Mid-Year Check-In

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Hello! People do a mid-year book tag all the time, and since I'm not on YouTube like that, I thought I'd turn it into a blog post! The questions are all gonna be by Larry Reads on YouTube! Just as a note, this will only be the books I've read between January and June :)

Best book I've read so far in 2026: It's gonna have to be Tropesick by Lauren Okie. I read this in June as an early arc right before it came out, and it was incredible. Absolutely made me cry; loved the twist too.

Worst book I've read so far in 2026: Without a doubt, Want to Know a Secret by Freida McFadden. I wish I could give this zero stars, actually. This is, by far, the worst thriller I have EVER read.

Best sequel you've read so far in 2026: Oooh, best sequel is gonna be difficult! I feel like I haven't read a lot of sequels this year. I think I'm gonna pick Wayward by Blake Crouch, the second book in the Pines trilogy. It was such a step up from the first book in so many ways; I loved it.

Worst sequel you’ve read so far in 2026: Easily, The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez. I am a certified Say You'll Remember Me hater, so I knew I'd hate the sequel, but man, was it bad.

New release you haven't read yet, but want to: It's gotta be And Now, Back To You by BK Borison. This is the second book in the Heartstrings trilogy and follows Jackson and Delilah. It came out back in February, and I haven't been in the mood to pick it up, but I want to!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: Without a doubt, Cross Check by Chelsea Curto. This comes out August 1st, and I need it in my veins. It's Grant and Amelia's story, and I'm honestly frothing at the mouth for it. Also, ACOTAR 6. Cmon.

Biggest surprise of the year? I'm gonna go good surprise and bad surprise. Biggest good surprise was Caraval by Stephanie Garber, the first book in the Caraval trilogy; biggest bad surprise was Red Rising by Pierce Brown, the first book in the Red Rising saga. I wasn't expecting to love Caraval as much as I did, and I ended up loving the entire trilogy. I feel like I should've guessed that I wouldn't enjoy Red Rising, but I tried it anyway, which was my bad. I never wanna read anything by that author ever again.

Favorite new author (debut or new to you): I think I'm gonna go with Suzanne Collins for this one, because I read the first two Hunger Games books in June and loved them. Like, I actually wanna watch the movies now because of how much I thoroughly enjoyed the books. I'll definitely be reading Mockingjay in July!

Newest fictional crush: Jackson from Love Wells Kept, no question. I LOVE that man. I got an early arc copy for it; it's the last book in the Wells Ranch series and follows Jackson and Kate and YOU GUYS it's so good. It's incredible. I love Jackson so much!

Book that made you cry: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah both made me sob my eyes out. The ending of both are just incredible.

Book that made you happy: The entire Shatter Me series, but specifically Ignite Me. I have an Ignite tattoo because of this book and how happy it makes me. I LOVE AARON AND JULIETTE SO MUCH.

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received): I got the Fairyloot edition of Starside back in May! I just gifted it to my friend for her birthday, so I hope she loves it, but it's beautiful.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? So many! I wanna finally finish the Steel Brothers Saga by Helen Hardt, I only have books 29 and 30 left; I wanna start her other Steel second gen series too, since I have most of the books. Reading Melody in June made me realize I miss her writing. Ugh, so many arcs. It's kinda bad. I'd love to read Dungeon Crawler Carl at some point, that could be fun. I might reread Ignite Me too, idk.

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That's it! I hope you guys liked this newer style of content from me :)