Hello everyone!
When I saw the the Mid Year Freak Out Tag on Kat and The Orangutan Librarian‘s blogs, my immediate reactions were…
- WHAT this must be a joke! Last time I checked the year just started and it was like February or March…
- But WAIT. It’s JUNE
- Actually, we are kind of halfway through June
- And June is the sixth month of the year- WHAT?!
- Cue the freaking out moment.
There are so many things I haven’t yet done, books I haven’t read, stories I haven’t written, places I haven’t been, food I haven’t tried… the list goes on and on!
(Am I the only one who feels this way here!? Anyone out there thinking “yup, I am fully aware that it is the middle of 2018 and happy with it”?)
BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ YET IN 2018
I’ve rambled enough about The Book Thief, which is my favourite book of all time.
BEST SEQUEL YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2018
Does the fourth book in a series count as a sequel? In that case I absolutely MUST choose The Goblet of Fire, which is my favourite Harry Potter book so far during my re-read.
NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET BUT WANT TO
After I read Beth’s review of Circe, I feel like I MUST read it. It is such a different book than the type I usually read, and I really know nothing about Greek mythology (like, not a thing) but I am excited to try something new!
MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR
After speeding through Warcross, I felt like I HAD to read the second book in the series RIGHT away. In fact one of the upside of this year being half over is that we are this much closer to the release of Wildcard! Who else is super excited for this release!?
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
The Sun is Also a Star was just not for me.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
I knew going into We Were Liars that there was this epic plot twist at the end. Still, I did not see that coming.
FAVOURITE NEW AUTHOR
Emergency Contact was one of my favourite YA contemporary books this year. I’ll be looking forward to reading other books by Mary HK Choi!
NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH
Peter in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is swoon-worthy 🙂
NEWEST FAVOURITE CHARACTER
I haven’t given much thought to Neville Longbottom the first time I read Harry Potter. Now I realize he’s kind of pretty cool.
BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY
The Diary of Anne Frank, even though I knew what was going to happen at the end.
BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY
Leah on the Offbeat was a fun read! Oh the Simon and Blue cameos made me happy ❤
FAVOURITE BOOK TO FILM ADAPTATION
Love Simon was perfect. Just perfect. *Happy sigh*
FAVOURITE POST YOU HAVE DONE THIS YEAR
Oh wow this is a hard question! I’ll have to go with 27 Things that I Learned At 27, a compilation of all my reflections about being older (and wiser!)
MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU’VE BOUGHT THIS YEAR
It’ll have to be this vintage edition of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier that I found at a second-hand bookstore:
WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR
EVERYTHING!? Well, seriously, if I had to pick, here are my absolutely MUST-reads by the end of the year:
I TAG…
Everyone and anyone who is freaking out right now 🙂
What are your favourite reads of 2018 so far? What are your plans for the second half of 2018? How would you answer some of these questions? 🙂
SaveSave
Sophie Li 
The Book Thief is one of my favourites as well! Are you excited for his new book? I have high hopes for it for sure!
I loved all your answers! Peter is amazing! ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes The Book Thief is amazing 🙂 I actually haven’t read any of Markus Zusak’s books though I’ve heard good things about I Am the Messenger. Would you recommend this one as well? I will definitely keep an eye out for Bridge of Clay. Thank you Kristin 🙂
LikeLike
Okay, in my defense, THERE’S A REASON I DIDN’T TRY MARIE LU’S NEW SERIES. I am literally, TERRIFIED OF HER NOW AFTER THAT STUNT SHE PULLED WITH THE MIDNIGHT STAR. Seriously, she is like, the author that you know would give you the worst possible ending every time in her series. It’s horrible, and I literally can not mentally handle it lol. HELP I HAVE A PROBLEM *SOB*.
PS can you tag me in this this looks really fun XD.
Great post! This was really fun to read actually.
http://anneclarence.wixsite.com/thereadinglife/single-post/2018/06/20/Book-Review-A-Court-of-Frost-and-Starlight-by-Sarah-J-Maas
LikeLike
I’m totally agree on The Sun is Also a Star being a biggest disappointment, LOL!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lol yes. It’s just so unrealistic and I still can’t get over how the guy got into Yale with that interview he did (and the subsequently rejected their offer!? What!?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gah I know. That book is so frustating!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve watched the Love, Simon movie. I’ve ordered the book (which is a different name but its too long to write out.) So I’m pretty excited to read it. Is the book any good?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read Simon Vs first and loved it so much. I would definitely recommend it if you liked the movie. The book has more in-depth conversations between Simon and Blue which I enjoyed 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thnx. I’m really excited for it now xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hope you enjoy the book when you get a chance to read it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
One of my favorite reads is The Nowhere Girls. I describe it as an edgier version of Moxie and it was incredible!
I also plan on reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cool I haven’t heard about The Nowhere Girls but I will keep than on my radar 🙂
I’ve heard great things about Evelyn Hugo and I’m super excited to read that one! Let me know what you think when you end up reading it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I also can’t believe we’re already in JUNE, it’s crazy, it really is. I’m not complaining though, because summertime is my favorite time, but still, time really flies.
I can’t wait to read Wildcard either, I loved Warcross so, so much! I’m also so happy to see you enjoyed Emergency Contact so much, I can’t wait to read more from the author as well 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha yes it is crazy isn’t it!? Summer is also my favourite season. I love how it’s always sunny and how we don’t have to bother with boots and jackets anymore!
Definitely looking forward to Wildcard 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow I should do this tag or maybe do this tag in the future. I enjoyed many books, but a particularly memorable one was a series of novellas on a romance between an incubus and a human male. I love gay stuff, I love fantasy, and wow, I’ve never read a romance involving incubi before. In fact, prior to this series, I had never seen a story where sex demons were good guys. So this was very new and exciting to me. Plus, it was intriguing for me that though the protagonists are romantically mostly monogamous, they are sexually poly, which makes sense, considering their situation. (Kind of complicated but basically, the incubus needs to get food and energy from sexual contact with others, and this human guy is his vascellum and helps store energy for his incubus by sleeping with others too.). This was exciting for me as well, because I don’t think I’ve ever read any polyamorous romances before, though this isn’t completely poly. The incubus has darker skin too. Yay more racially diverse characters! 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t know about incubi before so I had to google that haha. Glad that you enjoyed the series. It’s interesting when what is traditionally an evil role is represented as a protagonist. Sounds like an imaginative premise 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, we have good vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and witches nowadays. So we should definitely have good incubi and succubi too. ^^ I realized through checking Amazon that there are quite a number of incubi/ succubi romances now, but of course they aren’t as numerous as vampire and wolf shifter ones! I read quite a lot of wolf shifter gay romances, actually.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah I feel like vampire and werewolf novels are really common (particularly vampire ones!?) I don’t read many of them except for Twilight which I tried to read haha.
Glad that there are now others in the mix, such as ones about incubi and succubi 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I imagined this first half of the year going very differently to how it did, so I am not one to claim that I was okay with noticing we are already at a mid-way point haha I just don’t know where time is going and what I am doing with it. It’s as if I blink and a week has passed …
I feel like I should read Circe and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as well. So many people have recommended them to me and I haven’t seen a single bad review for either.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Life is unexpected at times, right? Hope that things are going well for you, even if it is not what you had initially planned. Yes time flies.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about Circe and Evelyn Hugo if you do get a chance to read them 🙂 They are definitely high on my priority list for this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s just leave it at things could be worse haha
Will do for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a positive way to look at things 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘so many places I havent been, food I havent tried’
STORY OF MY LIFE THIS YEAR
anywho loved this tag and gollyyyyy TIME IS FLYING!
sareena
http://www.theallofitblog.wordpress.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely 🙂 Thank you Sareena!
LikeLiked by 1 person
your welcome beauty ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I need to do this! This year really has flown by. Great answers – Book Theif is definitely one of my fave books of all time! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to hear that you enjoyed The Book Thief as well. It is absolutely an amazing book 🙂 Feel free to do this tag and I look forward to seeing your answers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Book Thief is an amazing book, and Goblet of Fire is my favorite HP book too in my reread 😀 I can’t believe it’s almost the end of June!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad that you enjoyed The Book Thief! GoF was amazing 🙂 I didn’t enjoy OoF as much because of its length and the amount of time Harry spends complaining haha.
LikeLike
You listed some awesome stuff here 😍
I loved we were liars too! For me the most surprising part of it was the writing style. Not many books I’ve read had this poetic flow.
Circe is on my list too. Such a pretty book. I’m not usually a fan of mythology in fiction but the reviews are so good!
I need to get on with the Warcross series now that sequel is coming 🙈
Happy reading!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Norrie 🙂 Yes the writing style of We Were Liars is quite special- it is one of the things I loved about the book!
Great to hear that you’re interested in Circe too. Let me know what you think about it 🙂
I loved Warcross! Definitely one of the most gripping books I’ve read so far this year. Hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did 🙂
Happy reading ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fourth Harry Potter book is my favorite. Have any of your opinions about the book changed since you started your reread?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Zezee!
Glad to hear that you’re also a fan of the fourth HP book 🙂 It’s probably the most memorable of the series for me.
I do feel like my opinion has changed a bit. I first read HP when I was much younger, and since then I’ve read and reviewed many more books. Now I see more flaws in the books that I had before, picking out ways that chapters could be more concise for example. However I also appreciate certain aspects more, like how each book builds upon each other. I also appreciate Dumbledore’s wise quotes much more now that I am an adult haha 🙂
How about you? 🙂
LikeLike
Def the same for me too. Now when I reread, I pay more attention to the subtle ways in how the books connect and also to side characters. I also started listening to the podcast Witch, Please last year which analyzes the books and that made me pay more attention to the narrative perspective too, which is very limited to just Harry and explains why we miss certain events. I always wondered if Hogwarts has a graduation day. What happened when Percy completed his years there?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes that’s the joy of re-reading. We notice things that we didn’t notice before, and we also get to relive the story again 🙂
I didn’t know about that podcast. Sounds interesting, I’ll have to check it out!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your reaction to seeing the Mid Year Freak Out tags on people’s blogs and the realisation that it’s June now was pretty much mine as well. 😀 I feel like before we know it it’s going to be the end of the year and we’ll be in 2019!
Great answers for this tag as well Sophie. I’m really glad you loved The Book Thief so much, and I hope you enjoy Circe just as much. Hopefully that book will make you want to read more about Greek mythology. 🙂 I am so excited for Wildcard and so far everyone I’ve seen taking part has featured Love, Simon as they’re favourite adaptation, which never fails to make me smile a little! 😀
Great post. 🙂 ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha I am relieved to hear that I am not the only one surprised that it is already halfway through 2018. Time really flies!
I am nervous about Circe since it is not my usual type of book however I am looking forward to trying something new 🙂
Haha you are right. So far I’ve seen Love Simon featured in all of these posts, which I agree with since it is such a good movie!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel like we must all be freaking out about the fact that June is over now!
Well I’ll keep my fingers crossed you do enjoy it. Hopefully you’ll be able to appreciate the story even if it isn’t the usual book you pick up (that’s what it was like for me). 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, unbelievable how time flies. I’m behind on my GR challenge and I’m already thinking about Christmas gifts that may be handmade this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! That’s great that you are already thinking about Christmas gifts. I haven’t thought that far into it yet, but maybe I should instead of leaving everything until last minute :’)
LikeLike