The Mid Year Book Freakout Tag

It is the time of year when this tag is making the rounds, and as usual, I’m quickly drafting and slotting it around other posts in my schedule. I can’t say I will talk about an exhaustive list of books, but hopefully, there will be enough to fill nearly all the questions.

I’m not quite sure who initially created this tag, so if you do know, please tell me in the comments and I’ll add it later.

The best book you’ve read so far in 2022:

At this point, I’m torn between two books, Midnight in Everwood by M.A.Kuzniar and Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber.

Midnight in Everwood is enchanting and beautiful, one of the most perfect fairytale retellings I’ve read for a while. Twin Crowns is exciting, bewitching and full of love, both sisterly and romantically. I’m hit and miss when it comes to romance (sometimes it is unnecessary), but both relationships in this book had me swooning, and that’s rare.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022:

I’m cheating a little with this question because my pick is a sequel I am currently reading, and I’m only five or six chapters in. It is Crowns of Talons by Katherine and Elizabeth Corr. It is the second book in the Throne of Swans duology, a kind of Swan Lake imagining, which I’m really enjoying.

I read a Throne of Swans on my “read all YALC weekend” in 2020 and even though I was incredibly excited to read Crown of Talons last year, I didn’t get around to it, much to the disgust of certain people (you know who you are!). Now I am finally reading it and I know for sure, it will be up at the top as the best sequel I read this year.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

There are many because I don’t always read a book shortly after I acquire it. Sometimes they can sit unread on my shelves for a few years, however, one new 2022 release I really want to read soon is The Hemlock Cure by Joanna Burn. It’s historical fiction, set in 1665 at the time of the Great Plague, with the English village Eyam as its backdrop – the village that isolated and sacrificed itself to prevent further spread of the plague. As well as all that, it is a story of witchcraft, or the fear of witchcraft, of a bond between two women and the danger they face due to their secrets. It sounds like the perfect historical fiction novel for me and it would be nice change from my current reading habits as everything I’ve read so far is fantasy or general fiction.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Babel by R.F.Kuang is definitely one of my most anticipated releases this year. I’m very excited to get my hands on this and read it because it will be the first time I’ll read anything by R.F.Kuang (The Poppy War isn’t for me) and the concept sounds amazing.

Biggest disappointment:

I was rather disappointed by The City of Brass by S.A.Chakraborty, and I think it was of my own doing because I expected more fantasy than politics, and it is political from the very beginning. I did eventually like it when the story and pacing picked up, but still not as much as I expected, especially with all the rave reviews I hear regarding the entire trilogy. I am tempted to try the second book but I don’t know when and I’m not prioritising it.

Biggest surprise:

Summer at Hope Meadows by Lucy Daniels, and its subsequent series.

I think I’d heard about Summer at Hope Meadows a few years ago and wanted to check it out because I consumed a lot of Animal Ark books as a child. They were some of my favourites so I was interested to see how the Lucy Daniels team behind them would write the characters of Mandy and James as adults, and I really enjoyed them. Despite a niggle I have with James’ storyline from the beginning, they’re wholesome, heart-warming, cosy and escapist. I want to read more from this series.

Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

I think I’d have to go with M.A.Kuzniar who wrote Midnight in Everwood.

Newest fictional crush:

As much as I like Tor and Shen from Twin Crowns, I don’t get fictional crushes anymore.

Newest favourite character:

Oh, I don’t know! I like Olivia in Gallant, Wren and Rose in Twin Crowns but none of them jump out as being my absolute favourite.

Book that made you cry.

Maria’s Island by Victoria Hislop. It’s an abridged, child version of The Island (the author’s debut novel), written from the perspective of Maria Petrakis, of her life affected by leprosy and the stigma surrounding it. I cried at the original book, and I cried at this one too.

Book that made you happy:

Again, maybe Summer at Hope Meadows or the third book, Springtime at Wildacre.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year:

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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

I would usually have a list of books for this question, but I’m not going to do that this year. I’m going to see where my reading takes me, and if I pick up books I’ve neglected, that’s great, but if not, it’s also fine.

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With that is the end of this tag! As always, I’ve enjoyed going through my reading journal and looking back at the books from the beginning of the year because I do forget. It’s nice to see the books again and realise, oh yeah I did read them!

How has your reading year been so far?

Thanks for reading, and have a brazzle dazzle day!
xx