Hello my lovely people! It's been a hot minute since we've chatted. How has your life been? How have you guys dealt with quarantine? It seems unreal that it's time for this tag, because 2020 has been a rough year. BUT here we are and we cannot ignore that it's already July. JULY!! I swear, I didn't even feel my birthday this year. Let's start with the tag!
My year started out fine. You guys know that Italy had a rough time, so we started the quarantine in February. I was already mostly staying at home, what with being unemployed and stuff, so February was just fine. It's in mid-March that things started getting south. I hit a reading slump, the weather was annoying me to hell and back, and it felt like the walls were closing in on me. LUCKILY I decided to force myself into doing stuff and that means: knitting one of my most desired fangirl scarf ever (the There and Back Again scarf), watching Turkish shows (known as dizis), learning a new language, and just trying to not freak out over the fact that the quarantine seemed never-ending.
Anyway. I had a pretty good reading track for the first 3 months of the year and then things went downhill mid-April. Even so, I managed to read 72 books so far, and that's pretty awesome if you ask me. I'm also feeling the reading bug creeping up on me, which is awesome and I'm going to feed that bug as long as it wants to stay with me. Let's start!!!
1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2020
Ok there's two. I know, this is cheating, but I have to mention these two books.
The first book is Wilde In Love by Eloisa James and it's a historical romance. I loved it because it gave me a lot of Can and Sanem vibes, from the Erkenci Kuş TV show, which, if you're following me on Instagram, you've seen that my stories have been flooded with that show recently. Not only was the Lord Alaric/Willa pairing awesome, but the book had some really hilarious scenes. Also, because this is a historical romance book, we get some really cool "did you know" moments. This time it was about how ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were interpreted as, and the road to actually deciphering what they meant, which is something I find very interesting.
The second book is Desperate Measures by Katee Robert. Here's the thing. Growing up, I never truly liked Aladdin. I liked Jasmine, the Magic Carpet, Abu, Genie, Rajah, and Iago. Aladdin however did nothing for me, and I couldn't care less if he got the girl or not. Frankly, the entire "I'll lie about who I am, see if I can catch the girl and only because my lie was exposed do I say who I really am" always freaked me out. I also wasn't a fan of Jafar, just want to say that. I basically wanted Jasmine to be the ruler of Agrabah, be happy with Rajah and the rest of the gang, and also have the powers of a Genie. That is all.Well!! Let me tell you something, after reading Desperate Measures, I can finally say I shipped Jasmine with someone. I love dark romance, and trust Katee Robert to write really good dark romance. The entire Wicked Villains series is awesome, so if you want some good Disney/fairy tale retellings where the villains get their HEA, this is your series. Adult readers only, please!
2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2020
Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead. No doubt about it. I fully admit that I should have read this book sooner, but I'm really bad at reading the last one or two books in a series. I only read it because Jamsu was basically holding my hand the entire time and was buddy reading it with me. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have discovered how good this story truly is.
3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to
Say Yes To The Duke by Eloisa James was released in May and I am desperately impatient to get to it, but I want to read this series in order, which means I have 3 more books before getting to it. In the meantime, please look at how pretty the cover is!!!
4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
5. Biggest disappointment
As I said in my review, I had very high expectations and many ideas for how The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead should have been like. It isn't the worst book I've read so far in 2020, but I was a bit disappointed by the last 100 pages or so.
6. Biggest surprise
Sinner by Sierra Simone. Guys. I got this as a freebie in an author newsletter and I thought I was going to read the first chapter on my computer and then transfer it to my e-reader. I ended up bingeing this on my PC and, by the end of it, my entire being was cramping, but this book was soooo worth it. Fingers crossed for a sequel.
7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)
Emily Suvada. I adored This Mortal Coil and I desperately need to read the other two books in the series.
8. Newest fictional crush
Y'all, I wish it was a book character, but no one can defeat my crush on Can Divit from Erkenci Kuş. If you've watched this show, bravo! If you haven't, and you love rom-coms and love stories, y'all are missing out and you need to do something about that. Do yourselves a favor and watch this show.
9. Newest favorite character
Constantine from Donna Grant's Dark Kings series. Dragon shapeshifter, king of kings. Do I need to say more?
10. Book that made you cry
Long Lost by Lexi Blake. I mean, really, it's Lexi Blake. That woman always makes me cry. But Long Lost is just...Heartbreaking doesn't even begin to describe Tucker's story.
11. Book that made you happy
Reborn Yesterday by Tessa Bailey. I loved the vampire mythology in this book. And we know I love vampires, so of course this book made me happy.
12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)
I stumbled across the Araneae Nation by Hailey Edwards on Kindle and I knew I had to have it. Just look how gorgeous this cover art is!!
13.What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
Is all of them an appropriate answer? Asking for a friend here. I have a lot of books that I need to read this year, but very high on my TBR is the Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa. I have the collection on my Kindle and I really need to get the courage up to finish the series. I actually plan on it to be my binge read in July, and hopefully I'll manage just that.
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It doesn't feel real that it's July already. 2020 truly is a very strange year, and I'm sure we're all done with it. Hopefully the second half of this year will be better. In the meantime, if you want to do this tag, please remember to share your links in the comments so I can visit. Until next time, happy reading!
