Summer’s gone and it’s time to buckle down into work, school, and reading. We’ll take what’s left of the warm days to help you choose your next read. When you’re not sure where to start for a good book, try Amazon’s top 100 Kindle books of 2023 so far.
Or, if you prefer not to pay for your books, you can see the selection of free Kindle Books.
Trends among the Best Kindle Books of 2023
As is typical, the “best” books on Kindle are also happen to be the best sellers. But let’s not quibble between the differences of best and best-seller. Let’s look instead at how these titles speak to societal trends and our current, collective obsessions.
This year there are less rom-coms and thrillers than usual and more psychological thrillers, Colleen Hover, and dark romance books filling up the spots. Colleen Hoover, author of It Ends With Us, occupies no less than 9 spots in the list. While psychothriller author Freida McFadden also has a number of books on the list.
This list also features multiple books in a series: readers following characters they love over an extended narrative, with fiction from traditional publishing houses overwhelming all other genres on the list. There’s also a couple of new biographies and non-fiction perennial best sellers on the list.
2023’s top books so far suggests a lively fiction marketplace, defined by a need for escapist fare, a balance of light and dark, with a sprinkling of self-improvement. Punchy titles of 2 and 3 words make up a big chunk of the list. And while last year many covers featured the male form in varying states of undress, this year the romance novels area a bit darker and twisted and their covers tend to shy away from showing the bare-chested hunk, in favor of a brooding man. The other trend in romance covers seems to be flowers.
While escape into new passion proves to be one recurring theme, readers also seek occasional nostalgic reads. Titans of horror and fantasy also make guest appearances.
