As usual lately, I’ll be doing my tier ranking with Taylor Swift songs! This means that “The Alchemy” will be the highest ranking because to me “The Alchemy” is the idea of that magical connection and the books that fall into this category are the ones that I think will stick with me forever. Next up is the “Bejeweled” category, which is for the books that I really loved this year, but I don’t think will stay with me in the years to come (but I reserve the right to be proven incorrect!!). And it was while making that category that I realized I needed an additional one, which is how we landed at making a category for “Shake It Off” which is for the books that were really great in the moment, but didn’t linger with me past that point in time. Then we have “This is Me Trying” for the books I desperately WANTED to be books that would work for me, that would stick with me, but for whatever reason, they ultimately haven’t done so. Then we have “Is It Over Now?” for the books that I kind of just wanted to end. I also have a category called “I Hate it Here” for the books I either DNF’d because I hated or books I finished and hated, but fortunately for me, I didn’t have any that fell into this category. I probably did DNF a couple of books this last quarter, but I’ll be honest, I don’t remember them and none made me so upset they’ve stayed with me. So let’s get started!
The Alchemy
I think when you look at these eight books together, if you set Quicksilver to the side, you can tell I was really going through it in the last quarter of the year. Like really going through something. The seven books aside from Quicksilver are all books about a character going through something in some way. The emotions leap off the page and burrowed their way into my heart and soul and just really connected with me. I think I cried in the vast majority of these because of the way they made me feel. And Cruel Winter with You is so short, but it packed such a punch for me! I initially had it lower, but last night I was thinking about it and almost started playing the audiobook again because I just really loved it. So, all in all, I highly recommend these eight books.
Bejeweled
As I sat down to work on this section, I realized I needed to create another tier, which y’all already know about since I would have talked about it in the introduction. But I still just wanted to take a second to say that these books are probably still favorites of mine for the year or at least, they were books that allowed me to escape and so I think of them extremely fondly.
Shake It Off
My newest tier! I really just needed a tier for the books that are a good time. They were fun or sad or whatever they aimed for in the moment and they transported me out of my life. I didn’t struggle to sink into them, I just at the end of it, was able to set it down and didn’t really think too much about it after having done so. This tier more than almost anything else is such a showcase of how tiers are so separate from actual ratings because several of these probably show as five stars on Goodreads and are marked in my bullet journal as 4.5 stars. I had a good time with these reads, but aren’t my favorites, like the way “Shake It Off” provided me with some real respite during law school, but it has never been at the top of my Taylor Swift song rankings.
This is Me Trying
Honestly, a few of these books are ones where I wouldn’t say that most people will have an issue connecting with, but I went in with too high of expectations and I kept wanting to love it as much as a book I’d previously read by an author or this idea I had in my head about how much I would love it. So these books are kind of a mismatch of expectation versus reality for me.
Is It Over Now?
And these are the two books that I just… didn’t really enjoy. I wish that I had! I know a lot of people really did, but for me, I just couldn’t get there. I feel the worst about Love and Sportsball because I feel like I didn’t like this book because I didn’t like one of the main characters and I know how annoying it is for a reader to be like, this MC was unlikeable so I didn’t like the book. But I’m just being honest. I didn’t love it. That said, I think it’s highly likely that YOU will and most importantly, I’m still looking forward to the next book in the series, which will be a marriage in trouble story, which I almost always love.
Closing Thoughts
I know I kept this relatively short and sweet, but I hope you still got some recommendations or helpful information out of it. Let me know what books you would put in your own “The Alchemy” tier!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 