Nine Year Blogiversary! Plus the Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag

I’ve been knocking around this corner of the interwebs for 9 years now.

I love my blog. I love that it gives me time for myself doing a hobby I love, I love that I have a set schedule, I love the way it looks, and I love that I have literally thousands of posts.

Also, I know it sucks, but I’m not doing a giveaway for my blogiversary this year because I’m currently studying at University and working full time so I just don’t have the brain space to think about it.

Instead, I’m going to do the Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag, even though I’m a month late.

 

This tag was originally created back in 2016 by Ely and Chami over on BookTube.

I’ve fallen behind my schedule of one book a week and I blame University because my accounting unit sucked up all of my spare time and forced me to take a hiatus when my assignments were due.

• Read books: 25
• Average rating: 4.12
• Longest Book: Midnight Sun (Twilight #5) by Stephenie Meyer = 756 pages
• Shortest Book: Nobody Knows But You by Anica Mrose Rissi = 216 pages

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1. BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2021?

I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of 5 star reads so far this year:

• Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller
• These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
• A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo
• The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
• Geekerella (Once Upon a Con #1) by Ashley Poston
• Bookish and the Beast (Once Upon a Con #3) by Ashley Poston
• Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird #2) by Claudia Grey
• Love You to Death by Meg Cabot

Don’t make me pick just one because I can’t, they have all been such a joy to read.

2. BEST SEQUEL YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2021?

Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird #2) by Claudia Grey. It completely and utterly blew me right out of the water, it was so good. The audiobook narrator, Tavia Gilbert, really helped it shine.

3. NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET, BUT WANT TO?

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard. I still haven’t read her other series, Red Queen, yet!

4. MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR SECOND HALF OF 2021?

There are a few:

• Terciel and Elinor (Old Kingdom #6) by Garth Nix
• The Gilded Cage (The Prison Healer #2) by Lynette Noni
• Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller (published in July in Australia – I don’t really pre-order books but I pre-ordered this one!)
• The King of Koraha (Archive of the Invisible Sword #3) by Maria V Snyder

5. BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT?

Witch by Finbar Hawkins. Gemma absolutely nailed the audiobook, but I just found the story so inconsistent, and the heroine shouldn’t have been the lead, the lead character should have been her competent insta-bestie/shipping love interest as she was the only one who actually did anything in the novel.

6. BIGGEST SURPRISE?

The entire Once Upon A Con trilogy by Ashley Poston: Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl, and Bookish and the Beast.

I had heard of these books but I had no particular interest in them, not until I read Among the Beasts and Briars last year. Then I had to track down Poston’s other books because her writing resonated with me in a way I don’t find very often, and I happily devoured her contemporary series.

I want so much to be part of this fictional fandom of Starfield. I really, really want to watch the TV show, it just sounds so amazing, and I’m so devastated that it’s not a real IP. I’ve been completely sucked in and I can’t escape.

7. FAVOURITE NEW AUTHOR?

Lynette Noni – The Prison Healer.

8. NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH?

Paul Markov – Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Grey.

9. NEWEST FAVOURITE CHARACTER?

Pass – I already have too many 5 star books for the first half of this year, I can’t possibly narrow it down to a favourite character!

10. BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY?

Geekerella by Ashley Poston. I think just the general Cinderella-ness of the book, the moment of her absolute despair at the end of the second act. I think that triggered me. I know I cried at least twice, and I loved every minute of it.

11. BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY?

My Lady Jane was legitimately funny, even if they did steal a lot of jokes from other writers.

12. FAVOURITE BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATION YOU SAW THIS YEAR?

Not a movie, but I really liked the adaptations of Get Even on Netflix and Panic on Amazon Prime. I couldn’t get into the Tiny Pretty Things adaptation on Netflix.

13. FAVOURITE REVIEW YOU’VE WRITTEN THIS YEAR?

Love You to Death/Shadowland by Meg Cabot

14. MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU BOUGHT SO FAR THIS YEAR?

This beautiful version of Wuthering Heights and Vilette by the Bronte sisters. It’s a beautiful embossed silver and this picture does not do it justice.

15. WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR?

Seeing as how it took my a year to read 2 ARCs I received in 2020, I feel like I absolutely MUST finish my only remaining current ARCs, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, and The Archer at Dawn (which I can’t read due to the review copy having a GREAT BIG WATERMARK ACROSS IT. Publicists, please don’t do that to reviewers. If you don’t trust us, don’t 1 ask us and 2 send PDF copies when we clearly state what format we read in).

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