Hi dear friends!

I’ve seen this tag like …everywhere and it just seemed like an excellent idea as it’s a way to look back on my year so far!

As far as the reading challenge goes on Goodreads I am 13 books ahead!!!! Squee!

I have read 63 books so far. Not bad at all considering my hectic life these last months 😀 

Now let’s get to the hard part of this tag: choosing!

I hate choosing so you’ll probably see several winners in some categories but I will try really hard to keep it under control!

 

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2019

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

I loved The City of Brass, Skyward, Method, Salt to the Sea and Jersey Six but there was just that something …exhilarating, fun and imaginative in Margaret’s book that it’s been my favorite so far.

 

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2019

The Kingdom of Copper

That one was easy as all the Daevabad series is a huge favorite to me! It was even better than The Wicked King (Gasp!)

 

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To

To this day it’s Dev1at3 by Jay Kristoff!

The good news is that I will begin reading it in a few hours 😀 

 

Most Anticipated Release of the Second Half of 2019

Haaaaa here it gets tricky! But I will limit this one to two books (with great difficulties!)

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black (I would give a kidney to get a physical ARC but as there is one chance on a milliard to happen I think my kidney is safe).

The Dragon Republic by RF Kuang

And yet I am frightened by this release as I think it will crush my heart and the characters will really be spared nothing!

 

Biggest Disappointment:

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

I was enamored with Furyborn and was on pins and needles for that one! So it pained me enormously when I realized that I did not like it at all. Worse: I really seem to be the odd one here!

 

Biggest Surprise

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Everyone was raving about “that Sanderson guy” and I thought I should give it a try one of these days. I tried the audiobook and was really swept off my feet in barely a few sentences. Knocked out!

 

Jersey Six by Jewel E Ann

That one is to be taken literally as “the biggest surprise” as it has a huge twist that I never ever saw coming!

 

Favorite New to You or Debut Author:

Ruta Sepetys

I have also loved SA Chakraborty (new to me and debut author), Robin Roe and Brandon Sanderson but Salt to the Sea stole my heart, pure and simple.

 

Favorite Crush:

Ha! That’s a hard question!!! I have probably three favorites this year: Johnny from Binding 13 and Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh; Ivan from Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata and Kal from Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Both athletes, both very protective of their girl.

 

Favorite Character:

Esme! From The Bride Test.

She was so courageous, hard working, determined and caring!

 

Book That Made You Cry:

Covet by Ella James

This was also a formidable book. Complex, heartbearking and with triggers.

 

Book That Made You Happy:

From Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata; The Bride Test by Helen Hoang and Sorcery of Thorns

Book to Movie Adaptation:

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman

It is not a movie yet but has been auctioned and I can’t wait! Oh and I am also in love with

 

Favorite Blog Post of Mine:

Well that’s a really hard one!!! Probably the one where I muse about publishing houses having it wrong by ignoring international bloggers.

Discussion: Do you think publishing houses have it right choosing only “big” blogs? I don’t think this is the golden rule and here is why!

Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year?

Another hard one! I should ask my friends about this!

I think my favorite is Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan (click on the graphic to read it)

 

Most Beautiful Book You Bought or Received So Far This Year?

 

I will go with Sorcery of Thorns! The cover is by Charlie Bowater (same as for Skyward and Aurora Rising by the way) and I absolutely loved it! I even bought the Owlcrate special to have a second variation of the cover.

 

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

Ha! Too many! Here are a few ….

Yes this is done! Now do we share some books? Feel free to take the tag!

Thanks for reading.

Sophie

 

 

Similar Posts

Let's talk!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

39 Comments

  1. Really glad to hear sorcery of thorns is so good- definitely want to read it! haha I’d sell a kidney for an early copy of queen of nothing too 😉 I absolutely loved skyward and salt to the sea too. And I really liked Kal! Awesome answers!

    Reply

  3. I think both of our kidneys are safe when it comes to The Queen of Nothing. Guess we’ll both be waiting. *sigh* And apparently I really need to read Jersey Six. Esme (The Bride Test) was such a great character… and that was definitely a feel-good story. 🙂

    Reply

  6. Totally amazing line up! All I want to read. I COULD NOT get through FURYBORN at all. Like the first few chapters just had me like wth is this all about and I just didn’t like it and I just didn’t want to read anymore so bless you that you could finish it. I do want to read a few on here so I will have to get working on this list!

    Mary

    Reply

  7. Congrats on your reading goal! OMG so many amazing books in this post! I’m so excited to read Sorcery of Thorns and Aurora Rising soon. And I can’t wait for Queen of Nothing either 🙂 The Bride Test was so fun too!

    Reply

  10. Wow, a whopping 63 books, Sophie, outstanding! Oh, and I’m so pleased to see so many YA and fantasy titles being mentioned and shown some love. And I’m still waiting to read The Poppy War, so will be interested to see your thoughts on the sequel, Dragon Republic.

    Reply

  12. I keep seeing this tag and thinking that I should try it, too! It always helps to see how much progress you’ve made so far. I had no idea that Holly Black has another book coming out and I still haven’t started her others yet. I hope that the second half of the year is as wonderful for you! 🙂

    Reply

  15. So like, not to bring up old drama, but I’ve been so surprised at how well “Skyward” has been received, because a few years ago Brandon Sanderson was in the middle of the twitter drama heap as a result of something he said about LGBTQ people. I don’t remember what exactly was said, but I specifically remember people disavowing him, throwing out the entire Mistborn series, and swearing to never read anything written by him again. I guess it just goes to show how short the memories of the social justice warriors on Twitter actually are…

    Reply