2016 Annual End of Year Survey

Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's 2017 already, the years really seem to be flying by so quickly lately. I'm going to start the New Year off with a look back at 2016. This post is inspired by Jamie from The Perpetual Page Turner's Annual End of the Year Survey. I've answered quite a few of her questions, and added in a few of my own, too. Let's start with a few stats.

2016 Reading Stats:

Number of Books I Read: 68

Number of Re-Reads: 9

Number of Series I Completed: 7

Number of Series I Won't Continue: 5

Number of New-to-Me Authors: 28

Number of 2016 New Releases: 22

Most Read Genre: Fantasy

2016 was a weird year, what else can I say?! I didn't read as much as I had hoped to. I set my Goodreads goal to 50 books, but I had secretly hoped to beat it by a lot more than 18 books. I had an unofficial total of 75 for the year in mind, but that didn't work out too well! Maybe it'll happen this year. Also, blogging took a back-seat. I had little desire to write posts or take part in challenge, and I lost a lot of bookish motivation for five or six months of the year. Also, I haven't been as involved in the bookish community in general, and I do miss it. (But one thing I definitely didn't miss was drama and general hostility for daring to express an opinion, but that's a discussion for another day!)

Best In Books:

My Favourite Book of 2016:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - I absolutely adored Six of Crows, and the only down side to loving it so much was the reading slump it triggered for most of the summer until I managed to get my hands on Crooked Kingdom in September. The lack of reading was worth it in the end, though!

Favourite 2016 Debut:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

My Biggest Disappointment of 2016:

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff - I know this one will be on quite a few favourite lists this year, but unfortunately the writing style wasn't for me and I couldn’t get into the story.

My Favourite Series Conclusion:

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski - If only every series ended as perfect and satisfying as this trilogy, I'd be one happy reader!

Best Series I Started in 2016:

I can't choose between two series, so I have to include both! The Queen of the Tearling trilogy by Erika Johansen and The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta

Favourite New-to-Me Author I Read in 2016:

Erika Johansen, author of The Queen of the Tearling trilogy.

Most Addictive Book of the Year:

Six of Crows. I read it in two sittings, which is a pretty rare thing for me these days!

Favourite Cover:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. Crooked Kingdom's cover would be a VERY close second, though.

Favourite World-Building/Setting:

It's a tie between The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury and And I Darken by Kiersten White.

Most Memorable Character of 2016:

Kaz Brekker aka Dirtyhands aka the Bastard of the Barrel aka King of Clubs #SixofCrows #CrookedKingdom @kevinwada pic.twitter.com/Gy7VUgsngQ

— Leigh Bardugo (@LBardugo) July 14, 2016

Kaz Brekker. Love him or hate him, he's VERY memorable! (I fall into the love him half, by the way!)

My OTP of the Year:

Choosing my favourite OTP is like asking me which lung I prefer. *panics* It's an impossible choice! Okay, okay! So, if I have to choose, I'll say Kaz and Inej from the Six of Crows duology. (I'm sensing a theme here…)

Shortest and Longest Book I Read in 2016:

Book that Made me Cry:

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. - I could see what happened coming for quite a while, but it still hurt. *wipes away tears*

Hidden Gem of the Year:

Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine. - It's a Phantom of the Opera retelling set in a slaughter house. How could I not love it?!

Looking Ahead to 2017:

A 2016 Release I WILL Read in 2017:

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Most Anticipated 2017 Release:

The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May

Most Anticipated 2017 Debut:

Gilded Cage by Vic James

Most Anticipated 2017 Series Continuation:

I have two, (shocking, I know!), and they're Now I Rise by Kiersten White and Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton

Most Anticipated 2017 Series Conclusion:

It doesn't have a title yet (or a cover), but I can't wait to see how the Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff ends!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

My 10 Most Anticipated 2017 Book Releases: January to June Edition

I think I say this every year, but where the heck has the past 12 months gone!? I swear it feels like only a few weeks ago since I was planning for last Christmas and New Year! One of my favourite things about this time of year – apart from Christmas and the colder weather – is knowing that dozens of my most anticipated releases are a little closer to me reading them. There are SO MANY new releases I could have chosen for this list, and it was really hard narrowing it down to only 10. The list isn’t in any particular order, and all links below the book covers are to Goodreads.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish.

Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
Now I Rise by Kiersten White
RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
Roar by Cora Carmack

Do we share any most anticipated releases?? And, what are some of your other most anticipated 2017 releases?

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

10 Things I'm Thankful for this Year

To everyone in the U.S. that’s celebrating Thanksgiving this week: Happy Thanksgiving! We don’t celebrate here in Ireland, but I hope everyone that does has an awesome day. For my list this week it will be separated into real life things and bookish things I’m thankful for. I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday this week, and it's a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish.

Things I'm Thankful for in Real Life

My family and friends: How could I not be thankful for my friends and family?? They’re everything to me.

My dog: From angelic puppy to manipulative mastermind, this little bundle of fur came into my life almost five years ago, took over and has ruled with an iron paw ever since. All joking aside, she’s the most precious thing to me, and if you can’t already tell, I love her to pieces. (And, yes, that is my bed she insists belongs to her, not me. We may have regular disagreements over this!)

Music: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” -- Friedrich Nietzsche. I couldn’t agree more.

Having a warm home and food to eat: There are so many people out there right now that don’t have a single thing in the world beyond the clothes on their backs. And they don’t know where their next warm meal will come from. So, as we all sit down to feast ourselves on huge meals over the coming months for various holidays and celebrations, please take a moment to remember those that don’t have what we have. Please.

And on that sombre note, moving onto...

The Bookish Things I’m Thankful For!

Books and Reading: This one is pretty self-explanatory, really! I’m so thankful my mum got me into reading when I was very young. I may have wandered away now and again, but I always end up returning.

The Bookish Community: I love how welcoming the online bookish community is, and no matter what books we love we can find people that have similar tastes to us. It’s so hard to find people in real life that share what we love, and it’s awesome to have the space online where we can find those people, even if they live thousands of miles away from us.

Twilight: Regardless of whether the Twilight saga deserves the hype it got, I’ll be forever thankful that I read this series. It completely changed my attitude to reading, and liking Twilight gave me a much needed kick up the rear and encouraged me to find and read the books I really love and can become invested in, rather than what others or society deems acceptable.

The Hunger Games: Twilight might have changed my attitude toward reading, but The Hunger Games was the series that started my YA addiction. Once I finished the series, I began to be drawn to more and more Young Adult books, and to be perfectly honest I haven’t really looked back since!

Young Adult Authors: I never understand why the label “young adult” gets so much blind hatred and sneering, but that’s an argument for another day… What I would like to say is thank you to all the YA authors that keep sharing their awesome stories and don’t let any negativity silence their words.

All My Favourite Books! This list keeps growing, and it’ll never stop growing and evolving throughout my life, and the image above shows only a handful of my favourite books. From Pride and Prejudice to Angelfall to Nevermore to Crooked Kingdom, I love them all so much and I’m so thankful that I read each one.

Nine Books I've Recently Added to My To-Read List

To-read lists are dangerous. Seriously, they really are! They can leave you penniless within seconds if you give in to the temptation to buy every book that catches your eye. They refuse point blank to shrink. And don’t even get me started on the torment of trying to figure out what to read next. I swear I spend just as much time deciding what I want to read as I do reading! The nine books I’ve chosen for this list are only a small selection of what I’ve added to my TBR list over my break and since returning to blogging. (And that’s another point! If you stray away from reading for a little while, double the books will come back to haunt you and demand to be read. Lesson learned!)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish.

Two Backlist Titles I Want to Read

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – Recently Sam from Thoughts on Tomes recommended this book in one of her videos, and I absolutely LOVED the sound of it. I hadn’t heard of it before and I’m always looking for new Sci-fi recommendations. If you’ve read it, what did you think of it?

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – I confess, I vaguely remember when this one was released, but I forgot about it shortly after. I only came across it again a couple of weeks ago and I’m very intrigued!

Three 2017 New Releases

Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza – Oh beautiful covers, how you tempt me so! I need to read more science fiction, and I hope this book will help with that craving.

Roar by Cora Carmack – Even though the cover reminds me of Truthwitch, it sounds so good. Sounds like a straight up high fantasy novel with lots of magic. Perfect.

Dark Breaks the Dawn by Sara B. Larson – High Fantasy, corrupt monarchies, kingdoms at each other’s throats, and a magic wielding princess? Yep. I need it!

Four Series I Want to Continue

I started all four of these series this year, and I desperately need to get my hands on these sequels ASAP. I love high fantasy, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that I loved both THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING and FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK. ALICE and OF METAL AND WISHES, on the other hand, unexpectedly exceeded all my expectations! ALICE is a dark and twisted Alice in Wonderland inspired retelling, and OF METAL AND WISHES is a Phantom of the Opera retelling set in a slaughter house. Looking back on things, I probably should have expected that I would adore them, but with retellings, I tend to be a little cautious with my expectations.

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

I Know You're Fictional, But I'd Name My Children After You

As tempted as I would be to name a child Voldemort just to see if people would run away in fear, I’m going to leave my evil sense of humour out of this list and keep things semi-realistic. I have included eight names on this list, and being honest, the odds of me having EIGHT children is non-existent – I mean, convincing me to have one would be an achievement in itself, never mind eight! But, hey, at least lots of naming choices never hurt anyone, right?!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish.

Clara – The Unearthly Trilogy by Cynthia Hand – I loved Clara’s character throughout the Unearthly trilogy but I feel I don’t include her in favourites-type lists often enough. So, I shall hypothetically name a child after her! Fair trade, I think?

Sylvain – The Night School Series by C.J. Daugherty – Okay, this might depend on whether the father is French. So, hello hypothetical French future father of a child of mine, I hope you like the name Sylvain.

Nina – Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo – Okay, I was really tempted to choose Kaz… but let’s be honest here, the thoughts of having a spawn of yours start to emulate his namesake – and that namesake just happens to be KAZ BREKKER – well, that slightly terrifies me, so, we’ll go with Nina. Also, I adore her so it’s a very easy decision.

Tobias – The Animorphs Series by K.A. Applegate - Way back in the day when I read the Animorphs series I made the decision if I ever had a son, he’d be named after Tobias. Funnily enough I still like the name, so in honour of 13-year-old-past-me, Tobias makes this list.

Kaden – The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson – Speaking of emulating namesakes... Oh well, I adore the name Kaden way too much so I’ll take the chance!

Chaol – Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas – I can’t resist, I have to include Chaol’s name. Well, I’d hope a real version would be treated a little better than the fictional version was… just sayin’.

Kelsea – The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen – I can’t really put my finger on exactly why I love the name Kelsea so much, but if I had a daughter named after Kelsea Glynn and she started emulating her, I’d actually be very proud!

Kami - The Lynburn Legacy Trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan - To me, Kami is a very underrated YA heroine. I loved her personality and individuality when I read the trilogy last year, and everything I said about Kelsea above I'll echo here.

Just looking back over this list I seem to have a strange affinity for names beginning with C and K. Huh. I have a feeling I'll be a bit paranoid over this for a while! What are some of your favourite character names? Do we share any favourites?

Thanks for stopping by!