Year End Freak Out 2021!

I was thinking about how I wanted to talk about my reading year and was really struggling with how I wanted to do it. I didn’t really want to rehash the whole year and make those difficult decisions about which books were my favorites. But then I came up with the idea of using my Mid-Year Freak Out post as a guideline to just talk about the last six months of the year. That took the pressure off a little bit, when I only had to look at the last six months to find favorites. So let’s get started with this freak out!

How Many Books did I read this year?

I am very proud to announce that I managed to read 200 books this year! I have always unofficially try to get to 200, but this was the first year that I actually did it, at least since I started keeping track anyways. It was a bit of a struggle at the end, I had to read 4 books in three days, but I did it!

Best Books I read in the last six months:

This was a little bit tough, but not as bad as choosing my favorites from the whole year!

Vespertine was wonderful and one I really enjoyed. I am looking forward to the next book which I hopefully won’t have to wait to long for.

Roxy was absolutely brilliant and really interesting. I think personifying drugs will put some people off this, but I thought it was a good way to discuss the issue of addiction.

Gilded was the best retelling I read the second half of the year. I really liked how she took this fairy tale and turned it into something so dark and yet hopeful at the same time.

You’ll Be the Death of Me was a perfect mix of mystery and suspense. It was interesting to think how one simple thing like skipping school can turn into your worst nightmare.

All of Us Villains was probably the first book where I didn’t like any of the characters, but really enjoyed the story and just couldn’t put it down. Another book I am looking forward to reading the next book sometime in the next year.

Best Sequel I Read in the Last Six Months:

The Last Graduate was so intense and so dark. And that ending still haunts me. I really want the third book in this series now!

Trailer Park Trickster was also a good sequel although it did have a few faults. I am still looking forward to reading the next book though.

Aurora’s End was the best of the bunch here, but that might just be because it was also a series finale. It was so good I actually read it twice!

The Devil You Know was also quite good. I really enjoy this dystopian series with quite a bit of smutty romance thrown in.

The Man Who Died Twice was also a great sequel that I really enjoyed. I hope that this series continues to deliver.

New Releases I Haven’t Read Yet:

I am sure there are a lot more books I could have listed here, but these were the ones that caught my eye and are ones I really want to read. I think these will be ones I will get done in the first few months of 2022.

Most Anticipated Releases for 2022:

I tried to pick one for the first six months, but I didn’t have anything for June so I just listed the six that I am most anticipating and will probably read as soon as they come out!

Biggest Disappointment from the last half of the year:

This one was a bit hard as I didn’t have any books that I would have called disappointing. I had a lot that were just ok though and this one stood out as being the most disappointing of that group. Into the Bloodred Woods was such a hodgepodge of a story that really didn’t make a lot of sense.

Favorite New Author from the last six months:

There were a couple of authors I could have picked here, but I think Khurrum Rahman is my pick for this category. I have really been enjoying this series and I really hope that there is another book coming soon as that last one had quite the ending. I would also read anything this author writes.

Underrated Gem from the last six months:

I think these two books deserve a bit more attention than I have seen them getting. They are both wonderful books that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Books That Made Me Happy:

I just loved this series and the audiobooks were wonderful. They often had me smiling and laughing out loud with the banter between Simon and Baz. Plus the stories were amazing as well. I think the second book is my favorite as the gang takes a road trip across America.

Goals for the future:

I only have a couple of goals for this coming year. I’m not big on setting goals as they tend to stress me out but I always have a couple in the back of my mind for reading so here they are:

Read the books that I already own! I made a little bit of a dent in this one this past year but I still have about 20 books on my shelves that I haven’t read. I am going to choose at least one of them to read each month.
Read more middle grade books. I sort of dropped the ball a little bit on this one this past year, so I need to step it up this year.
My GoodReads goal will be 180 books, but I am going to try for 200 again or maybe even more.

I hoped you enjoyed hearing about my last six months of reading in 2021. I have high hopes for this year’s reading. I hope you all have a great reading year!