2023 Mid-Year Check-In

I love how every year, I don’t truly realize it’s mid-year until I start seeing the Mid-Year Check-In tag making its rounds. It’s always so fun to read others’ posts, even if it makes me have very complex emotions regarding the passage of time. I don’t do as many tags as I used to in the past, but I highly enjoy this one (here’s 2020, 2021 and 2022).

We’re getting this out in the first week of July, so I figured I’m not doing too badly, all things considered.

The original tag was created by ReadLikeWildfire and Earl Grey Books.

2023 Mid-Year Check-In

Below are the questions for the Mid-Year Check-In tag. I may have edited and/or removed a few, just to fit my own personal reading experiences better. Also, I’m prolly going to have to re-use books for multiple prompts, because I’ve barely read any books this year. (Read = 15).

I’ll be doing more stat-like posts next week, so look forward to those!

The best book you’ve read so far this year?

This is so hard!! I’ve actually read quite a few books this year that I absolutely adored. I’ll have to go to the first book that came into my head: The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter. I loved this book so much that I went and bought the sequel like, the same day it came out. (This is unheard of, for me.) I’m actually reading it right now, which is another unheard of, for me. Reading a sequel within a year of reading the first book?

WHO AM I?

The best sequel you’ve read this year?

I haven’t read very man sequels this year (at least that’s on brand _{and part of a brand I don’t want cough}). BUT, even if I had, it’d be very hard to dethrone Andrea Stewart’s amazing Drowning Empire trilogy. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly, highly recommend.

(Though, obviously start with The Bone Shard Daughter. Otherwise, you’re gonna be very confused reading The Bone Shard Emperor before The Bone Shard War.)

New releases you haven’t read yet but want to

So, is it depressing that, this time last year, I was lamenting only having read 15 books. AND THIS YEAR, I”VE ALSO ONLY READ 15!? *she weeps in consistency* Let’s also ignore the fact that, out of the prompt options for this question and the next, I’ve read literally none of the books I listed in 2022. 💀

There are so many great books from this year, so it’s always hard to narrow down books that I absolutely must read. But I definitely hope to get to these this year. Particularly O’Keefe’s, as I’m trash for her writing.

Most anticipated releases for the second half of the year

Normally, I’d answer this, but I’m actually doing an entire post about this later this week! Stay tuned. 👀

 Biggest disappointment

Honestly, all the books I’ve read this year have been a 3.5+ rating! Yay for knowing my own reading taste! If I had to pick one, though, I think I felt most lackluster about A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious by Mary Wine. To the point where I even forgot it was the first book I read this year.

Biggest Surprise

I would have to say perhaps not the book itself, but the fact that I read Paradise-1, was my biggest surprise. I don’t normally read horror. Yet I quite enjoyed this sci-fi horror, even if the book itself could have been 100 pages shorter. So much so, I bought another sci-fi horror (Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes).

Favorite new to you, or debut, author

If you read my review, you know how much I adored Reign and Ruin by J.D. Evans. It’s everything I wanted in a fantasy romance. I also bought books two and three because I just loved it that much. And people say self publishing can’t be amazing. Pfft.

Newest favorite character

It’s ironic that my new favorite character is a character who was a side character in this series, Les Dames Dangereuses. But Dr. Van Helsing absolutely wins that title. I absolutely love her! So imagine my excitement when she is getting her own romance book, which just came out this month!

Book that made you cry

Ohmygod did this book make me cry at the end. I am so glad I listened to Caitlin @ Realms of My Mind and read this book. Even if I’m still heartbroken about it.

Book that made you happy

INFO

What books do you need to read by the end of the year

Keeping the rule I established last year, I’m limiting myself to six books. Except, I’m cheating a bit, because all of these books are either a) sequels to series I want to finish in 2023 or b) books I want to reread so I can continue series, so…

Also, the red color scheme just sorta happened organically, but I’m not mad about it.

Favorite post you have done this year

I have stayed on top of blogging (if we ignore the past two months, oops), so I did want to share a few posts! I’m going to do one for each month.

• January: Our Engagement With Book Reviews
• February: The Frustrations Chasing Change
• March: A Case for Restructuring the MFA AND Nine Must Have Plugins for Self-Hosted Blogs
• April: A General Check-In
• May: Interview with Andrea Stewart, author of the Drowning Empire trilogy
• June: How Hustle Culture Broke Me

That’s a wrap on 2023’s take of the Mid-Year Check-In! Once again, I barely had enough books to spread things out. And that was with removing questions from the original tag. 💀

Please share your links if you’ve done this tag! Or, if not, feel free to simply answer in the comments below, that’s also totally okay with me! I’d love to hear how others’ reading journeys (or lack thereof, like my case) are going!

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