My favorite (and least favorite) books of 2017 so far this year!

Hey guys! With June almost over, we've finally reached the middle of the year. Can you believe it?? Well, today I thought it might be nice to take a look at how my reading year has been so far. Today I'll be sharing with you the books I've been reading, the ones I've loved the most and yes, I'll also be talking about the books that have been a little disappointing. Since this is more of a recap kind of post, I won't be going into too much details about my thoughts on any of those books. I have however included links to each book's Goodreads page, should you feel like reading more about them :)

To begin with, I thought I'd take a look at how well I've been doing on my Goodreads reading challenge. 

I've read 75 books out of my goal of 150 so far, which I'm rather happy about. I'm already halfway through my reading challenge and overall, I've been having quite a good reading year so far. To find out more about the books I've read so far this year, feel free to check out my Goodreads here ^^

My favorite 2017 new release so far

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Yes, I absolutely have to go with A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas for this one. The anticipation before the book's release, the excitement of hitting the bookstore on the release day and finally getting my hands on my own copy... Reading it all night till 8 am and stopping every 2 seconds to scribble more messy notes in my already super messy notebook... I loved ACOWAR and not necessarily the book itself, although I did enjoy it tremendously, but the whole experience around it. I said it before but I don't recall being so excited about a book's release since the Harry Potter days and it was just great to get so fangirlish about a book again :)

My favorite books of 2017 so far

These are books I've read this year but which haven't necessarily been released in 2017. Since I don't want to say ACOWAR again, I'm going to pick A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. This was a reread for me and while previously I only casually used to like this series, upon reading ACOMAF again I totally fell in love with the series and the characters. So yeah, this was definitely one of the books I enjoyed reading the most so far this year.

Art by Cassandra Jean

I also really enjoyed Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare and other authors. This is a series of short stories which pick up where the Mortal Instruments series left off and lead right up to the beginning of the sequel series, the Dark Artifices. I highly recommend you read this collection before reading Lady Midnight. Not only did these stories add a lot of backstory about the Shadowhunter world as well as characters we already know and love, I also found them to be both very well-written and super enjoyable.

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Another big favorite of mine this year was Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I love the original Alice stories and this book is full to the brim with clever nods at elements from those stories. I love how Meyer incorporated all these clever details in her retelling. Also, despite knowing that this was basically an origin story for the evil Queen of Hearts, I found myself really caring for her character. Plus, the book has enough whimsy to appeal to Alice fans while being also a very original story at the same time. Not to mention that since our MC wants to open a bakery, we also got lots of descriptions of delicious pastries and cakes. Which is always a win for me in my opinion ^^

My most disappointing books of 2017 so far

Again, these are books that I read in 2017 although they might not have been published this year. Thankfully, there aren't a lot of those! The one I've disliked the most though was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I was so sure I was going to love it but I ended up really struggling to go through it. And it's not even a big book. My main problem with it is that I didn't find any character to have much in terms of redeeming qualities. The book's message seems to be that the real monster is not the monster at all but Frankenstein himself (which seems like an oversimplification of the plot but... oh well). However, I couldn't really connect with either of them and found the story to be way too dry for me. 

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The second book that left me a tad disappointed was Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the sequel to Illuminae. Don't get me wrong. I didn't hate it. In fact I gave it 4 stars. It's just that after falling so much in love with the "horror in space" aspect of Illuminae, I found Gemina a little lacking in terms of spookiness. I also felt that the stakes weren't as high as in Illuminae. The fact that the story takes place over just a few days as opposed to the months' long space journey in Illuminae, also made the book feel a little underwhelming. I'm still looking forward to the next book though. 

My favorite genre of 2017

Although this isn't technically a 'genre', I have been reading a ton of manga this year! I got the entire Sailor Moon manga series by Naoko Takeuchi in December last year and started 2017 with a Sailor Moon marathon. And I loooved it! The artwork is so beautiful and romantic. Plus the story itself is super fun. I'll definitely be reading this series again at some point. I also read Orange, which is a manga duology by Ichigo Takano. Also really enjoyed that one. If you're new to mangas, I recommend you check this one out. The art style is really nice and the story is overall very easy to follow. I've also been reading the Attack on Titan manga volumes by Isayama Hajime all year. I'm in love with the series and at this point, I might be more in love with the manga than the anime O_O

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My new fictional crushes

Although I had already read Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series last year, it was really during this year's reread of ACOMAF that I fully fell in love with Rhysand (and the rest of his court). Fast forward a few months and my desk is now actually overflowing with Rhysand and ACOTAR/ACOMAF bookish goodies XD. And I'm not complaining. 

I also have to mention the Blackthorn brothers, Mark and Julian from Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows. I'm not sure whom I like the most, just that I really love them both XD. 

Art by Cassandra Jean

Weirdly enough, I also kinda have a thing for Captain Erwin from Attack on Titan now?! I'm not sure what happened there but I just suddenly realized I actually really like his character XD. Which, if you're up to date with the manga, you'll know is rather ironical so late in the game. 

Giveaway Reminder

I'm currently also hosting a giveaway for this amazing Shadowhunter inspired necklace. If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, you can do so by clicking here. 

Leave me a comment :)

How is your reading year going? What are your favorite or most disappointing books of 2017 so far? Let me know in the comments down below ^^