**I stare at the books I have read so far this year. Not too many, but unfortunately life gets in the way at times. I always try to remind myself that it is quality over quantity anyway. I take a sip of my tea and place it back on the table. I shuffle through my books, and look at the typed list of prompts for the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag. A favorite of mine. I look through the questions and begin to think.**

I love getting to watch Booktubers this time of year when they do this tag. I enjoy getting to see the biggest surprises and what books everyone is loving so far, or not loving for that matter, so I thought it would be fun to do this myself. From what I could find from other people, the original creator of this tag was Earl Grey Books. I haven’t read many books so far this year, so there will be a lot of repeats. I also didn’t use all of the questions, such as favorite book to movie adaptation since I haven’t watched any, so I just did the basic questions. Now with that out of the way, let’s get into it.

• Best Book You Have Read So Far In 2024?
  • The best book I have read so far this year is quite a surprise to me. The one that I would consider my favorite so far would probably be Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This is an adult fantasy following twenty-year-old Violet as she attends a war college. The only reason I picked this up was for the hype since I was curious what had everyone obsessing over this book. I don’t read much adult fantasy, or even adult, so this was quite a shocking read for me and I really enjoyed it.

• Best Sequel of 2024 So Far?
  • Staying on the same track as question one, my favorite sequel so far has probably been Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros. I do think that the first one was better, but I still enjoyed the action. And that ending! I can’t wait for book three.

• New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To?
  • There are a lot of 2024 releases that I want to read but haven’t gotten to yet. I’m trying to only give one answer per question, so I am going to go with The Ballad of Darcy and Russell by Morgan Matson. Morgan Matson is one of my favorite authors, so I have been really excited to read her newest release. I wanted to wait a bit though before reading this one because I just read Promchanted in March and I did a reread of The Unexpected Everything in May, so I wanted to wait before diving into her latest book.

• Most Anticipated Release For the Second Half of the Year?
  • I only have a few anticipated books left for the year, but my most anticipated is probably Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter! I loved Better Than the Movies when I read it last year so I’m excited to see what the sequel is like. It’s either that or The Party by Natasha Preston. 

• Biggest Disappointment?
  • Unfortunately, I have had a few disappointments this year, mostly from favorite authors. One of my biggest ones was probably Promchanted by Morgan Matson. I love her books but just couldn’t really find myself loving this one. Nothing really happened which made the book a bit slow and anticlimactic for a fantasy.

• Biggest Surprise?
  • I’m going to sound like a broken record by the time this is over, but Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I didn’t even love it as much as everyone else, but I think it was just so different from what I normally read that I really liked it.

• Favorite New Author (Debut or New to You)?
  • Probably Rebecca Yarros. I haven’t really read from a lot of new authors this year. 

• Newest Favorite Character?
  • Violet and Xaden from the Empyrean series. Like I said, broken record. But I have mostly read authors I’ve already read from and sequels.

• Book That Made You Cry?
  • I honestly can’t remember. I think Fourth Wing and Iron Flame made me a bit emotional, The Unexpected Everything does every time I read it, and I may have gotten a bit emotional in Destroy the Day by Brigid Kemmerer, though I can’t remember. I don’t think any of them really made me cry though.

• Book That Made You Happy?
  • The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. This one makes me emotional but it also makes me happy. I love seeing these characters interact.

• Most Beautiful Book You Bought This Year?
  • There are a few books I’ve gotten this year that have amazing covers. One of the most beautiful ones I’ve gotten so far though would probably be Where the Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek. I actually didn’t love the cover at first but it has really grown on me! I also love the cover for The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert.

• Books to Read By the End of the Year?
  • I have soooo many to read by the end of the year. My biggest ones are probably The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys and Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer. These have both been on my shelf since 2022, making them the oldest ones, so I really need to get to them.

I always love watching people do this tag so it was fun getting to do it myself. Let me know your own answers for any of these questions. Until next time.

xoxo,

Just another reader