Is this post late? Yes. Am I kind of glad because it now gets to feature a tier titled from The Life of a Showgirl? Yes, a bit. Also, if you notice that there are random words missing an ‘I’, the reason is that my I key is sticking and I’m trying my best to notice, but I make no promises. Hopefully as I keep typing, it will get unstuck?
Anyway, if you haven’t seen this kind of post from me before, I borrowed the idea from Mara at bookslikewhoa on YouTube and essentially, I just go through (by tier ranking) all of this years current releases that I’ve read. I was doing a straight up ranking system, but that was hard and tiers are easier. 🙂 If you missed the first one from this year, you can find it here.
The tiers for today’s rankings are Opalite because Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are my OTP. need them to be in love and together forever. But more seriously, The Life of a Showgirl features love songs that feels so securely attached and picking “Opalite” as my top tier just made sense. Could I have stuck with “The Alchemy”? Yes, but I wanted to embrace our new era! The second tier is “Bejeweled” because these are books that were a lot of fun, but just aren’t quite “Opalite” level. Then we have “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” which is a song that I love, and is for the books that are on the positive side of meh. Then we have “I Forgot that You Existed” for the books that quite frankly, I really did forget that I read. Not even because they were bad necessarily, I just… They don’t stand out. And if I had any books that needed to go in a very bottom tier, that would be for “Cancelled!” but I do not. Yay! So let’s dive in, shall we?
Opalite
I don’t even know what to tell y’all about these books beyond I absolutely adored them. Shield of Sparrows was a romantasy that has me hooked, gripped, and desperate for book two. Give it to me now, please, Devney. Karla Sorensen posted on Instagram a story of her beta reading the sequel and I’m dying of jealousy, tbh. Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt is an angsty brilliant good time and I loved it and also it hurt me. Problematic Summer Romance gave me SO MUCH joy that I can’t even describe it to you. Can’t Get Enough hurt my feelings and had me crying on a plane, but I loved it so much. Sweet Thing is also a fantastically fun time with a surprise single dad. Great times. And finally, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid shattered me. Legitimately. I was sobbing while driving on the interstate to the point that I really should have pulled over, but I was not interested in doing that.
Bejeweled
So many books are in this category, which is really fantastic because it really show cases how great of a reading year I’ve had. I binge read the series that concludes with The Charmer and while I don’t think The Charmer is my personal favorite in the series, I really loved the entire series. What a fun time.
Not Safe for Work was a hilariously timed read because it’s like a more fun version of The Hating Game, which I had just watched the movie of (hated it). So I couldn’t help but compare the two and even though NSFW was obviously winning over THG movie, it probably did suffer slightly form the fact that my brain wouldn’t stop making the comparison.
The Conditions of Will would probably be in the Opalite category if Jessa Hastings wasn’t a twat. Somehow disliking the author a bit really has caused my opinion of the book to suffer. I’m a wee bit disappointed by that.
Lessons in Heartbreak by Karla Sorensen was such a delight that I can’t stop looking up when the sequel is coming out. Also, I truly have really been leaning into sports romances lately, which is interesting.
The Ripple Effect was very melancholic and I was very much here for it. Between The Broken Hearts was amazing! Loved the way it concluded the series. Atonement Sky was great! Not my favorite in the series, but still really great. The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold was truly fantastic and I adored it. The reason it’s not in Opalite, which I did consider is because I didn’t really understand the plot points at the end. Scotch on the Rocks was fabulous and I really went back and forth with it being in Opalite or Bejeweled. So good. Ultimately though, I landed with it here. Wooing the Witch Queen is great, but I originally DNF’d it before deciding to try again and finding it so delightful, which is why it is where it is. The Brave and the Reckless was very different than I was expecting in ways that were fascinating. It was somehow deeper and angstier and also lighter and funnier than I anticipated. How? I don’t know. But I thought it was pretty great. Two Secrets to Surrender was another solid installment in Grace Callaway’s oeuvre. Love Arranged was great and another book I went back and forth on bumping up to Opalite, but ultimately left it here. The Game Plan is fabulous, now and back when I read the Indie pub’d version many years ago. I loved it. Highly recommend.
Mr. Perfectly Fine
I feel like so many of the books in this section are here because I’ve read from the authors before and have a book that I prefer in their work overall. Destination Weddings and Other Disasters was great! But not as great as Romancing Miss Stone for me. I did have it as an ARC though and you can find my review here. These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean was fantastic! And it’s just so far down the list of my favorite Sarah MacLean novels that it suffers from that. I also had this one as an ARC, but tbh, I don’t think my review is posted still. My bad. I’ll work on it. Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria is a book that I’ll have to re-read to fully settle on my overall feelings, but what I do know is that it is objectively great and also, it hurt me in ways I didn’t want to hurt, so it suffers from not being the easy breezy (not really) You Had Me at Hola. I also had it as an ARC, you can find my still rattling around my brain opinions here. King of Envy by Ana Huang was arguably my favorite book in this series, but it doesn’t hold a candle to my love for The Striker. That book was truly perfect. It keeps rising in my memory. And This Wild Heart by Karla Sorensen was a great book! I think it might have even made me cry. But you see, when I think back on this series, this book stands out the least.
That leaves us to talk about The Enchanted Greenhouse, which I really did enjoy a lot. But also, the idea of falling in love with the only other person on the island just really gets to me. Like… On the one hand, invisible string theory, and on the other hand, WHAT DO YOU MEAN? But I had an ARC of it too, so you can see my in the moment thoughts here if you would rather. Rose in Chains by Julie Soto was… interesting. I never fully grasped the world-building, which was irksome because I don’t really need to understand the magic system, but I do need to feel like I know why the two sides of the war are fighting and… quite frankly, I still don’t. But the end? I’m so intrigued and will probably wind up continuing. I had this one as an ARC too, so if you want my in the moment feelings, here you go. Silver Elite by Dani Francis was like eating candy that doesn’t keep you full, if that makes sense. I had a great time reading it and as soon as I was done, I was like, “Wait, what?” So there’s that. Love in Focus by Lyla Lee was really great in the moment, but it ultimately hasn’t stuck with me. I read it as an ARC and you can find my opinions in the moment here. And finally, A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher, which is borderline between Mr. Perfectly Fine and Bejeweled. I liked it a lot, but I already barely remember the characters. I just know that I liked that our FMC was taking care of her niece and the second chance romance was intriguing. Also, I was excited about book two. So there’s that. And I had this one as an ARC, so you can find those thoughts here.
I Forgot that You Existed
In all fairness to both of these books, they are not my usual genre. Hit Girls was fun in the moment, but in comparison to Disney High, which is of a similar vein, it just didn’t quite compare. ARC Review is here. And I’m not a huge graphic novel fan, but A Song for You & I was too detailed of a story for me in graphic form because there were lots of people introduced and I got lost with them from like page two. Which is to say that both of these books will likely work for other people so much better than they worked for me.
Cancelled!
I forgot that I actually DNF’d quite a few books in the last few months and I suppose here is as good of a place as any for them. Please note that these books are legit just cancelled from my TBR, but I don’t actually know of anything objectively wrong with them.
So, I Want to Burn This Place Down is 100% a DNF. Not a soft DNF. I really didn’t vibe with the writing/organization style at all. In contrast, Kiss Me, Maybe was a book that I made it about 33% into and then just… didn’t feel like picking it up. So will I return to it? It’s possible, but it’s been many months and I still haven’t so I don’t really think I will. I don’t necessarily think either book is bad, but neither were for me, whether in the moment or in general.
I have had other soft DNF’s that don’t seem as hard as these two so I’m not including those because I assume I will return to them eventually. If I don’t, I’ll include them in the final post like this for the year!
Closing Thoughts
So many great books in the last four months (well, last five technically, but we’re not talking about September’s reads!). Are there any books that for you would be in a different tier? Are there books you think I have to pick up based on my Opalite tier? Let me know your thoughts!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 