2021 Rewind

Hello!

So here we are on Hogmanay with 2022 not that far away now, or already there depending where you are in the world. If you missed them, I shared my Top 20 books for 2021, Top 10 series for 2021 and my 10 Most anticipated releases for 2022 last week. I’d hoped to have a few more reviews up this week, but work and my own clumsiness resulting in a trip to minor injuries yesterday put paid to that, so they will be running over into the start of the new year.

While this year didn’t end quite the way I’d hoped – and it’s been A Year in so many ways, there are still many good things to look back on for this year. Firstly, this was an absolutely fantastic year of reading (hence the top 20 rather than top 10 because I couldn’t choose). While the blog has gone (and taken me) to places I never imagined when I first started it, and it turned 2 earlier this week which was a little surreal as it feels like it couldn’t possibly be that long, and at the same time it feels like I’ve been part of the book community for far longer. And it’s onwards and upwards and there will be some updates on the blog in the next couple of days, as well as a little bit about what’s coming in the near future.

Today though is about the books of 2021, and below the cut you’ll find my year in books (it’s a looong post), and at the end of the post I have my book of the and series of the year, and a special shout-out.

***** *****

An Altar on the Village Green by Nathan Hall blew me away, and left me with one of the longest lasting book hangovers I’ve ever had. A recent reread had the exact same effect, and this is a book I will revisit multiple times because I just loved everything that Hall did in this book and it has become a firm favourite and a comfort read (I like my dark comfort okay). A wonderful blend of fantasy and horror, which painted such vivid imagery in my mind that I was well and truly caught up in the Lance’s story.

Review

*****

Luke Tarzian has rocketed into my favourite authors list this year as I’ve devoured all his books (and I can’t wait for House of Muir which comes out next year). The Adjacent Monsters series was an absolute standout for me this year, it’s dark, it’s twisted and I just adore how Tarzian writes and the blurring of lines (and I am currently talking myself into reading them again, so don’t mind me). If you want dark, psychological fantasy done right then you need to pick up this series – and Requiem in particular is a masterpiece.

Review (Parable) | Review (Requiem)

*****

When I did the top 10 series list, I ruled that I included any series that I had read at least two of in 2021 and that included the fantastic Songs of Sefate Series by Sarah Chorn. Now, anyone that knows me at all knows that I absolutely adore anything that Sarah Chorn writes and she has been my favourite author ever since I was first devastated by Seraphina’s Lament and that remains very much the case. My heart has broken, cried and bled over the characters, stories and sheer emotion she puts in her book, and I am so excited for what she has in the works. So, there was no way I couldn’t acknowledge her and this series in this post, especially as I am launching into 2022 with a reread.

Review (Of Honey and Wildfires) | Review (Oh, That Shotgun Sky) | Review (Glass Rhapsody)