, you can’t leave out Sam E. Kraemer’s foray into the supernatural as L A. Kaye’s Dearly and the Departed series. I mean a mortician that talks to his dead clients and tries to help solve their murders! Never have I ever heard that one before!

 

 

 

 

 

Music Man by Aries France: Although Aries France started last year she definitely needs to be named in her first series Bear Valley. I expect more wonderful things from this gifted author

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catalyst by Aurora Crane: Although I’m unclear whether Aurora Crane is new-to-me or jumping out into the market by herself I am hooked on her Chain Reaction series. If you are into polyamorous relationships these books will blow your mind!

 

 

 

 

 

Loathed Lagan by Nora Phoenix: Nora Phoenix developed a new found family series The Foster Brothers. I loved these four boys back story and how they formed their own family that is still going on in adulthood.

(I also love her other new series from this year which is a spin off, If you loved Irresistible Omegas then you are going to adore Nora’s Irresistible Dragons.)

 

 

 

 

Beck by JJ Harper: JJ Harper’s Bar 28 is another one of those found family series that I couldn’t get enough of. These men supported each other in a safe place as they each found their one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rohan Rekindled by Dylan Reese: Dylan Reese and his wolf shifters have definitively grabbed my attention. First with his Darlington Pack seriesand now the spin-off Crescent Cove series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pitcher Perfect by Lee Blair: I have had the privilege of being brought back to my native Oregon with Author Lee Blair’s Tap That Brewery series. She weaves such an accurate setting of real Oregon and helps with my homesickness. I can’t get enough of these people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death Growl by Layla Dorine: Combining two of my favorite sub-genres, having a wolf shifter with multiple mates takes care of my polyamorous needs too. Author Layla Dorine has accomplished this in her Comet Lake Chronicles.

 

 

 

 

 

The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022: I absolutely LOVE Rockstars and got to meet up with some of my favorites along with new ones. The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022 was a prime example. I got to connect with Rockers from old favorites like TL Travis, Kaje Harper, Nic Starr, Layla Dorine, Kris Jacen and Ann Lister (that was a treat in itself getting a new book from Ann!). I did discover a new-to-me author Blake Allwood and he has fast become a one-click author for me.

 

 

 

 

Holiday recommendation:

The Home for the Holidays series let me discover one of this year’s graduating class of new authors, Kota Quinn on her first solo novel. ( I first discovered her and co-author Avery Tu in their incredible new series Baton Blue Daddy).