2023 Quarter Year Crisis Tag 📚 is it too early for a crisis?

Hello fellow bookworms 📚 I love book tags that check in with your reading goals and progress, so I’m doing the Quarter Year Crisis Book Tag again ❤️ It might be a bit early, but I’ve already read a good amount of books that I can talk about! I also wanted to leave a bit of space inbetween this Tag and the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag, that I’ll be posting in June! I

I had a really good time doing this Tag last year, so I cannot wait to do it again! The Tag was originally created by Roisin @ Roisin’s Reading, so I’m linking her video down below 🥰

I’m Tagging 📖

• Destiny @ howlinglibraries
• Dini @ dinipandareads
• Marie & Nyx @ drizzleandhurricanebooks
• Morgan @ morganisreadingagain
• Sophie & Beth @ Me & Ink

1.) How many books have you read so far?

📖 45 Books 📖

2.) Have you already found a book you think might be a 2023 favourite?

📖 Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Heather Fawcett) 📖

➽ I’ve already had three 5-star reads, but Emily Wilde really stood out to me!! I was anticipating this book and luckily got an Arc, but I was unprepared for how much I would like it! Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is set in an alternate historical time where there are faeries and some people study them. This book had everything: great atmosphere, vivid worldbuilding and a super relatable character who is socially awkward. I was also living for the academic enemies to lovers romance and the banter!! I’m SO glad we’re getting more books in this world!

3.) What was your favourite book you read that wasn’t quite five-star?

• The Dead Romantics (Ashley Poston) 📖
• The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) 📖
• Atomic Habits (James Clear) 📖

➽ I had quite a few 4.5-star reads! I included the three books I liked the most. A very strong contender is The Dead Romantics and Adult Romance with fantasy elements that focuses on grief. It made me super emotional and I felt really connected to the story 🥺 I also loved The Screaming Staircase, I read it after watching the Netflix adaptation and had such a good time! I love the dystopian vibes and the ghosts 👻 I’m also throwing in a nonfiction book! I finally read Atomic Habits and really liked it, I thought there was a lot of good advice on habits that I’d like to incorporate into my life!

4.) Any least favourite books of the year?

• Kiss Her Once for Me (Alison Cochrun) 📖
• All the Feels (Olivia Dade) 📖

➽ I had two misses with Romance this year already. I don’t give out 1-star reads often but Kiss Her Once for Me was really upsetting to read for me 🙈 I liked the main character, but thought that she was treated SO unfairly by everyone else. I have so many things that bothered me, I did NOT have a good time reading this and I’m not sure I’ll read anything else by this author. All the Feels was sadly also a disappointment! I love the other two books in Dade’s series (Spoiler Alert and Ship Wrecked), but All the Feels didn’t manage to draw me in. It felt too connected to the first book and the romance was so underwhelming and offputting at times.

5.) Most read genre so far?

This is from Kal @ readervoracious Reading Spreadsheet!

📖 Fantasy (22.2 %) 📖

(Nonfiction is SO close behind though, which is a surprise, as I didn’t use to read this genre at all 😱)

6.) Book that’s come out in 2023 already that you want to read but haven’t yet?

• What Lies in the Woods (Kate Alice Marshall) 📖 Jan 17th
• Seven Percent of Ro Devereux (Ellen O’Clover) 📖 Jan 17th
• Out of Character (Jenna Miller) 📖 Feb 7th

➽ It’s quite early in the year, but I have some books that I need to get to! What Lies in the Wood is the adult debut of Kate Alice Marshall, one of my favorite horror/mystery writers. I’m glad that my library got the audiobook, so I can listen to it! Two YA Debuts I’m looking forward to are Seven Percent of Ro Devereux and Out of Character. Ro Devereux involves an app predicting your future and Out of Character is about RPG/Fandom, things that both appeal to me 💕

7.) One goal you made that you’re succeeding at

➽ I’ve been making sure to check in with my goals frequently this year! I’m doing well with my Out of Comfort Zone Challenge, as I’ve been reading lots of Adult books and checking out much more nonfiction than in previous years 💗 I’m also doing well with setting myself smaller TBRs! I start my months with smaller TBRs and carefully select 6 books that have the highest priority right now. So far I’ve read all of them and hope to continue this the rest of the year!

8.) One goal you made you need to focus on

➽ I’m hoping to tackle some more owned books! I’m not doing terrible at this, as I’ve already read 14 books I own. However, I tackled so many owned books last year and have to make sure I focus on picking up some of them each month! I’m taking part in Kal’s Project Backlist for this 💖 My plan is to pick up 1 or 2 physical books per month, so I slowly reduce my physical TBR, as this is bothering me more than how many books are on my Kindle!

9.) New to you Book Bloggers for 2023 you recommend?

• Ari @ Books. Libraries. Also, cats. 📖
• Julie @ Struck by Stories 📖
• Malliumpkin @ Chapter Malliumpkin 📖

➽ I need to check out some new bloggers, as I haven’t done that in a while! Because I was busy, I don’t think I’ve found anyone new in 2023, but I did discover the three people above at the end of 2022! I love their blogs and hope that I can engage a bit more this year to get to know them better 💖

What was your favorite book that wasn’t quite 4.5 stars? A 2023 release that already came out that you really want to read? 📚