The Mid Year Freak Out Tag

Hello and welcome to another tag. This time I was tagged by another wonderful blogger: Sophie @ Sophie’s Corner. Be sure to check out her interesting answers to this set of questions, as well as the rest of her fantastic page!

Today I’m filling in ‘The Mid Year Freak Out’ tag and I honestly feel like it’s a very fitting name. We are half way through the year, after all, and I definitely feel more than a little bit freaked out over that fact. I wanted to read more than ever this year but I actually feel like the reverse is true and I’ve managed to read a lot less.

My resolution to read more got off to a horrendous start when I fell ill over Christmas and ended up unable to read for over a month as a result. Ever since then I’ve read less for two main reasons: A) I’ve always been a headache sufferer but they’ve been a lot more frequent than usual and B) I keep falling into reading slumps.

It’s not the books I’m reading – I’ve loved the majority of them – it’s just… me. Every time that I end up unable to read for a couple of days due to being busy or having headaches, I seem to convince myself that I can’t concentrate when I next attempt to read. I know I’m being ridiculous – once I get going I’m fine – but I just can’t seem to push that initial hesitation away and as a result I do sometimes end up putting reading off a little /:

So anyway as a result I do have a rather limited amount of books to choose from answer wise but I’ll do my best with this tag :L And, hopefully, I’ll get back on track with my reading over the rest of the year as honestly? I miss reading as frequently as I used to so, so much!

Best Book You’ve Read Yet In 2019:

The Wicked King by Holly Black

I loved reading this book so, so much and don’t think I could ever get bored with exploring the world that the author has created. It’s beautiful but brutal, dark yet alluring and just… basically everything that a book about the fae should be! There were twists and turns around pretty much every corner and it was truly an absolute pleasure to read.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far In 2019:

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

So The Wicked King was actually a sequel but I don’t want to double up on answers too much so it has to be Blood Promise by Richelle Mead. It’s my absolute favourite of the Vampire Academy series and this book is utterly intoxicating for me. I love all of the new characters that you get to meet in this book and then I absolutely adore reading about the reunion later on too. OMG is it intense! I was breathless reading it, even though I’d picked it up in the past.

New Release You Haven’t Read But Want To:

Too many. That is the completely honest answer to this question as I still need to pick up and devour so many of this year’s releases. I can’t just pick one so here are my top three:

• The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
• Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
• Descendant Of The Crane by Joan He

The first may be over 800 pages long but it sounds amazing so, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a positive point since it gives me more to treasure. The second one has an intriguing mix of characters, a hundred year war, a forbidden romance and is described as ‘devastatingly gothic’ so naturally I’m on board for that. And the third one grabbed my attention with a truly beautiful quote then refused to let go of it thanks to its promise of a Chinese inspired fantasy featuring treasonous magic.

Sorcery Of Thorns should also be on here really but I’m planning to read it as soon as I’m done with my current series. There are another seven books that belong on here too but if you want the full list check out my Most Anticipated Reads 2019 page.

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half Of 2019:

How am I meant to pick just one for an entire six months? Especially when September and October are basically crammed full of exciting new releases!! I’m going to pick two but, in my defence, one’s a sequel and the other a start to a new series and I just can’t pick between them.

Firstly I’m desperate to get hold of The Queen Of Nothing so that I can find out how the story ends. And probably get my heart torn up into tiny little pieces in the process. But then I’m also highly anticipating The Beautiful for several reasons: A) it’s vampires in New Orleans! (need I say more?) B) it has a central character with secrets of her own C) Sébastien Saint Germain who I’m already certain I’ll swoon over D) dark and gruesome murders that need investigating E) I’ve heard fantastic things about the author and F) Did I mention vampires in New Orleans?

Once again you can find a more in depth lists on my Most Anticipated Reads 2019 page but even that is missing a fair few that I’m incredibly desperate to sink my teeth into. It has the main ones, absolutely, but there are definitely some more as well.

Biggest Disappointment:

Slayer by Kiersten White

I hate having to say this but for me it’s Slayer. I wanted to love it – so, so (so, so, so times about a thousand) much. It was one of the books that I was most eager for this year but it fell rather short of the mark for me. I gave it four stars but I’m kind of in two minds about that rating now. I gave the story itself three stars then threw on an extra one (which I explained within my review) because I felt that the author had nailed the humour of Buffy incredibly well. Overall I think it wasn’t gritty enough for me though and the demons didn’t feel dangerous enough on the whole? I don’t know. I still plan to pick up the next one but I’m really wary now.

Biggest Surprise:

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

For me my biggest surprise is probably Stepsister. I saw it mentioned ages ago on the author’s Goodreads page and was immediately intrigued. Then, nearer the time, I didn’t find myself quite as desperate to read it (probably because hundreds of amazing sounding books seem to be coming out this year). I decided to read it though as I was fascinated by the idea of a darker version of the tale, focusing on one of the stepsister’s points of view and just… wow. It blew me away. I loved the story so, so much and a couple of the characters were totally unexpected. If you haven’t read this book yet then I definitely recommend that you do so soon.

Favourite New Author:

Yes I mentioned her book in the last question but for me this has to be Jennifer Donnelly. I’m actually hoping that I’ll get to see more of some of the characters from Stepsister again in the future but even if I don’t I still intend to check out more of her books soon. I’ve wanted to read The Tea Rose series for quite some time anyway but now I want to test out more and more of her books afterwards too. I also think Astrid Scholte deserves a mention here too though as I loved her debut novel and am very intrigued to see what she does next.

Newest Fictional Crush:

Part of me wants to say Cardan because… well he’s Cardan. How can anyone not love him? He’s not a new fictional crush because I fell for him during The Cruel Prince but The Wicked King did add to that allure. It still kind of feels like cheating though so I guess I’ll have to go for Chance from Stepsister (three times in a row, I know!! but most of the other books that I’ve read have been re-reads). I loved his character so, so much and he just had this sort of dashing charm that made me fall for him. To me he definitely seemed like a lovable rogue who stole at least a little piece of my heart.

Newest Favourite Character:

So, you know, I could totally just go for Chance again or even Isobel from the same book but I cannot use it yet again within this post. Instead I’m going to say that it’s probably Queen Marguerite from Four Dead Queens. I loved her backstory so, so much and adored getting to know her character from the few scenes that were in her POV. I’d be thrilled to get more stories focused around her. Or any of the queens really as I’d like to learn more about each of them. Queen Corra was also a potential choice for this answer.

Book That Made You Cry:

I don’t really cry at books? Films, yes; books, not so much… at least not yet but then I think I’ve seen more tearjerker style films than books. Some of the death scenes in Four Dead Queens were pretty emotional however and I also came kind of close to tearing up during Blood Promise so possibly one of those two although that’s more for a deep sense of emotions than actual full on floods of tears.

Book That Made You Happy:

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Out of what I’ve read this year it has to be Frostbite. The book definitely has its heartbreaking moments so I wouldn’t recommend going into it expecting to come away feeling nothing but pure joy. It does have its fair side of humour though; I love Rose’s witty comments throughout as well as some of Christian’s. The setting also made me smile on the whole because it was just so luxurious. Plus this is the book where you meet Adrian so of course I was over the moon as soon as he appeared on the page!! So yes this book definitely made me happy but, to be fair, it also made me incredibly sad at times too!

Favourite Book To Film Adaptation:

Does it count if you’ve seen the film adaptation but not read the book yet? Because I absolutely adored Five Feet Apart but I haven’t read the novel. For me it was a really good film with a lot of eye opening information within it. I thought the story was beautiful yet heartbreaking. (The sort of tale that I need to start reading if I want a decent answer to ‘books that made me cry ‘). I can’t comment on how accurate an adaptation it was though as I haven’t read the book. One day I do plan to however.

Favourite Post This Year:

Literacy Lists: Psychopaths

I think my favourite post so far is probably my Top Ten Psychopaths list from last month. I love making lists so that’s definitely one plus point. I was actually quite tempted to go for the Fairytale Retelling one as I seriously want to get on and read some of them ASAP!! But instead I ultimately went for the psychopath list because it felt like an unusual choice of subject and it was a surprisingly fun topic to try and find ten books for – especially as I wanted to stick to the charismatic ones in my list, not the books that would scare me senseless :L

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year:

Is it just me or does this year seem to have one hell of a lot of absolutely stunning books being released? When I’ve been looking books up on Goodreads I’ve actually been left speechless several times over the breathtaking covers! The most beautiful one that I’ve brought so far is definitely a Sorcery Of Thorns! It’s just gorgeous and I can’t wait to read it because it sounds absolutely amazing! Look at that cover!!

What Books Do You Need to Read By the End Of The Year:

My entire TBR so that I can finally feel up to date and get on with all the 2020 releases that I want to read as and when they come out even though that’s impossible as that’s several hundred books.

Okay so that’s probably true and even the serious answer is way too many. Naturally I really want to read all of the books from the third and fourth question on this list. Here are a few of the other books that I really want to try and get read by the end of the year though. If it’s a series and I’ve mentioned it then I hope to read the entire thing.

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
An Enchantment Of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
At least one series by Marie Lu (I’m not entirely sure which as all of them are on my TBR)
A Court Of Thorns And Roses
A Darker Shade Of Magic
His Fair Assassin
The Last Magician
An Ember In The Ashes

I also want to re-read and finish:
Throne Of Glass
The Dark Artifices

So those are my answers and I know the last one is way too many books, especially considering how my readings gone so far this year, but I do desperately want to get each and every one of those books read! Fingers crossed that I can manage it.

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Thanks once again to Sophie for tagging me. I’m only going to tag one person this time because I honestly have no idea who to tag. Quite a few people have done this already, plus I know that a few others are already behind with tags. So I tag the wonderful Madison @ Madion’s Inkwell for this. And, if you haven’t done so already and want to try this tag out, then whoever happens to read this.

As always, don’t feel any pressure to do this; it’s entirely up to you (: If you do decide to participate I look forward to reading your answers.

Also I just want to say that, although I’ve been online today, I am going back to having a few days off now as I’m still stuck in my reading slump and I seriously want to get out of it. I will probably be back either next weekend or early in the week after that.