As you can see, fantasy was a big loss for me last year. I read very little and the ones I did I felt (mostly) disappointed by. I think fiction is just my one true love. This year fantasy will deliver up some amazing books that I’ll definitely be reading, but I’m still on the fence about so many of the others. It’s a little hard for me to realize my love of fantasy is essentially over. I started out with fantasy and read so much fantasy growing up. Harry Potter, Uglies, The Magic Tree House, Myths and Legends were some of my favorite things to read. But I think my reading tastes have just changed so much and I’m a lot more selective with what I read. I’m extremely busy this year, so I need to be more selective.

  • Bloodwitch series by Susan Dennard

I know so many people love this series and my brother-in-law even vouches for it. He’s encouraged me to read it at least a couple times so I’m sure it’s good (he has high standards for plot and world building), but for some reason I just haven’t picked it up. It definitely will be easier after all the books are out, then I can binge read them if necessary!

  • Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scolte

I don’t really know much about this, but I imagine it’s like a competition type thing for the crown. I read Three Dark Crowns last year and I like a good competition, but it kind of lacked character development and dynamics. I know it’s not really fair to compare the two especially since I don’t know very much about Four Dead Quens. But I think I’ll wait until I hear some more about FDQ before I make my decision.

  • Kingsbane (Empirium #2) by Claire Legrand

If I was on the fence about Furyborn, I’m like standing on a needle with Kingsbane. I trusted a very good source (for fantasy and sci-fi) for this book and it totally let me down. I just found all the characters kind of plain. The wold-building was sparse and I really feel like nothing was explained. It felt like a half-baked

  • The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

I was so excited to hear about a vampire novel coming out this year! I totally missed the boat on the vampire books in the 90s, only really hitting Twilight. But I’m completely here for the diverse vampire books. The reason I’m on the fence about this one is because of the author. I thought The Wrath and the Dawn was okay, but the sequel was abysmal in the worst way. When I heard about A Flame in the Mist I was pretty hesitant, and those cautious feelings were validated when I heard about the problematic rep in the book. So I’m just very hesitant about it.

  • Enchantée by Gita Trelease

I’ve see this one around, but I’m wary of the plot and I recently read a Parisian inspired magic book so that’s kind of why I’m on the fence. I think I’m just not into grand adventures. Sometimes I just want to read about people and their daily lives.