Mid Year Book Freak-Out Tag

I know it’s quite some time past mid year, but… oh well. I did this tag last year as well (timelier then), out can check that out here.

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Best book you’ve read so far in 2017

For this I probably have to go with The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Although I’ve read a few awesome books so far this year (honourable mentions go to Illuminae, Nevernight and A Conjuring of Light), this one just kept me up at night reading and I was just so excited to talk to everyone about it and that hadn’t happened in a while. I have both a spoiler-free review and a rave review of this, if you’re interested to know more of my thoughts about it.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2017

This one goes to A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab. It was such a great conclusion to the series. There is so much going on, we lern so many new things. I loved it so much, I felt all the feels and I NEED to get to her other books. I love her writing and her imagination so much. She writes such compelling stories and characters and I just don’t even know why I haven’t read all her books yet! I have a spoiler-free review of this one as well, if you would like to read more of my thoughts on it.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Again, another author whose writing I love so much, and yet I still have to finish Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I still don’t have my hands on Strange the Dreamer and I want it because it’s beautiful and I bet on the inside it’s beautiful as well and I can’t wait to read it!

 

 

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff. I loved Nevernight so much, Jay Kristoff is one of my new favourite authors and I want to read this book yesterday! This actually shares a release date with Tower of Dawn, which I’m also quite excited about, but not as much as I might have expected. Was a bit disappointed with Empire of Storms and Chaol is not really my favourite character. So Godsgrave wins this time. And I’m so excited about that cover! It’ll look so pretty along with the first one!

Biggest disappointment

Caraval by Stephanie Garber. That book sucks. If you’ve been following my reviews, you know how much I hated that stupid book. If you haven’t, then you can check out both my spoiler-free review of it and my rant review. The biggest disappointment position is actually a joint one, and Caraval shares it with Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige. I also have both a spoiler-free review and a rant review of that if you want to know more, so I won’t go into too much detail about why I hated it because I don’t want to ruin my day.

Biggest surprise

Hmm… this is difficult. I don’t think I’ve really read any books that surprised me so far this year. Maybe Replica by Lauren Oliver, because I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. it was far more insightful and clever and bold than I thought it would be and I went through it really quickly. So I guess I was a little surprised by it, but I can’t say it was a big surprise. I have a spoiler free review of it if you want to read more of my thoughts on it.

 

Favorite new author (Debut or new to you)

Jay Kristoff. I’ve read two of his books already and loved both. There’s something about the wit of his writing that gets me and I will read pretty much anything written by him. I really have to catch up with his other books. I can’t wait to see what other delights he has set in store.

 

Newest fictional crush

ELEND VENTURE HE’S SO CUTE I CAN’T sfjhsflakjhwryonjdnafihvnrlehen he’s such a precious, clueless cinnamon fluff ball I want to marry him.

Ahem… I’m okay. Ignore what just happened…

 

 

Newest favorite character

This is kind of hard… either Mia Corvere from Nevernight, AIDAN from Illuminae (although… Kady and Ezra as well, if I’m being honest) or Kit Herondale from Lord of Shadows. I’m currently about two thirds through Lord of Shadows and what can I say, I just can’t resist a Herondale. It’s a tough question to answer, because there isn’t any one character that stands out dramatically above the others, there are just a lot of really good characters that I love.

Book that made you cry

I don’t think I have an answer for this. I can’t remember reading any book that made me cry this year. Oh actually, I may have cried when reading A Monster Calls. Like, not properly cried, but I think my eyes got a bit watery. I do have a review of A Monster Calls if you want to know more of my thoughts. It’s a really powerful book, I thought and I do recommend it to anyone.

 

Book that made you happy

Again, I’m not sure I have an answer for this. I can’t think of a book that made me particularly happy. I mean, all books tend to make me happy just because I love books and I love seeing them and having them and arranging them on bookshelves, but beyond that, there wasn’t any specific book that made me happy.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. It’s so pretty! And it looks so nice with Lady Midnight and I’m happy. I have the edition with the dark blue pages and it’s so cool and I love it!

Other honourable mentions for beautiful books are Illuminae, Nevernight and Caraval (even though the book itself sucks, I can’t deny that it’s beautiful to look at).

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I’d like to read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton and maybe some more Laini Taylor and V.E. Schwab. And I need to continue the Mistborn series.

Burn, Rewrite, Reread Book Tag – Part 2

I was tagged by Heather @ The Sassy Book Geek to do this tag. I’ve already done it once (you can check that out here), but I’m going to do it again because it’s fun. 😀 So thank you Heather for tagging me! Also, I may have reviews of some of these books, so hover over their titles if you’re interested and see if there’s a link there!

Rules:

• Randomly choose 3 books (Tip: Use the “Sort > Random” option on your Goodreads’ Read shelf.).
• For each group, decide which book to burn, which one to rewrite, and which to reread (a lot like Kiss, Marry, Kill).
• Repeat until you completed three rounds (or six).

Round 1

Burn: Tribulation Force by Time LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I enjoyed this book. But not tremendously. So I don’t really have a problem burning it.

Rewrite: I’m going with The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Don’t get me wrong, this book is AMAZING and beautiful and I absolutely loved it. I would just much rather reread the other one because I love Artemis Fowl and for some reason, it’s very difficult for me to reread historical fiction.

Reread: I have spoken before of my love for this series. It’s one of my favourite series and why wouldn’t I want to reread it?

Round 2

Burn: The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love Sherlock Holmes, but I can’t say that this was my favourite Sherlock Holmes story and it can’t really compare to the other two, so it’ll have to go.

Rewrite: The Hundred Year Old Man That Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I really enjoyed this book, but it’s not really the kind of book I could reread.

Reread: Of course it was going to be the Harry Potter book. I love rereading these. I have reread them several times and I’ll do it again.

Round 3

Burn: Iron Kin by M.J. Scott. I didn’t really like this book. It’s my least favourite in the series. But even if it were my favourite in the series (which is Shadow Kin, if you were wondering), it still could not compete with the other two.

Rewrite: Power Study by Maria V. Snyder. I actually really loved this short story. It was really cool. But A. It’s a short story, so it can’t really compete with a novel and B. It’s up against ASOIAF. So it’ll have to be rewritten.

Reread: I’ve actually been meaning to reread ASOIAF before Winds of Winter comes out (so like, in the next decade).

Round 4

Burn: For once, there isn’t one that I would clearly burn out of the three. Maybe I’ll go with Scorch Trials by James Dashner because I think this was my least favourite Maze Runner book.

Rewrite: Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie. I really enjoyed this book. I love Agatha Christie and she had me guessing with this one. But with detective novels, rereading them isn’t very fun because you already know who did it. So I’ll have to rewrite this one.

Reread: Two Years Holiday by Jules Verne. I remember reading this when I was like 12 and really loving it. I’m curious if I’d enjoy it as much now, so I’d reread this one.

Round 5

Burn: The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Alexandre Dumas. I don’t even remember much of this book other than Chicot. I used to read a lot of French historical fiction for some reason and I really loved it. But that was when I was young. Now I just read YA. I was such a pretentious kid.

Rewrite: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I would write some more Magnus into it cause there can never be enough Magnus.

Reread: Of course I wouldn’t change a single thing about The Hobbit. And of course I want to reread it!

Round 6

Burn: Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid. I actually really loved this book, but it just can’t compare to the other two. Sorry!

Rewrite: This is where the hard part begins. Both of them have that one thing that happens that just pulls your heart right out and uses is as a chew toy. So that could be rewritten for both of them, I guess. But I also definitely want to reread both of them. Hmmmm… I’ll go with Crooked Kingdom, because in CoM, at least that unspeakably horrible thing leads to a lot of things being set in motion and it’s really important, whereas in Crooked Kingdom… it’s just cruel.

Reread: And that leaves Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas.

I’m too lazy to tag people right now, but this is a fun tag to do, so if you want to do it, I tag you to do it. Leave a link below if you do so I can check it out!

 

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

I saw this tag on this blog and I thought it was cool, so I’m going to do it. I’ve read 46 books this year so far, according to my Goodreads challenge (which I am desperately behind on, it’s been a pretty slow reading year for me). So let’s see what books will make it onto this list.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2016

For this, I have to say A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. I’ve read quite a few good books this year, some of them very thought-provoking or very emotional, but I just can’t not give it to ACOMAF. I just enjoyed this book so much. I didn’t read it, so much as absorbed it and as soon as I finished it, I flipped right back to the beginning and started reading it again. I adored it! I have not yet had time to review it properly and talk about all the things I loved about it, but you can read my Goodreads review here.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2016

I’m going to say Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. This isn’t so much a sequel as it is a companion novel, but I’m going to say that this is a series of companions, so it’s a sequel. I really loved the entire Graceling series. I loved the characters, I loved the themes broached and of all of them, I think Bitterblue was my favourite. It’s not a very fast paced book, but it dealt with topics such as mental illness, with anxiety, with trauma. It was full of mystery and I really love books where I have to try and puzzle things out. This is another one I haven’t done a proper review of, but I’ve written a pretty comprehensive Goodreads review which you can check out here

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

This is a difficult question. There are quite a few. But I think the one I want to read most is The Shadow Queen by C. J. Redwine. I’ve been meaning to buy this and read it pretty much since it came out in February, but for some reason, I just haven’t. That happens to me sometimes. I want to read a book so badly, but instead I keep buying and reading other books for no reason that I can discern. And I don’t just want to read it. I want to own it. I mean, look at that gorgeous cover! Hopefully, I’ll get to this one soon!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

My answer for this one is another Sarah J. Maas book. I love Sarah so much (and I’m going to meet her this fall!!!). My most anticipated release for the second half of the year is Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas. Queen of Shadows blew my mind. I loved it so much, it was so amazing. Things didn’t turn out quite as I expected them, but it was one of those rare occasions when I didn’t mind because what did happen was awesome. So I’m really pumped to see how the story continues. I have a video review of Queen of Shadows if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts. 

Biggest disappointment

 I’ve read a few disappointing books this year. Thankfully, not as many as awesome ones. But I think the biggest disappointments were the first two books in the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. I’ve wanted to read that series for YEARS. I’m not sure why I didn’t until now, but I’ve given up on trying to understand my reading habits. So I was really disappointed by how little I liked them. I didn’t really like the characters, I didn’t like the writing. The story itself is not half bad. It’s pretty much a Tolkien ripoff, but that’s what I was expecting so I didn’t mind that much. But overall, I didn’t like them and I’m not sure that I will continue with the series. You can check out my Goodreads reviews on Eragon and Eldest. 

Biggest surprise

For this one, I definitely have to go with Tangled by Emma Chase. This is an adult contemporary romance. It’s like three genres that I don’t read that much in one book. I’m not even sure why I picked it up, I don’t even like the cover. But I did and I surprisingly really enjoyed it. It was funny, it was sexy and I really liked the characters (mainly Drew). So this was definitely the biggest surprise for me. You can check out my review of it here.

Favorite new author (Debut or new to you)

This one goes to Jojo Moyes. I’d never read anything of hers before reading Me Before You, but I really loved it. I loved the characters, I loved the no-nonsense way in which it was written. It wasn’t one of those cliched, happily-ever-after love stories. I loved that it was a bold novel,  it dealt with difficult topics and themes and I always love that in a book. So now, I’m really curious to read some more of her books. 

Newest fictional crush

I kind of developed a crush on Will Traynor from Me Before You. He’s a cutie and I mean… Sam Claflin. Enough said. But really, I like his character a lot. He’s witty and sarcastic and clever and cultured. He’s someone who’s had a lot of experiences in his life and I genuinely think that he’d be a person I would really like if I met him.

Newest favorite character

RHYSAND! Rhys, Rhys, Rhysand! This was a complete no-brainer. Let’s be honest, the only reason Will got the last one was because I read Me Before You after ACOMAF. So technically, Rhys isn’t my *newest* fictional crush. But it’s just as well, because otherwise, my answer would have been Rhysand for two questions and that’s not cool. I absolutely love Rhys. He’s right up there with Will Herondale on my top favourite male characters ever. I guess I have a type: dark-haired, blue-eyed smartasses. 

Book that made you cry

I don’t cry that often when reading or watching films. I’m heartless like that. But I cried, despite my best efforts, while reading Me Before You. It occurs to me, this is the third answer in which this book has come up. I really loved it, guys. I really loved it. Yeah, it definitely made me cry. I knew it would be heartbreaking from the start, so I was prepared and I didn’t cry as much as I might have otherwise, but even with preparation, it still wrung tears out of me. You can check out my review of it here. 

Book that made you happy

This is actually very difficult to answer. Hmmm, I’m gonna go with Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I’d really been looking forward to this book and I was fortunate enough to be able to meet Cassie and get it signed. I also met Dominic Sherwood at the book signing and got a picture with him, so there’s a lot of excitement and happiness associated with this book even though the book itself did not necessarily make me happy (it made me suffer, like all Cassandra Clare books). See my review of it here.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken. Look at that gorgeous cover! I really love the covers for The Darkest Minds books. I love how they look, I love how the feel. And I really love the paperbacks of it. They’re bigger paperbacks and they’re really… hefty. I don’t know how to describe it. But I really love how they feel in my hands. I love the texture of the pages and the covers. And I love how Never Fade looks alongside The Darkest Minds. I can’t wait to get In the Afterlight and the novella bind-up! You can check out my review of it here.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Oh boy! So many. I will limit myself to 4 books to keep it realistic (it should have become apparent by now that I have really weird reading habits) and to reduce the size of this post. But I absolutely want to read these 4 by the end of the year. I just have to!

So that’s it for this tag. It took me ridiculously long to put together this post, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it up. I don’t know who to tag, so I tag everyone who read it and wants to do it.