Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

I cannot believe we are already halfway through 2019! Even though this is typically a BookTube tag, I wanted to take a stab at it for my blog. I thought this would be a good way to reflect on my reading year so far and take a look at the next 6 months! I've also linked to all my reviews in my answers so you can take a closer look at my opinions. I'd love to see if anyone else did this tag as well...if you did, please share a link in the comments!

1. Best Book You've Read So Far in 2019
I've had a few books that I REALLY enjoyed, so I don't think I can pick just one! I really loved Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (didn't everyone?!) and I finally got to read Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia and absolutely adored it. The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib deserves a mention here as well.

2. Best Sequel You've Read So Far in 2019
I'll be the first to admit that I'm the worst about starting series and never finishing them. That being said, I read the last book in the Amy Cole series, Amy Cole Has It All Figured Out by Elizabeth McGivern, and it was fantastic.

3. New Release You Haven't Read Yet, But Want To
I really want to get to The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman!

4. Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of 2019
Hands down, Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan. Girls of Paper and Fire was incredible and had the most dramatic cliff hanger at the end. I actually have an ARC of this one, but I'm trying to hold off until closer to publication to read it! I'm also super excited for The Toll by Neal Shusterman, which is the third book in the Arc of a Scythe trilogy!

5. Biggest Disappointment
Yikes. This one is going to have to be Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser. I really loved Not That I Could Tell, so I had high hopes for this one. It just didn't deliver and I ended up giving it 1 star.

6. Biggest Surprise
Verity by Colleen Hoover! I had previously steered clear of this author because I was wary of the "romance" label. I heard that this one was really creepy so I decided to give it a try and it ended up being a 5 star read for me!

7. Favorite New Author (Debut or New to You)
Christina Lauren! Just like with Colleen Hoover, I'd never read any of their books before this year because they were "romance" novels. After reading two Christina Lauren books, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating and My Favorite Half-Night Stand, I'm absolutely in love!

8. Newest Fictional Crush
I'm working my way through the Game of Thrones books right now, so I'm going to have to say Jamie Lannister. Is that bad??

9. Newest Favorite Character
I really liked Eva-Kate Kelly from Fake Plastic Girl by Zara Lisbon! I'm a big fan of manic pixie dream girl characters and she definitely was one.

10. Book that Made You Cry
I tend to avoid overly emotional reads...I don't pick up books so they can make me sad. It's also pretty hard to make me cry in general. So I can't think of one for this category right now.

11. Book that Made You Happy
Cold Day in the Sun by Sara Biren was just the most adorable read that gave me all the warm fuzzies!

12. Favorite Book to Movie Adaptation You Saw This Year
So for all the ones I would use here, I haven't actually read the book-just seen the movie. Those would be Dumplin and A Simple Favor. I don't watch a ton of movies really!

13. Favorite Review You've Written This Year
How do I answer this? I like all of my reviews...I wrote them after all!

14. Most Beautiful Book You've Bought So Far This Year
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi is a stunning book!

15. What Books do you Need to Read by the End of This Year
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. All of them. But literally, my TBR has like 500 books on it. #sorrynotsorry #bookbloggerproblems

The Book Sacrifice Tag

While this is a blog rather than a BookTube channel, I love the tags done on BookTube and wanted to jump in myself in blog form. I wanted to start off with the Book Sacrifice tag, created by Ariel Bissett. Take a look at her video, then scroll down for my answers!

1) An Over-Hyped book: HA this is easy, as it's currently #1 on my over-hyped hate list. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. Everyone raves about this book, but as you already know based on my earlier unpopular opinion post, I couldn't stand it (or even finish it for that matter). Zombies, you're going down.

2) A Sequel: Typically sequels are a letdown for me, with both books and movies. One that comes to mind immediately is The Nightmare Dilemma by Mindee Arnett. I absolutely adored The Nightmare Affair and was excited to jump into this one, but it paled in comparison, and I couldn't even finish it, let alone move on to the third book The Nightmare Charade. Such a letdown. I would totally sacrifice this book to protect my hair.

3) A Classic: There were a few I could have chosen here, but overall I do enjoy most classics. I would have to go with Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It was long and confusing and the characters were weird (but not in a good way) and overall I could not wait for this book to be over. And the thing with the old wedding cake? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. DISTURBING.

4) Your least favorite book of life: Oh man, this could also be considered as a classic, and I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to use it above or for this one, but it really and truly is my least favorite book of life. For this I would immediately burn The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I HATED this book. Everything about it was just terrible. The main character Holden is the most annoying character ever created, and all he does is whine and complain. Burning this one first for sure!