BEST BOOKS OF 2021 | Favorite Reads!

so it's getting really close to the end of the year i mean we are here basically which means looking back and reminiscing about the bookish things from dnf's which i already did a video for and best and worst books of the year and i'm going to be honest my 2021 reading life sucked i read like 35 books this year the least amount i have ever read but you know what i kind of don't care now it was really bothering me but that's just how my year ended up being i went to this year with a lot of different goals and challenges for myself and i ended up being just a slug on the couch but i did find some incredible books found new authors i adore enough to at least have books to make a best books list so here are the books that i loved in 2021 there's seven of them what's awesome is most of them are 2021 releases and i'm not even going to like try to distill this down to a specific numbered list because they were all great it's a mix of four and five star reads each of these books had something incredible to offer and i'm very excited to talk about them today before we get into this list i want to say thank you to likewise for sponsoring today's video likewise is an app you can download from this app store for free and it provides you with many recommendations like books or movies tv shows i mean if you're not watching my videos then getting really good book recommendations is hard we can all agree i think there's a million books out there and sometimes you just don't know what to read next but you're filling something similar to the book you just finished likewise it solves all of your problems you can get book racks from real people using the app like me all you have to do is tell the app the genres and books you enjoy and likewise gives you personalized recommendations you can never be bored on here because you can find like-minded people in fact you can follow me at hollyheart's books on the app and we can socialize about all the cool things and you can even ask the community what the heck to read next you can go through the trending list or a list your fellow readers have created it's free interactive and just plain fun so click the link in my description box below to join follow me discover all the things and thank you again likewise for sponsoring today's video so the first two books i'll be talking about are by the same author and oddly enough they're both the complete opposite of each other one is a finale to a series and the other is a start to a new series i'm going to start with the finale and that was wrath by john gwen this was one of the first books i read in 2021 actually so at least i started the year on a very good note it's the fourth book the finale to the faithful and the fallen series and it's one of the best finales i have ever read and if not the best this is amazing and that's saying a lot for being like a dual abercrombie fan girl but it's true um joe would be very disappointed in me from the friendships to the insane battles the faithful and the fallen has proven to me to be a true gem in the fantasy genre it took me forever to pick up malice which i finally did in 2020 in fact i made a whole video about it this wasn't ever a video that i wanted to make um i wasn't sure if i should even talk about it or even bring it up uh that video still cracks me up just a really quick synopsis this takes place in the banished lands where this god war happened in the far away past a prophecy is foretold that the ancient war will manifest once again and each side good and evil will have an avatar selected by the gods themselves to fight this battle and you don't know exactly who was selected and who is on which side each book gets better and better and wrath is no exception to that wrapping up every storyline was an endeavor and john gwen did it superbly i honestly don't remember the last time i was this happy with how every character story wrapped up but man he managed to do it the climax was 160-ish pages of just a non-stop action that switched povs at the perfect moment to keep you reading it all made me hold my breath and shed many many tears as did ruin which is book three um gwen titled that one perfectly because it did in fact ruin me i will not forget and i will never forgive you it was the perfect book to start my year and i see myself reading these periodically as i grow older kind of like lord of the rings style so sometime in may john gwen released a new book in a whole new world completely oozing with viking mythology and i fell head over heels for it and that was the shadow of the gods another freaking stunner another whole new cast of characters that i thought no way i can love them as much as the faithful in the fallen and well i guess my heart was on my freaking sleeve because i adored all of them and i know how john gwen is i just need to accept all of their deaths now i will get through this the world building for me was absolutely exquisite it was filled to the brim with history and monsters such as like night worms frost spiders and many more there are also battles that will have you ready to like throw hands they definitely had me on the edge of my seat and reminded me of the fights in the recent like god of war game axes were flying swords were you know swooshing and everywhere and skulls were being cracked open i guess i'm sicko because i enjoyed the heck out of it the land that this book takes place in had so much depth and history to it basically a century ago gods ruled the world but due to certain events chaos ensued and gods fought gods leading to their demise only their bones remain which actually if they're harnessed they can have the ability to give people the upper hand through like magical powers so with the gods now gone the land is now split into like little pockets and ran by yarls basically like a viking version of a governor um this book just had everything and i mean it i thought it was the perfect fantasy novel and barely any flaws i think the only flaw i had was there weren't enough dragons but that's going to change i think in book two and then i have a void breaker i was so sad to see the end of this fabulous trilogy but voidbreaker truly did offer a thrilling and satisfying conclusion that cemented the keepers series as a favorite for me in fact it's definitely solidified david daglish as a favorite author in general and i'm kind of an idiot for not having got on to his older books but in time that'll happen honestly i'm kind of like a one track mind for his new book that comes out next year i'm super excited for it the story here follows on immediately from the end of raven caller book 2 and things are bad in the city it takes place in in the first book which is soul keeper the humans have been forced to give up some of the city to the magical races who've suddenly returned to the world and tensions are dangerously high in this one clearly as this is the conclusion it's another crazy constant battle this is a very dark world with a lot of terrible people in it and bad things happening but what i love about these books is that they have a core of goodness and hope devin our main character and his crew are fundamentally trying to do their best and that gives the books a like a weirdly cozy glow that you wouldn't necessarily think would be possible given the amount of grimness the cast and the way they interact reminds me hugely of a great like rpg kind of like final fantasy everyone has their own goals as well as what the main story needs from them and i'm so impressed at how well they're all like juggled even though this book particularly and the series as a whole is packed with action scenes i still think this is like at its heart a character focused fantasy which for me is what makes it so strong i think this would be great for people who love like dragon age or like i said like final fantasy games or anyone who likes tales of good people making hard choices in the face of creepy gods and monsters voice breaker just pulled the whole series together and it absolutely sticks to landing son of the swarm was also one of my favorite reads of 2021 i was totally drawn to this book by the stunning cover which still in my opinion is one of the best covers of this entire year i mean the colors the composition and the texture design it's just like it's museum worthy this ended up being a huge surprise and i think it's because of my love for in-depth grittier fantasy i think it deserves far more love because the beginning of this book had me desperate to read more i love the world that was introduced it takes place within the city of bassa it's a city in which the shade of your skin plays a role in how you're perceived most noticeably um the darker you are the more favored you are by the nobility in like the people in general we follow a few characters but the main one i think is showcased here on the cover his name is danzo and he's our scholarly hero on the hunt for forbidden knowledge he goes to a university but is also on the brink of expulsion due to his curiosity of books he shouldn't be reading that could totally rewrite history i do think this is like a coming-of-age story because he's really naive at the beginning but you go to love him as he understands what he needs to do in the position he's in what i also loved about the story was the magic system essentially you can gain power from a rare mineral and somehow some of our characters manage to get their hands on it which gives one of them um a power to control animals like a thunder bat which added a really fun element although there is action i was very much enthralled by the political elements and the twist that ensued in many fantasy novels it's the action that takes the center stage but instead of the storm it was all about the hidden secrets the city is hiding and being smart to be one step ahead of the enemy i know some people might find the narrative is quite slow and too detailed but that depth of detail was one of the things that i felt was strongest to me i cannot wait for the sequel to this one one of my most anticipated and funnily enough this is one of the most complex books i've ever read and i remember pretty much everything which is so unlike me and that's just a sign of how much i loved it okay this next book is actually not a fantasy are you surprised the world gives way so this is a book that grabbed me from page one not page 20 not by chapter three but the first page it's one of the most interesting post-apocalyptic books that i've read so while it's like really dire um the book doesn't always focus on that but instead the people who are living through the experience i feel like i need to tell you what this is about first it's set in a world where the human race built a generational spaceship to carry humanity to a far-flung planet so it takes place entirely on a spaceship that's basically sculpted as earth there are cities um even oceans but it's ending earthquakes are happening more and more frequently and our main character has to try and live while taking care of a baby while also knowing that everyone is going to die in addition to that the book reads like a non-traditional noir mystery with a detective duo who are investigating a murder that our main character is also in the middle of so she's dealing with a lot this book is just such a great debut a genius concept it didn't feel like a debut at all it's a beautiful example of how to move through the final days it showcases the chaos the deep sadness regret and finally acceptance it's really deep stuff i highly recommend this book if you are wanting to read like a light sci-fi this author is on my list of authors to look out for 100 so i'm sure some of you saw this coming but the wisdom of crowds um all cards on the table i already knew that this was going to be an extremely impressive and intense five-star read and i had already prepared a place for it on my top reads of 2021 list i just knew it abercrombie cannot write a bad finale and here's just more proof of it this is the finale to the age of madness trilogy which is set over 20 years after the events of the original first law trilogy and follows the children and younger associates of the original protagonist as they deal with the sense of their parents basically the story here is just so cohesive especially as it leads up to some major reveals and big character moments that had me surprised as hell a massive battle scene as always i really did not see some of the big twists coming even though they were um really set up well throughout the trilogy and there are definitely some open-ended plots that i'm hoping will be in like future first law books it really looks like abercrombie might feature the remaining characters again and i really hope that's his plan so i'm actually going to leave it at that since this is a finale it's probably one of the most popular books on this list but if you haven't picked up the first law yet i highly recommend because you will be sucked into it the 12 kings and sharakai so this was a book that had been sitting on my shelves um for years unread and darren told me to read it and whatever he says goes because he is the one who got me to read half a king my dear abercrombie back in the day which led to an obvious obsession so i trust his random finger pointing and yet again i ended up loving this this is an adult epic fantasy set in a desert city where 12 kings rule and our main character cheda who is a fighter in the gladiator pits finds herself caught between the kings and their ongoing war with the desert tribes it also monsters that lurk in the city at night so that is very much oversimplified because to say the plot is complex would be a vast understatement but the author writes it so well he alternates back and forth between cheda and the present as she learns her heritage and gets cut up in the schemes and cheated in the past with her mother as a child and i have to say those past sequences give much-needed insight and without them i think the reader wouldn't possibly understand cheda i've said many times in the past i love good world building and this book just hit me like a sucker punch um i also gave book two five stars so that i guess that could be on this list too i'm really sad i haven't had a chance to finish off the series because that was one of my goals now i just have more to look forward to in 2022 so those are the best books that i read this year hopefully this list will be much bigger in 2022 tell me in the comments the best books or book you read this year because i'd love to know also don't forget to check out the likewise app which will help you on your reading journey with lots of great book recommendations click the link down below and remember to follow me on there at hollyhart's books like this video if you enjoyed because it really helps me out be sure to subscribe if you haven't because i upload every single week and until they meet again happy reading [Music] you

Channel: Holly Hearts Books

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Keywords: Books, book, booktube, booktubesff, book channel, holly knece, holly hearts books, reading, literature, best books of 2021, favorite reads, favorite books, best books, fantasy books, the shadow of the gods, son of the storm, the world gives way, the wisdom of crowds

Id: OpffcEGB46A

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021