Hello Everyone, Happy Sunday!

We are somehow halfway through the year, so its time of the mid-year book freakout tag! I did this tag last year on my Instragram and I love just chatting through how the first half of the year went before I forget.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022.

Of course, I have more than one. Per month, these are my favourite reads:

January

Evershore by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson; I loved everything about this and the exploration of grief, even if it was briefly since this is a novella, was something that I needed at the time that I read it. It was my fourth book of year so I started off with a bang!

February

House of Earth and Blood By Sarah J. Maas; I can’t believe I waited this long to read this book! I listened to the audiobook 3x in a row, I could not stop listening to it and being there with Bryce. Another exploration of grief and it was something that I really needed at the time. I have been itching for another re-read and this is easily my favourite book of the year, if not all time and beat out A Court of Mist and Fury which I didn’t think was possible.

March

The Atlas Six By Olivie Blake; This book took me 60% of the way to get into but I literally could not stop thinking about it afterwards. I loved the academic vibe and that is was extremely pretentious, I just loved everything about it and I am s0 excited for the sequel coming out later this year!

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir; Where do I even begin, I expected to enjoy this but I didn’t expect to love it! Gideon is hilarious and such a bad-ass that I could not put down the book when I was reading and it has made me scared to jump into the sequel because how could it top the first one? I will get to it eventually, but Gideon and Harrow have my whole heart. I still think about them!

Alone with you in the Ether By Olivie Blake; I read this in a DAY! I loved this one from the first line and Aldo and Regan have such a beautiful friendship that morphed into more. The aspect of time was super cool as well, and how this was more than just a romance. I loved it and I can’t wait to get the new edition later this year.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica; This is a weird one and I will own up to it being a strange pick, but I could not stop thinking about it for ages afterwards, I couldn’t even eat meat for 3 weeks after because I found it so repulsive. I was expecting a different twist at the end but the twist that did happen was just as shocking and I still thinking about that last line.

April

Heartstopper By Alice Oseman; for a while after the TV show came out, all I could read was Heartstopper. I love the webcomic and the TV show, that I think for 2 weeks, it was all I was consuming. I was going back and forth and any time I wanted to pick up something else, I couldn’t. Nick and Charlie have my whole heart and the bisexual representation was 10/10!!

The Assassin’s Blade By Sarah J Maas; I finished Kingdom of Ash in April and this was still my favourite, I loved getting to see Celena again and meeting Sam, who we only get brief mentions of. Loved this with my whole heart and it made me sob.

Daisy Jones and the Six By Taylor Jenkins Reid; I can’t wait for the TV show because I need to have a soundtrack of Honeycomb playing at all times, both instrumental and lyric version. I cried for Billy and what he went through was hard to read at times. I read this in a day!

Night Circus By Erin Morgenstern; This was such a magical read. I though that I would hate this after hating “The Starless Sea” but I can say that this book was wayyyyyy better. I loved the romance and when I found out the true natural of the magical competition, I was shocked. Everything about this was amazing and I couldn’t put it down!

May

Jade City By Fonda Lee; On my honour, my life and my jade. This was so heartbreaking in some parts, brutal in others and I loved everything about it! I’m still read Jade War and I’m not excited for the twist that I am sure is coming.

June

When Women Were Dragons By Kelly Barnhill; I picked this up after I heard Regan from Peruseproject taking about in one of her videos and safe to say that this book was really hard to read at times but so insightful! I loved that it was told in a memoir style with articles and research papers sprinkled through out, it made the event feel real. Loved this!

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022.

Empire of Storms/ Kingdom of Ash, both by Sarah J Maas, easily. I loved both and witnessing the pain was almost unbearable at times. It did take a while for me to fully appreciate the ending and while there were something that I wanted more of, I think there is room for expansion should the author ever want to revisit this world. Ie. I want more of Manon and I will not settle for her ending.

Favourite re-read.

House of Earth and Blood easy. I did read it for the first time this year but I also read it another 2 times directly afterwards so I think that counts.

Genre you’ve been loving/reading the most.

I’ve read a lot of romance this year, whether its the main plot or a subplot, which isn’t surprising to me, with Fantasy being a close second.

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

Book Lovers by Emily Henry which is a little embarrassing not going to lie. I read 100 pages and the sister dynamic was making me angry so I had to put it down. I hope to pick it up again soon or at least within this year.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

Babel by R.F. Kuang. I have been dreaming about this book, I am so excited! I love dark academia and from the reviews that I’ve seen so far, the author did a spectacular job in the genre, so it makes me even more excited.

Biggest disappointment.

Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood. I wrote a review on why I hated it and at the time, there weren’t a lot of reviews that talked about what I felt like was the deciding factor, there was no informed consent, and I was expecting to love this because of how much I loved “The Love Hypothesis”.

House of Sky and Breath. What the hell was this book. Where was the love and sap between the characters? I still think about how the main characters lost their chemistry and the only exciting part was besides the last 20 pages, heavy middle book syndrome.

The Cartographers. I wanted to DNF this book at 90% because of the twist, it was HORRIBLE. I had difficulty caring about the characters too because I didn’t really get to know them, and its more so how do we get from point A to B, but having well developed characters is really important for me and I can let a lot go if I love the characters.

Biggest surprise.

Tender is the Flesh, because I didn’t expect it to be as disgusting as it was, how graphic and yet, be one of my favourite books of the year. It has left a lasting impression and while I’m not ready to re-live the disgusting nature of this book, I do want to re-read it one day. This is an amazing book for discussion in my opinion and I want someone else to read it so I can talk about it in detail so hopefully one day.

Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Olivie Blake hands down. The 2 books i’ve read by her are both 5 stars and they are on my favourites of this year!

Newest favourite character.

Bryce Quinlan, what a women.

Book that made you cry.

House of Earth and Blood, I SOBBED all 3 times that i’ve read it this year. And if I think about it too much the tears will come again.

Book that made you happy.

Spy x Family was so cute and had me smiling like an idiot while I was reading it. I’ve only read the first volume so far but I’m excited to continue!

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

Maybe the Atlas Six traditionally published version? Not too sure, I haven’t been tracking the books I’ve bought this year which is showing to be a mistake. I would also say Brandon Sanderson’s secret novels which I paid for this year but will not receive till next year.

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

SOOO MANY, but I need to at least read from my top 10 list so I have The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, Traitors Blade by Sebastien De Castell and Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson left on the list. Hopefully I can get to them!

Favourite video or post you’ve done so far this year.

I like my reels, I think that I’ve kept a decent schedule of uploading them and I made one with my face for the first time this year which was TERRIFYING. I am excited to post more!

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Let me know how your reading year is going so far and what was your most surprising read this year?

Creators of the Tag: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReadLike… & https://youtu.be/X_Wh0rPGfRg