My year of books: 2021 in memoriam

   

As Goodreads published its Year In Books, I've been thinking back to the 177 books I've read this year. Overall, my year was pretty successful, in terms of reading, at least. I had 14 favorites of the year, but many more 5 star reads. As an English major, I do read a lot for school, however, when I only include the books I read on my own on my Goodreads challenge. So I spent the first few months of 2021 reading only for school. As such, the bulk of my reading occurred during the last 3/4ths of the year, which leads to the first question of this post. 

What was the first book you read this year? 

My first read of the year was Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun. With the Twilight Renaissance currently occurring online, this book felt as good as any to start my year off with. If you haven't heard of it, it's essentially a retelling of Meyer's 2005 novel, Twilight. While Meyer has done Twilight retellings before (namely, the gender-bent novel, Life and Death), this one tells the infamous love story of Bella and Edward, but this time, from Edward's perspective. I rated this read 3 stars out of 5, which for me, says the book was okay, nothing special or memorable, in either a good or bad way. 

A favorite author of the year? 

Immediately and without question, Mariana Zapata is my author of the year. While I've only read four of her books this year, all four of those books were read between November and December. Each of those books got at least a 4 stars from me, and one ended up on my yearly favorites list and another was deeply considered for that same list. A yearlong favorite, and close runner-up, would be Jennifer L. Armentrout (JLA, for many fans). I read at least 2 books in 3 different series by JLA, with the lowest rating of three stars, and most fall into the four stars rank. 

Most-read genre? 

My most-read genre of 2021, was romance, with mystery firmly in second place, and fantasy securing third. 

Most disappointing read?

My most disappointing read was one that I ended up DNF-ing (Did Not Finish), after having been excited for it for months. Flames of Chaos by Amelia Hutchins was a book I gave up on around the 50% mark. I had been not enjoying it since the beginning of the book, but the first love scene between the two love interests was where I had officially given up on it. Nothing about the romance was endearing or even enjoyable, and the characters and their motivations fell flat in almost every scene. 

All-time favorite stand-alone of the year?

On a bit of a lighter note, my favorite stand-alone of the year was Kulti by Mariana Zapata-- the love story between a world-famous, recently retired, soccer-star-turned-coach and a player on his team. I loved everything about this story, the romance was sweet, the grumpy-sunshine romances always get me. While the heroine wasn't necessarily sunshine-y on her own, the contrast between her and grumpy-Kulti made her seem like it, which made her more enjoyable to read on her own than the normal sunshine character. 

All-time favorite series of the year?

The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black was truly fantastic. The world-building was intriguing, the characters were interesting, and the love story was beautiful. 

Least Favorite book of the year? 

 Aside from my disdain for Flames of Chaos, and a few other DNF-ed books (namely, Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux, which I promptly marked as DNF after a vaping scene), one of my incredibly few one stars is Diamond City by Francesca Flores. This was another book I was really excited about and was so confident I'd love it, I bought it as a hardcover before reading it. However, It wasn't memorable at all. All I remember from it was the general premise (a girl commits a robbery and gets caught then has to work with the guy who caught her for... something?) and how bland everything about this novel was. 

Special mentions. 

I don't have too many special mentions, but I have one that I felt needed to be put somewhere on this list. Not only to commemorate the 800 pages I read of it but how truly magnificent it was. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is a book that I quickly declared as a future classic. The characters were amazing and compelling, and when bad things inevitably happen to them, it becomes gut-wrenching because of how much you care for them. The writing was beautiful. Every aspect of this book can be described as tragically beautiful. 

Most anticipated books of 2022. 

There are five books I'm most excited about coming next year, all of them continuations of a series. The first one is JLA's War of Two Queens, the fourth book in the Blood and Ash series. Next, is Court by Tracy Wolff, then Glow by Kennedy Raven, A House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas, and, lastly, is Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare.