This year is shaping up to be a really good one for me in terms of reading and finding great books. So I descited to do the “Mid year freak out book tag”.
1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2018
It is very hard for me to pick just one “best” book, so I’ll pick one from a genre, but no more than three in total:
Contemporary: Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik
YA Fantasy: Strange The Dreamer by Lainy Taylor
SciFi: Renegades by Mellissa Mayers
2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2018
Gemina, the sequel to Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
The Illuminae Files is a scifi series that consists of a total of three books. Every book focuses on new main characters, who are experiencing a different aspect of the aftermath of the Baytech invasion on the planet Carensa.
Review for the first book – here
3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
I read Scytche and fell completely in love with the world. Full review here
I am still waiting for Thunderhead to be translated in bulgarian, and that is why I haven’t read it yet.
4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2018
I am very exited for the sequel to Strange the Dreamer – Muse of Nightmares comes out in October.
Also, “ The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy ” by Mackenzi Lee. It’s a companion novel to “The Gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue”, one of my all time favorite books.
5. Biggest Disappointment
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
I had such high hopes for this book! The idea was a great one, the cover was very beautiful and I heard great thing about it.
The book for me was completely spoiled by the main character Alice I have a full rant review for the book, but long story short – I found her rude, hostile, socially inadequate and irritating. The way she treated everyone around her was disgusting. I like gray or smug characters, but Alice was just plain rude and unnecessarily cruel and aggressive.
6. Biggest Surprise
“My heart and other black holes” by Jasmine Warga.
I picked up this book out of curiosity. I have not heard a thing about it, and the summary on the back was not particularly inspiring.
“Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner. ”
I started reading the book and I didn’t put it down until I was done. The characters were so well developed, their stories are so heartbreaking, that you have no choice but to fall in love with them. I spend the last 100 pages on the edge of my bed, reading as fast as I can, and hoping everyone will be OK.
7. Favourite New Author
Libba Bray is not a new author, but until this month I have not read a single book of hers, so I’ll count her as “new”. I read “The Diviners” series – books 1-3, and I am now forever in love with her ability to develop all her characters so magnificently. I admire how diverse her characters are and how she manages to cover a wide range of social and political topics without loosing the sight of the plot.
8. Newest Fictional Crush
I rarely get fictional crushes these days. But if I have to pick I would go with August Flynn from “This Savage Song” by Victoria Schwab.
August is a sunai – a species of monsters in the city of Verity. They are born of mass-devastations, and feed on the souls of people who have committed acts of violence and have created monsters. Even trough they look entirely human, they are still monsters who kill other people for survival – a fact that lays heavily on August.
The “Monsters of Verity” duology holds a dear place in my heart because of the interesting plot and the characters.
9. Newest Favourite Character
It is a known fact that my all time favorite character is Lila Bard from “Darker shade of magic” series. But few months ago I met a new character that I almost (almost!) liked as much as her. I am talking about Nova Artino from “Renegades” by Mellisa Mayers.
“Now,” Nova continued, “if you would like to know what useful non-super abilities I have, I can tell you that I’m adept at hand-to-hand combat and a multitude of weaponry. I can run a seven-minute mile, long-jump an expanse of eighteen feet with a running start, and I know an awful lot about physics, electronics, and renewable energy sources, among other things.”
“Renegades” by Mellisa Mayers is one of the best books I have read so far this year. It is a great start of a sci-fi series and I cannot wait to have the sequel.
10. Book That Made You Cry
“The burning maze” by Rick Riordan.
Laught all you want, but I am a die hard Riordan fan. I grew up with Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olimpus, so for uncle Rick to take away one of our favorite characters … I am still not over that.
“The Burning Maze” is the third book in “The Trials of Apollo” series by Rick Riordan. It traces the quest of the now turned mortal god Apollo to restore the five ancient Oracules. It is one of the funniest series I have ever read, as Rick Riordan brings back some of the sass and the with that filled the Percy Jackson books. Yet, the ending of “The Burning Maze” made readers of all ages cry like a babies, me included.
11. Book That Made You Happy
There were a lot of books so far that made me happy. One of the books that made me happy was Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.
Truly Devious is a YA crime mystery novel that follows true crime junkie Stevie Bell on her mission to uncover the mystery behind the death of her classmate. Her new school, Ellingham Academy has a bad track record – there is a cold case murder of another student in 30s. and miss Bell is convinced she can solve it.
This book was a breath of fresh air in YA contemporary for me.
Other books that made me genuinely happy were – Strange the Dreamer by Lainy Taylor and The rest of us just live here by Patric Ness.
12. Favourite Book To Movie Adaptation You Saw This Year
READY. PLAYER. ONE.
I will never quit recommending this movie every chance I get. It was greatly done! The soundtrack was amazing, and so was the cast. It was fun, but meaningfull. They managed to take the best parts from the book and to adapt them in the movie in the most whimsical way possible.
Ready. Player. One. Is a sci-fi novel by Ernest Cline. The story is set in a dystopian 2040s, and follows Wade Watts and four of his friends as they try to win the Halliday Easter egg Hunt and gain control over the Oasis – a virtual reality game, that had completely took over the world.
13. Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year
Probably my review for “The Gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue” because I got to reflect on an epic trip in it.
“On the day I bought and started reading this book, my friend and I missed our plane, boarded a train to the countryside without a ticket, talked about orchids in dim lighted waiting room of a train station in the middle of nowhere, spend a night on an airport in a foreign country, took a plane to a third country, met weird people along the way, took another plane, than another train and after more than 40 hours of travel, finally crashed into our beds. And if that’s not a book-to-life adaptation of this book, I don’t know what is.”
Full review here.
14. Most Beautiful Book You Bought So Far This Year
I love the bulgarian cover for “Homegoing” by Yaa Jassi!
15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year?
I need to read “Lord of Shadows” by Cassandra Clare because on December, 4th Queen of Air and Darkness comes out, and I want to continue with ” The Dark Artifices” series.
Also, I am planning on reading a lot of sequels to series I have started like Archenemies (Renegades #2) and Vengeful (Villains, #2) by V.E. Schwab.
One of my main bookish goals this year is to add non fiction books to my reading lists for every month. For the month of May that was “The radium girls” by Kate Moore, and for the month of July I am planning on reading “Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II” by Liza Mundy .
My current Goodreads book count is 62, and I hope to reach 100 by the end of the year.