Mid-Year Book Freak Out 2024

I have been doing this tag since 2017! So of course I had to do it again this year. This has been a marvelous year of reading so far, and I am really looking forward to the next half. So many good books are coming out in the second half of the year!

How much have I read this year so far?

Photo credit: Shutterstock, Vadim Vexler creator

I have read 66 books, listened to 33 audiobooks and read 6 nonfiction books for a total of 105 books so far this year. Sometimes I even surprise myself! Because I have read so many I found it hard to choose just one book for each category. So my answers will have more than one book. I tried to spread the answers across the three types of books I read, fiction, nonfiction and audiobooks when that worked for the prompt. Otherwise I tried to pick different genres. Most of these books are linked to my reviews, except for the books that haven’t come out yet! Enjoy!

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Best books

Listen to the Lie was hands down the best audiobook I have ever listened to. It was just that perfect.

A Novel Love Story was a really great book that just encompassed so many things I love about a romance.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles was the best nonfiction book I read this year. i just loved her little stories about the birds and her illustrations were marvelous to look at.

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Best Sequel

So many good sequels this year, it was hard to choose just one!

A Grave Robbery is the seventh book in this historical mystery series, but it was still as fun and fresh as the first.

Shadow Baron was a lot of fun and such a solid second book in this fantasy series.

Icon and Inferno was also a solid second book in this fun spy thriller YA series. I love the characters and the story and I am really looking forward to the next one.

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New Release I haven’t read yet

I had been doing well keeping up with reading new releases but that all changed this month as people started publishing posts about books that they still needed to read this year. I found a whole new slew of books I need to read that had already been published.

Voyage of the Damned is a fantasy that I have seen lots of good reviews for. This one is also a mystery.

The Ministry of Time is also one that has been getting a lot of good reviews. I have this one already queued up on my Libby app.

Middle of the Night just came out last week. I had no idea we were getting another mystery thriller by Riley Sager this year. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

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Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

It was so hard to just pick three for this one! So many good books are coming out the second half of this year! But I finally narrowed it down to these three.

The Black Loch is the newest on to this list and I just can’t wait. It is another book in the Lewis series, and it sounds really good.

I only just watched Ted Lasso this year and loved it, so when I saw this book, Believe, I just had to add it to my list. I’m not one to read books about celebrities or anything about shows or movies, but this one just sounded so good and one that I didn’t want to miss.

Apprentice to the Villain is the book that is making me so excited for August! I can’t wait to continue this story!

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Biggest disappointment

Sadly it wasn’t that hard to find three books for this prompt. But with the many good books I read this year, there were bound to be a few lemons

Long Live Evil just really didn’t work for me. I so wanted to like this one.

Literary Cats just didn’t quite deliver. It read more like someone’s Phd dissertation in literature. I’m not sure what I was expecting from this one, but it wasn’t what I got.

Thirteen Ways to Kill LulaBelle Rock was also a bit of a disappointment. I so wanted it to be funnier than it was.

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Biggest surprise

Lots of good surprises this year to choose from. It wasn’t too hard to pick which were my favorites though.

Foul Days was just so much fun and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I immediately requested the sequel coming out in the fall.

A Door in the Dark had such an interesting magical system, but the thing that put it on this list was the ending, quite the shocker!

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend was such a fun satire on the end of the world, social classes and human nature. My review for this one should be up tomorrow.

Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Robert Jackson Bennett has been around for a while, but The Tainted Cup was the first book I have read by him. I just loved it though. I hope to get to some of his other books before to long.

Alex Finley is another author that has been around for a few years now. His thrillers are awesome and I look forward to reading more. If Something Happens to Me was an audiobook that I really enjoyed.

Alex Michaelides is the newest author on the book scene in this list. He only has two other books out, but if The Fury is any indication of what his other books are like, I am all in.

Newest Favorite Characters

I couldn’t think of a book where there was only one character that stood out as my favorite, but there were many that had ensemble casts that just warmed my heart.

Holmes, Marple & Poe is a trio of detectives that I just found fun and endearing. I just loved their friendships and how they supported each other through thick and thin.

The Evans women in Bless Your Heart were just so much fun to spend time with. I loved this multi generational family that fights ghouls.

The group of characters in Slow Dance just felt so real. You almost felt like you have known them your whole life.

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Underrated gems you discovered recently

Two of these are very recent, I just read them in June, and one is from the beginning of the year. But they all deserve more attention than they are getting.

Right Here, Right Now is such a lovely YA romance that spans the multi universe and dares to ask the question What if?

Upon a Frosted Star was a beautifully done reimagining of Swan Lake. It broke my heart a little. And that cover is just gorgeous.

Dreadful is a wonderful debut that could use a bit more publicity. It was a fun and better look at what it means to be evil than a book I mentioned above.

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Book that made me cry

Is it a good thing or a bad one that I have nothing for this category? I do tend to shy away from books that have the potential to make me sad, but there is usually one that I pick up that will at least bring a tear to my eye. But not yet this year.

Books that made you happy

So many books made me happy this year, but here are three that either made me laugh out loud or just kept a smile on my face the whole time.

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank was such a fun story. I loved the dragons that breathed glitter, such fun.

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice is also a book that made me smile and laugh out loud at Finlay and Vero’s shenanigans.

Relight My Fire was a great book to read. It made me laugh and smile throughout.

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Goals for the rest of the year

I have been doing really well on all of my goals for this year. I have been writing at least three reviews a week and keeping up on all of my challenges. In fact I got a bingo already on the Picture Challenge. I will be posting about my challenges at some point this week. My goal for the rest of the year is to just keep reading and writing reviews.

I hope you enjoyed Mid-Year Freak Out. I have been enjoying reading other people’s answers to these prompts the last few days and hope to see more of them in the future. Until next time….

Happy Reading!