firewhiskeyreader

We’re three seasons into my most anticipated lists and I wanted to check in and see if (a) I’m actually reading the books I predicted and (b) if, like last year, I’ve had a knock out book that wasn’t even on my radar or if I’ve been pretty successful anticipating my favorite books. So let’s get started!

Most Anticipated Books of Winter

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My list of winter releases included three December releases so we’re not going to talk about those beyond saying that I did read them and Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn was one of my favorites book last year. Of the remaining seven books on the list, I’ve read four: The Map from Here to There, Come Tumbling Down, Chasing Cassandra, and Heartland. The three I have left are all from different ages and genres. So I still have Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, which I do still plan to read, but it’s a middle grade fantasy and I’m slow to pick those up. I do own it already though. I also have the YA fantasy conclusion, The King of Crows by Libba Bray on the list. I listened to enough of The King of Crows to satisfy the thing I was most anxious about, but not to finish the book. Maybe now that we’re back in spooky season I’ll finally finish it. Finally, I have The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham. I’m really keen to start and finish this historical romance, but my poor heart is not ready for the angst I know Scarlet is going to deliver. I also listed four honorable mentions and the only one I’ve read was The Prince of Broadway by Joanna Shupe. I do still want to read the others though (Headliners by Lucy Parker, Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli, and We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Taylor Kay Meija).

Most Anticipated of Spring

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Of the primary ten books on this list, I’ve read seven so at least I’m consistent. The books I’ve read are House of Earth and Blood, Love Hard, Girl Gone Viral, The Rakess, Deal with the Devil, Chaos Reigning, and Something to Talk About. Technically, Deal with the Devil was pushed back to a summer release, but the point stands. Also, promisingly, there are several books that I absolutely adored on this list, but we’ll get to that. The three books I haven’t yet read are Crush the King by Jennifer Estep, First Comes Scandal, and Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan, each of which I really, really still want to read. Why am I procrastinating? I honestly don’t know. I also had a list of ten honorable mentions, which is absurd. I’ve read or DNF’d half of those (The Honey Don’t List, American Sweethearts, Not That Kind of Guy, Clap When You Land, and A Taste of Sage) and have five to go (Chain of Gold, Undercover Bromance, The City We Became, Sure Shot, and Real Men Knit).

Most Anticipated of Summer

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I have actually read all ten books on my most anticipated list of summer reads! They are Alpha Night by Nalini Singh, The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton, 40-Love by Olivia Dade, Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert, Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean, The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe, To Catch an Earl by Kate Bateman, The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria, and Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews. And, yes, there are definitely some favorites on this list! There were also eight honorable mentions that I also either read or DNF’d so like, go me! I did great with the summer reads. Those books were The Boyfriend Project, Party of Two, Hate Crush, Boyfriend Material, A Sweet Mess, Deal with the Devil (also on the Spring list), The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, and Scandalous Secrets.

Some Fun Trivia About These Lists

List with the Highest Average Rating: Summer with a 4.5 average rating! Winter and Spring actually tied with 4.14 each, which I is still pretty good!

Books on the Most Anticipated Lists that Made it to a Quarterly Favorites: 12 (including honorable mentions)

Favorite 2020 Releases Not Mentioned on These Lists: Beach Read by Emily Henry, Open Book by Jessica Simpson, and Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall, and Just a Heartbeat Away by Cara Bastone.

DNFs on These Lists: Two (both honorable mentions)

Five Star Reads on the Main Lists: 12 (Girl Gone Viral is a five star read that is not on a quarterly favorite, which is because I technically read it in 2019)

Takeaways

I’m pretty good at predicting my five star reads, I would say, given that 12 of the 24 books I’ve completed out of the 30 reads on the list were five star reads for me. That’s 50%! Would I like to see that be higher? Sure. But I also think I’m starting to get a little more picky about my five stars, although I’m sure my Goodreads doesn’t reflect that. Lol. Actually, Amber had a great post about what makes a book a five star read today (yesterday for y’all). And I think I’m pretty plugged into knowing what new releases are coming, but it’s really awesome to see that there were four books that caught me totally off guard with their excellence! To be fair to myself, two of those I mentioned are nonfiction books and like, I do not know what is coming in the world of nonfiction generally. And the other two were new to me authors. Anyway, do you ever reflect on your curation of a most anticipated list? Let me know!

(If you live in the US and didn’t check your registration the last time I shared this link, I’m going to share it again because I checked mine and it’s lost even though I voted in the primary. So, gotta figure out how to fix that. The good news is this website can help with that too!)

xx