Oh, this post is going to be such a call-out. Maybe not? I know that I’ve read quite a few new releases this year, so this might not be too bad, but that’s also because I’m not owning up to the fact that I still haven’t read A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir–or I guess I just did right now?–which is just a whole other can of worms. Anyway, I posted two anticipated releases posts this year, and I’m really curious if I ended up reading all of them. I only put books that I’ve preordered on those lists, so let’s see how I’ve done!
It may have taken me a month after the January 5 release of Lore by Alexandra Bracken to read it, but holy moly, I was absolutely devoured by it. This was such an incredible start to a year of honestly really excellent new releases, and it’s definitely one that I’ll be rereading sometime next year.
We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal released on January 19, but my procrastination took me all the way to March before I read it, and I’ve got to just be a broken record and say it was fantastic. I’m trying to get better at reading new releases in the month they’ve come out because what is the point of preordering if it’s just going to sit on my shelves forever.
I’m tentatively changing what I had previously written for Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare. It released on March 2, but I’ve finally started Chain of Gold, and I think I’m going to try to tackle this during Christmas. It is entirely possible that I won’t, given how many other books I want to read before the end of the year, but I’m feeling good about this. I’ve wanted to finish up the Shadowhunters universe for a couple years now, and with only one book left, I’m feeling reallllll motivated to finally accomplish that.
Look at that! Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab released on March 2, and I read it seven days later! Really, five days later because I usually get preorders in the mail two days after their release date, so I was really on top of my game with this one, which is just no surprise considering it’s both a series finale and written by Schwab.
I was doing so good right up until Dead Space by Kali Wallace, which released on March 2, and I still don’t really know why I haven’t read this yet. I’ve loved every single one of Wallace’s books before, and she’s become an auto-buy author for me, but every time I go to pick this up, I end up reading something else instead. I’m hoping that I get to this before the end of the year!
Talk about reading as soon as I could spare a single second–I read Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas in the first week of April, and it released on March 23. I was so hyped about this book, particularly given how much I adored Cemetery Boys, so I gobbled this up just about as fast as I could.
I mean, I love Amanda Foody so damn much, and she’s easily one of my favorite authors, so regardless of the fact that The Accidental Apprentice was middle grade, I started it the moment I finished Thomas’ sophomore album. This released on March 30, and I read it a little over a week later, and I’ve already got the sequel preordered!
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston released on May 6, but I didn’t read it until June 7. I know, I know! Why in the world! It wasn’t my first book for Pride, but it was the second, I think? I wanted to wait until Pride to read this because I knew that it was going to be a five star, and I just wanted to begin Pride with as much hype as possible.
I honestly just double checked to confirm that Heartstopper: Volume 4 by Alice Oseman did indeed come out on May 13 because I didn’t read it until the 21st, and I’m confused. That seems very far after when I would normally read one of these, but I guess it doesn’t matter all that much because, in the end, I have indeed read this!
I truly cannot believe that a Maggie Stiefvater novel is going to be one of my unread anticipated releases this year, but I haven’t read Mister Impossible yet, which released on May 18, and I can’t honestly say that I have too many plans of reading it soon. I don’t know. I’m having a lot of complicated feelings about this series, and none of them are all that good.
Oh, look at me, reading The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver at the end of the month even though it released on June 1. Maybe if I’d started with both McQuiston & Deaver, my Pride wouldn’t have been nearly so wretched? Or maybe, because I bookended the month with two superb five-star reads, it was the only reason I didn’t spiral out of control in misery over all the horrible books that I did read.
It’s 12/6 as I’m writing this paragraph, and it seems unlikely that I’ll read Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria, released on June 8, before the end of the year. I mean, you never know, I might get to it in the next couple of weeks, but I also have a lot of other new releases stacked up on my nightstand waiting to be read, and most of them are taking a higher priority, so.
I’m so proud of myself for reading Darling by K. Ancrum, which released on June 2, in the same month! This was such a stunning addition to Ancrum’s collection of weird and chaotic books, and it was definitely the strangest Peter Pan retelling I’ve ever read. My best friend absolutely adored this, as well, and is still talking about it months later.
Duh, of course I read Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell as soon as I possibly could. It released on July 6, and I started it a couple weeks later, and it was so worth it. There have been a lot of amazing sequels this year, and this was definitely one of them. I love the way that Rowell wrapped up this trilogy, and I thought it was a very fitting & satisfying end for Simon & Baz.
For some reason, I thought The Queen Will Betray You by Sarah Henning was going to be a duology, so I was shook by the ending. This also released on July 6, and I also read it a couple weeks after because, while it wasn’t one of the books I was screaming about the most, it was one that was consistently on my mind, and I was so curious to see how Henning opened up The Princess Bride story past its end.
Man, I’m doing good! The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad released on August 3, and I read it about ten days later! Azad was already an auto-buy after The Candle & the Flame, but this would have convinced me if not. She is truly a phenomenal writer, and I’m so damn excited to see what she publishes next.
Look, Into the Dying Light by Katy Rose Pool was actually my most anticipated book of the entire year, so of course I didn’t read it until almost a full month after it released on September 21. I was very overexcited, okay! I was also terrified that it wouldn’t be good, which is the dumbest thing ever because this series is one of my all-time favorites, so of course it was going to be not just amazing, but absolutely perfect. From start to finish, every page of this was exactly what I wanted, and more.
I ended up having a spontaneous Margaret Rogerson reread, and so, though Vespertine released on September 28, I didn’t even up reading it until November because I was wrapped up in An Enchantment of Ravens and Sorcery of Thorns, and let me tell you, I’m definitely going to do that for her next release, too. There as absolutely no need to reread everything because none of them exist in the same universe, but she’s such a fantastic writer that it ended up being a really fun way to prepare for her new release!
Having this post unfinished right up until the last minute has stressed me the heck out, so I’m just going to go ahead and say that I read Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, which released on October 5, though it took me until the end of December to read it, which is truly baffling to me. Currently, I’m in the middle of Girls of Fate & Fury, but the game plan is to immediately start Little Thieves after finishing it, so this will be read, damn it!
I was going to say that I can’t believe how fast I read Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco after its release on October 5, butttttt it actually took me a month, so not that fast? But that’s honestly way faster than I was expecting, given how it was definitely one of my least most anticipated of the year. It definitely lived up to my very neutral expectations, though, and I’m super excited for the finale!
A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown, which released on November 2, has the same song and dance as Fire with Fire. I’ve got too many other new releases that I’m hoping to read, plus finishing up the Shadowhunters universe before the end of the year, which is a solid 1000 pages on its own, but rest assured that this’ll probably be one of the first books that I read in January!
Given how many days are left in the year, it’s unlikely I’ll get to All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman until January. Though it released on November 9, I’ve been trying to catch up with several other preorders since then, and I’ve got a very strict plan for the rest of the year that only maybe includes this if I can stay on track with everything else.
I was bound and determined to read Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan by the end of the year because I was so convinced I was going to put it on my top ten sequels list. (You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it made it!) This released on November 23, so I’m not too far behind in reading it, and I’m pretty pleased with that!
I received A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw, which released on December 7, on the 10th, and I started reading it about an hour after I got it. This was definitely one of my more anticipated releases of the year, and I was very excited to be reading something spooky and cold in the winter, so I was either rereading Winterwood or reading this.
Mary and the Words 
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