What books have
you bought/received lately?
Pages
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Stacking the Shelves: The Out with the Old Edition
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Stacking the Shelves: The Light Edition
What books have
you bought/received lately?
Friday, January 21, 2022
My Most Anticipated 2022 Releases
I haven't read books two and three in this series yet, but I, for some reason, have been obsessing over a certain relationship that I've heard whisperings about on the web. The relationship may or may not happen, but it has me very intrigued.
I enjoyed The Bridge Kingdom duology, though it wasn't my favorite. I'm still excited for this one, and I hope it improves on some of the things the original books lacked.
I enjoyed the ending of the first book in this duology, so I'm looking forward to reading the last book. I don't really have any major hopes for any of the characters, as I think they're all kind of terrible, but I'm hoping for a good finale.
I think this is the last book in the Plated Prisoner series. I just got caught up in December, so I'm ready to finish out the series and see what happens to Auren and Rip.
I wasn't expecting to like the second book as much as I did, so I'm actually very excited for book three. I'm hoping to get a review copy of it so I don't have to wait as long. We shall see if it pops up on NetGalley. This series reminds me the Aurora Cycle with more romantic tension. Yay!
I didn't like the ending to book one, but I'm finding myself anticipating the sequel more and more as the release date gets closer. If SJM pulls another Tamlin/Dorian/Chaol with this series, I may end up quitting her books. It really bums me out to change love interests. Plus, Hunt doesn't deserve the hate.
Is this book actually going to be released in 2022? Probably not. Will I hope it comes out anyway? Yep. I really want to finish up this trilogy, but I see no point in reading book two until book three comes out. If I wait, I only have to re-read the first book instead of two.
Loved the first book. Am I scared book two won't live up to the awesomeness? Yes. Do I still think it'll be a good time? Yep. This also comes out during my birthday month, so yay for me!
I was very disappointed with book three in this series, so I'm crossing my fingers TWOTQ fixes my meh feelings. The ending of book three was fantastic, while the beginning was very bad. So at least the leaping off point for this installment won't bring the book down.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
My 2022 Reading Goals
My Goodreads 2022 Reading Challenge being set at 30 allows me the opportunity to chillax and just read for fun. But like the past two years, I have some additional goals. Sadly, I only accomplished two of six goals for 2021, so the goal for 2022's goals is to actually do them. Haha.
#2. Read at least 10 books bought in 2020 and 15 books bought in 2021. With goal one and goal two, I'm already up to 35 books, so we'll see if I accomplish this one. I hope so, as I bought 91 books in 2020 and 89 in 2021. I only read around 80 of them altogether, and this includes duplicates. I don't want my TBR to get further out of control, so I would like to bridge that gap. Oh, and this includes catching up on the 2020 and 2021 FairyLoot books I've received in my subscription box.
#5. And one of my major goals is to read all of the books I owned prior to when I moved to NYC in 2017. I've had some of these books, pictured above, for 5+ years, and that's just not cool. If I don't read them before the end of 2022, they go bye-bye. This goal will also help me with Goal #1. Title options include The Immortal Rules, An Ember in the Ashes, Legacy of Kings, The Last Namsara, Blood Red Road, The Young Elites, Eon, Miss Mayhem, and more. I hope I can do it.
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Most Anticipated 2022 Releases By New-to-Me Authors
Witches hired by one of England's queens? I am intrigued.
While I don't fully understand the synopsis for this one, I've heard fantastic things.
The only contemporary book on this list. While I don't really care for country music, this book intrigues me. A boy who wants to become the biggest gay country superstar and a boy working at an amusement park set to fall for each other. Sounds very cute.
I'm solely excited about this one because of all the buzz it's getting. Normally, I wouldn't be so excited for what seems to be a very dense fantasy story with little, if no, romance. But I am intrigued. Plus, the cover is pretty.
You'll notice a theme in this list. Lots of gay fantasies. I'm getting a little bored of the m/f fantasy romance. I want a variety of relationships. And this one seems like it will live up to that. Yay for gay fantasy stories! Please, publishers, release more!
I don't know much about this book other than that it's about six magic users, one of which will die, and it's been compared to the Magicians series. Oh, and it was indie published originally, but, it got picked up by Tor. I'll be waiting for the well-edited version to release before I dive in. ;)
I know very little about this one except it's fantasy with multiple POVs and some queer characters. That sounds like enough to read it, right?
This one is giving me Daevabad vibes. I need it. I love a good desert fantasy.
For some reason, Silk Fire's been really calling to me lately. All that I really know about it is there's a polyamorous relationship and magic. And that's all I want to know.
Monday, January 10, 2022
My 2021 Wrap-Up
Wow! 2021 is over! It's been a crazy year. Between moving, starting a new job, and just having a lot more stress in my life, I'm ready to put this year behind me. However, before I get into the future, I need to discuss the past. Specifically, all of the books and book-related stats associated with my 2021 reading year!
Books Read in 2021
This year, I read 66 books! Now, this isn't as great as last year, which was 75, but it's a good solid number. Especially since I did end up moving to a new city, starting a new job, and having a lot of stress about buying furniture, a new phone, etc. Now that I'm all settled, I expect I can reach 75 or more in 2022, though I'm not holding myself to that number. I'm setting my 2022 reading goal at 30, like always.
I'm not going to list out every single book I read in 2021, but I do have some fun stats to share.
In 2021, I read:
📚 40 fantasy books
📚 12 paranormal/urban fantasy books
📚 10 sci-fi
📚 4 contemporary
📚 42 young adult
📚 24 new adult/adult
📚 46 physical books bought/received
📚 16 ebooks bought/received
📚 2 physical library books
📚 2 library ebooks
📚 2 graphic novels
📚 37 books owned pre-2021
📚 29 books acquired in 2021
📚 13 rereads
📚 Finished reading 5 series that I started pre-2021.
📚 Started 17 new series in 2021 (some of which I don't plan on continuing with).
📚 Started and finished 2 series in 2021.
📚 My highest rated books at 4.5 stars each: The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes and Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin.
📚 My lowest rated book at 1 star: The Covenant by Aron E. Coleite.
Books Bought in 2021
In total, I bought 89 books in 2021. Eight were ebooks and 81 were physical books. This came out to under $1,900. This is a lot more than last year, but to be fair, I bought quite a few special edition boxes for FBAA in 2021, so hopefully, this won't be repeated. However, FairyLoot is coming out with an adult subscription, which is going to definitely hurt my wallet. But the real issue is my swag spending. I have a fan art addiction that I need to quench, as $1,500 on mostly FBAA art is just too much for one year's sum. I'll be cutting back a lot in 2022. Oh, and because I bought 89 books but only read 66, I have to get rid of 23 books in early 2022. I already have a whole bin ready to go, so I'm not too worried about it. I just need to find the time/energy to make it to a used bookstore.
My 2021 Reading Goals
Other than reading 30 books, I had a few small goals set for the year. They weren't major goals, because I didn't want to overwhelm myself while I was trying to find a new job, but they were goals I'd been thinking about for a while. (See my 2021 reading goal post for more info.)
My first goal was to read 20 books I owned prior to 2020. I totally failed that goal, as I ended up reading 10 (not counting rereads). The next goal was to read 10 books I bought in 2020. I ended up reading seven, so another failure. But it was pretty close. The third goal was to read A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, which I did. So success! The fourth goal was to read more new adult/adult books, which I failed at. I wanted roughly half to be adult. However, I ended up trying to read a lot of my TBR back list, which, unfortunately, is mostly YA. My fifth goal was to purchase fewer than 75 books. Completely botched that one. But the sixth goal was to re-read more, and I did! I re-read 13 books, so yay! I'll try to hold myself to more of my yearly reading goals in 2022. But really, I'm just trying to get through those backlist TBR titles.
***
Okay, well, that’s the summary of 2021, all wrapped up into one
post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last year? If so, share in the comments! Also, stay tuned for my 2022 reading goals post!