This is my 9th year doing the Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag! The tag was created by Ely @ Earl Grey Books and Chami @ Read Like Wildfire.
This is my favorite tag of the year! As in previous years, I’m choosing three books for each prompt, since it’s hard to pick just one. And I’ll link to my reviews for the books I’ve read. I’m cheating a bit and including two July releases, but I’m giving myself a pass because this post is so late, lol.
Best Books I’ve Read So Far This Year:
It’s been an excellent start to the year, and I’ve read some REALLY good books! These three stand out at the moment: A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James, The Children by Melissa Albert and A Widow’s Charm by Caitlin Paxson (the big surprise here since this is a debut!)
Best Sequels I’ve Read So Far This Year:
The best sequel of the year will surely be The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley, it was outstanding! Other standout sequels are Three Hitmen and a Baby by Rob Hart and Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite.
New Releases I Haven’t Read But Want To:
The first two are very late review books, and Daytide is a purchase that I fully intend to read before Summer of Horror is over. I just barely started The Hive, and right away it grabbed me, so it’s just a matter of committing to an 800 page book. And I’ve read some great reviews for The Temptation of Charlotte North. All of these are a case of requesting more review books each month than I can read. I swear I’m working on that!
Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2025:
I have way more than three most anticipated books releasing in the next six months, but if I could only read three, these are the ones I’d pick: Exit Party, Off the Reservation and Kiss Slay Replay.
Biggest Disappointments:
I’m very sad that these are all horror! Headlights by C.J. Leede had some good ideas, but the execution utterly failed for me. Crawlspace by Adam Christopher just wasn’t that scary, and Morsel by Carter Keane was full of promise but lost me with some very unsavory animal violence.
Biggest Surprises:
Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas was (in my opinion) much better than his last book, and this one has made me a fan for life. I just don’t read much historical/epic fantasy these days, so I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan. And Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson was delightfully weird with a fun plot.
Favorite New Author:
I loved Japanese Gothic, and Kylie Lee Baker is a new “must read” author for me. Likewise with Johnny Compton. His latest, Dead First, was such a surprise and I can’t wait to read more of his books. And I’m counting Jeff Rake as the new author of Detour (I’ve read many of Rob Hart’s books!). This was such a fun book, and the sequel will be out next year.
New Favorite Characters:
My review for The Farewitch of Foxe Holler will be up later this week, but I couldn’t resist highlighting this book, since the main characters, Honey and Mr. Knight, are simply delightful.
As in all of T. Kingfisher’s books, the characters take center stage, and that’s no exception with Wolf Worm, which manages to meld a horrific plot with lovable characters.
Finally, A Forest Darkly by A.G. Slatter brings readers the character of Mehrab, a middle-aged witch who refuses to be defined by her age.
Books That Made Me Cry:
On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield is both brutal and emotional, and the last part especially had me in tears.
The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean put me through the wringer emotionally. This is a complex story with lots of surprises.
We Burned So Bright by T.J. Klune is an end of the world story with a tender romance at the center of it. It’s hard not to cry when you know what the characters are in for.
Books That Made Me Happy:
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer was a wonderful surprise! This “book within a book” story had an absolutely fabulous twist that elevated this to the next level, and if you love books and reading, this is seriously a must read.
In Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, the shelter cats steal the show, and the whole ambiance of the story made me happy.
Stephanie Burgis made this category last year too! This year, book two in her Queens of Villainy series, Enchanting the Fae Queen, was another delightful book that kept a smile on my face.
Biggest WTF Books of the Year So Far:
I added this category last year, and I’m keeping it this year because I’ve read plenty of WTF books!
Marcus Kliewer made it last year too. This year The Caretaker was the first WTF book I thought of!
In Teddy Bears Never Die by Cho Yeeun, a boy’s consciousness is magically transferred into a teddy bear, who ends up saving and befriending a young girl.
Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman is very hard to describe, but let’s just say it definitely deserves a place in this category.
Favorite Post I’ve Done This Year:
Here are a few posts I’m very happy with:
Celebrating 15 Years of Blogging
Favorite Books By My Favorite Authors
April Showers – Covers With Rainbow Colors
Most Beautiful Book I’ve Bought This Year:
These are just a few photos of the beauty that is Daytide by Chris Panatier. This is a limited edition by Rapture Publishing (which I believe has sold out), and it’s gorgeous on every level.
You’ve got some good ones on here (even though I haven’t read them yet ). I’m particularly interested in STRANGE ANIMALS and Klune’s latest. I almost bought A WIDOWS CHARM a couple weeks ago, but decided against it simply because I don’t know when I’d get around to it.
I think you would love A Widow’s Charm:-)
The Book Witch is one I really need to read. You always have all the best covers on the books you read too! This is a fun tag to do, and letting yourself pick 3 definitely helps. Like you I always have so much trouble narrowing down. I think it’s because I DNF, so if I finish a book, it’s usually because I liked it!
I hope you get to read The Book Witch, I’m so glad I took a chance on it:-)
Fabulous!
I feel behind many things right now, so am not sure I’ll take the time to do this, but would love to!
It’s fun to look back on the first six months, although it did take me a long time to put this together:-)
Really enjoyed seeing your answers, thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
I’m really curious what your thoughts would be about The Temptation of Charlotte North since I really loved it!
I hope I can squeeze it in!
Thanks for sharing Tammy.
My pleasure!
I can’t wait to all of those books in your top 3! I keep meaning to do this tag every year because I love reading them so much.
It takes forever to put the post together, lol. But it is fun.
I would also like to nominate “Teddy Bears Never Die” for “Biggest WTF Books Cover of the Year So Far” XD
LOL crazy cover right?
This is always such a fun post! I just checked Three Hitmen and a Baby out of the library and look forward to reading it next. 😀
Oh cool, I hope you have fun with it!
I love that you’ve kept the WTF category in this and am utterly unsurprised by your choices given your reviews of them. Its very exciting to see two summer must reads of mine making your top books of the year so far. I can’t believe I haven’t read The Red Winter yet and I’m incredibly excited to pick up Exquisite Torment soon having just finished book one. Why did I wait so long to read it??? I seriously didn’t expect it to click for me quite as wonderfully as it did (I tend to find humour rather hit and miss). I look forward to seeing your full review for Farewitch and hope you enjoy Charlotte North. I saw a review of it that really intrigued me too. We also have Kylie Lee Baker in common as a new favourite author based on the same book. I’ll be reading my second by her next week hopefully.
I love the endpages on that copy of Daytide, stunning (and a definite major weakness of mine). I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year with many more wonderful new reads.
I can’t wait to see what you think of Exquisite Torment, I thought it was so much better than the first book (which I also loved!)
I love doing this tag too. It’s fun to look back on the last several months. I loved Red Winter and it was such a huge surprise to me too. We Burned So Bright definitely made me cry too!
The Red Winter was so good, and I do love when books surprise me:-)
I like the idea of doing a mid-year wrap up! You have gotten some great reads in so far. I remember your reviews for several on your list. The first 3 covers are so good.
It’s fun to take a look back, especially when I’ve already read some amazing books this year.
I’m very happy to see The Children in that position – I can’t wait to try it. I’m also looking forward to so many of these especially Nothing Tastes As Good. Thanks for sharing!
I hope you love The Children too:-)
I love this tag! And our reading tastes are so similar – I need to get on Wolf Work by Kingfisher ater seeing it here – everything I’ve read y her is fantastic.
She is such a solid writer, I always know I’ll enjoy her books.
Agnes Aubert also made me happy!
It’s hard not to be happy after reading it:-)
I am definitely planning on doing this so really I need to get my skates on. I also want to follow in your shoes and do a post choosing a favourite book for my years in blogging.
Lynn 😀
Lol it’s fitting that you have a “WTF books” category. You read some very interesting stories.
Yeah you don’t do 500+ page books, just tell the publisher to split it in half 😉 It’s interesting that you cried during the book that Steff just DNFed
I really want to try something by Simone St. James and Emily St. John Mandel. And I’m right there with you picking Kylie Lee Baker for Japanese Gothic and T. Kingfisher for Wolf Worm. I loved both those books.
Brilliant tag! I keep telling myself I should have a go at it every single year, but simply don’t get around to it:). I’ll agree A Widow’s Charm was a delight as certainly has made my Outstanding Reads list of the year. Daytide looks absolutely fantastic – it’s almost enough to persuade me to start buying physical books again!!
I definitely need to push Widow’s Charm and The Children to the top of my priority list!