Mid-Year Freak Out 2021

This will be the fourth time doing this tag, and I plan on doing it again next year. It is just a really nice way of summing up the year so far. Technically you are suppose to only choose one book per prompt, but like most book nerds I can never stop at just one. I did try to limit myself to at the most five titles in some of the categories, which I thought was pretty good of me.

How Much I Have Read So Far This Year:

I think I have been doing a pretty good job this year of recording my books, even the rereads. I am so far not doing too badly, although this is a bit skewed because of some short stories I have read. I always set my goal to less than what I know I will probably read, less stressful that way. Privately though I hope to read 200 books this year.

Best Books I have read so far this year:

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These are the ones that I would consider my favorites so far this year.

Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love was such a sweet story and I am afraid it is not getting the attention it deserves!

Six Crimson Cranes comes out next week! It is such a great story and I just absolutely adore that cover!

Small Favors is a new favorite and sorry it doesn’t come out till the end of July. But such a dark and horrifying story.

Of course I can not let a best of list go by without my favorite AI being mentioned. If you haven’t read any of the Murderbot books you really should.

Best Sequel so far this year…

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Covet was such a delight and I can’t wait to get my hands on the fourth book coming out in the fall. And in case you haven’t heard there is another book that covers the lost months and what really happened between Grace and Hudson coming out early next year.

Slough House was also really good. I have totally enjoyed the whole series, but this one had an ending that is making me nervous for the next one. Will my favorite character survive?

All These Warriors was such a good ending to this duet. I still wanted a bit more about the origins of the scrabs but other wise a very satisfying ending.

The Box in the Woods was a bit of a surprise as to how much I liked it. I was a bit nervous about this series continuing but it really worked out just fine.

New Releases I haven’t read yet!

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I have been doing pretty well this year, keeping up with favorite author’s new releases or sequels to series I am reading so this was a bit of a tough one. But these three are ones that I still want to read soon.

Most Anticipated Release for the next half of the year:

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This one began to get ridiculously long I think because so many of my favorite authors are publishing their books in the fall. So to keep to my goal of no more than 5 books per prompt I had to make some heavy decisions. Basically though I made the cuts by choosing only those books I don’t have ARC’s for. I’m hoping to get Jay Kristoff’s book so wish me luck with that one.

Biggest Disappointment so far this year:

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This one was a little bit hard, only because I didn’t have that many books to choose from. I have been a bit better about choosing my ARC’s so I haven’t had many books that I didn’t like this year.

Favorite New Author: Deanna Raybourn

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I have just so enjoyed this series so far! If you love historical mysteries with a slow burn romance, a feisty female lead with a lot of witty banter then you really must check out this series. Once I am done with this series I will probably check out her other books.

Under Rated Gem:

I have tried hard not to repeat myself, but this was the only one that came to mind for this prompt. I really think more people need to read this and give it the love it deserves!

Book that made me happy:

Pretty much any book that makes me laugh could be on this list. But this one often had me in stitches. Hudson and Grace were just absolutely hilarious in this one. Plus of course my favorite dragon was always good for a chuckle.

Goals for the rest of the year:

I think I only have two goals for the rest of the year:

1. Spend more time reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. Sorry, but I have been super remiss in this area this last year. I will blame it on virtual teaching as there were many nights that I just couldn’t bring myself to be on the computer just one more minute than I had to.
2. Writing more reviews. I really need to go back to writing mini-reviews I think. There were so many books that I have read so far this year that I never got around to writing about even though I really wanted to. See above for the main reason why.

Well I hope you enjoyed my mid-year freak out. It is a lot of fun looking back on all of the books I have read so far this year. What is your favorite book so far this year?