MID-YEAR BOOK FREAK OUT TAG 2021.

hey what's up hello my name is emma i'm currently reading the box in the woods by maureen johnson and people we meet on vacation by emily henry and today i am doing the mid-year book freakout tag i'm thinking of adding my current read to all of my intros to kind of keep you guys more in the loop so let me know if that's something that interests you the mid-year book freakout tag is a staple here on booktube i have been doing it for many years now and i feel like it is just the like perfect set of questions to check in with yourself about your current reading this year and what you'd like to complete by the end of this year i'll link the og creators as well as the questions down below but before we jump in i would like to thank today's video sponsor which is book of the month book of the month is a subscription service that helps you find the best new releases to read by new and emerging authors every month their team chooses five of the best up-and-coming new and early releases and you get to choose the one that appeals to you most with book of the month you get the best price for a brand new adult fiction hardcover book and you can skip a month at any time with no penalty for their july box you can choose from we are the brennans which follows an irish catholic family reunited who have to overcome their personal secrets dangerous enemies and learn to heal alongside one another the people we keep a coming-of-age story following a songwriter who leaves to start a new life and finds a new family sisters in arms which follows the first and only all-black female battalion in world war ii 56 days a thriller following a couple who moves in together at the start of the pandemic and later a dead body is found in their apartment and razor blade tears which is a thriller following two ex-cons who band together to get revenge for the murders of their two sons who were married to one another so these are all of the choices for book of the months july box i have to say the one that intrigues me the most is 56 days because i've been super interested to see what like quarantine and pandemic fiction is going to look like but if you are interested in any of these titles you can get your first book of the month box for only 9.99 using the code emma books so thank you to book of the month for sponsoring this video and thank you to you all for checking out book of the month because doing so really helps support my channel all right so starting off with the mid-year book freakout tag the first question is the best book you read in 2021 so far for this one i'm gonna have to go with the obvious choice for me and that is chain of iron by cassandra clare the second book in the last hour series now only some of you may understand this but i personally feel a book that you give like a 4 or 4.5 star rating can be more of a favorite than a book that you give 5 stars do you all feel me chain of iron had some low points for me i thought the pacing was really slow and i wish there was a little bit more plot and it was a little less character based but overall this book made me feel so much more than all of the other amazing books that i've read so far and that's why it's going to be my favorite as of now i am so deeply attached to the characters in the story the last hours has one of the best overall cast that cassie claire has ever written so of course i feel everything that happens in this book much more intensely i do think this book was overall really amazing the last like quarter or fifth of this book really blew my mind and if you're interested in following along my entire journey with all these spoilers involved in chain of iron check out my reading vlog which i will link below my heart literally weeps for the ending of chain of iron but i'm so excited to conclude this series and see where all my favorite characters end up and i'm just really hoping they don't all die but we really we shadowhunters fans cannot trust cassie claire at this point question number two is the best sequel that you have read so far this year and as per tradition i have pretty much only read one book that could really be considered a sequel but luckily i really enjoyed it and that is blood and honey by shelby maherin and this is the sequel to serpent and dove which was one of my favorite books of 2019. serpent and dove is a breathtaking fantasy set in 1500s france and it is all about a witch and a witch hunter who are married and it just has one of the most complex magic systems i've ever read about and some really amazing characters so it's an absolute favorite fantasy series of mine seriously i think shelby maherin is one of the most talented y a fantasy authors to be published in the last couple of years so if you haven't checked out serpentine dove yet i definitely recommend doing so this series is a little divisive i feel like people either really love it or think it's absolute trash but i this is one of those situations where i just really don't understand the people who don't like this book i just feel like we didn't read the same thing because it's objectively so fantastic to me it really hits all the markers of what i love in fantasy but blood and honey was a super fantastic sequel i feel like it was just as good of serpent and dove if not maybe maybe like a little less good but virtually very equal servant and dove is kind of like happy-go-lucky very fantasy romance trophy but blood and honey is a bit darker because many of the characters are dealing with a lot of trauma from the first book and there's a lot of darkness to the story which i think shelby muharram just accomplished really well another absolute banging cliffhanger and i cannot wait to read gods and monsters which is the final book in this trilogy i think it is going to be just so amazing and i put so much faith in shelby maherin as an author so i cannot wait to read the last book in this one question number three is new releases that you have not read yet but really want to i always have a couple for these the first one being an emotion of great delight by tahara mafi and this is a seemingly very emotional contemporary story about a teenage muslim girl who is living in america post 9 11 and like her brother is dead and her father is dying and she just seems to be in an incredibly stressful and difficult situation and it's all about her working through that i loved tahara mafi's first contemporary release which was an emotion of great delight and it was oh no that's this one what is that one a very large expansive sea i loved that one so i'm definitely looking forward to reading this one that is not a sequel i thought it was a sequel because the titles are very similar but apparently there's no correlation but i'm still hoping it'll be a good one the next new release that i'm excited to read is heart stopper volume 4 by alice oseman and this is the newest installment in the heart stopper graphic novel series this is such a cute queer love story that is definitely worth reading if you were looking for something that is just like lighthearted and fluffy and adorable definitely like one to read in one sitting i really really love heartstopper i think the art is fantastic and i just love seeing like joyful queer stories but that said my critique of heart stopper is that i always felt that it has not had enough substance for me i just feel like everything goes right for the characters and it's just like so cute and lovable and i just really want more conflict and based on the synopsis of like nick having trouble coming out to his father and charlie possibly having an eating disorder i feel like what i've been craving from this story is coming in the fourth installment so i'm super pumped to read it and then a new release i started this year but i put on pause for the moment i would like to finish is this close to okay by lisa cross smith and this is a story about a therapist who stops a man from attempting suicide and they kind of spend time getting to know each other but he does not know that she is a therapist as a therapist i was like really looking forward to this book and hoping that it could be like one of my favorites of the year but i'm maybe like halfway through the audiobook of it and it has not pleased me or like exceeded my expectations yet it's supposed to be a book about like two people healing together and i honestly feel that their relationship is very toxic at the point i'm at in this book but i have a lot of faith that maybe like things could pick up in the end and i could like it more with some more development so i'm willing to give it a chance and do want to go back to it at some point this year question number four is most anticipated release for the rest of the year i honestly have been making really good progress on my most anticipated list for this year i feel like i always set that list and so many of those books do not ever get read by me but this year i've been doing really well to check them off i definitely think the release i am most excited for for the rest of the year is under the whispering door by tj cloon the main character of this book is essentially like a coffee shop owner slash the fairy men to take um deceased spirits like on and so a new recently deceased person has arrived and feels that he like has not finished his life and is not ready to move on so the main character in him have like a week to live a life before he is forced to move on the house in the cerulean sea was so whimsically beautiful and i loved tj kloon's writing style so i am looking for like the same exact vibes with under the whispering door and i have a lot of high hopes for it and i feel like everyone always expects me to also say the new book in the eldest curses series by cassandra clare in wesley chu which i'm of course excited for it's just that this is not like my favorite shadowhunter series ever so i'm not like jumping up and down about it but i'm definitely excited to read the conclusion to this trilogy that has been a lot of fun question number five is biggest disappointment boy am i ready for this one with a beautifully foolish endeavor by hank green i was a very large fan of an absolutely remarkable thing i read it last summer and it was just like such like everything i want from a contemporary science fiction novel and this is just one of those situations where i just feel we didn't need a sequel like i could have left it off with never knowing more and not having all these answers because i feel like i'm really just left with more questions i was just like fully against the whole direction that this story went in i was very uninterested in many of the characters that this book decided to focus on and i didn't find any of their plot lines interesting as well so i was mostly bored and underwhelmed for the majority of the story and just waiting for it to be done really a shame but i'm just gonna pretend like an absolutely remarkable thing is a standalone and that's how i will continue to sleep at night another one that was a big letdown for me was leave this world behind by roman alam and i was really excited for this book because it takes place out east on long island which is where i am from but unfortunately nothing good about this one it's a thriller of this family that has rented a house for the weekend and then there is a blackout in the city and the supposed owners show up and say that they need shelter and i was really hoping for like a super suspenseful thriller with lots of twists and turns and it was very bland even paced and again like nothing in the plot was interesting to me and the ending was just so infuriating that i wanted to like venmo request my time back from the book there are endless thrillers better than this one don't waste your time question number six is biggest surprise i'm going to go with if i disappear by eliza jane brazier and it was a surprise because it was so bad boys gals and non-binary pals we have the official spot for my least favorite book of 2021 so far i had some high hopes for this book it is a thriller that follows a young woman who loves true crime podcasts and her favorite podcaster goes missing so she goes out to find her it's like every millennial woman who loves true crime's dream first off the main character is insufferable absolutely everything that happens to her in this book is her fault and it is impossible to feel empathy for her which sucks because then i feel like i can't enjoy anything that i'm reading from her perspective all of the side characters were one-dimensional and uninteresting and just this is a story that i feel just went in circles with no point to a lot of the things it was like a lot of investigation with zero payoff i become a real hater when the big twist at the end of the book or the way the mystery is revealed ends up making the entire book of everything i've read so far seeming dumb or completely irrelevant it is like the number one thing that can ruin a book for me clearly i hate feeling like a book wasted my time i'm like there are so many other books that are so much better that i could have spent my precious time doing but unfortunately if i disappear it was a huge letdown worst book of the year so far and i will be surprised if i find something i dislike even more question number seven is favorite new author whether that is a debut author or an author that is new to you i'm going with an author that i read for the first time this year and that is lori gottlieb who wrote maybe you should talk to someone this is a really fantastic memoir about a therapist who goes through a very difficult breakup and is forced to find her own therapist for the first time in a long time and it is a collection of stories about what she learns from the clients that like she is working as a therapist for and that she helps while also what she learns from her new therapist that she connects with in an unconventional way as a therapist and grad student and mental health counseling i found this to be like an essential reading for those involved in the mental health field but it is also a memoir that i feel could be enjoyed by anyone regardless of like your employment just because i think that like mental health and a lot of the life lessons that are learned in this story can be applicable to anyone laurie gottlieb is refreshingly raw and honest which i really appreciated and she has a nice style of humor which counterbalances a lot of the pain and suffering included in this book in a really nice way so i'm really happy that i read this book when i read the title i knew it would be a great book for me but unfortunately looking at many of lori gottlieb's other books none of the titles that she currently has published really interest me so i'm definitely going to keep an eye out for some of her possible future publications but i feel like if she writes like a memoir like this and a lot about her experiences those are definitely books that i'd want to pick up question number eight is newest fictional crush and honestly i like don't have many fictional crushes recently like i feel like over the years as i've gotten older there are just like less fictional hotties that like really get me and i stick to my classics but question nine is your newest favorite character and i'm gonna kind of expand that to my newest favorite cast of characters and they are from malibu rising by taylor jenkins read now this is a book kind of similar to chain of iron i gave malibu rising 4 out of 5 stars but i have not been able to stop thinking about this book since i finished it y'all i am not kidding like i literally booked a trip to malibu because i read this book i'm obsessed but living my best life malibu rising is the newest release from the iconic taylor jenkins read and this story takes place in the 1980s of malibu following a family of siblings who are all super famous come from a famous father and are all like supermodels surfers and photographers every summer these siblings throw the party of the year and the story takes place on the one full day across the party where by the end malibu goes up in flames i actually filmed a reading vlog from malibu rising with another book i think i'm going to be mentioning soon and it's coming to you very soon i love that reading vlog and i'm excited to share it but i am just so freaking obsessed with this book and all of the characters and everything that happened in it the riva siblings are all so unique and central to the story in their very own way i think my absolute favorites have to be nina and kit like love the riva girls but as a whole their dynamic and their history is so interesting and it was a fantastic journey to follow it's definitely an imperfect book but it has just cast a spell on me over the last month since i've read it i think about this book every single day i'm dying to reread it i just want everything that has to do with malibu rising and honestly it makes me really happy i feel like i've been very happy since i read malibu rising so it is definitely a new favorite book of mine favorite of the year and um i love these siblings so they're definitely one of my new favorite families in literature question number 10 is a book that made you cry now i am someone who does not frequently cry at books i feel like the closest i've probably come to crying this year is chain of iron and even that like heartbreaking emotional destruction ending could not make me cry but a book that did make me feel very emotional where i have a distinct memory of feeling like my heart and jaw drop while reading is last night at the telegraph club by melinda lowe this book is set in 1950s san francisco and it follows a young lesbian girl named lily as she is coming of age starting to question her identity and falls for a new friend at school as they find solace in a lesbian bar called the telegraph club last night the telegraph club is a truly moving story although it's fiction it feels so grounded in reality that it made me feel very connected to my past like queer elders who have paved the way for people like me to exist in our world today this is definitely a book that gave me a lot of butterflies i had a lot of smiles and laughs throughout the novel but like do not let that fool you it was not easy to be a lesbian in the 1950s and so there is a definite moment in this book where the entire tone just switches and the end of this book was incredibly hard for me to read all i will say is be prepared for a sad ending but this is a book i love very dearly it is one that i'm going to recommend to so many different people and i would really love to see more people talking about it so if you have not read last night at the telegraph club yet please please do question number 11 is a book that made you happy i am absolutely going to choose one last stop by casey mcquisten this book was just an absolute delight to read i listened to the audiobook and this is the other book i talk about in my malibu rising reading vlog so it is definitely one to check out when it is available i swear to you one last stop is like the book to read this summer it follows a girl named august who moves to new york city and the entire course of her life changes when she meets a girl on the subway who she finds out is literally displaced from 1975 i'm a huge fan of casey mcqueston i loved red white and royal blue and i honestly think i love one last stop even more this is a book that i did give 5 out of 5 stars this year and is another absolute favorite of mine i feel like i say everything is an absolute favorite but my favorites i just feel them like very intensely as my favorites this is a book that i thought i had like completely figured out when i first started it and it really took me on a ride i'm very happy with like every decision that this book made and i feel like there's not much of anything that i would change about it one last stop is a very touching remarkable story it is not one i'm going to forget for a very long time and it's another one that i really really think you should read and give into the hype if you have not yet question number 12 is the most beautiful book you have bought or received this year i think most of us know i went a little wild this year and got every edition of chain of iron that i could get my hands on so i think the one that i'm going to choose as the most beautiful of this year is i don't even know what this edition is officially called don't get me wrong i love like the fairy loot and water stones and lumicrate all of those different editions but they all look the same to me like they're all canvas found with pretty foil and so this book is incredibly unique to me because the dust jacket does not have like the text or the author on the cover i don't think i own a single book that is just a picture and i think the portraits of cordelia and james on the dust jacket are just so gorgeous so i feel like i have to choose it and i also really love this edition because although i do have like the classic chain of iron cover this one is like printed on the actual hardback which is not something i have a lot of in books so this one is just like special to me i feel like maybe some other people would choose a different one but i was really hunting this one down i finally bought it off of someone on depop and i'm really happy that i have it and lastly question number 13 is what books do you need to read before the end of the year other than the books that i previously mentioned in like question 3 i think a couple of books that i definitely want to read before the end of the year are blackout which has stories from danielle clayton tiffany d jackson nick stone angie thomas ashley woodfolk and nicola yoon and this is a collection of a bunch of stories of black teen love that take place during a new york city black out and as someone who's lived through like a couple of new york blackouts like it is a story that really interests me there's like a couple of different tropes like enemies to lovers or like best friends coming of age bitter exes it sounds just like a really wonderful light-hearted read that i'm excited for following up my love for blood of honey i am so excited to read gods and monsters by shelby maherin which i just got in the mail like yesterday this book doesn't come out until fall but harpercollins knows how much i love this series so i'm super grateful they sent me a copy of it early and i'm very excited to dive into this conclusion and um i feel like i've just included the toll in like the last three years of this question because i've started it twice and have not finished it yet and i am very doubtful that i will actually finish the toll by the end of 2021 but it just didn't feel right not including it so that is the mid-year book freakout tag those are some of the books that i have read so far this year and a couple of books that i am really looking forward to reading before the end of the year in the comments below let me know your thoughts on any of the books that i talked about in this video or answer the questions yourselves and let me know what books you have been reading this year and what ones you want to complete before the year is over but that is it for this video thank you guys so much for watching and i'll see you soon for a new one bye

Channel: emmmabooks

Views: 23,435

Rating: 4.9818697 out of 5

Keywords: book, books, read, reads, reading, reader, booktube, booktuber, emmmabooks, emmabooks, reading vlog, shadowhunters, the mortal instruments, emma giordano, book recommendation, book recommendations, book recs, book review, book reviews, book tube

Id: R9NwIN4H9wY

Length: 24min 9sec (1449 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 13 2021