Mid Year Book Freakout Tag (2023 Edition)

Hey all, Sam here.

So…I did this tag in 2017, 2018, and 2019…and then for some reason just skipped it the past couple years. But you know, what, let’s bring it back.

The rules are super simple…answer the prompts. Well, I guess technically you need to think about the fact that all of the prompts are about things you’ve read and blogged this year, but really, that’s all. I give myself the added challenge of not being able to use the same book twice.

Let’s do this.

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2023

This was such an incredible read. I’m so glad that I was approved for it on NetGalley and got to read it early. I’m a big fan of Celtic lore and mythology, and I especially find myself drawn to stories about the Morrigan, so this was definitely something I wanted to read. And now I’m counting down until the release of the sequel, Clarion Call. You can find the review for Ravensong here on my blog.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2023

I don’t know that this book technically counts as a sequel, but I’m going to count it as one. I originally read Poison Study, the first book in this world back in late 2006/early 2007…and here we are in 2023 getting to see that book from the male lead’s POV. Reading Yelena’s side of events was interesting, but getting to read Valek’s side of the story now was fantastic. I’ll have the review for this book up soon.

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year

I did do a Most Anticipated Releases post for the second half of this year recently, so you can find a lot more books there. But obviously the prequel companion to Legends & Lattes is at the top of my list, but I’m currently reading Dark Water Daughter (which releases July 11th in the US) and really enjoying it, and of course I’m excited for the upcoming release by Susan Dennard, so these are probably my current top three anticipated releases.

Biggest Disappointment

I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about either This Doesn’t Mean Anything or Breaking Time, but the former I had decent expectations about and it didn’t live up to it, while the latter I didn’t expect much from and it didn’t even meet those low expectations…so disappointing.

Biggest Surprise

This one both was and wasn’t a surprise. I expected to love it because it featured a diverse magic school. But I don’t always enjoy anthologies and this one was also centered around a murder mystery. But I ended up enjoying every single story, and I even found some authors who I need to look into more, so I can try out some more of their writing. I also have a review up for The Grimoire of Grave Fates, so you can check out all my thoughts there.

Favorite New Author (or New to You Author)

So….I own four other Rebecca Ross books aside from this one, but Divine Rivals ended up being the first one that I’ve read from this author, so it totally counts as a New to Me author. I guess I just had a feeling that I would like her books, and so far I haven’t been disappointed. I’ll hopefully be reading more books by Rebecca Ross soon.

Newest Fictional Crush

I always struggled with figuring out this category, and now I can vocalize that it is because of the connotation of the word crush…and as an asexual person that’s because I don’t experience the same feelings when it comes to crushes and such.

However, I can say that I absolutely loved the delightful, fierce, bookish, and warrior ladies that I found in both Can’t Spell Treason without Tea and The Warden. So Reyna and Kianthe, and Aelis and Maurenia are both partnerships where you have one half being more magical and bookish and one being a little more warrior/mercenary, and I just really enjoyed them. I’ll be reviewing the former book as soon as I can fit it into my blogging schedule…which might make it a bonus post sometime, because my blogging calendar is pretty packed for the next couple months.

Newest Favorite Character

I loved Amina al-Sirafi. Okay, I already knew I loved Shannon/S.A. Chakraborty’s writing, and I had heard so many people raving about how wonderful this book was….and I am so happy that I found it to be just as incredible. It was also a book that consumed me and that I read so quickly, even with it being a nice sized fantasy read.

Book That Made You Cry

This prompt is for a book that made me cry…but the nice thing is that tears don’t necessarily mean being sad. Reading I Am Ace was so incredible, and there were so many passages I had to mark, and so many moments where I couldn’t help but tear up because what I was reading had so much meaning and impact to me.

Book That Made You Happy

I simply had to include the graphic novel adaptation of Animorphs for a book that made me happy. I was absolutely obsessed with this series as a kid, and each one was something I was so happy to read. Now, as an adult, I’m definitely loving the opportunity to experience these characters and this story again but in a slightly different format.

Favorite Book to Film Adaptation

I actually haven’t read a bunch of books that have been adapted to film this year, and these ones aren’t exactly adaptations. They are prequel stories leading up to the “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” film. But I loved each of them for how they added more depth and detail to the characters central to the movie, which was really cool for me. I do have reviews up for all of these, so you can find The Road to Neverwinter, as well as The Druid’s Call and The Feast of the Moon reviews at these included links.

Favorite Post You’ve Done This Year

We’ve done a lot of blog posts this year, but here’s a small sampling of some of my favorite ones:

Welcome to the Free State of Geek!

Tabletop Tuesday: Date Night Dungeons – Wight Wedding by Urban Realms

Weekend Writer: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: Chapter One – Why Do We Care? Creating the Story-Worthy Hero by Jessica Brody

Weekend Writer: February Prompt Share Time

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year

Well, this category has to go to my FairyLoot Exclusive Editions…and I couldn’t choose just one, so here’s a photo dump of all of them I’ve received so far this year. I imagine that the June books will be here in about another week or so (I hope).

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To

There are so many recent (and not so recent) releases I still really want to read…so I’m narrowing it down to books released in the last month. I already own a physical copy of The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson, and I have my NetGalley ARCs for The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence and The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell, so hopefully I can squeeze them into my reading schedule here soon.

Book You Need to Read by the End of the Year

I absolutely cannot believe that I haven’t read Babel by R.F. Kuang yet. And I need to read The First Binding by R.R. Virdi before Gen Con, so hopefully I’ll be tackling that soon. With all the hype and buzz around Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, I want to read it very soon. Finally, I picked up Putting the Fact in Fantasy edited by Dan Koboldt earlier this year, and I’m doing a pretty decent job of reading non-fiction and writing craft books, so I’m wanting to get to this one sooner rather than later.

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Okay…if you want to do this book tag…then TAG YOU’RE IT!!

Other than that, I do believe that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.