2020 Mid Year Freak Out Tag // Ft. New Favorites And Books Making Me Smile And Sob

So the time has come AGAIN for the Mid Year Freak Out Tag!! I canNOT believe that this is my third year blogging, and thus my THIRD mid year freak out tag! My tag from 2018 is here (cringe) and 2019 is here, and now it’s time for 2020!

In typical Kay fashion, I wasn’t actually tagged by anyone but I’m taking initiative to tag myself because I think this tag is such a great way to check in on yearly reading!

I’ve currently had 47 out of 75 books, so I’m 10 books ahead of schedule so I’m chilling. But also I think I’ll probably increase my goal because I have so much time… when I set my reading challenge I was planning on studying at college and working instead of sitting around my house quarantined…

Also low-key I looked around and I’ve found, like, three slightly different variations on this tag? I guess it’s like a giant game of telephone lmao so I’m just doing this one version.

Best Book You’ve Read This Year?

I read Harley In The Sky in January and I knew that it would be my best book of the year and here we are six months later and it’s still my favorite book of the year and yep I’m calling it now that in December I’ll still be gushing about how much I love this book. The rep really meant the world to me, and I loved Harley so much. I loved reading about the circus, the group of friends, the family relationships, the swoony romance… I just love this book with my whole heart.

Best Sequel You’ve Read This Year?

A Heart So Fierce And Broken is a phenomenal sequel! I absolutely adored Grey, and I loved Lia Mara too! There were high stakes fantasy and I was on my toes for the entire novel, and I absolutely can’t wait to read the next book!

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To?

So many! If I had to choose just one I’d probably say The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes because hello, Hunger Games?? I’ve read some mixed review for this, but overall it seems people like it and my twelve year old self is dying to see what exactly is happening. Also I’m like hope #12 at the library so I’ll get to read it someday lol.

Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of The Year?

I’m honestly not really on top of what’s releasing this year lmao 2020 has been a wreck and it’s hard for me to stay organized within that. I do know that Marissa Meyer is releasing a new contemporary (!!!), Instant Karma, in November, and she’s my number one auto buy author I love everything by her so yeah I’m excited to love this one.

Biggest Disappointment?

Frankly In Love was a huge disappointment because I’d heard such amazing things about it and then I ended up hating it! Frankly… Frank Li is a horrible person and I hated reading from his perspective. Also the author tried to do way too much and shove way too many themes and messages in there and in the end none of them were done well and I just wanted to punch Frank that’s all.

Biggest Surprise?

I can’t think of any I was super surprised by (I guess this has been a boring reading year), but I was pleasantly moderately surprised by Under A Painted Sky! I usually dislike historical fiction and I don’t think I’ve read a book set on the Oregon Trail before so I was apprehensive going into this, but I ended up really enjoying it! There’s a wonderful found family, and it’s so great to see Asian rep in historical fiction.

New Favorite Author (New To You Or Debut)?

I know I’m a year late since everybody one read Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim last year, but listen, better late than never right? I love the beautifully crafted, beautifully written store, and I can’t wait to read her next book!

Newest Fictional Crush?

I just realized I haven’t really read any swoony worthy book boyfriends this year?? Sad. I did really love Nash from What I Like About You because, let’s be real, a book blogger? A book blogger boyfriend?? Someone who appreciates us for our crazy book blogger-ness? I love how nerdy he is and cute and seeing him open up and be vulnerable I need to give my cinnamon roll a hug.

Newest Favorite Character?

I didn’t want to use this book again since I’ve already used it once but in this case I absolutely can’t resist! I have to gush about my fave, Harley from Harley In The Sky, because I swear she is literally me. I’ve never related to a character more and I just loved her so much and wanted to hug her and wanted her to achieve all her dreams. She’s definitely inspired me to go after mine ❤

Book That Made You Cry?

Five Feet Apart definitely doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a tearjerker and boy did it make me weepy. I just felt so sad reading about Stella and Will and all the struggles they have to go through, especially know that cystic fibrosis is real disease and there are so many people struggling like them and wow was this book beautiful but sad.

Book That Made You Happy?

Tweet Cute was such an adorable book how can you not smile and be so happy reading it? I loved reading about Pepper and Jack and seeing their interactions and twitter warring and I just smiled all the way through this book.

Favorite Book To Film Adaptation?

PS I Still Love You! This movie isn’t great, and I definitely didn’t love it and am not likely to watch it 6 times in a year like I did with To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, but it was still super cute and fun to watch and I really enjoyed it ❤

Favorite Post You Have Done This Year?

I have a few! I made an original tag, The Bookish Baking Tag since I’ve been doing so much baking and I loved pairing my favorite baked treats to books! Although the subject is rather unfortunate, I liked my discussion on Separating JKR from Harry Potter because I loved the conversations I had in the comments with people and seeing their perspectives. And I’ve been screaming about Percy Jackson since March so I loved all my PJO related posts, especially my Review/Favorite Moments from the original PJO series ❤

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year?

To be honest, I have not bought one single book this year. That’s perfectly normal for me of course, I’m not a book buyer, so I’d better share the most beautiful book I read this year (before returning to the library so someone else could admire its beauty).

I love the cover for An Enchantment of Ravens! Margaret Rogerson really gets the most beautiful covers and I love them so much and would read them for the covers alone (but the books are amazing too so its a win win situation)

What Books Do You Need To Read By The End Of The Year?

There’s a ton of books I want to read! I’ll just list a few! I really want to read The Betrothed, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Loveboat Taipei, You Should See Me In A Crown, The Henna Wars… how about these twenty books I listed for my summer tbr 🙂

Tagging

Sofi // Nish and Ngoc // Aria // Annie // Holly // You!

As always, no pressure to do it if I tag you and you don’t want to, and feel free to do it even if I didn’t tag you!

Let’s Chat

How has your reading been this year? What’s your favorite book so far? Have you read any I mentioned? I’d love to chat in the comments below ❤