The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag: 2018 Edition

Well, it’s almost July. Another year of good books, and even not-so-good books, has halfway passed us by. Thus, I thought it fitting to do a tag that I’ve seen popping around across the online book world: the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag. This tag was created years ago, by who, I have no idea. But basically, it’s all about discussing your reading history for the first six months of the year. And I’m ready to dish all about my 2018 reads.

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1. BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2018

This is a tough one, so I’m going to pick two that I rated the same at 4.5 stars. (I haven’t given any book 5 stars yet.)

Sky in the Deep and Rebel of the Sands are two books set in totally different worlds, but they both have similar themes of female kicka$$ery and swoony boys. It’s no wonder I liked them both. ;)

2. BEST SEQUEL YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2018

This one was hard. I have mixed relationship with sequels since sometimes the sequels just aren’t as captivating as the first book. That’s even true of the book I chose for this questions—Alwyn Hamilton’s Traitor to the Throne.

3. NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET, BUT WANT TO

Easy answer: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown. However, I’m debating on whether or not I should hold off until all three books are out. That’s how I read the Red Rising trilogy.

4. MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR

The one I’ve been foaming at the mouth to get early with no success is Sara Raasch’s These Rebel Waves. After that, I guess it would be Sarah J. Maas’s Kingdom of Ash, so I can finally be done with that series.

5. BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

If we’re going with series-enders, I’d choose either Victoria Aveyard’s War Storm or Alwyn Hamilton’s Hero at the Fall. Both books were alright, but they weren’t what I was hoping for.

6. BIGGEST SURPRISE

This was a recent read, but Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga was a super light and easy-to-read fantasy book.

7. FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR

She’s just new to me, since I only picked her series up this year, but Alwyn Hamilton is the only name that came to mind.

8. NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH

Fiske from Adrienne Young’s Sky in the Deep. He’s an a$$hole, but I couldn’t help but fall for him in the end.

9. NEWEST FAVORITE CHARACTER

I just finished Now I Rise last night, so I have to go with Radu from Kiersten White’s And I Darken trilogy. He’s just such a cinnamon roll. I feel so sorry for the poor boy.

10. BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY

I teared up a little towards the end of Taran Matharu’s The Battlemage, but no major waterworks so far this year.

11. BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY

Rachel Hawkins’s Royals is the light-hearted contemporary that I didn’t know I needed until I read it. It also got me out of a pretty big reading slump.

12. FAVORITE BOOK-TO-FILM ADAPTATION YOU SAW THIS YEAR

I haven’t actually seen a book-to-film adaptation so far this year. Does Avengers: Infinity War count? If so, that was awesome!

13. FAVORITE REVIEW YOU’VE WRITTEN THIS YEAR

It might sound weird, but my review of Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian was one that I thought really hard about. That book had so many mixed feelings for me, so it’s a review I like to go back and re-read every once in a while.

14. MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU’VE RECEIVED SO FAR THIS YEAR

I bought myself a copy of Ash Princess because I love the cover. It’s a gorgeous book.

15. WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR

Such a long list. Here’s five of them to keep it short.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Blood Passage and Freedom’s Slave by Heather Demetrios

This Shattered World and Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

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Alright, there you have it. My Mid-Year Book Freak Out answers. What would your answers to these questions be? Let me know in the comments section.