Reflecting On My 2019 Anticipated Releases

I’ve started every month of 2019 with a list of my most anticipated releases. You can find them all here:

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

In this post, I’m looking back on these 12 posts to reflect on which books I’ve read and if they lived up to my expectations, which ones I own but haven’t read yet, and which ones I haven’t even gotten around to buying yet. Or which ones I’m maybe not interested in anymore, for whatever reason.

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Read

• Leigh Bardugo – King of Scars. This one ended up being a little disappointing for me, although I do want to give it a second chance and read the sequel when it comes out.
• Katherine Arden – The Winter of the Witch. Loved this a lot!
• Emma Mills – Famous In a Small Town. Really disappointing.
• Yoon Ha Li – Dragon Pearl. Really enjoyed it!
• Seanan McGuire – In an Absent Dream. This one was amazing and I can’t wait for Come Tumbling Down.
• Karen McManus – Two Can Keep a Secret. Disappointing.
• Sara Holland – Evermore. Disappointing.
• Alice Oseman – Heartstopper vol. 1. Absolutely loved this, of course!
• Angie Thomas – On the Come Up. Amazing read!
• S.A. Chakraborty – The Kingdom of Copper. This was so good, and I need the sequel now.
• Sara Barnard – Fierce Fragile Hearts. One of my favourite contemporaries of the year. So impactful.
• Lauren James – The Quiet at the End of the World. This was so good!
• Samira Ahmed – Internment. Another great read, and I even met the author and got it signed!
• Meagan Spooner – Sherwood. Disappointing.
• Juno Dawson, ed. – Proud. Probably my favourite anthology.
• Laura Steven – A Girl Called Shameless. I have mixed feelings about this one.
• Ashley Herring Blake – The Mighty Heart of Sunny St James. Very good read!
• Taylor Jenkins Reid – Daisy Jones and the Six. Quite disappointing.
• Cassandra Clare – The Red Scrolls of Magic. Loved this so much!
• Ashley Poston – The Princess and the Fangirl. Really enjoyed this!
• Tahereh Mafi – Defy Me. I feel like this series keeps getting better.
• Amanda Foody – King of Fools. Enjoyed it even more than the first book!
• Casey McQuiston – Red, White & Royal Blue. This ended up being my favourite read of the year, and I read it three times!
• Mason Deaver – I Wish You All the Best. Another favourite!
• Hafsah Faizal – We Hunt the Flame. I really enjoyed this.
• Jen Wilde – Going Off Script. Another amazing Jen Wilde book!
• Elizabeth Acevedo – With the Fire On High. Loved this!
• Rachel Hawkins – Her Royal Highness. I found this a little disappointing, but I might reread it to see if it works for me then.
• Sandhya Menon – There’s Something About Sweetie. Really enjoyed this!
• Cassandra Clare – Ghosts of the Shadow Market. Loved!
• Julie Kagawa – Soul of the Sword. I did enjoy this, but I keep losing steam when reading series when I’ve really enjoyed the first book. I feel like it’s not necessarily the book’s fault but I keep loving a first installment and then forget what happened entirely, but also not wanting to have to reread everything.
• Abdi Nazemian – Like a Love Story. One of my favourite reads of the year!
• Lucy Powrie – The Paper & Hearts Society. I did enjoy this, but it was a little young for me. Which is fine, of course! Just not the best choice for me personally.
• Claire Kann – If It Makes You Happy. I have a difficult relationship with this book, because I was mostly disappointed, but I did love the rep, so it’s still special to me.
• Michael Earp, ed. – Kindred. Another anthology I really loved!
• Alice Oseman – Heartstopper vol. 2. Adored this as well, of course.
• Ashley Poston – Soul of Stars. I quite enjoyed this duology.
• Laura Kate Dale – Uncomfortable Labels. So good!
• Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks – Pumpkinheads. Such a cosy read.
• Dean Atta – The Black Flamingo. One of my favourites of the year!
• James Brandon – Ziggy, Stardust and Me. I thought this was really good.
• Julian Winters – How to Be Remy Cameron. One of my favourite contemporaries of the year.
• Rainbow Rowell – Wayward Son. I just have a soft spot for these books.
• Emily Lloyd-Jones – The Bone Houses. This was enjoyable, but not my favourite book ever.
• Neal Shusterman – The Toll. Really disappointed in this one.
• Leigh Bardugo – Ninth House. One of my favourite books of the year.
• Francesca Zappia – Now Entering Addamsville. This was pretty disappointing for me.
• Erin Morgenstern – The Starless Sea. Probably my second favourite book of the year.
• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Storm and Shadow. Really good sequel!
• Talia Hibbert – Get a Life, Chloe Brown. So good!
• Ryan La Sala – Reverie. Really enjoyed this one.

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Physical TBR

• Evelyn Skye – Circle of Shadows. I got this book in a FairyLoot box in January, and I still haven’t gotten around to reading it. I’m a little ashamed to admit this.
• Carlos Hernandez – Sal and Gabi Break the Universe. Can’t wait to finally read this soon!
• Roshani Chokshi – Aru Shah and the Song of Death. I’ve been wanting to read this sequel since it came out and even reread the first book, but somehow I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
• Claire Legrand – Kingsbane. I loved Furyborn so much, but I’ve been putting off reading the sequel. It’s just kind of daunting to me.
• Tracy Banghart – Queen of Ruin. Currently reading this.
• Bethany Rutter – No Big Deal. I’ve been meaning to read this but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
• Dahlia Adler, ed. – His Hideous Heart. Currently reading this.
• Julie Murphy – Dear Sweet Pea. I can’t wait to read this!
• Brittney Morris – Slay. This was on my November TBR but I’m notoriously bad at sticking to TBRs. I do want to read this soon though!
• Alexandra Christo – Into the Crooked Place. This one still sounds so good to me!
• Nina Varela – Crier’s War. I really really can’t wait to read this one!
• Rosiee Thor – Tarnished Are the Stars. I’m anticipating this so much I’m almost afraid to start it.
• A.M. Strickland – Beyond the Black Door. Another one I’m so looking forward to.
• Lisa Jenn Bigelow – Hazel’s Theory of Evolution. One of those books I’m expecting to love so much that I almost don’t dare start it.
• Maulik Pancholy – The Best At It. I took this along on my weekend trip last week but didn’t get around to reading it.
• Kwame Mbalia – Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. I’ve heard amazing things about this one.
• Hannah Moskowitz – Sick Kids In Love. I’ve heard such amazing things about this and I can’t wait to read it.

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Wishlist

• Tricia Levenseller – Warrior of the Wild. I really enjoyed her previous books, but for some reason, I haven’t bought this one yet. Should I?
• Rebecca Kim Wells – Shatter the Sky. This still sounds really good to me but I haven’t been reading a lot of YA fantasy, so I haven’t picked it up yet.
• Brandy Colbert – The Revolution of Birdie Randolph. I really loved Little & Lion so I do still want to read this.
• Akwaeke Emezi – Pet. I was really looking forward to this but then I ended up DNF-ing Freshwater by this author. There’s so little books with good trans rep though, so I do still want to read this.
• Becky Chambers – To Be Taught, If Fortunate. I want to read Record of a Spaceborn Few first, but I do still really want to read this.
• Rebecca Roanhorse – Race to the Sun. I thought this would come out in October, but it actually comes out next year. Maybe it was pushed back, maybe I was just not paying attention, I really don’t know.
• Tomi Adeyemi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance. My copy is currently on its way to me.
• Adriana Herrera – Mangos and Mistletoe. I’ve preordered the ebook.
• Chelsea M. Cameron – Christmas Inn Maine. This one hasn’t been released yet, so I’ll buy it once it’s out.

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Lost Interest

• Scott Reintgen – Nyxia Uprising. I really enjoyed the first two installments in this trilogy, but after a while I found they hadn’t really stuck with me, and I’m not sure if I still want to read book 3 or if I want to unhaul the series. If you’ve read it, what would you recommend?
• Tamsyn Muir – Gideon the Ninth. It recently came to light that Tamsyn Muir used to write fanfic that romanticized pedophilia, and doesn’t regret it. So I really don’t want to read her book anymore.

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Conclusion

As you can see, I did end up reading most of my anticipated releases, and most of the ones I haven’t are on my physical TBR and I’m planning to get to them soon! Something I noticed while writing this post is that I’ve definitely gotten to know my own reading tastes better over the year, because more of my anticipated releases of the start of the year have disappointed me.

I absolutely believe that reading tastes are always evolving, though. For instance, I’ve recently been very much into reading romance novels, something I previously never really used to do. So we’ll see where all this brings me next year!

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Did you get to read the books you were most looking forward to this year?

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