So… I missed my 2-year blog anniversary… AGAIN. I posted my first ever book review on this blog on 9th June 2016 whilst I was in Berlin trying to get over a horrific break up. See my very first post here, and you can see last years mid-year tag here. 2 years later, and I have a successful book blog where I get to share my opinions on all things bookish, and to share my love of books with you all. Because it’s my 2-year anniversary, that also means that IT’S TIME FOR THE MID-YEAR FREAK OUT TAG!

Anyway, let’s get into the tag, shall we?

At the time of writing this, I have read 50/150 books of my Goodreads challenge, and I’m 23 books behind schedule which is brilliant *sarcasm*. My favourite one this year has got to be… oh god… I actually have no idea. I have read so many amazing books this year, from THUG, to Scythe, to Genesis. I really don’t know which one is my favourite though. I’m going to go with The Hate U Give and Genesis…

Read my review of Scythe

Read my review of The Hate U Give

Read my review of Nemesis

Read my review of Genesis

 

 

Genesis BY FAR! THIS IS ONE CRAZY-ASS BOOK, GUYS! There is so much death and fighting and government secrets and just craziness in general. I also had the opportunity to work with Pan Macmillan – who sent me a copy of Genesis unsolicited – and it was so good to work with the author and company who I admire.

Read my review of Nemesis

Read my review of Genesis

 

 

Where to even start…?! I haven’t read most of the releases that have come out THIS YEAR! I haven’t even read ‘new’ releases that came out last year. I tend to just read what I want to read. If I put pressure on myself to keep on top of new releases and read them as soon as they come out, then I would just stress myself out. So the three new releases that I’m really excited to get round to are Legendary, Smoke in the Sun, Furyborn, Tyler Johnson Was Here, Children of Blood and Bone, and Leah on the Offbeat. The list just goes on and on and on…

Read my review of Caraval

Read my review of Flame in the Mist

Read my review of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Read my review of The Upside of Unrequited

 

 

This is probably the easiest question on here to answer. Definitely The Lady Guide to Petticoat’s and Piracy and OBVIOUSLY Escaping from Houdini. I absolutely loved the A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. I listened to it on audiobook and instantly fell in love with the characters of Monty and Felicity, and I can’t wait to explore the character of Felicity more in the sequel.

And when it comes to the Stalking Jack the Ripper series, I would read anything. I would read Kerri Maniscalco’s shopping lists. I wouldn’t care. Anything that this woman writes, I would read.

Read my review of A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Read my review of Stalking Jack the Ripper

Read my review of Hunting Prince Dracula

 

 

I haven’t really read any AWFUL books this year, but the one that probably disappointed me was either Monstress Vol. 1 or The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. I think Monstress disappointed me because loads of people said that it was absolutely amazing, and it was… in a way. The artwork was mesmerising, but the storyline was so confusing. I am going to read the second volume but it’s not on the top of my TBR pile. I think the same goes for Ava Lavender. It was just hyped up so much by so many people, and then when I read it, I was slight disappointed because it just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

Read my review of Monstress Vol. 1

Read my review of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

 

 

My biggest surprises were Throne of Glass and Daughter of the Pirate King. A lot of people hate the Throne of Glass series for reasons that I have not yet to come across myself. I enjoyed the first and second book so much and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. Part of me is weary because A LOT of people really don’t like the series, and I don’t understand why, and part of me doesn’t want to carry on the series because I don’t want to come to the part of the series where people started to hate it.

As for Daughter of the Pirate King, I read a couple of reviews about there being a rape scene, but it wasn’t stated as rape and there was some controversy surrounding it. So I stayed away from it. But, I downloaded the audiobook and listened to it, and I really enjoyed it. Like… REALLY REALLY enjoyed it! And I didn’t notice anything problematic or anything to do with rape that was problematic so… I don’t know… Maybe I need to do some more research on this?

Read my review of Throne of Glass

Read my review of Crown of Midnight

 

 

This HAS to be Mary E. Pearson! This year, I read the Remnant Chronicles (well… listened to them on audiobook), and I thoroughly enjoyed them! I loved them so much that I instantly pre-ordered Dance of Thieves which is Pearson’s new book that is coming out in August I think?

Read my review of The Kiss of Deception

Read my review of The Heart of Betrayal

Read my review of The Beauty of Darkness

 

 

KADEN from the Remnant Chronicles. Enough said.

 

 

Maybe Katsa or Bitterblue from the Graceling realm series by Kristin Cashore. I loved how real they were as characters, I loved their personalities and how they honoured themselves and their kingdoms. But then there’s Caelena Sardothian from Throne of Glass. I was so happy when I found out that she was an avid book reader… I fell in love instantly.

Read my review of Graceling

Read my review of Throne of Glass

Read my review of Crown of Midnight

 

I don’t think that there has been a book this year that has made me cry. The Hate U Give definitely made me sad because of how real it is, but it didn’t make me cry… So yeah, I don’t have an answer for this one.

Read my review of The Hate U Give

 

 

Daughter of the Pirate King and Daughter of the Siren Queen! I loved the character of Alosa and she made me laugh so much with her witty remarks!

 

 

I’ve actually seen quite a lot of adaptation this year. I’ve seen 13 Reasons Why (didn’t like it, don’t get me started), Shadowhunters (didn’t like it at first, but it’s definitely grown on me, I’ve watched a lot of anime that has been adapted from manga…

BUT THE WINNER IS LOVE, SIMON! How can it not be? It was one of the best adaptations I have ever seen and it was so precious and amazing and just perfection.

Read my review of Thirteen Reasons Why

Read my review of Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda

 

This is a hard one… I like that I’ve finally done monthly wrap ups. I do them on my YouTube channel, but I never thought that they would work well as blog posts. but I decided to give them a go, and they’ve been immensely popular so I’ll definitely be carrying those on. I also like that I’ve finally made blog posts about my bullet journal spreads and I’ve just backdated them, so it looks like I’ve been doing the blog posts since last year. Oh how I love WordPress.

But to be honest, I had the most fun doing my U.K vs U.S covers blog post. I have a few more posts like it lined up, as there were way too many covers to look at in one post. So I’m definitely looking forward to carrying on with that in the future.

 

 

Oh god… I can’t even remember all of the book that I’ve bought so far this year. I’m going to have go through all of my book hauls and see which ones are gorgeous. I mean… Ship It is GORGEOUS naked, and so is Surface Breaks by Louise O’ Neill… I don’t know whether this question means beautiful naked, or a beautiful cover…

But some of the books that I’ve bought this year that have beautiful covers are Witchborn, Jane Eyre (Barnes and Noble Exclusive), Children of Blood and Bone, The Queens of Innis Lear, Ship It, The Surface Breaks, The City of Brass, and Warcross.

Read my review of Jane Eyre

 

 

Well, I’m actually going through this thing at the moment where I’m RE-READING books that I read when I was 14, so that means City of Bones, Spiderwick Chronicles, Fallen… All of those books. But the 6 books that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to read by the end of the year are Children of Blood and Bone, the Illuminae Files (yes, I still haven’t read these yet, and I’m classing those 3 as 1 book), A Darker Shade of Magic series, Renegades, Six of Crows, and Nevernight.

 

 

Right guys, that’s it for my Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag! I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you at the end of the year for the End of Year Book Tag! You can read last years Mid Year Tag here, and you can read last years End of Year tag here!