First of all, I reached my goal 🎉🍾🥂
This is a big deal. Back during the summer dry months, when I was struggling to finish three books in a month, the thought of reading one hundred seemed fairly daunting. As of writing this on December 29 I'm at a hundred and three and expect to finish at least one more before ringing in the New Year.
Let's jump right in and talk about favorites . . .
This was the year I began to rate all of my reads. I find the StoryGraph site to be much more welcoming and user-friendly so if you want to see all my ratings, feel free to friend me (c_j_roark) there.
I had three 5-Star reads this year : Lessons in Chemistry from March, Before Us from February, and The Seven Year Slip from November.
If I had to choose one to be the Best of the Year, I would have to go with Ashley Poston. Not because it was read more recently. All of these stories have stuck with me throughout the year. I would have to say that of the three, it was the most uplifting. While brilliantly written, Chemistry and Before Us were also so heartwrenching.
As for Ashley Poston, she's quickly skyrocketed to the top of my 'must-read authors' list. That being said, I looked back at last year's top reads blog and was surprised to find Dead Romantics missing from it. If only I had a time machine to go back and rectify that, as that story is definitely one that stuck.
One author that did repeat this year was Richard Osman. I went into reading The Last Devil to Die thinking it was the last in the series. Imagine my immense relief upon finding out there are at least two more in the works. The handling of Steven's storyline was beautifully written and unforgettable.
One of my goals this year was to read more indie-published authors. Three of them, Elsie Silver (who has since been picked up by a publisher), Aly Martinez, and Jewel E. Ann made my top ten. Elsie Silver even landed as the second most-read author for the year with eight titles (something that will not be repeated as I have fully caught up with her backlist.)
Speaking of most read authors, let's look at the first of many charts provided by StoryGraph.
Melanie Harlow takes the top spot as I discovered her Cloverleigh Farms series in April. VI Keeland is the only repeat from last year, and I still consider her a good go-to when I need a light palette cleanser.
Speaking of . . . I have a tendency to lean towards both lighthearted and emotional stories. I know this year, especially after Lessons in Chemistry, From the Embers, and Before Us I was big into rom-coms and books with far less angst.
I'm not going to throw up the charts for these but will mention I tend to prefer medium-paced books (70% read) and books that are between 300-499 pages in length (76%). The only reason I have so many (20) reads that fall under the 300-page count is that I blitzed through a bunch of novellas at the end of the year to reach my goal. Although, I will confess that more often than not, I'm letting page count determine if I want to read something. If it's a romance and more than 500 pages, I'm more likely to pass on it.
Finally, let's look at the reviews -
I've discussed this before, it takes a lot for me to give a book 5 stars. If it gets 4 stars or higher, it's an excellent read. Three stars mean I read it, and I had made a vow not to rank anything lower than three stars. As you can see, this didn't stand. The books that received 2 stars are ones I forced myself to finish and hated every minute of it. I think next year I will also implement rating my DNFs, of which there were several this year.
As for 2024, I'm still working on my reading resolutions and plan on posting them in the coming days. I know one of them is to finally dive into the ACOTAR series. Everyone says it's much better than Fourth Wing. And don't get me wrong, Fourth Wing nearly made it to my Top 10 list. I actually enjoyed it and Iron Flame.
Also upcoming is my December reads blog. Thirteen books so far!
Until then,
C.J.
Kommentare