End of Year Book Survey (2023)

Hi everyone! As has become tradition for me at the start of a new year (or end of the last depending on when I actually get the time to sit down and write it! I thought there was a nice symmetry to doing this on New Year’s Day again this year as I did the last one on NYD last year), it’s time for the annual End of Year Book Survey. This is a survey created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner, which I do every year as a way of looking back on the year of reading and blogging. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here.

2023 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 15 (it wasn’t my best reading year!).

Number of Re-Reads: 0

Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy

Best In Books:

1. Best Book You Read In 2023?

I actually had no five star reads this year which was a real shame and my reading overall was kind of mixed. There were two books that really stood out to me above the others though and I’ve had kind of a hard time picking between them because I enjoyed them both so much but I think Shannon Chakraborty’s The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi just slightly edged it for me because I loved the characters so much and it was the first fantasy I’ve read in a while that I felt totally swept away by. I can’t wait to see what happens to Amina next in Book 2!

2. Book You Were Excited About And Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Ooh this was a toss up for me as well between two books, but I think I’m going to go with The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. I really, really wanted to love this one because Bake-Off meets Murder Mystery sounded like it should be such a winning combination but the murder mystery was just so much of an afterthought, we started the book with the murder, great, and then we spent all this time on the actual competition bit and the murder basically wasn’t mentioned at all till like the last third and then the conclusion was super rushed. So disappointing.

3. Most Surprising (In A Good Or Bad Way) Book You Read?

Killers of A Certain Age was definitely a really good surprise, I’ve never read any Deanna Raybourn before and I don’t read a whole lot of mystery/crime type books. I did pick it up based on the fact that the premise sounded good so it’s not like I wasn’t expecting it to be good, but it was even more fun than I thought it would be and I would absolutely like to see more 60+ characters having adventures please because this was an absolute riot.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read And They Did?

I don’t know that I actually have one this year? Like I said, it’s been kind of a mixed reading year overall.

5. Best Series You Started In 2023? Best Sequel of 2023? Best Series Ender of 2023?

I really did not read all that many series this year, as with 2022, my reading generally seemed to focus on standalones. For series starter, it was definitely The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi because that book was so much fun, and my favourite of the year and it’s the only series I started this year that I anticipate continuing with (when it comes to novels anyway, I do plan to continue V.E. Schwab’s comics) so that’s definitely the best series I started in 2023.

I didn’t really read any sequels or series enders this year, I suppose like the first and second issues of V.E. Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary comics could count as sequels for the first like “prequel 0 comic” so I guess those? But I definitely don’t have any series enders, the only series finale I read was the last issue of The Steel Prince comics (again VE Schwab) and I wasn’t a big fan.

6. Favourite New Author You Read In 2023?

Deanna Raybourn! Kind of feels wrong to call her new because she’s been in publishing for like 15 years or so, but she’s new to me, so that’s all that matters for this section. I’ll definitely be looking to try some more of her books this year.

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Normally Read/Was Out Of Your Comfort Zone?

I’d say Killers of A Certain Age, crime/mystery is still a genre that I don’t read a whole lot of, it’s not something I actively avoid and I have been reading more in recent years but it’s still not a genre I reach for regularly. I find I have very mixed reactions to crime/mystery type books, but when they are great, they can be really great!

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Killers of A Certain Age definitely fits the bill for this as well, the women are recently retired assassins, so there was a LOT of action in this one and I very much enjoyed reading about a bunch of 60+ year old women kicking ass!

9. Book You Read In 2023 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread Again This Year?

None, rereading is just not part of my reading diet anymore and I have accepted this fact.

10. Favourite Cover Of A Book You Read In 2023?:

I did listen to the audiobook of this so I don’t own a physical copy but this cover image was still the one my audiobook had. Once again it’s not been a banner year for covers for me, but I really do love this one, I love all the little details on it!

11. Most Memorable Character Of 2023?

Ah Dalila, my Poisoner Queen. Dare I say she slightly outshone Amina in her own book? Apparently my theme for this section is women I would love but be slightly scared to meet as I picked a similar kind of character last year!

12. Most Beautifully Written Book of 2023?

The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes. Whilst it wasn’t one of my favourite books of the year, Brianna Labuskes certainly has a beautiful way with words and there are so many powerful turns of phrase and images in this book, particularly Althea and Hannah’s speeches at the end which were so poignant and beautiful and sadly still so relevant for many places today that still want to censor books.

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book You Read This Year?

Hmm, I’m not sure I’d call it life-changing but I think I would probably go for The Librarian of Burned Books again here. It covered a lot of history that I didn’t really know about it terms of book censorship (I knew about the Nazi book burnings but I had no idea about the attempts to censor the books set to American troops abroad) and I think it’s a real rallying cry as to why books are so important and why censoring what people are able to read is so dangerous.

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Till 2023 To Read?

I’m surprised it took me this long to get to the ExtraOrdinary comics as I love VE Schwab and I love the whole Villains world so you’d think I’d have got to them by now, but then I do always use comics to catch up on my Goodreads Challenge at the end of the year so if I had read them before now, I would have been in real trouble for the end of this year. Now the question is, will I cave and read the final two before December this year?

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2023?:

“Books are a way we leave a mark on the world aren’t they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved, and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway across the world, but the words cannot be unread, the stories cannot be untold. They do live on in this library but more importantly, they live on in anyone who has read them.” -The Librarian of Burned Books, Brianna Labuskes

See why I said this was the most beautiful writing I read in 2023? This quote really beautifully summarises essentially what the entire plot of the book is about.

16. Shortest And Longest Books You Read In 2023?

Shortest Book (comic!): ExtraOrdinary #0 by VE Schwab-24 pages

Longest Book: The Adventures Of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty-496 pages (a fairly short read for my longest read of the year, most have been 500+, this was apparently not a year for super long reads!).

Since I’ve not read a Sarah J Maas book in a few years, you can expect to see some different authors appearing here now!

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?:

There were definitely some moments in Killers Of A Certain Age that left me on the edge of my seat with my mouth hanging open (metaphorically anyway, I tend to read on public transport so this would not have been a good look!).

18. OTP of The Year?

This has not been a romance heavy year for me at all, in fact I can hardly think of many romantic relationships that I read about in books this year. I think Zofia and Daric from The Keeper of Hidden Books probably had the sweetest and most genuine connection, so I’ll go with them.

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year?

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have such a fun friendship and their dynamic was one of the main reasons why I enjoyed Killers of A Certain Age so much, so definitely them.

20. Favourite Book You Read In 2023 From An Author You Read Previously?

Definitely The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, I love Shannon Chakraborty’s books so much and I can’t wait to read her next one!

21. Best Book You Read In 2023 That You Read Based Solely On A Recommendation From Someone Else/Bookstagram/Peer Pressure?

I think Killers of A Certain Age was one I added to my TBR in 2022 because I saw it on someone’s blog, and I finally got around to reading it last year and loved it, so thank you to whoever that person was!

22. Newest Cinnamon Roll Character From 2023?

This is my alternative to the fictional crush question as I decided I didn’t want to do that one anymore. I loved Tinbu from The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, he’s such a sweetheart and his attachment to the useless ship cat Payasom was incredibly endearing.

23. Best 2023 Debut You Read?

I think The Golden Spoon was my only debut book this year and I wasn’t a huge fan, so none for me this year. Was not a banner year of debut reading for me.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Shannon Chakraborty painted an incredible picture of all the different people and cultures surrounding the Indian Ocean in the 12th century and we get to travel across quite a wide expanse of this world with Amina, which was really fun!

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

Without meaning to sound like a completely broken record, this was once again, The Adventures of Amina-Al Sirafi. Amina and her crew were so funny that they often had me in fits of giggles, particularly my Poison Queen Dalila.

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry In 2023?

The Keeper of Hidden Books definitely had me near the verge of tears at multiple points during the book, as to be expected with a book about WWII.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Lauren Graham’s second essay collection, Have I Told You This Already? was a lot of fun and I don’t think as many people have heard about it as her first book Talking As Fast As I Can because there’s less of a Gilmore Girls connection. If you enjoyed her first book of essays, I would definitely recommend reading this one as well.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

There were lots of moments in The Keeper of Hidden Books that absolutely crushed me.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2023?

This was probably Robin Ince’s book, Bibliomaniac, it was very fun but a little odd, it was all about a bookshop tour he did in 2021 to promote his new book after the planned big stadium tour got cancelled and he talked about all the various bookshops he visited so it was kind of part bookshop tour but also went off on various tangents about other things and was slightly mad and chaotic but generally a lot of fun. I can’t certainly say I’ve never read anything else like it.

30. Book That Made You Most Mad?

The Golden Spoon. I was promised MURDER. Not a passing reference to a murder in the beginning and then not finding out who actually got murdered until like 2/3 of the way through the book and just barely finding out the murderer in the epilogue!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life:

1. New Favourite Blog/Bookstagram/YouTube Channel You Discovered In 2023?

As always I find it really hard to keep track of these! Can I do a non-bookish one? I think I discovered Mickey Jo Theatre’s YouTube channel at the end of 2022 but I started properly watching his videos in 2023 so I’m going to count that here? It’s not books, it’s theatre but I honestly can’t think of a book one!

2. Favourite Post You Wrote In 2023?:

I loved doing my independent bookshop tours last year and the first London Indie bookshop tour post I did will always have a special place in my heart. I can’t wait to do more next year!:

Jo Talks Books: Independent Bookshop Tour of South London

3. Favourite Bookish Photo You Took In 2023?:

Not taken by me but the level of fangirling on my face when I finally met Leigh Bardugo in January is quite something to behold (also I just really love that outfit!):

4. Best Bookish Event You Participated In?:

YALC is always the highlight of the year for me and it was so great to be back there with Hannah last year after she missed out in 2022. Very excited for the 10th anniversary of YALC this year!

5. Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life This Year?:

It has to be finally meeting Leigh Bardugo, it was a very long time coming, I’d been waiting a good six years since I read Six of Crows to finally actually be able to go to one of her events and I was so bummed when I missed out on her Ninth House London event because of work and living in Cambridge at the time so I was thrilled to get to go to her Hell Bent London event this year.

6. Most Challenging Thing About Bookish/Blogging Life In This Year?

Definitely keeping up with reviews, honestly I hardly even tried in 2023. I think for this year I am going to have to look at how I do reviews and find a way to make it more sustainable because what I’ve been doing for the last couple of years really hasn’t been working. I may do a mini-review roundup every couple of months rather than individual reviews for each book? I don’t know, if anyone has any suggestions of how to make reviewing more sustainable, please offer them!

7. Most Popular Post On Your Blog This Year (by comments or views)?

Views is always easier to keep track of, so I’ll do that again this year. My most viewed post of 2023 was oddly my Book Vs Movie post of My Sister’s Keeper which is one I did all the way back in 2019. I’m not sure what exactly caused the resurgence but I’m glad so many people are still finding that post and enjoying my very salty thoughts on the terrible My Sister’s Keeper movie.

8. Post You Wish Got A Little More Love?

I definitely wish my Bookshop Tour posts got a little more love because I always have so much fun doing them and the actual posts tend to get very little response! This is the one specifically for my local area in London:

Jo Talks Books: Independent Bookshop Tour of South West London

9. Best Bookish Discovery This Year?

I’m not sure I had one this year!

10. Did You Complete Any Reading Challenges Or Goals You Set For Yourself This Year?

Yes! My End of Year Check In will be coming later in the week.

Looking Ahead:

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2023 But Will Be Your Top Priority In 2024?

I did start VE Schwab’s The Fragile Threads of Power in 2023, but I have not finished it, in fact I’m not very far through at all, so finishing that will be one of my top priorities for this year.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2024 (non-debut)?

Has to be The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang. It was meant to be out in 2023 but the release date got pushed, so this was the first year since 2021 that I’ve not read a Kate Quinn book. I’m so excited to dive back into her books in 2024, especially since she has two coming out!

3. 2024 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I don’t actually have any on my radar yet, my 2024 releases shelf on Goodreads is surprisingly slender at the moment! I will be looking up more for our anticipated releases Top Ten Tuesday in a couple of weeks and I imagine I will find out about more throughout the year.

4. Series Ending/Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2024?

I mean I have lost some excitement for it as it’s just taken so long, but I am very intrigued to see how Children of Anguish and Anarchy wraps up the Orisha trilogy after all this time.

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Blogging Life In 2024?

Sort out the mess my review posting has become! It’s my main priority for 2024, I don’t want to be scrambling to write all my unwritten reviews at the end of the year or to just not write many at all like I did this year. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but my top priority for 2024 is to come up with a more sustainable system for doing reviews.

6. A 2024 Release You’ve Already Read And Recommended To Everyone?

None! I stopped doing Netgalley several years ago and I’ve been much better for it, so no 2024 recommendations from me yet unfortunately!

How was your 2023 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading this year? Let me know in the comments!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a good New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and are ready to dive into 2024. I’ll have my next Top Ten Tuesday for you all tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that.

End of Year Book Survey (2022)

Hi everyone! I totally meant to have this up for you yesterday, but it was quite a busy day and I just didn’t get the time, so you’re getting my annual End of Year Book Survey as a New Year’s Day treat instead! This is a survey created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner which I do every year as a way of looking back and celebrating my year of reading and blogging. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here.

2022 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 20

Number of Rereads: 0

Genre You Read The Most From: Historical Fiction

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2022?

It’s another memoir this year, and the third year in a row that my favourite read has been a non-fiction book-I don’t read many but when I do they always seem to top the list! Anyway, my favourite book this year was Chanel Miller’s memoir, Know My Name, such a powerful, painful, hopeful and beautiful book and it’s definitely a book that’s going to stick with me long after reading it. Reading about sexual assault is never something I find easy, but I’m definitely glad I listened to this book and got to hear Chanel tell her story in her own words.

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

When Women Were Dragons. Ugh, I’m still so mad about this one. It should have been perfect for me, feminist, historical and dragons? How could that not be a winning combination? Well sadly, Kelly Barnhill did something I didn’t think was possible and made dragons boring for me. It was just such a slow, boring book and there weren’t anywhere near enough dragons for my liking. I’d heard such good things and I was so excited but I just ended up very disappointed.

3. Most Surprising (In A Good Or Bad Way) Book You Read?

Portrait of A Thief surprised me in a bad way (I know in an unusual turn for me, I’m talking about a bad surprise this year), because I was expecting this fast-paced, exciting book with lots of heists and it ended up being more of a slow introspection of identity and diaspora experience. This would have been totally fine if that was what I was expecting, but I was expecting a heist novel and it was kind of light on the heists! I was so excited to be getting five potential heists and felt like I was duped slightly!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read And They Did?

I don’t think either have read it yet, but I recommended Looking For Jane to both my sister and my friend Nicola.

5. Best Series You Started In 2022? Best Sequel of 2022? Best Series Ender of 2022?

I only read the one series starter in 2022 and I actually wasn’t that big of a fan of it (This Poison Heart), and I’ve decided I probably won’t read the second book of the duology, so it would seem wrong to say it was the best series starter I read in 2022 just because it was the only one. So once again, I have nothing for series starter this year!

Best sequel of 2022, also the only one I read in 2022, was The River of Silver, by S.A. Chakraborty. I’m not entirely sure if this counts as a sequel, as it’s a collection of short stories, and not all of them take place after the end of the series, some take place during and some take place before, and it’s probably really more of a companion book than a sequel, but I’ll count it as a sequel for the purposes of this.

Best series ender of 2022, again I’m going to have to get creative here because I really didn’t read many series books this year, 2022 was all about the standalones! But I suppose the final issue of The Night Of Knives arc of VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic comics is a series ender of a sort, as it’s the end of that particular arc of the comics and it was my favourite comic of the arc as I brought the Night of Knives to a thrilling conclusion, so I guess I’ll go with that!

6. Favourite New Author You Read In 2022?

Heather Marshall! Her debut, Looking For Jane was one of the standout books of the year for me, and I will be eagerly anticipating her next book. Her website says to look for her next book in 2024, so I guess that’s next year now!

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Usually Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

I’ll say Vol 4 of the Night of Knives arc of VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic comics for this one as comics aren’t usually my thing, I still have only really read VE Schwab’s comics but it’s a format that I never would have tried if it hadn’t been for her comics, and I’ve ended up really enjoying them and comics/graphic novels may be a format that I seek out more in the future now.

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

More for the unputdownable part that the action packed or thrilling, but I’m going to go with Know My Name by Chanel Miller again for this one. I was utterly gripped and flew through it in just over a week and a half which is quite quick for me for an audiobook of that length but I really couldn’t stop listening to Chanel’s story.

9. Book You Read In 2022 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread Again This Year?

None, I’ve pretty much accepted at this point that rereading is something I no longer have time to do!

10. Favourite Cover Of A Book You Read In 2022?

I’ll be honest and say it’s not been a banner year for covers for me, I’ve read mostly historical fiction this year and much as I love them, they do tend to have rather dull covers. Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the actual story, I do still really love the cover for This Poison Heart, I love all the vibrant colours and it’s always great to see Black girls featured on book covers.

11. Most Memorable Character of 2022?

Is it slightly weird if I’m choosing a character who was a real person? Maybe, but I have to go with Lyudmila Pavlichenko. What an absolute firecracker of a woman, if I’d been alive at the time, I would have loved/been slightly scared to meet her!

12. Most Beautifully Written Book of 2022?

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin. Martin describes her settings of 1940s Lisbon and Lyon in such a way that you really feel like you’re there, walking the streets alongside her characters. She also was able to really get across the emotions of the story through her words in such a way that I felt everything that Ava and Elaine were feeling and going through in the story.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/Life Changing Book You Read This Year?

I’ve used Know My Name a couple of times now, so instead I’ll go with Looking For Jane here. I learned a lot about the history of abortion rights in Canada, and the maternity home system which abused so many women and forced them into giving up their babies so it definitely had me thinking about a part of history that I wasn’t all that familiar with, and also if it was possible, entrenched my belief in the need for reproductive rights for all women and people with uteruses even more!

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2022 to read?

Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham. It’s one of those books that I’d been meaning to read for years, but I was always distracted by something else new and shiny and didn’t really read non-fiction all that much before about 2019/2020 so despite being a massive Gilmore Girls fan, I hadn’t read it yet. Still, I finally did last year and I’m so glad I did because it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed listening to all her stories from the Gilmore Girls set!

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2022?

“My pain was never more valuable than his potential.” -Know My Name, Chanel Miller

There are many incredibly powerful quotes/sections from this book, but this is the one line that has really stuck with me ever since reading it.

16. Shortest and Longest Books You Read In 2022:

Shortest Book (comic!): The Rebel Army #2 by VE Schwab-32 pages

Longest Book: Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini-608 pages

Another year with no Sarah J Maas, so I got another different author as my longest read!

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

There was a twist in Looking For Jane that completely knocked me for six and I actually had to go back and rewind and listen again to make sure I’d heard right because I couldn’t believe it!

18. OTP of The Year?

I’ve really not read that many books with all that much romance in them this year once again, but I guess if I had to pick one, Edwin and Robin from A Marvellous Light probably had the relationship that I was most invested in of the books I read this year.

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year?

I loved the relationship between Nancy and Evelyn in Looking For Jane, though if I said much more about it, I’d probably be going into spoilery territory, so I’ll just leave it at that.

20. Favourite Book You Read In 2022 From An Author You Read Previously?

The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn once again knocked it out of the park with her most recent release. I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything I’ve read from her, and I can’t wait for her latest novel, The Phoenix Crown (co-written with Janie Chang) to be released in September.

21. Best Book You Read In 2022 That You Read Based Solely On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Bookstagram/Peer Pressure?

I’m pretty sure Looking For Jane was one that I came across on someone else’s book blog, I’m almost certain it was a Top Ten Tuesday list, but I can’t remember exactly whose it was now. Whoever it was, thank you very much!

22. Newest Cinnamon Roll Character From 2022?

My alternative to the fictional crush question as I decided I didn’t want to do that one anymore. It might be a bit strange to describe Edwin Courcey from A Marvellous Light as a cinnamon roll character as he’s quite prickly but he definitely fits the bill of “character I would protect at all costs” and he has a softer side, so I think he fits the bill here.

23. Best 2022 Debut You Read?

This can’t be a surprise given how much it has already come up on this list so far: Looking For Jane. Heather Marshall wrote such a powerful, emotional book and as I said before, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

I mentioned this one in a previous answer, Madeline Martin really made 1940s Lisbon and Lyon come alive in The Librarian Spy and had me desperately wanting to visit Lisbon in particular!

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

Lauren Graham’s Talking As Fast As I Can had me laughing pretty much the entire way through.

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry In 2022?

I’m going to sound like a bit of a broken record here, but Looking For Jane had me on the verge of tears multiple times throughout the book.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

The Mad Girls of New York. If you’re not familiar with Nellie Bly (and you absolutely should be, she was an incredible woman), Maya Rodale did a fantastic job of telling the story of her infamous stint in Blackwell’s Island Asylum for her most famous articles, a two part series titled “Behind Asylum Bars” and “Into The Madhouse” respectively. It’s not one I’ve seen a lot of people talking about, which I think is a shame because I found it a really enjoyable book. It’s listed as Nellie Bly #1 on Goodreads, so I’m hoping this means Rodale will chronicle more of Nellie’s escapades, as they would be very fun to read about: fingers crossed for her Around The World In 72 Days piece as the focus for the next book if there is one!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

There were many moments in The Librarian Spy that completely crushed me.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2022?

Life After Life is probably the book that most fits the bill for this one as the premise follows the main character Ursula as she dies and is reborn over and over again, having chances to fix the mistakes she made in previous lives. It wasn’t my favourite book of the year, it was a little dull and repetitive (I actually enjoyed the TV mini-series more) but it’s certainly an intriguing premise.

30. Book That Made You Most Mad?

I’ve already talked about it, but When Women Were Dragons. WHEN I AM PROMISED DRAGONS, I EXPECT ALL THE DRAGONS DARN IT.

Your Blogging/Bookish Life:

1. New Favourite Blog/Bookstagram/YouTube Channel You Discovered In 2022?

Did I discover any of these this year? I always find it really hard to keep track! Can I say something non-book related and say that Good Boy Ollie is my favourite new Instagram account discovery of the year? What’s not to love about a cute Labrador doing weekly activities? NOTHING.

2. Favourite Post You Wrote In 2022?

It’s always really hard to pick these, but I am very proud that I created my own original book tag for Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights. It was a lot of work but very fun to do!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/midnights-book-tag/

3. Favourite Bookish Photo You Took In 2022?

It’s not actually of books but it me at a bookish event so I think it counts? Anyway, I love this one of me and my new friend Heather, who I met at YALC back in July (though I didn’t actually take it!)

4. Best Bookish Event You Participated In?

That last one leads quite nicely into this one as the best bookish event this year was obviously the return of YALC in July. I missed it so much and it was so wonderful to be back this year. However, it was sad that Hannah wasn’t able to make it this year, it wasn’t the same without her and I hope we’ll be back there together next year!

5. Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life In 2022?

I loved meeting Heather at YALC this year, I was so nervous to go by myself, so finding a new friend really made the weekend much more enjoyable than it would have been if I’d been on my own the whole time.

6. Most Challenging Thing About Your Blogging/Bookish Life This Year?

I’ve not read as much as I’d have liked, it’s just been a bit of a slow year for me, so I’m hoping next year I will be able to read a lot more.

7. Most Popular Post On Your Blog This Year (by comments or views?)

Views are always easier to keep track of, so I’m going with that again this year. In a bit of an odd turn this year, my most viewed post was a discussion post (which are hardly ever my most viewed posts!), it was one from six years ago where I talked about if reading could be an addiction and whether that was really a bad thing which was an interesting post to write. It was reasonably well received at the time, but it seems to have had somewhat of a resurgence recently, which I love, it’s always great to see my older posts still getting some love.

8. Post You Wish Got A Little More Love?

Once again, I’m going to plug my most recent Quarterly Rewind as they always take me an age to write!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/quarterly-rewind-september-december-22-edition/

9. Best Bookish Discovery This Year?

I got these really cute book stack earrings from Coryographies back in April which got a ton of compliments when I wore them to YALC back in July!

Here’s a link to Cory’s shop if you’d like a pair for yourself (this isn’t sponsored, I just really love these earrings!): https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Coryographies?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=91567095

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals you set yourself at the beginning of the year?

Yes! You can find out more details about that in my End of Year Check In post here.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2022 But Will Be Your Top Priority In 2023?

I had Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner on several seasonal TBR lists in 2022 but never got to it, so it’s one that is definitely high up on my audiobook list for 2023.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2023 (non-debut)?

The as yet untitled first book in the Threads of Power series by VE Schwab. We’re going back to the Shades of Magic world and I could not be more excited!

3. 2023 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I actually only came across this one in November when looking for books to get in the double stamps deal Waterstones did on Black Friday, but I’m already super hyped for it: Death of A Bookseller by Alice Slater. It sounds so good, a true crime addicted bookseller getting dangerously obsessed with the bookshop’s newest employee? I AM IN.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2023?

Hell Bent, the sequel to Ninth House: it has been a WHILE and I’m looking forward to seeing what misadventures Alex, Darlington and Dawes get up to in the next book.

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Blogging Life In 2023?

I’ve got a lot of series to finish on my shelf so I’d really like to make a dent in some of those if I can.

6. A 2023 Release You’ve Already Read And Recommended To Everyone?

None! I’ve kind of stopped doing Netgalley for the time being and I’ve not really missed it that much? The pressure of getting a book read by the release date, and nearly always failing to do that always felt a bit stressful and I’ve been much more relaxed about my reading since I’ve not been reading arcs, so I’m sticking with that for the moment!

How was your 2022 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading this year? Let me know in the comments!

Well that’s it! Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all had a good New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and are ready to start 2023. I’ll be back with more posts next week, the first is likely to be my first TTT of 2023 on Tuesday.

End of Year Book Survey 2021

Hi everyone! We made it to the end of another pandemic year, congratulations to us! As ever with the end of the year, comes the annual End of Year Book Survey, created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back and celebrating our year of reading and blogging. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here.

2021 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 24 (or it will be by the end of the day, I’m a couple of hours off finishing my last audiobook of the year).

Number of rereads: 0

Genre you read the most from: Fantasy

Best In Books:

1. Best Book You Read In 2021?

This is the audiobook I’m currently finishing, but I will have by the end of the day, so I’m counting it! Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime is incredibly funny but also an extremely enlightening memoir about growing up in South Africa during Apartheid and the years following. I’m about 2 hours from the end, and it’s definitely one of the most entertaining memoirs I’ve ever read.

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Definitely Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn. I was so excited to read this book as it sounded like everything I usually love, found family, historical setting, heists…..it had everything that should have made it a winner for me. Sadly it ended up feeling rushed and messy, the characters were poorly developed and the found family vibes were practically non-existent because all the characters seemed to hate each other. Big disappointment.

3. Most Surprising (In A Good or Bad Way) Book You Read?

The Last Bookshop In London by Madeline Martin, and definitely in a good way! It was something I picked up completely on a whim after seeing it on someone’s Top Ten Tuesday post one week, and I had zero expectations because I knew hardly anything about either the book or the author, but I ended up really enjoying it, it was such a lovely story about community spirit during the Blitz and how a shared love of books brought people together!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read and They Did?

I recommended The Alice Network by Kate Quinn to my friend Hannah, she didn’t love it as much as I did, but oh well, you can’t win them all!

5. Best Series You Started In 2021? Best Sequel of 2021? Best Series Ender of 2021?

Honestly I have nothing for series starter this year! I’ve read a few series starters, but they were all among my least favourite books of the year (Dangerous Remedy, The Poppy War and The Bear and The Nightingale) so yeah, I’m going to have to go with nothing this year, for the first time in the history of me doing these surveys!

Best sequel of 2021 is technically also a series ender but I’m going to use it in this section as I have another book for series ender, and that’s A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown. I didn’t love it as much as the first book in the series, and the ending wasn’t as satisfying as I would have liked, but I loved the characters and the narration of the audiobook was brilliant.

Best series ender of 2021 was The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee, it was a really satisfying end to the series, and I loved getting to meet Adrian properly and seeing all three Montague siblings together at last.

6. Favourite New Author You Read In 2021?

This has to be Kate Quinn, both of her books I read this year, The Rose Code and The Alice Network made it into my Favourite Books of 2021 list, and I’m so excited for her latest release, The Diamond Eye to come out next year. She write female focused historical fiction mysteries, what about that is not to love?

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

I’ll go with Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime for this as though I’ve been attempting to read more non-fiction in recent years, it’s still not a genre that I reach for often. I want to change that though because I’ve had a lot of success with the non-fiction I’ve been reading recently, all three memoirs I read this year made it onto my Favourite Books of 2021 list.

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

This might be a strange choice, but I’d go with I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai’s memoir for this one, more for the unputdownable part than the other two. I found I Am Malala really engaging, and finished it in less than a week, which is very unusual for me.

9. Book You Read In 2021 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread Again This Year?

Again, likely none. I just don’t really have time for rereads anymore.

10. Favourite Cover of A Book You Read In 2021?

Could it really be anything else? This is possibly one of my favourite covers ever, not just from this year. It’s just so gorgeous and every time I look at it, it reminds me of Christmas, which is my favourite time of year.

11. Most Memorable Character of 2021?

Eve Gardiner from The Alice Network, without a doubt. Eve is such a firecracker of a woman, so feisty and brave and funny and just the exact kind of female character that I always instantly connect with.

12. Most Beautifully Written Book of 2021?

Whilst I may not have loved it as much as everyone else did, I have to admit that The Song of Achilles was beautifully written. Madeline Miller has such a lovely writing style, I can’t wait to see what she writes next (and yes I’ve already read Circe).

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book You Read This Year?

Definitely I Am Malala, Hannah and I talked a lot about the things that we found interesting about the book and it made me wish I’d appreciated school more when I was a teenager!

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Till 2021 to read?

I mean I only found out about The Alice Network because I read Kate Quinn’s 2021 release The Rose Code, so I didn’t exactly wait till 2021 to read it, I genuinely hadn’t heard about it before this year. I wish I had though, as if I’d heard about it earlier and known how much I was going to enjoy it, I would definitely have read it earlier.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2021?

“It’s going somewhere without ever taking a train or ship, an unveiling of new incredible worlds. It’s living a life you weren’t born into and a chance to see everything coloured by someone else’s perspective. It’s learning without having to face the consequences of failures, and how best to succeed….I think that within all of us, there is a void, a gap waiting to be filled by something. For me, that something is books….and all their proffered experiences.” -The Last Bookshop In London, Madeline Martin

This passage really captures what I love so much about reading!

16. Shortest and Longest Books You Read In 2021:

Shortest Book (comic!): Night of Knives #2 by VE Schwab-30 pages

Longest Book: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn-624 pages

Once again, I didn’t read any Sarah J Maas this year, so a different author had the chance to be longest book of the year again!

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

I mean I have to go with We Were Liars by E. Lockhart for this one, I may not have loved it as much as I was hoping to, but that ending definitely knocked me off guard!

18. OTP of the Year?

Honestly I can’t remember feeling massively invested in any romances this year, again, it was all about the friendships and family bonds for me. If I was going to pick one, I’d probably go with Enrique and Zofia from The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi as I think they had the most convincing connection of the couples I read about this year.

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of the Year?

I’m going to go with a sibling group here and choose the Montague Siblings, Monty, Felicity and Adrian from The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks. I loved finally getting to see the siblings all together, and seeing them get to know each other and bond throughout the course of the book.

20. Favourite Book You Read In 2021 From An Author You Read Previously?

The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks, I really enjoyed the previous two books in Mackenzi Lee’s Montague Siblings series, and Adrian’s book really did provide the perfect ending for the Montagues. It was such a long wait from Felicity’s book to Adrian’s (for completely understandable reasons), so I was so happy that Adrian’s book was such an enjoyable and satisfying read.

21. Best Book You Read In 2021 That You Read Based Solely On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Bookstagram/Peer Pressure?

I only picked up The Rose Code because I saw an ad on my Instagram about it and I’m so happy I did, because I loved it and now have a new favourite author in Kate Quinn.

22. Newest Cinnamon Roll Character From 2021?

This was originally fictional crush, but I decided to change it last year as I felt kind of weird describing the teenagers I read about as fictional crushes given that I’m now 25! So I decided to change it to cinnamon roll character, the sweet character that you want to protect at all costs, and this year that’s Adrian Montague from The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks.

23. Best 2021 debut you read?

I actually didn’t read any 2021 debuts this year! So I’m going to cheat slightly, and pick a 2020 debut that I read this year, and go with Andrew Cotter’s Olive, Mabel and Me, his memoir about his life with lockdown superstar Labradors, Olive and Mabel. The audiobook was only released this year, so I guess it half counts?

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

The Rose Code definitely had the most vivid setting, Kate Quinn really made Bletchley Park come to life with her writing.

25. Book That Put A Smile on Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

Again probably Olive, Mabel and Me. Andrew Cotter is naturally a brilliant narrator and his stories of Olive and Mabel really made me laugh!

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry in 2021?

I definitely almost cried at parts of The Alice Network, I won’t say what they were and risk spoilers, but if you’ve read the book, you know.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

The Last Bookshop In London definitely! I never would have known about it if I’d not seen on someone’s blog for Top Ten Tuesday and I think that’s such a shame as it’s such a lovely and heart-warming little book!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

The Alice Network. There were definitely a lot of moments that were emotional gut punches.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2021?

It wasn’t a favourite, but The Left-Handed Booksellers Of London by Garth Nix definitely wins for most unique book of the year, it’s a very quirky book with lots of different mythological influences, with the ancient world meeting the modern world and a group of magical booksellers who police the ancient world when it intrudes on ours. There were certain aspects of this book that didn’t work for me, but the idea was definitely very unique.

30. Book That Made You Most Mad?

Probably Dangerous Remedy because I was expecting it to be so good, and found it so bad!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life:

1. New Favourite Blog/Bookstagram/YouTube Channel you discovered in 2021?

I find it super hard to keep track of these, and honestly I’m not sure I really did? So instead, I’m going to go slightly off course, and talk about a favourite new Twitter account I followed this year, which has absolutely nothing to do with books (well okay, she has written books so it’s slightly to do with books, but the reason I followed has nothing to do with books) and talk about Blair Braverman (@BlairBraverman) whose posts about her sled dogs have really been a bright spot this year. If you love dogs, I highly recommend following her for entertaining dog tweets (and cute pictures!).

2. Favourite Post You Wrote In 2021?

The post I had the most fun doing this year is one from back in January, the Evermore Book Tag. I love doing Taylor Swift themed book tags, and this one had such good prompts!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/20/evermore-book-tag/

3. Favourite Bookish Photo You Took In 2021?

I really loved this one as it gave me an excuse to use one of my snow globes in a Bookstagram picture, The Mask Falling is set in Paris and the snow globe I used was one from Paris (in case you can’t tell, I know it’s kind of small in the picture!).

4. Best Bookish Event You Participated In (author signings, virtual events, festivals etc):

Once again, another year without YALC, so instead of that, I’m going with the livestream of Andrew Cotter’s book event with Olive and Mabel. I would have loved to have seen them in person, but I still found the livestream really enjoyable.

5. Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life In 2021?

It’s kind of hard to pick for this year as obvious things like in-person book events haven’t really been happening, but I did have a fun bookish video call with Hannah and Hannah earlier in the year where we basically just sat and chatted about books for a couple of hours which was really fun.

6. Most challenging thing about your blogging/bookish life this year?

I think that I’ve been in such a slump this year! Without audiobooks, I really would not have read much this year at all, so I’m very grateful to them. I’m hoping that next year will be a better year for physical books and that I’ll read a lot more books than I have this year.

7. Most Popular Post On Your Blog This Year (by comments or views?)

I’m doing views again this year as I find it easier to keep track of. This year my most viewed post was my review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, in a big surprise, all of my top five most viewed posts were reviews, which is very unusual as they’re usually my least loved posts!

8. Post You Wish Got A Little More Love?

I’d love it if my Quarterly Rewind posts got a bit more love as they take me so long to write! This is my most recent one if anyone would like to check it out:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/22/quarterly-rewind-september-december-21-edition/

9. Best Bookish Discovery This Year?

I don’t know if I had one!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?

Yes! You can find more details about that in my End of Year Check In post here.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2021 But Will Be Your Top Priority In 2022?

I really wanted to get to Liberte, by Gita Trelease this year as it had been two years since Enchantee came out and I was really excited to read the sequel. I didn’t manage to get to it this year, but it’s definitely one I want to prioritise for next year.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2022 (non debut)?

Naturally, I’m super excited for the latest VE Schwab book, Gallant, to release in March as her books are always favourites of mine!

3. 2022 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Definitely Grace D. Li’s Portrait of A Thief, IT’S COLLEGE STUDENTS AND HEISTS. What is not to love? Hopefully nothing!

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2022?

The final book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Until The End, releases in March and though I don’t entirely trust Derek when he says this is the end (he has said it once before), I’m excited to see how the series wraps up. I do still need to read Book 14 though!

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2022?

Once again, I have the noble but probably unlikely goal of making my 80% Netgalley ratio. It probably won’t happen but a girl can dream.

6. A 2022 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

None actually, given how much I struggled getting through my 2021 arcs on Netgalley this year, I thought it would be wise not to request any more!

How was your 2021 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading in 2022? Let me know in the comments!

This is my final blog post of 2021, so I hope you all have a good New Year’s Eve, however you’re spending it, and I will have my first blog post of 2022 for you guys up next week, it will likely be my first Top Ten Tuesday of the year. In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone and I’ll see you in 2022!

End Of Year Book Survey 2020

Hi everyone! So we’re here again, the end of the year, the longest year in the history of all years, and I don’t know about you, but I am super glad that 2020 will soon be over. Anyway, with the end of the year, comes the annual End of Year Book Survey, created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back and celebrating our year of reading and blogging. I always love doing this, but this year it feels even more important to be able to celebrate something, as there has been so little of that this year. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here:

11th Annual End Of Year Survey – 2020 edition!!

2020 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 45 (or at least it will be by tomorrow!).

Number of rereads: 0

Genre you read the most from: Fantasy

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2020?

Laura Bates’ Men Who Hate Women was definitely an eye opening, and slightly terrifying read, I knew a little about online misogyny (mainly Incels) but I had no idea the full extent of it, so I definitely learned a lot from this book. I don’t read much non-fiction but this one was definitely a very powerful read, and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

This has to be Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I had been super excited about it since I read the first book in Summer 2018, and I had really high expectations. Unfortunately, it definitely suffered from a severe case of middle book syndrome, the plot felt like it was going around in circles and the characters regressed.

3. Most Surprising (In A Good Or Bad Way) Book You Read?

The Gilded Wolves! I’d heard a lot of very mixed things about it, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I would think, but I ended up really loving it, it was one of my favourite books of the year. I can’t wait to read the sequel next year!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read And They Did?

Again, I never really know what to respond for this question, as I tend to only push books on my IRL friends and I haven’t been seeing them as much as I’d have liked this year. I feel like The Gilded Wolves and The City of Brass are probably the two I’ve talked about the most here this year, so I’ll go with them!

5. Best Series You Started In 2020? Best Sequel of 2020? Best Series Ender of 2020?

Best series I started in 2020, I’m going to go with The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, it was such a fun read and I cannot wait to read the sequel, The Silvered Serpents next year.

Best sequel I read in 2020 was The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy, I really loved Felicity in Gentleman’s Guide so it was great to have her take the starring role in this book and it was a super fun read. I’m really looking forward to the final Montague Siblings book next year.

Best series ender I read in 2020, I actually only read 3 but my favourite of those was definitely The King of Crows, the final book in the Diviners series. Sure the pacing was a little off in places, but it tied up in a really satisfying way which is what you want in a series finale.

(I realise only one of these was a 2020 release, but I read them all in 2020, so that counts!)

6. Favourite New Author I Read In 2020

Ah this is really hard because I read so many great new authors in 2020, but I’m going to go with S.A. Chakraborty as once I read The City of Brass in April, I enjoyed it so much that I quickly read The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold in the next couple of months.

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Laura Bates Men Who Hate Women, I’m not usually a non-fiction reader, but I really enjoyed that one and I’m definitely planning on getting to more of my feminist non-fiction next year.

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Not Even Bones definitely fits the bill for this one, it was a quick, action packed read that I flew through in less than two weeks (which is very quick for me).

9. Book You Read In 2020 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread Again This Year?

Probably none, I’ve pretty much accepted by now that I just have so many new books to read that rereads just aren’t really something I have time for anymore.

10. Favourite Cover Of A Book You Read In 2020?

VE Schwab’s books always have gorgeous covers, and this one is one of her best. I had an e-arc of this, but I also have a physical copy for my collection because it’s just such a gorgeous book. My copy is the Waterstones exclusive edition, it has gold stained pages, these beautiful endpapers, a secret cover under the dust jacket, it’s just one of the loveliest books I’ve ever seen.

11. Most Memorable Character of 2020?

Could I choose anyone other than Addie LaRue for this? Addie definitely has a lot more strength and endurance than me, I don’t think I could go through three hundred years being forgotten by everyone.

12. Most Beautifully Written Book of 2020?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue had to be my choice for this one. It’s one of the most gorgeously written books I’ve ever read, I was completely in awe of it!

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book You Read This Year?

I think Men Who Hate Women fits really well for this section, because I learned so much from that book. I’m really amazed at Laura Bates’ bravery at going undercover in all those extreme misogynist groups because that was really risky to her own safety and I don’t think I could ever do anything like that!

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Till 2020?

I mean it only came out in 2019, but if I’d known how much I was going to enjoy A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, I would have read it as soon as it came out because it’s the best thriller I’ve read in a while, and another of my favourite books of the year.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2020?

“History is something you look back on, not something you really feel at the time. In the moment, you’re just….living” -The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, VE Schwab

This quote just feels really apt for what we’re living through right now. Like sure, it’s going to be looked back on in the future as this big historical event, but at the moment it just feels like something we’re trying to get through to the other side of!

16. Shortest and Longest Books You Read In 2020:

Shortest Book: Coraline by Neil Gaiman-162 pages

Longest Book; The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty-766 pages

The first year since 2017 that Sarah J Maas hasn’t been in the top spot, actually I didn’t read any Sarah J Maas books at all this year!

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

Probably The Empire of Gold, there were a lot of shockers in the final chapters of that book, it was an incredibly intense conclusion!

18. OTP Of The Year

Honestly I feel like the relationships I remember most from this year are friendships more than romances? But I think Severin and Laila from The Gilded Wolves had pretty great chemistry, so I’m going to go with them.

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year

I’m going with a group here, and say Severin, Laila, Hypnos, Enrique, Tristan and Zofia, their group dynamic was super fun and I can’t wait to read more of their adventures in The Silvered Serpents.

20. Favourite Book You Read In 2020 From An Author You Read Previously?

Is anyone going to be surprised when I say The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue again here? Good, I’m glad you’re not. Honestly VE Schwab keeps knocking it out of the park with every book and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

21. Best Book You Read In 2020 That You Read Based Solely On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Bookstagram/Peer Pressure?

I saw A Song of Wraiths and Ruin on one of many lists of upcoming books by Black authors in June, and ended up reading it in November and really loved it! Looking forward to A Psalm of Storms and Silence next year.

22. Newest Cinnamon Roll Character From 2020?

I’ve actually tweaked this one slightly from Jamie’s original survey this year, since the further away I get from YA age, the weirder it seems to say you have a crush on a fictional teenager! So instead, I thought I’d share my favourite cinnamon roll character from this year, the character I want to protect at all costs, and that would be Malik from A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. Honestly poor Malik really needs a hug and a nap!

23. Best 2020 Debut You Read?

I read a few debut novels this year, but actually only one of them was from 2020, so it was a really easy choice: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin! It was a super fun read and I cannot wait for the sequel in 2021.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad trilogy definitely had the most vivid worldbuilding of all the books I read this year. Everything was really brilliantly thought out, with all the different Djinn tribes, the food, the languages, and it really took me away and completely immersed me in a different place.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

The Dead Queens’ Club was definitely a super fun read, it made me laugh out loud at points and made me smile a lot, I definitely recommend it if you’re a Tudor history nerd like me.

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry In 2020?

I definitely almost cried at the end of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, it was incredibly emotional.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

One of my favourite books that I didn’t really see very many people talking about this year was Addie Thorley’s Night Spinner, it was a really cool take on the Hunchback of Notre Dame and I loved the arctic tundra like setting.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Without meaning to sound like a broken record here, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue again. Honestly, I’m still recovering from those final chapters.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2020?

It might not have been as good as I was expecting, but The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult was definitely one of the most uniquely structured books I read this year, with the two parallel stories and the interwoven flashbacks.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad?

Men Who Hate Women, not because it wasn’t a great book, it was my favourite book of the year, but because it made me really mad that there are men out there who treat women in that way!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. New Favourite Blog/Bookstagram/Youtube Channel you discovered in 2020?

I’m so bad at keeping track of these, and even moreso this year because I’ve just sucked at keeping track at anything, but I think I started following Beth from BooksNest’s Instagram feed this year and she’s got such a lovely one, so definitely recommend following her.

2. Favourite Post You Wrote In 2020?

It’s quite a recent one, but I really enjoyed doing this Writing Corner post about being critique partners with my IRL best friend Hannah.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/20/writing-corner-on-being-critique-partners-with-my-best-friend/

3. Favourite Bookish Photo You Took In 2020?

I actually did take quite a few this year, I’m not the world’s best photographer, but I really liked this one I did of some naked hardcovers:

From left to right we have: The Gilded Wolves, The King of Scars and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

4. Best Bookish Event You Participated In (author signings, festivals, virtual events etc)

Well as we all know, no YALC this year, so instead I’ll go with the online Tolkein lecture panel, with VE Schwab, R.F. Kuang, Terri Windling, Kij Johnson, Adam Roberts and Lev Grossman, they did a talk on Fantasy In Times of Crisis and I thought it was really great. Definitely check it out on the Tolkein Lecture Youtube Channel because it’s still up!

5. Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life In 2020?

I’m actually going to go with a writing one for this one, I’ve really enjoyed swapping chapters with my friend Hannah, so that’s probably my favourite “Bookish” thing I’ve done this year, it really got me back into the writing swing after a year away.

6. Most challenging thing about your blogging/bookish life this year?

Weirdly, taking a break! I was really worried that when I went to Cape Town in January and took somewhat of a step back from the blog for the first time in six years that I’d come back and none of you would be reading anymore! Thankfully that didn’t happen and I’m really grateful for all your support this year, and every other year I’ve been doing this blog.

7. Most Popular Post On Your Blog This Year (by comments or views)?

I’m going to do views again this year as it’s much easier to keep track of! This year my most viewed post was my review of Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, which was a massive surprise as I’m so used to my reviews being the least viewed of my posts!

8. Post You Wish Got A Little More Love?

I’d love it if my most recent Quarterly Rewind post got a little more love, as they take a very long time for me to write!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/21/quarterly-rewind-september-december-20-edition/

9. Best Bookish Discovery This Year?

You know what, I don’t think I actually had one this year? I discovered a lot of great new authors, so let’s go with them!

10. Did You Complete Any Reading Challenges or Goals You Set For Yourself This Year?

Yes, you’ll hear more about them when I post my End of Year Check In tomorrow.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2020 But Will Be Your Top Priority In 2021?

It’s not actually a 2020 release, it’s a 2019 release, but I meant to read Sorcery of Thorns as part of a reading challenge I was doing this year and I just didn’t get to it, so it’s definitely one I want to prioritise next year.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2021 (non debut)?

The Mask Falling, the fourth instalment in Samantha Shannon’s Bone Season series. I read The Song Rising in 2017, and we’ve all been waiting a long time for this, so I’m super excited to find out what happens to Paige and Warden next.

3. 2021 debut you are most anticipating?

Honestly I have very few 2021 debuts on my radar, but I think the one I’m most anticipating is Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne, which I have an e-ARC for that I can’t wait to read.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2021?

Ah so many, but I think I’ll go with City of Spells here, the second and final book in Alexandra Christo’s Into The Crooked Place duology, I loved the first book when I read it in 2019 and am really looking forward to seeing how things end.

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2021?

GET MY NETGALLEY RATIO TO 80%. THE ELUSIVE GOAL. I’ve been stuck on or near 70% for years now, so I’d really like 2021 to be the year I finally do it.

6. A 2021 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

None actually, I’ve been catching up on my final 2020 e-arcs at the end of this year, so haven’t got started on my 2021 e-arcs yet. Got a lot waiting though!

How was your 2020 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading in 2021? Let me know in the comments!

End of Year Book Survey 2019

Hi everyone! It’s that time of year again, the end of another year and time for another end of year book survey. The survey was created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back and celebrating our year of reading and blogging. I’ve been doing this since 2015, and have found it a really great way to wrap up my year so I’m doing it again this year. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here:

9th Annual End Of Year Survey – 2018 edition!!

2019 reading stats:

Number of books you read: 42

Number of rereads: 0

Genre you read the most from: Fantasy

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2019

VE Schwab’s Vengeful was released in 2018, but being me, I didn’t get to it until this year and it was AMAZING. Even more complex than Vicious, the a-linear timeline works so well and the cast of characters, especially the new ones, Marcella and June are so brilliant. It’s an almost 600 page book but I flew through it in a matter of weeks, the plot was so gripping!

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But You Didn’t

I’m going to have to go with Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House for this one, I didn’t hate it, but I was expecting to really love it and in the end found it only okay, I think my expectations were just too high!

3. Most Surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read?

I think the Diviners series was probably my biggest surprise this year, it kind of passed me by when it came out, but my friend loved them and pushed me to read them and I devoured all three books in just three months! I can’t wait for the final book to come out next year!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read And They Did?

I’m never sure what to put for these because I only really push books on my two real life reader friends but I know the books I’ve been pushing most on the blog this year are Vengeful and King Of Fools so let’s go with those, even though I don’t know if many of you guys read them!

5. Best series you started in 2019? Best Sequel of 2019? Best series ended of 2019?

Okay best series I started in 2019, I’m going to go with Enchantee, Gita Trelease’s debut, though there is only the one book so far, it was a really fun and creative historical fantasy and I can’t wait for the sequel, Liberte in 2021!

Best sequel of 2019, was King Of Fools, it was even better than Ace of Shades, so much character development, loads of great new characters and tons of twists and turns which have set up for a great final book next year.

As for series enders, I actually only read two this year and I’m going to go with Kingdom of Ash rather than Finale, both kind of disappointed me, but I thought Kingdom of Ash had the more satisfying ending.

6. Favourite New Author You Discovered In 2019?

Alexandra Christo! I read both of her published books this year and absolutely adored them both, I love her writing style and found both of her books absolutely addictive. So excited for the second Into The Crooked Place book!

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Michelle Obama’s Becoming! I’m not usually a memoir person, but my parents got me this for Christmas in 2018, and I absolutely loved it. Michelle Obama writes really well, and she’s had such an interesting life so I found it really absorbing.

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

King of Fools! I was sucked in from the first page, and 600 pages later, it felt like time had flown by. Amanda Foody packed so much stuff in there, it made for a really exciting read.

9. Book You Read In 2019 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread Again Next Year?

Again, probably none! I have so many new books to read that I don’t have time to reread anymore. My friend Hannah finds this quite amusing because we’ve switched places, she’s the one who rereads now and I don’t!

10. Favourite Cover of A Book You Read In 2019?

This cover is potentially one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen so this one was a no brainer! I read this on Audible but had to get a physical copy as well, just so I had this beautiful cover in my life.

11. Most Memorable Character Of 2019?

Marcella Riggins! Hands down my favourite character of 2019, she wants power and she doesn’t care what she has to do or who she has to kill to get it. She was absolutely my favourite new character in Vengeful.

12. Most Beautifully Written Book Of 2019?

Agh this is really hard because I read so many brilliantly written books this year! I think I’ll go with Enchantee for this one, Gita Trelease really throws you into the 18th century court of Versailles and though I don’t picture things in my head all that well, the atmosphere she created was lovely.

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book You Read This Year?

I think Becoming fits quite well here, as I said before, I’m not a massively big memoir fan but Michelle Obama’s story was a very powerful and thought provoking one.

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Till 2019 To Read?

Vengeful! Granted, it only came out in 2018 so I didn’t wait that long, but if I’d known how good it was going to be, I would have read it as soon as I got it.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2019?

“I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive” -To Kill A Kingdom, Alexandra Christo

This is possibly one of my favourite first lines that I’ve ever read, it really sets the scene for the book and makes you want to read on.

16. Shortest and Longest Books You Read In 2019?

Shortest Book: The Steel Prince Vol 3 by VE Schwab-29 pages

Longest Book: Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas-984 pages

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

King of Fools, there were so many surprises in that book, especially in the last part!

18. OTP of the Year

Ah so hard because I have loved so many couples this year, but I’ll have to go with Sam & Evie from The Diviners, they have my favourite bickering dynamic!

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year

I think Tavia and Karam from Into The Crooked Place win this one, I love their journey from enemies to friends over the course of the book, and they have such great banter.

20. Favourite Book You Read in 2019 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?

Without meaning to sound like a broken record here, definitely Vengeful! I enjoyed Vicious but Vengeful was even better and definitely one of my favourite Schwab books I’ve read.

21. Best Book You Read In 2019 That You Read Based Solely On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Bookstagram/Peer Pressure

I’ll go with The Diviners series for this one because I read them largely because of my friend Nicola who really loved them, and after a wobbly start with the first book, I ended up really loving the series!

22. Newest Fictional Crush From A Book You Read in 2019?

Thomas Cresswell from Stalking Jack The Ripper. I thought he was kind of a jerk in the first book but he’s really grown on me in Hunting Prince Dracula, I think the audio helps in that regard, the narrator does a great accent for him!

23. Best 2019 debut you read?

I actually read hardly any debuts this year, and only a couple that were actually released in 2019, but my favourite was definitely Gita Trelease’s Enchantee. I’m definitely really looking forward to Liberte in 2021.

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year?

Without a doubt, Samantha Shannon’s Priory of The Orange Tree. The level of detail that went into her worldbuilding was incredible, and I loved the lush, Elizabethan inspired world she created, you could clearly tell how much research and effort she had put into creating her world.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue, it was a really fun adventure and Monty, as the narrator was incredibly funny.

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry In 2019?

Kingdom of Ash! I was definitely close to tears during the last few chapters of that book, it was very emotional listening to the ending of a series that I had loved for so many years.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

It’s kind of a niche read since the book community usually focuses on fiction, but I really loved Kira Cochrane’s Modern Women: 52 Pioneers, it made my history loving heart very happy!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Before The Devil Breaks You! WHY LIBBA BRAY WHY? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US?

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2019?

Definitely Ninth House, I’ve read books that have magic in a contemporary setting, but the way Leigh Bardugo built her world within the secret societies of Yale, I’ve definitely not read anything like it before.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad?

Probably You, not in that I didn’t enjoy it, more just that the main character is truly heinous!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. New Favourite Blog/Bookstagram/Youtube Channel you discovered in 2019?

I’ll take this chance to plug another of my friends, also called Hannah, but this time, it’s my friend H.T. King who has a great YouTube channel filled with writing advice.

2. Favourite Post You Wrote In 2019?

I didn’t get as much love for this post as I would have liked, but I really enjoyed getting to interview Amanda Foody this year and thought her Q&A came out really well.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/07/writing-corner-qa-with-author-amanda-foody/

3. Favourite Bookish Related Photo You Took in 2019?

I honestly didn’t really take many this year, so this isn’t a picture of actual books, but I did love this photo of me and my friends at YALC (though I did not take it!).

4. Best bookish event you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events etc)

Of course it’s YALC again! It’s my favourite event every year, and once again, me, Hannah and Hannah had a great time this year.

5. Best moment of blogging/bookish life in 2019?

I got to interview my first two authors for the blog, CG Drews and Amanda Foody, which definitely felt like a milestone for me, I was so happy that authors were willing to take time out of their days to answer my questions!

6. Most challenging thing about your blogging/bookish life this year?

Again, just balancing my blogging with Uni, work and also my other writing!

7. Most Popular Post on Your Blog This Year (by comments or views)?

I’ll do this by views this year, as I did it by comments last year. This year my most viewed post was my review of Neal Shusterman’s Unsouled, which I was very surprised by as it’s not the first book in the series, and I wrote it almost six years ago!

8. Post You Wish Got A Little More Love?

Aside from the one I mentioned earlier, I would have liked my most recent Quarterly Rewind to get a little more love, as they take quite a while to write!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/quarterly-rewind-september-december-19-edition/

9. Best Bookish Discovery This Year?

Audible! It turns out that I really enjoy audiobooks, I’ve read 7 this year and really enjoyed them.

10. Did You Complete Any Reading Challenges or Goals You Set For Yourself This Year?

Yes! You’ll get to hear more about them when I post my End of Year Check In tomorrow.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2019 But Will Be Your Top Priority In 2020?

Malorie Blackman’s Crossfire, it was on so many of my TBR lists last year, but I never got around to it. It’s going to be my first read in 2020.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2020 (non debut)?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I love Schwab’s adult SFF the best, and everything I’ve heard about this one sounds really good, so I’m really looking forward to it.

3. 2019 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Janella Angeles’ Where Dreams Descend. Moulin Rouge is my favourite film so to see a book that uses it as a comparison title instantly made me excited!

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2020?

King of Crows! After that third book, I cannot wait to see how the Diviners story will end!

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2020?

Honestly I’m not sure this year! I’d really like to expand my adult fiction reading this year, much as I love YA, I’ve found myself more drawn to adult books in recent years. Recommendations for adult SFF definitely welcome!

6. A 2020 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

None! I actually haven’t read any 2020 releases yet, though I do have a few waiting on Netgalley.

How was your 2019 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading in 2020? Let me know in the comments!

2018 End of Year Book Survey

The End of Year Book Survey is an end of year event created by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back and hopefully celebrating, our year of reading and blogging. I’ve been doing it since 2015 and have found it a great way to wrap my year, so I’m doing it again this year. You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog here:

https://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2018/11/8th-annual-end-of-year-survey-2017-edition-2.html

2018 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 35

Number of Re-Reads: 0

Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2018

Tara Sim’s Firestarter doesn’t come out until the end of January, but I luckily got it off Edelweiss to read in October and it was INCREDIBLE. Emotional, high stakes, creative, with the most adorable m/m romance I think I have ever read, it was everything I wanted in the finale of this trilogy and more and blew pretty much everything else I read this year out of the water.

2. Book You Were Excited About And Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t

I think Hero of The Fall was probably my biggest disappointment of the year, I loved Rebel of The Sands so much and enjoyed Traitor To The Throne and it seemed like Hero was going to be a super exciting conclusion but I found it kind of lacklustre and overly long, which was such a shame because the series had so much promise originally.

3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read?

I would probably say Nadine Brandes Fawkes! I had never heard of it, or her before I read it, requested it on a whim because it sounded really good and I ended up really enjoying it!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read and They Did?

I don’t know if I have a specific book, but I know I’ve been flailing about V.E. Schwab everywhere this year, so I guess her books?

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best Sequel of 2018? Best Series Ender of 2018?

Funnily enough, my three favourite books of 2018 all fit in these categories-though not necessarily in the order given!

Best series I started in 2018 was the Legacy of Orisha series, with Children of Blood and Bone. Children of Blood and Bone was so refreshingly new and different (albeit with some familiar tropes) and it was just such a fun, diverse, action packed adventure story and I can’t wait to see what happens in the sequel next year.

Best sequel of 2018 was Legendary (funnily enough Caraval was my answer for the first part of this question last year), it was even better than the first book in the series and I loved getting to dive back into the world of Caraval through Tella’s eyes this time.

Best series ender of 2018 was without a doubt Firestarter, it was beautifully written, a rollercoaster of emotions and such a damn satisfying conclusion to the Timekeeper trilogy.

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2018?

AH NO FAIR. I discovered so many amazing new authors this year, it’s ridiculously hard to pick one, so I’m going to be a bit of a cheater and list several, whose have books that I’m already ridiculously excited for releasing next year:

-Tomi Adeyemi-Obviously Children of Blood and Bone was a masterpiece and I cannot wait to see how Zelie and Amari’s story continues in Children of Virtue and Vengeance next year (funny story, I have listed it as one of my most anticipated reads so often on Instagram, my phone now remembers it!).

-Laura Steven-The Exact Opposite of Okay was so wonderfully hilarious and I’m so excited to see more of Izzy’s hijinks in A Girl Called Shameless next year (my phone has also learned this book title because I’ve talked about it so much already!). She’s also amazing on Instagram and her black labrador puppy Obi is so cute!

-Amanda Foody-I really enjoyed both Daughter of The Burning City and Ace of Shades this year and I’m super excited to see what happens next in Enne and Levi’s adventures in King of Fools. Also I love her Instagram, her cat Jelly Bean is the cutest thing ever!

-Nadine Brandes-I’ve already talked about how much I loved Fawkes, and I’m already stoked for her release next year, Romanov, which is a retelling of the Romanovs but with magic. The fact that I know there is someone out there doing fantasy retellings of historical events makes my history nerd, fantasy loving heart very happy.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Well it wasn’t really out of my comfort zone, since I have been a long time lover of Jodi Picoult’s books, I’ve been reading them since I was like 13, but considering I don’t read a lot of non fantasy adult fiction, A Spark of Light certainly counts as a book from a genre I don’t usually read much of, yet of course I loved it, because Jodi Picoult is a master of storytelling.

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Probably Firestarter! It did take a little bit to get into but once it got going, man it didn’t let you go and I swear, by the final ten chapters I was like, I cannot put this down, I need to know how this ends for my faves!

9. Book You Read In 2018 that you would be most likely to re-read next year?

Probably none! I’m coming to accept that I just don’t have time to reread anymore, I don’t have much time with Uni, so I kind of have to prioritise potential new favourites over much loved old ones!

10. Favourite Cover of A Book You Read In 2018?

It was so hard to pick a favourite cover for this year, because so many books I’ve read have had such beautiful covers, but I have to go with this beautiful Bardugo cover, it’s so perfect for a fairy tale book, but with that little bit of bite that you would expect from Leigh Bardugo.

11. Most Memorable Character of 2018?

This one is actually quite easy this year, I have to go with Izzy O’Neill from The Exact Opposite of Okay. I have never read a book with a character that reminded me so much of myself before, Izzy surpasses even Hermione on that level, reading about her and her friends was like seeing somewhat of a reflection of my own life, which was so wonderful.

12. Most beautifully written book of 2018?

Without meaning to sound like a broken record, I have to go with Firestarter again for this one. Tara Sim just has such a wonderful way with words, and her writing just seeps into your soul and clings onto it, it’s that good.

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book of 2018?

I’ll have to go with A Spark of Light here. Jodi Picoult’s books are always incredibly powerful and thought provoking, and although A Spark of Light more reinforced what I already believed about abortion (I’m pro-choice), it’s always good to see a wide range of perspectives and to understand why people think the way they do and ultimately to start a conversation and I will definitely be using Picoult’s book as an example of why choice is so vital if ever asked!

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2018 To Finally Read?

Vicious! I mean granted, I only discovered VE Schwab in 2016, so I haven’t been reading her books for long, but Vicious was so wicked and twisty and just generally amazing that I can’t believe it took me this long to get to it.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read in 2018?

“You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled – not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.” -The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo

This quote is just beautiful and really resonated with me.

16. Shortest and Longest Book You Read in 2018?

Shortest Book: Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor-256 pages

Longest Book; Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas-672 pages (yup she’s back in the top slot!)

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

Our Dark Duet! That ending completely blew my mind, I had to read it again, to make sure that I’d actually understood what was happening.

18. OTP of The Year

Danny and Colton! I was rooting for the two of them so hard during Firestarter.

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year

I’m going to go with The Dregs for this one, I know there are romantic relationships between the different members of the group, but overall, they are great, if slightly dysfunctional friends and I love the witty banter between them.

20. Favourite Book You Read In 2018 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?

Legendary by Stephanie Garber! I loved Caraval, but I thought Legendary was just an incredible step up and I cannot wait to see how she ties up the trilogy in Finale.

21. Best Book You Read In 2018 That You Read Based Solely on A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram etc:

I read Children of Blood and Bone largely off the recommendation from a bookseller in my local Waterstones and I loved it! Thank you Louise 🙂

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2018?

I have to go with Dante for this one, we don’t really get to know him much in Caraval but he really comes to the fore in Legendary, and it’s easy to see why Tella falls for him.

23. Best 2018 debut you read?

Children of Blood and Bone without a doubt! I cannot wait to see where Tomi Adeyemi goes next after her explosive debut.

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year?

I have to go with Fawkes for this one, the whole colour magic system with the magic being controlled by different coloured masks, all within Stuart era London, was inspired!

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

The Exact Opposite of Okay wins hands down for this one, definitely the funniest book that I’ve read all year, but with a very important message.

26. Book That Made You Cry/Or Nearly Cry In 2018?

Rose Under Fire. I felt so strongly for Rose and her friends that when I read the terrible things happening to them in Ravensbruck, especially knowing that these things happened to real people, I couldn’t help but cry, which is unusual for me!

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

By A Charm And A Curse by Jaime Questell, it’s kind of like Pinocchio combined with a circus story and it was pretty darn awesome!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Firestarter. I mean I loved it, but damn it hurt me. Tara Sim, why did you wish to crush my feelings? Why?

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2018?

I think I’m going to have to go for For A Muse of Fire with this one. Heidi Heilig balanced French Colonialism with Asian cultures so beautifully, and I have to say it was unlike anything I’ve ever read before, particularly given that it had a main character with a mental illness which is actively talked about, which is annoyingly rare in YA fantasy.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad?

Sea Witch made me incredibly mad because I was expecting it to be this amazing Ursula retelling and I ended up finding it super boring.

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. New favourite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube Channel You Discovered in 2018?

I’m going to plug my friend here, and tell you all to visit my friend Hannah’s blog, Books, Life and Other Oddities, because she has some great content, and she also has an awesome Bookstagram account under the same name.

2. Favourite post you wrote in 2018?

I didn’t get much response to this one, which was a shame because I really loved writing it but I thought I’d share it here because it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, I talked about the concept of guilty pleasures and why I think quite frankly, that it’s bullshit.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/09/jo-talks-books-on-why-i-dont-believe-in-guilty-pleasures/

3. Favourite bookish related photo you took in 2018?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlQi3ngFrV-/

I quite liked this one of my newly acquired purchases in July, I think they’re very pretty books and my shelf looked great. Bonus-I’m reading all of these as part of my #RockMyTBR Challenge in 2019!

4. Best bookish event you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, etc)?

I have to go with YALC again this year, we got to see so many great authors, Hannah brought her friend Hannah (yes they’re both called Hannah, it’s confusing) along, so there were even more of us this year and I bought some great books.

5. Best moment of blogging/bookish life in 2018?

I reached 1000 followers in October, and I was so thrilled by that, my blog has been going from strength to strength in the last few years, I got the highest number of views ever this year and I reached this milestone following, so I’m feeling incredibly proud and grateful for this little blog right now.

6. Most challenging thing about your blogging/reading life this year?

This probably won’t change until after next year when I’m no longer a Uni student (AHHHHHHHH!), but again, balancing blogging/reading with Uni.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

I did this by views last year, so I’m going to go by comments this year, even though I always get a lot more views than I do comments. I wasn’t actually expecting this particular post to be my most commented on, I mean I know my most commented posts are always Top Ten Tuesdays, but I honestly couldn’t even remember what #148, Books We Could Re-Read Forever was! Still I’m glad you guys liked it.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

Aside from the discussion post I mentioned earlier, I would love it if this post got a little bit more love as it was quite a personal one for me:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2018/10/29/jo-talks-books-on-university-reading-funks/

9. Best bookish discovery this year?

Ooh you know, I don’t think I have one!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes! You’ll have more details of them when I post my End of Year Check In on New Year’s Eve.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To Into 2018 But Will Be Your Number One Priority In 2019?

Well I started Kingdom of Ash, my most anticipated release for 2018, but I didn’t finish it, so I will definitely be prioritising that!

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2019 (non-debut)?

Has to be Priory of The Orange Tree! I mean I’m not going to lie, the size intimidates me, but I will read anything with dragons in it and Samantha Shannon has yet to let me down, so I’m diving in!

3. 2019 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Has to be The Devouring Gray! I’ve been hearing so much about it, and it sounds so up my street, so I’m looking forward to finally reading it.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2019?

I’m going to do one for each here, because there are two books that fit this perfectly. Children of Virtue and Vengeance because I can’t wait to see what happens next in Zelie and Amari’s story and Finale because I can’t wait to see how Tella and Scarlett’s wraps up.

5. One Thing You Hope To Do/Accomplish In Your Reading/Blogging Life in 2019?

I really want to get my Netgalley ratio up to 80%! I have a pretty high ratio anyway, at 71% now, and I get approved far more than rejected, which is great, but I’d like to reach that all elusive 80% next year!

6. A 2019 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

Well I’ve only read Firestarter, but I have recommended it to everyone, so it counts! It’s out January 15th!

2017 End of Year Book Survey

The End of Year Book Survey is an end of year event created by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back over a year of (hopefully) great reading and celebrating our achievements. I’ve done it for the past two years (since 2015) and it’s a great way to wrap up the year and look back at everything you’ve done, so I decided to do it again this year! You can find the questions on Jamie’s blog, here:

http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2017/12/8th-annual-end-of-year-survey-2017-edition.html

2017 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 36

Number of Re-Reads: 0

Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy (be it MG, YA or Adult!)

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read in 2017?

VE Schwab’s A Conjuring of Light, a masterclass in how to do the perfect fantasy finale, equal parts high stakes, humorous, and well wrapped up as well as at times soul crushingly sad.

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But You Didn’t?

The Invisible Library! I was like yeah, a book about libraries and spies, it should be absolutely incredible. I came out bored and totally confused. So yeah, not good.

3. Most Surprising (In a good or bad way) Book You Read?

I was surprised by how little I was surprised by One of Us Is Lying. I was expecting it to be totally mindblowing and in the end, it just felt like any other contemporary just with a criminal twist.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read In 2017 (And They Did)?

I don’t know if anyone did, but I know I’ve been pushing the Shades of Magic books a lot in 2017!

5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best series ender of 2017?

Best series I started in 2017 was probably Caraval, I mean it’s only a duology, but there’s more than one book, so I’m counting it! Best sequel of 2017, I’m going to go with Chainbreaker, yes its release date is 2018, but I read it in 2017 and it was so damn beautiful and heartbreaking so it has to be that one. Best series ender of 2017 was hands down A Conjuring of Light.

6. Favourite New Author You Discovered in 2017?

Probably Samantha Shannon, I absolutely devoured the three books that are out so far in The Bone Season series this year and have been following her Twitter and Instagram and receiving her newsletter for any tidbits of news about her next books. I also got to meet her at YALC in July and she was so lovely!

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Under Rose Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall is probably the best fit for this one, whilst I have liked books that have focused on mental health in the past, YA contemporaries aren’t my usual thing and I’ve never read an #ownvoices mental health book before. I really enjoyed this one though and the fact that the author had experienced the mental illnesses that she was writing about added that extra layer of realism to it. Plus I got to meet Louise Gornall at YALC in 2016 and she was so lovely!

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Ooh this one is actually hard because I’ve read a lot of really great books this year. I’d say Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows probably fits the bill best for this one, it was a nearly 500 page book and I read it in just over a week because I was that addicted, which is not like me at all! Hopefully Crooked Kingdom will be just as addictive.

9. Book You Read In 2017 that you are most likely to reread next year?

None honestly? I am making one of my 2018 resolutions to reread more of my favourites, but I tend to let a little more time go by before I reread a book, so I’m unlikely to reread stuff from the year before!

10. Favourite Cover of A Book You Read In 2017:

The beauty of this cover, honestly makes me sad I read this book in e-ARC form-however the fact that I got to read it early makes me happy, so there’s an upside to everything.

11. Most memorable character of 2017

AHHH! I’ve read so many books with so many awesome characters this year that this one is really hard, but I’m going to go with Alosa from Daughter of The Pirate King. She swaggered into my life back in May and I had so much fun on adventures with her.

12. Most beautifully written book of 2017?

Ooh this is super hard! I’ve read so many gorgeous books this year, it’s really hard to say and a lot of times beautiful writing can go over the top (this happened for me with Daughter of Smoke and Bone) so it’s a hard one to choose. I think the one that sticks out for me though is Caraval, not necessarily for the writing itself, but the way it made me feel, the magic practically drips off the page, so for me that was the most beautiful book I read this year.

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book of 2017?

I’m not necessarily sure if I’ve had one of these? Potentially Salt To The Sea is probably the closest to this one as I had no idea about the Wilhelm Gustloff sinking before I read this book and yet so many people died in it? Wow.

14. Book you can’t believed you waited until 2017 to finally read?

Six of Crows! I should have jumped on the bandwagon long ago, I think I bought the darn book in 2015, so I should definitely have got to it before 2017, but there you go, I get scared by the hype. Still I read it this year and I’m glad I did because it’s just as awesome as people said.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read in 2017?

“Delilah Bard had never read many books. The few she did had pirates and thieves and always ended with the promise of more stories. Characters sailed away. They lived on. Lila always imagined people that way, a series of intersections and adventures. It was easy when you moved through life-through worlds-the way she did. Easy when you didn’t care, when people came onto the page and walked away again, back to their own stories, and you could imagine whatever you wanted for them, if you cared enough to write it in your head.” -A Conjuring of Light, VE Schwab

Ahhh! This quote is basically perfect for every reader out there.

16. Shortest and longest book you read in 2017

Shortest: Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky-232 pages

Longest: A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab-666 pages (the first year I’ve had a non SJM book in this slot!)

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

Chainbreaker! That ending though! And basically the entire last few chapters pretty much.

18. OTP of the year

Ouch! Really hard one. I think I’m going to go with Alucard and Rhy though from A Conjuring of Light, they finally got together and it was so satisfying!

19. Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year

Oh I don’t know! It’s always hard picking out favourite friendships because they tend to get overshadowed by romantic relationships, which is not cool and should not be a thing, but there we go. I want to go with Kell and Rhy for this one because their brotherly relationship in ACOL is #siblinggoals.

20. Favourite book you read in 2017 from an author you read previously?

A Conjuring of Light! Victoria Schwab is a writing superstar and her writing tweets are always hilarious.

21. Best Book You Read in 2017 based solely off a recommendation from somebody else/peer pressure?

I’m a book blogger, most of the books I read are based off recommendations from someone else! I bought and read The Bone Season books purely based off peer pressure from my friend Nicola, so I think I can blame her for my insane love of The Song Rising.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?

This is a hard one because I’m trying to think if I actually have any! 2017 wasn’t a banner year for new book boyfriends. Probably Kash from The Girl From Everywhere.

23. Best 2017 debut you read

I haven’t actually read many debuts this year, but I think Caraval was my favourite of the ones I did read.

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year?

Tara Sim’s incredible alternate Victorian India has to win hands down for this one.

25. Book That Put A Smile on Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

Definitely Daughter of The Pirate King!

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry in 2017?

Chainbreaker again! Darn you Sim! Also honourable mention to Victoria Schwab for A Conjuring of Light as that one had me right on the brink.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

I’m not sure if I really had too many of these? I’d probably go with Charlotte Says, the prequel to Frozen Charlotte. Frozen Charlotte is in Zoella’s Book Club or at least it was, a while back, but I’m not sure many people know that the author wrote a prequel which was released this year, that is even creepier than the first!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Just one? Seriously? Like every author I’ve read this year has wanted to crush my soul in one way or another, even the funny ones! I think Victoria Schwab was the most determined to crush my soul this year with A Conjuring of Light. What does it say about me that that was my favourite book of the year?

29. Most Unique Book You Read in 2017?

Ooh I don’t know! Probably The Invisible Library, but not in a good way? It merged like every possible trope of fantasy and sci-fi into the one book until I was so confused I was unsure as to what book I was reading!

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad?

One of Us Is Lying made me pretty darn mad for using sexuality and mental illness as plot twists!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. Favourite new book blog you’ve discovered this year?

Ah I don’t know if I have! Aside from on TTT days, I actually don’t read all that many other people’s blogs? I just don’t have the time when I’m at Uni! I’ve really enjoyed Fernanda’s blog, The Wanderlust Reader this year though, as one of the new ones I can actually remember subscribing to!

2. Favourite Review You Wrote In 2017?

Ooh I’m not sure, I’ve written so many! I think my review of ACOL was probably my favourite to write, simply because it was just me flailing over how much I loved it.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/19/a-conjuring-of-light-shades-of-magic-3-review/

3. Best discussion/non review post you wrote in 2017?

Ooh this is hard because I’ve written a lot of discussion posts that I’ve been really proud of this year (and some of them have even been shared by other people on their blogs, like woah guys, it means so much to me that you share stuff from my little blog!). My favourite one I’ve done this year though is actually from all the way back in February, where I basically bemoaned the dearth of characters in YA who aren’t in relationships. This was basically my I’m single on Valentines’ Day and I don’t want to celebrate love ranty post (although I do still think the lack of single characters in YA is a big issue) and I was amazed by how much discussion was caused by this post!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/12/jo-talks-books-where-are-all-the-single-characters-in-ya/

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes etc)?

As with last year, the best bookish event of this year has to be YALC again. After three years of going, my friend and I have this down to a fine art by now, and this year was the best year yet, so many brilliant authors, so many amazing authors and Hannah and I had so much fun! Cannot wait to go back again for next year.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2017?

Ooh I don’t know! I’ve had quite a few this year. Meeting VE Schwab again at YALC this year was definitely a highlight!

6. Most challenging thing about your blogging/reading life this year?

The same thing as every year really, trying to balance blogging with University is always a challenge!

7. Most Popular Post On Your Blog This Year (be it by comments or views?)

I’ll do it by views this year, since I did it by comments last year and my most viewed post is apparently my review of the third book in the Unwind dystology, Unsouled, which is an unexpected one as it’s a third book in a series and my reviews are not usually that popular (just a sad fact of book blogging: reviews are always your least viewed posts), but there you go!

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love

I wrote a discussion post right before Christmas that obviously hasn’t got too much love because it’s been Christmas, so now that Christmas is over, it would mean a lot to me if more people gave this post some love:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/jo-talks-books-on-my-blogging-journey-so-far/

9. Best bookish discovery

Ooh I don’t know if I have one this year!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?

Yes! More details to come in my End of Year Check In, which will be up today or tomorrow.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 but will be your number one priority in 2018?

All of them? Haha no seriously now, I really need to read Tower of Dawn before the final Throne of Glass book comes out in September.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2018 (non-debut)?

THRONE OF GLASS #7. WE WILL HAVE BEEN WAITING TWO YEARS WHEN IT FINALLY COMES OUT. #SaveAelin2k18

3. 2018 debut you are most anticipating?

A Thousand Perfect Notes! Cait’s book is finally coming and it’s bound to be heartbreaking perfection.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating In 2018?

Since I said Throne of Glass #7 for the first one, I’ll go for the final book in the Rebel of The Sands trilogy, Hero At The Fall for this one. I’ve been seeing people getting ARCs and been both simultaneously happy and yet seething with jealousy, so I can’t wait till I can finally read it.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish/Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life in 2018?

I’m hoping to get my writing feature, Writing Corner, properly going next year and get people to guest post on my blog for it, so if you are a writer and would like to be featured in my Writing Corner this year then please let me know!

6. A 2018 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

CHAINBREAKER! Out 2nd January, everyone!

How was your 2017 reading year everyone? What are you looking forward to reading in 2018? Let me know in the comments.

 

2016 End of Year Book Survey

The End of Year Book Survey is a survey created by Jamie over at the Perpetual Page Turner as a way of looking back over a year of (hopefully) great reading and celebrating our achievements! I did it last year and it was so much fun that I decided to do it again this year, though I can’t believe the time has already come for me to do this again!

2016 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 33

Number of Re-Reads: 1 (Noughts and Crosses)

Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy (as always!)

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2016?:

Ooh hard one! I’ve read so many great ones, it’s not possible to narrow it down to just one! Rebel of The Sands, The Raven King, A Darker Shade of Magic & The Sword of Summer all got five stars from me this year, I don’t know what I’d say my absolute favourite out of the four of them were, they were all amazing!

2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?:

I’d have to say Graceling for this one. From the back it sounded like exactly what I’d like, fantasy book with a strong heroine and the graces sounded really interesting, but when I actually read it, the writing style was strange, it was badly explained, I didn’t like the extreme version of feminism that the author seemed to be pushing, I thought that was incredibly problematic and it was generally quite slow. I just thought it was going to be so much better than it actually was.

3. Most Surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read in 2016?:

I think 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough, not just because some of the events that happened in the book were surprising, but also because it was a real surprise for me how much I liked it. I picked it off Netgalley on a whim and I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it anywhere near as much as I did.

4. Book you “Pushed” most people to read in 2016 and they did?

Well I don’t know if people have or haven’t read it but the book I’ve been pushing most in 2016 has definitely been Rebel of The Sands! It was such a good book.

5. Best Series You Started In 2016? Best Sequel? Best Series Ender of 2016?

Best series I started in 2016 has to be the Shades of Magic trilogy (I would have gone with Rebel of The Sands, but there’s only one book in that series out so far and I wanted to go with something that had more than one!), I just loved everything about it, the world, the characters, the magic, everything. I can’t wait for A Conjuring of Light to come out in February!

Best sequel I’ve read this year was probably Empire of Storms, it was so good!

Best Series Ender of 2016 has to be The Raven King. I haven’t read many series enders this year actually, but this one was definitely the best. After the long, long wait for the final Raven Cycle book, I am so glad it was everything I wanted it to be and more.

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2016?

Victoria Schwab! I cannot wait to read more of her books next year.

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

I would have to say Jodi Picoult’s new book, Small Great Things, because although I do love Jodi Picoult as an author, I don’t read much adult fiction and the topic of this book, racism is not something I usually read about either, so it was definitely out of my comfort zone but I really, really loved it!

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Demon Road by Derek Landy is probably the book that I read this year that fits this bill the most, the action was fast and furious, the demons were awesome, the characters were great, so I flew through this book in my free time after my exams finished in May, reading as much as ten or twenty chapters a day sometimes!

9. Book You Read In 2016 that you are most likely to reread next year?

Probably none. I do love rereading, but I never have the chance to do it anymore what with all of the new books I have to read. If I get the time, then I will definitely try and squeeze in more rereads next year, but I doubt it’s going to be possible.

10. Favourite Cover of a Book You Read in 2016?

This is actually really hard because I’ve read a lot of books with beautiful covers this year, but I think I have to go with this one:

I know I chose a Maggie Stiefvater cover last year too, but she has the most incredible designs for her book covers. Whoever designs them deserves an award!

11. Most memorable character of 2016?

This is really hard because I’ve read about a lot of great characters this year, both new ones and old friends, but I have to go with a new character who I was introduced to this year and choose Lila Bard. This cross-dressing pirate swaggered into my life back in July and I instantly fell in love with her badass attitude. She was reckless and cheeky and sassy (oh the SASS!) and funny and brave, and just all the things I want in a female character wrapped up in one!

12. Most beautifully written book you read in 2016?

This is a hard one, because I don’t necessarily go for “beauty” in writing, I can find so called “beautiful writing” kind of saccharine, but I reckon I’d probably go for Empire of Storms. Sarah J Maas’ writing is just gorgeous!

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing Book 0f 2016?

I’d definitely say Small Great Things. Jodi Picoult’s new book is incredibly thought provoking and it’s definitely changed the way that I think about race, I think it’s made me more aware of my privilege as a white woman and just generally think more about race and racism, as it’s something I’ve always been aware of but this book brought up issues that I’d never really thought of before and they’re definitely things I will think about more now.

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2016 To Read?

Code Name Verity! If I had known how good it was, I would never have waited so long to read it.

15. Favourite Passage/Quote from a book you read in 2016?

“I’m not going to die,” she said. “Not until I’ve seen it”

“Seen what?”
Her smile widened. “Everything”. -A Darker Shade of Magic, VE Schwab

I love this quote, not only because it is so Lila Bard, but also because it so aptly descirbes me. I would love to travel around the world, see everything that I possibly can, and I don’t want to die until that happens!

16. Shortest and Longest Book you read in 2016?:

Shortest: No Virgin by Anne Cassidy-192 pages

Longest: Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas-693 pages (SJM has been the author of my longest book read two years running now!)

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

Probably Empire of Storms! I was not expecting that ending!

18. OTP of the year:

Ooh hard one! I think I’m going to go for Pynch (Ronan and Adam) from the Raven Cycle though. They’re finally canon guys!

19.Favourite Non-Romantic Relationship of the Year?

The Gangsey! There might be romantic relationships within the gang, but as a collective I think these guys still count. Ronan, Adam, Gansey, Blue and Noah are one of my favourite friendship groups in YA fiction ever!

20. Favourite Book you read in 2016 from an author you read previously?

I’d have to say The Raven King. Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favourite authors and her final book in the Raven Cycle series was just a masterpiece!

21. Best Book You Read In 2016 that you read based solely off a recommendation from somebody else/peer pressure?

I read the first book in The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, because everyone in the blogging world was going on and on about it but I didn’t really like that, so I guess that doesn’t count! I think I’ll go with A Darker Shade of Magic, because a large part of my reading it was because of the fact that everyone in the blogging world seemed to love it and I loved it too!

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2016?:

Jin from Rebel of The Sands!

23. Best 2016 debut you read?

Rebel of The Sands! (Though Timekeeper comes a very close second!).

24. Best world building/most vivid setting you read this year?

This is a toss up between Rebel of The Sands and Timekeeper again, but I think I’ll go for Rebel of The Sands, just because the desert setting is so vivid!

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

The Hidden Oracle! I loved being back in Percy Jackson’s world and it was just so funny, I couldn’t stop smiling/laughing throughout reading it. Rick Riordan’s books are always good for putting a smile on your face!

26. Book That Made You Cry/Nearly Cry in 2016?

Empire of Storms. My feels were completely crushed!

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

13 Minutes! I don’t hear this one talked about very much and it was so good!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Empire of Storms. The end very nearly killed me.

29. Most unique book you read in 2016?

The Night Circus. Although I may not have loved it as much as my friend and secret sister, I cannot deny it’s one of the most unique books I’ve ever read, not just in 2016.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (Doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?:

Asking For It. I liked the book, but it made me so seething mad!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. Favourite new book blog you’ve discovered this year?

I don’t know if I discovered her blog this year or last year, but I’ve definitely fallen in love with Cait’s blog Paper Fury this year, so I’ll go with that!

2. Favourite Review You Wrote In 2016?

Ooh that’s a hard one, I’ve written so many reviews this year! Rebel of The Sands was probably my favourite one to write simply because it was my first five star read of 2016 and it’s always nice to write five star reviews, especially the first one in a year, because it’s basically just an excuse to shamelessly fangirl! You can check it out here:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/rebel-of-the-sands-rebel-of-the-sands-trilogy-1/

3. Best discussion/non review post you wrote in 2016

I started doing discussion posts for the first time in 2016 and I’m really proud of what I’ve done with them this year, I hope I’ve written some thought provoking discussions for you all. I think my absolute favourite of the ones I’ve written this year was the one I wrote about whether parents should censor their children’s reading, as I thought it was an interesting topic and I liked the discussion that it started on the blog, so I think out of all the discussion posts I’ve written this year, that’s the one I’m most proud of. You can check it out here:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/jo-talks-books-on-whether-parents-should-censor-childrens-reading/

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes etc)?

This is so hard this year because I’ve been to a lot of great events and been really lucky with how much I’ve been able to do this year, but I think I’d have to choose YALC again this year. It was so much fun, I got so many books and met so many authors and I cannot wait until I get to go back next year!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life of 2016?

Getting to meet Sarah J Maas in October! I will never forget that. Definitely a bookish bucket list item ticked off!

6. Most popular post on your blog this year (whether by comments or views)?

Since I did it by views last year, I’ll go by comments this year and the most commented on post on my blog in 2016 was my first Top Ten Tuesday of the entire year, where I talked about what my bookish resolutions for the year were. You guys will be finding out very soon how I did on those!

7. Posts you wished got a little more love?

My review posts! It takes me a long time to write reviews so it really means a lot to me when people take the time to comment on them.

8. Best bookish discovery?

This year? Has to be Etsy! All the bookish gifts on there are just wonderful.

9. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes! I completed the #RockMyTBR Challenge, which I will also be taking part in during 2017 and I completed my Goodreads Challenge for the first time! As for my other goals, you can see how I did on those when I post my End of Year Check In very soon.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2016 But Will Be Your Number One Priority in 2017?

A Court of Mist and Fury! I’m kind of nervous for it because I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first book and I’ve heard that the sex gets a lot worse in this one, but my friend loves it a lot and everyone else seems to think it’s really good, so it’s definitely high on the list of books that I need to read in 2016.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating for 2017 (non-debut)?

I can’t say anything but Throne of Glass #6. It’s untitled, it has no cover, and no extended plot yet, but I need to know how this series is going to end!

3. 2017 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Caraval definitely! I have the ARC, I just haven’t started reading it yet. I will definitely have to get moving on that soon!

4. Series Ending/Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2017?

I would say TOG #6 for this again, but I have another series ender that I’m really looking forward to and that’s A Conjuring of Light. After reading A Gathering of Shadows earlier this year, I need A Conjuring of Light in my life! Under two months to go!

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2017?

I don’t actually know? I honestly just want to be as happy with my reading and blogging in 2017 as I have been in 2016, that’s all. No specific goals, I just want to keep enjoying my reading and my blogging.

6. A 2017 release that you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

None? Honestly though I’ve started getting more ARCs this year because of being on Netgalley, I still haven’t got many 2017 ones. The only one I have is Caraval and I haven’t read it yet!

How was your 2016 reading year? What are you looking forward to reading in 2017? Let me know in the comments!

2015 End of Year Book Survey

I didn’t do this last year (because I didn’t know it existed), but having seen this on someone else’s blog, I thought it would be a really fun way to mark the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. The original idea for the survey comes from Jamie over at Perpetual Page Turner (if you haven’t checked her blog out, you definitely should because it’s awesome!).

2015 Reading Stats:

Number of Books You Read: 13 (I definitely want to increase this next year!)

Number of Re-Reads: 0

Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy (obviously!)

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?

I actually only gave two books five stars in 2015, which makes me very sad and I’m hoping 2016 will be better for five star reads, of those two, I’m going to go with Heir of Fire, the third book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. I loved that book so damn much!

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t?

Actually, Queen of Shadows, also by Sarah J Maas. I was so excited for this book’s release, I managed to avoid spoilers for months before I finally got around to reading it and I did enjoy it, but I was expecting to really love it, when in reality, I found it only okay.

3. Most Surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read in 2015?

Between Shades of Grey for sure! I was not expecting to love that book anywhere near as much as I did. It was a wonderful surprise!

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (and they did) in 2015?

Well I’m constantly pushing people to read the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, whether they do or not, I don’t know!

5. Best Series You Started In 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

I don’t know if I can say the ACOTAR series since there is only one book so far? I think I can! We’ll go with ACOTAR because whilst I didn’t love it as much as some people did, it was a solid series starter and I do want to read the sequel when it comes out next year, which is a good sign.

Best sequel of 2015 was definitely Heir of Fire (okay, technically it came out in 2014, but I read it in 2015 so it counts!).

Best series ender of 2015, has to be Undivided, the final book in the Unwind series. Firstly because it was the only series ender I actually read this year, but mostly because it was just incredible! One of the best series enders I have ever read, that’s for sure.

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2015?

Ruta Sepetys! I cannot wait to read more books by her.

7. Best Book From A Genre You Don’t Typically Read/Was Out Of Your Comfort Zone?

I’m going to go with Between Shades of Grey, because although I do read historical fiction, most of my reading usually lies within the fantasy/dystopia realm, so it was definitely different to most of the other books I read this year and it was brilliant!

8. Most action packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Probably Undivided by Neal Shusterman. There were so many twists and turns and I could never predict what was going to happen next and there was never a moment when I thought, “I want to put this down”, it was more of a “Ugh, it’s late, I have to stop reading this now, but I don’t want to!”.

9. Book You Read In 2015 that you are most likely to re-read next year?

None, I love rereading old favourites, but I have so many books to read in 2016, with all of the books that I currently own that I want to get through, plus new 2016 releases, I don’t think I’m going to have time to reread!

10. Favourite Cover of A Book You Read In 2015?

It has to be this gorgeous beauty! Has everyone seen the cover for The Raven King? Isn’t it stunning? I swear this series of books has some of the most beautiful covers that I have ever seen!

11. Most memorable character of 2015?

That’s really hard! I’ve read lots of books with memorable characters this year! I’m going to go with a character that was new to me this year and say Lina from Between Shades of Grey. Her strength in such a terrible situation is so inspiring!

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015?

Between Shades of Grey. It has the honour of being one of the few books that actually made me cry, it’s that beautiful (and sad).

13. Most Thought Provoking/Life Changing book 0f 2015?

I wouldn’t say any of the books I’ve read this year have been life changing, but as far as thought provoking goes, I would say Undivided is the most thought provoking book I’ve read this year simply because the concept of the Unwind series in itself is very thought provoking which in turn leads to very thought provoking books!

14. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2015 to finally read?

Between Shades of Grey! If I’d known how good it was (or heard about it before 2015), then I definitely would have read it earlier!

15. Favourite Passage/Quote from a book you read in 2015?

I miss you,” she said. “Every day, I miss you. And I wonder what you would have made of all this. Made of me. I think — I think you would have been a wonderful king. I think they would have liked you more than me, actually.” Her throat tightened. “I never told you — how I felt. But I loved you, and I think a part of me might always love you. Maybe you were my mate, and I never knew it. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering about that. Maybe I’ll see you again in the Afterworld, and then I’ll know for sure. But until then …until then I’ll miss you, and I’ll wish you were here.”

This one from Queen of Shadows. It almost made me cry.

16. Shortest and longest book you read in 2015?

Shortest: The Winter Horses by Phillip Kerr-288 pages

Longest: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas-648 pages

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

Probably Undivided by Neal Shusterman, there were lots of shocking moments in that.

18. OTP of the Year

Connor and Risa from the Unwind dystology!

19. Favourite Non-Romantic relationship of the year?

If I had done this before reading Queen of Shadows, I probably would have said Rowan and Aelin, but since I’m doing this after reading Queen of Shadows, given the new state of their relationship, that is no longer possible. So instead I’m going to go with Chaol and Dorian, my favourite bromance!

20. Favourite book you read in 2015 from an author you read previously?

Undivided by Neal Shusterman. His entire Unwind dystology is brilliant, if you have not read it yet then what are you waiting for?

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 that you read based solely on a recommendation from somebody else/peer pressure?

I don’t really have one for this year, all the books I read this year were based off my own interests, either because it was a series I liked or a new book by one of my favourite authors or just because I picked it up and thought it sounded interesting. I can’t say any of the books I’ve read this year, I read on the basis of a recommendation from someone else.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015?

Rowan Whitethorn from the Throne of Glass series!

24. Best 2015 debut you read?

I actually didn’t read any 2015 debuts, but Between Shades of Grey was Ruta Sepetys’ debut novel even if it wasn’t released in 2015, so I guess that counts?

24. Best world-building/most vivid setting you read this year?

Both of the Throne of Glass books I read this year, Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows had great world-building.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most Fun To Read?

Probably Stone Cold, by Andrew Lane, it was great to see Sherlock and Matty back together, doing what they do best, solving crimes.

26. Book That Made You Cry or Nearly Cry in 2015?

Between Shades of Grey. I never normally cry at books, but I cried at this one.

27. Hidden Gem of The Year?

Undivided by Neal Shusterman. Why do more people not talk about this series? I don’t understand it! It’s amazing!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Heir of Fire. That end…….completely soul crushing.

29. Most unique book you read in 2015?

Probably Panic by Lauren Oliver. I’ve never read anything like that book before, though to be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to read anything like that book again.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean that you didn’t like it)?

Queen of Shadows! I enjoyed the book overall but man there were some parts that made me mad!

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

1. New favourite book blog you discovered in 2015?

Ooh, that’s a tricky one, but I’ll have to go with Love Thy Shelf, Anjie and I share a lot of similar favourites when it comes to books!

2. Favourite review you wrote in 2015?

My review of Undivided, the last book in the Unwind dystology. I enjoyed reading the book so much and I equally enjoyed writing my review of it. It’s fun to write a review of a book that you basically have nothing but praise for sometimes!

3. Best discussion/non review post you had on your blog in 2015?

That’s a hard one because I don’t tend to do discussion posts on my blog, something I’m thinking I will try to change next year, if I can. My best non-review posts however, I think were probably the posts that I did for Armchair BEA. I had so much fun writing those and participating in the event! I’m definitely hoping to join in with that again this year!

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes etc)?

This is hard because there are so many. I love participating in Top Ten Tuesday every week, I loved taking part in Armchair BEA, but if I had to choose the one best event that I had taken part in this year, it would definitely have to be YALC! That was so much fun and I am definitely hoping to go back again this year.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

Meeting Derek Landy with my best friend Hannah at YALC! Nothing can top that.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views?)

By views, Top Ten Tuesday #3 (Top Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read) was my most popular post this year.

8. Post you wished got a little more love?

In general, I wish my review posts got a little more love.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores etc)?

YALC! It’s a book event that I hope to be going to for years to come.

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of the year?

Unfortunately not, I was still two books shy of my Goodreads reading challenge goal at the end of 2015. Still that hasn’t stopped me from upping my goal for this year!

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number One Priority in 2016?

Ink and Bone, I was so excited for that one when it came out and then I never got around to reading it. It’s going to be the next book I read, once I finish my current one!

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating for 2016 (non-debut)?

The Raven King! After such a long wait for it, how could it be anything else?

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Having met Alwyn Hamilton at YALC this year, I have to say Rebel of The Sands. I’m hoping it’s as good as it sounds!

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016?

Is it cheating if I say The Raven King again? I don’t care, I am so excited to see how this series ends!

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life in 2016?

I would love it if I actually manage to complete my Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge, considering I was so close to completing it in 2015, but just didn’t quite get there.

6. A 2016 release you’ve already read and recommended to everyone?

None I’m afraid! I don’t get ARCs so I’ll be waiting just like everyone else for all the shiny new 2016 releases!

So how was your 2015 reading year? What are you looking forward to reading in 2016? Let me know!