Mid- Year Book Freakout Tag 2021 Edition

Hello fellow readers!! I hope that you are doing well today! I am so excited for this blog post, because I am going to be doing my favorite Tag. I have been doing this tag for a few years now, and I just love looking back and seeing how my reading has been going! Please enjoy this post, and let me know some of your answers to these questions!

Best book you've read so far in 2021

So, obviously this is a very hard question to answer, because I have loved quite a few books this year. There is one book that comes to mind because it is still impacting me. I still think about it, and I'm just so in love with it! The Air He Breaths by Brittainy C. Cherry is that book. I absolutely love this book so much. I could probably answer half of these questions with this book. I won't, but I just say that to say it is just so good. This book follows two people who each lost someone close to them. They each are handling that loss in different ways. Elizabeth is trying to be strong for her daughter, so she spends her days creating a safe and normal environment for her daughter. Tristian is your typical grumpy guy. He is mean, and angry and does not come off very well. This is their love story. It is messy, and heartbreaking, and I just loved every minute of it! This book is not going to be for everyone, but it is for me! So good!!

Best sequel you've read so far in 2021

Easily the best sequel I have read this year is Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. I actually recently finished this book, and I knew immediately it would be the answer to this question. I can't say much about this book, because it is a sequel, but it is a high fantasy book set in a Russian inspired world. The magic system is pretty cool, but the relationships and the political intrigue is what I love about this book. Their is a Netflix adaptation of this series that I want to watch after I finish the next book!

New Release you want to read but haven't yet

I feel like I say this every time, but I am not one to stay up to date on new releases. I have such a big backlist of books that I'm excited for that I don't really care what order I read things in. I do have a few new releases on my radar though so here are a few:

Reel by Kennedy Ryan (Romance)

The Mixtape by Brittainy C Cherry (Romance)

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (Contemporary)

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson (Thriller)

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year

I am so excited for The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. I absolutely love the other two books this author has written, so I can not wait to read this one! I don't know what it is about other than it follows a character that is in the other two books!

Biggest Disappointment

The Vow by Robyn Harding was a little disappointing. I enjoyed Her Pretty Face and The Arrangement by this author, so I was really hoping I would like this book, but I was so not into this one. It had her same style, and the setting was wonderful, I just didn't care for any of the characters. It is advertised as a thriller, but it most definitely is not a thriller. I just had bigger hopes for this book. It follows a few different characters one being a teenage girl who is very strange, a women who is desperate to get pregnant, and another women who is a social media influencer who is laying low for a little while. Their lives get tangled up one wild night, and the book goes from there. For sure a lot of potential, I just didn't care for it as much as I was hoping :(

Biggest Surprise

I have two answers for this. I randomly downloaded these books from Kindle Unlimited after hearing a couple people on Booktube talk about them. I didn't have any expectations going into them, I usually don't even read the description. So, the first one is Beast by Measha Stone. This is a mafia Beauty and the Beast retelling. I have a new found love of mafia romances, mostly because of this book. This story has a lot of steam in it, as well as some BDSM. When I figured out that there was BDSM in it, I was a little nervous, but I ended up really liking it.

The other surprise was Forget Me Not by Q. B. Tyler. This is an amnesia romance. I listened to it entirely on audio, which was a great experience. This is another steamy book. There is some cheating in this book, which I absolutely detest in books, but while reading the book, I did not hate it. You really just have to read it to find out. I hate saying that I love a book with cheating in it, but this book is just so special! I loved it! I will say this book has major trigger warnings for infertility and miscarriage, so if you are sensitive to those themes in books, I would be careful.

Favorite New Author

I have two authors for this answer. I have read two of their books this year, and I loved them both. Kennedy Ryan, which I knew I was going to love her books, it was just a matter of making time to read them. The other author is Brittainy C. Cherry. I cannot wait to read more books from them!

Newest Fictional Crush

Grip from Grip by Kennedy Ryan. I love him so much. He is talented, intelligent, and dreamy. I just love the way that he loves Bristol. I love how patient and sweet he is with her. He's just great!

Newest Favorite Character

I really liked both Lucy and Josh from The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. They are so different, but I think they bring out the best (sometimes the worst) in each other. I don't know if I would like them separately. They made that book for me, it was just so great!

A Book That Made You Cry

I don't usually cry in books, and I'm not sure that I actually cried in this book, but The Air He Breathes by Brittainy C. Cherry made me feel very emotional.

A Book That Made You Happy

I don't read a lot of happy books, so this is a pretty easy answer. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne had me smiling so much! This was a very fun book, full of quirky dialogue, full of banter, and just the cutest couple!

The Most Beautiful Book You've Bought

I honestly don't know what books I've bought this year or last year. I don't do a very good job of keeping up with that kind of stuff. I've started collecting a lot of Historical Romances, so it is probably one of those. I just can't pick.

What Books Do You Need to Read by the End of the Year

This is another hard question. I plan on making a blog post about this later on this month, so I'm just going to list 3 books that I know I will be reading by the end of the year.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Rise and Ruin by Leigh Bardugo

Still by Kennedy Ryan

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Okay, so that was the tag! I love looking back at my favorites. Going through my Goodreads just reminds me that I've read some great books this year! I can't wait to see what the rest of this year will bring! Please let me know what some of your favorite books have been this year!

Happy Reading!