Tag: Beginning of the Year Tag

Happy February, sundrops! Firstly, you may notice that the blog looks a little different! I decided to change the colors, logo, banners, etc. and I’m really happy with it! Alright, moving onto the blog post now. 

Well, we may be starting the second month of the year, but when I saw the Beginning of the Year tag I thought it was so fun and I just had to do it! Technically we’re still at the beginning of the year, we’ve only got one month of reading under our belts for 2025, so I think it’s totally valid to be posting this tag now. Plus…I didn’t know about this tag until like 5 days ago, so there’s that 🤣

I found this tag through Riley Marie and the tag was created by @larryreads / larissacambusano ! 

Alright, get comfy and grab your beverage of choice and let’s go through the Beginning of the Year tag!

My base reading goal for the year is 150 books. Since 2020, I’ve consistently read at least 150 books, so I know that this is a number that I can finish. I’d love to read more, but I’m not going to pressure myself to read more if I don’t want to. I ended up reading 16 books in January, so I’m excited to see when I end up hitting my goal and what that 150th book will be.

Y’all know I love to reread! There are some books that I always reread each year, which are usually If We Were Villains and Little Women, so I’m sure that I’ll end up rereading those at some point this year (maybe even multiple times this year). However, there are some others that I want to reread for pretty specific reasons!

I really want to reread and annotate The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes this year, especially since Sunrise on the Reaping is coming out in just about a month (!!!!). Last year I annotated the first book in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, so I’d love to continue that annotation and reread/annotate both Good Girl, Bad Blood and As Good As Dead. I need/want to get back to my Shakespeare annotations and I’ve already got my tabs set up for King Lear, so that’s another one I want to reread this year. 

Last week I was listening to Les Mis and I just thought to myself “What if this is the year that I finally reread and annotate Les Mis this year?” So apparently, that’s a thing I’m going to do this year! I’ve read Les Mis multiple times and have wanted to annotate it for years but the idea of annotating it does intimidate me a bit, but I really think this is the year to do it so I’m hoping to get it started this month.

Aside from my 2025 anticipated releases and the books on my 25 in 2025 I’m focusing on prioritizing my physical/owned TBR! I really want to get my physical TBR down this year and make sure that the books on my shelves are books that I love and will reread. Right now, my owned TBR sits at 145, and I’d love to get that down to 100 by the end of the year, which I do think is doable for me!

Oh boy…well, there are some authors that I’m giving a second chance to this year, but one that I will not be giving another chance, unfortunately, is Ava Reid. I know, I know, I feel like I’m the only one who does not vibe with her. While I’ve only read one book from her, the one book I read I absolutely hated. Like, with a fiery passion…I don’t make a list of my least favorite books of the year, but I’m absolutely positive that Lady Macbeth was my worst book of the year. You can read my review to get all of my thoughts on it, but this book makes me incredibly angry and I will not be checking out Ava Reid’s backlist or future releases.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, but fantasy is not my go-to genre and one that tends to intimidate me a bit. However, I think I’ve started to really pinpoint what works and doesn’t work for me in the fantasy genre, so this year I want to challenge myself to read more fantasy and I’ve got a few that I’m really really excited for!

These are all books that are on my 25 in 2025 list, so killing two birds with one stone there! A Dark and Drowning Tide was also on my 25 in 2025 under fantasy, and I read it in January, so some progress is being made!

I’m a huge fan of Ann Liang and when I went to her book signing for I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, she talked a bit about A Song to Drown Rivers and I got so excited! I won’t lie, this one intimidates me quite a bit since it’s so outside of what I normally read, but I love Ann’s writing and storytelling, so I think that this one will really work for me. Additionally, this one would fulfill the Buzzwordathon February prompt which is water words, so I’m going to try and read it this month!

Last year Kelly Andrew’s Your Blood, My Bones was a big hit for me, and I am so excited for I am Made of Death. Andrew has been calling this “bubblegum horror” and honestly, I could not be more thrilled to read it. I got an ARC of it, so I’ll probably be reading it this month. I love Olive Blake, I just love her and I get her. I’m really looking forward to Gifted & Talented and truthfully am completely obsessed with this cover. I think that I’m going to enjoy this one a lot. I really adored the Little Thieves series when I read it and have been eagerly awaiting the third book, Holy Terrors. It’s coming out this year and I can’t wait to see how the story progresses.

I decided to think of this as popular books from 2024 that I want to read this year, because I have quite a few that I really want to get to! Some of these are on my 25 in 2025 (sensing a theme here) but there are some others that I want to get to as well.

Blue Sisters is probably at the top of the list! I had an ARC of it last year and started it, but even though I was enjoying the writing style and had a feeling it was something that I would love, some of the topics being discussed were a lot and I was not in the right headspace for them so I put it down and then it just slipped through the cracks before the year was out. I just made my February Book of the Month selection and decided to add a copy of Blue Sisters to my box, so I’ll be getting a physical copy and hoping to read that soon. 

Other 2024 popular releases that I want to get to are How To Solve Your Own Murder and The Love of My Afterlife – both of which I have physical copies of, so I can knock two more books off of my physical TBR! Don’t Let the Forest In is one that I wanted to buy but the day I went to Barnes & Noble to get it they didn’t have any in stock and I’ve actually been so intrigued by Ready or Not, so I’d love to read those ones this year.

So, I’ve got my Anticipated Releases of 2025 post that you can look at for some of my post anticipated releases, so here I’m going to list some of my other most anticipated reads that I just forgot to put on this list!

Obviously, Hot Wax by M.L. Rio is at the top of this list. Anything she writes I’m reading and will most likely end up loving, so I can’t wait for this one. I’ve been dying to read A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna for SO long — the release date has been pushed back so many times, but it is supposed to come out this year and I absolutely adored The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, so I hope I love this one just as much.

Sasha Peyton Smith’s writing is so beautiful and I adore her characterization, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading The Rose Bargain — and look at how gorgeous that cover is! Last month I read My Darling Dreadful Thing and really loved Johanna van Veen’s writing style, and her next book Blood on Her Tongue sounds so interesting. I’ve never read anything by Rory Power before, but Kill Creatures has me in a death grip based on cover and summary alone. This sounds like something that is SO perfect for me, so fingers crossed I love it as much as I think I will.

I’ve got quite a few goals for this year, but the main ones that I’m focusing on are:

• Reading at least one new to me author per month
• Prioritizing my physical TBR
• Reading more outside of my comfort zone
• Being more intentional with my book purchases
• Having a heavier focus on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors/stories

Some of these are goals that I have every year, as they’re things I think are important, and the others are things I’m trying out for this year. 

I don’t think it’s a book that I’ll never read, but I know that I won’t be reading War and Peace any time soon. However, I will read it one day! I do think that it’ll need to be a multiple format read. I think the only way I’ll really be about to get through it is with it on audio and physically.

I’ve got quite a few series that I’d like to start reading this year! I love a good series, and these are some that I’ve been hearing about non-stop for the last few years.

So many content creators that I love have done nothing but rave about Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway series, and it sounds so lovely! I actually got the first book from the library a few weeks ago, so I should be able to start this soon. Speaking of books I got from the library, I also got all of the books that are available in the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo. I actually have already read The Empress of Salt and Fortune, it was my last read of January, and I’m looking forward to continuing the series. 

As someone who loves history, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven just sounds exactly like something I would love. Plus, one of my favorite BookTubers, Meg from megwithbooks absolutely loves it, so I’ve been dying to check it out. Y’all know what Done and Dusted and the Rebel Blue Ranch series is, I don’t need to tell you what it is. I stopped myself from buying it like 5 times last year, and I actually started reading it yesterday, expecting to read like half of it but then me being me, I finished it in one day 🤣 I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to pick up a copy of books 2 and 3 soon.

Wow, look at that, I’ve already started 2 of the 4 series listed here, I’m killing it!

I truthfully don’t think any of my autoboy authors are going to shock you. If you’re surprised that my autobuy authors of the year are Emma Lord, Ann Liang, Holly Jackson and Emily Henry, I’m figuring that you’ve just discovered the blog, so welcome! However, if you’re not new here, none of these answers shock you.

I’m so excited because all of them have new books coming out this year! Both Emma Lord and Ann Liang actually have 2 books coming out this year. Last month Emma Lord’s 6th YA novel, The Rival, was released. Once again, a 5 star from my girlie Emma, you can read my review here. Then she has her 2nd adult romance, For the Record, coming out this year in August — I have an ARC of it and will be reading it this month, I’m gonna lose my mind.

Also last month, Ann Liang’s 4th YA novel, I Am Not Jessica Chen, was released, and again, was a 5 star for me. You can read my review here if you missed it. Then in June she has her next YA romcom, Never Thought I’d End Up Here, and I can’t wait to read it! Also, look at this cover!

My main mystery/thriller girlie Holly Jackson has her FIRST ADULT NOVEL, Not Quite Dead Yet, coming out this summer and I am sat. I am ready, I’m locked in, let’s go, give it to me now. I’ve loved everything that Holly Jackson has written, I get her and she gets me and I can’t wait to devour this one.

Emily Henry, queen of romance, I can always count on you to have my back. I’ve given all of her books 5 stars (they all fall in a different order, but let’s be real, Emily Henry’s “worst” book would be another author’s best work), and Funny Story dethroned Book Lovers for me as her favorite book last year. I am SO excited about Great Big Beautiful Life — everything about this sounds like something I’m going to love and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

The way I completely forgot every adaptation that is being released this year once I saw this question 🤣 it was also hard because I feel like there are a bunch of adaptations that we’ve been told are coming out this year but haven’t actually heard anything about so I’m just like…are they coming out this year? That being said, I did pick 3 that I’m most excited for.

I will not lie, I am trash for the adaptation of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I absolutely love it and although there is drama something about it relaxes me. I’m really excited for the 3rd season and can’t wait to see what Jenny Han updates/changes for the series.

Okay, we don’t have a release date for the People We Meet on Vacation film, but like I’m pretty positive that it’s coming out this year? Regardless, I am extremely hyped for this adaptation. It’s Emily Henry, so obviously I’m excited, but I also really like Emily Bader and Tom Blyth and can’t wait to see them as Poppy and Alex. Those candid photos from filming that we saw a few months ago? I am sat. Give it to me now. 

I thought the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians was such a great adaptation, I really enjoyed it! I adore the cast — those kids are so cute! — and even though it’s been years since I last read the books, from what I remember, it was pretty accurate and any updates/changes made sense, at least they did to me, so I’m looking forward to season 2!

At first when I saw this question I was like “Oh gosh, are there sequels that I’m anticipating?” and then I went to my want to read shelf and went “Oh, yeah, there are!” I decided to pick 4 sequels that I’m excited for, but there are for sure more — like the final book in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen series Death and Dinuguan, we just don’t have a cover for it yet, so I didn’t include it here but that’s definitely a very anticipated sequel and I will be crying when I read it.

Last year I read the first 3 books in the Dream Harbor series — The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, and The Christmas Tree Farm — and thought they were perfectly enjoyable. Were they great? No, by no means are these brilliant pieces of literature, however, these books provide a great escape and give those Hallmark vibes that I enjoy when I want to just turn my brain off. I had a good time reading the first three and am looking forward to reading both The Strawberry Patch Pancake House and The Gingerbread Bakery this year

I love the None Shall Sleep series. Both None Shall Sleep and Some Shall Break had me absolutely hooked from start to finish. This is a great YA thriller series, definitely one of my favorites, and the third book All Shall Mourn comes out tomorrow actually! I read the first two books via audio, so I’m planning to do the same for All Shall Mourn since these audiobooks are so great. I’ll probably read this one this month.

The Three Dahlias Mysteries series is so incredibly underrated and that really bums me out because it is so good! These books are such a great homage to the classic murder mystery genre and I just eat them up! The 5th book, A Deadly Night at the Theatre, comes out this summer and I can’t wait to read it. If you enjoy mysteries you need to be reading this series. 

Heart Strings is the second book in the interconnected standalone romance series Love in Galway by Ivy Fairbanks and I have very high hopes for it! The first book, Morbidly Yours, I picked up on a whim one day and then read it in one night and gave it an easy 5 stars. Heart Strings doesn’t come out until August, so we’ve got to wait for a bit but I’m really looking forward to it.

There are two big things that I’m leaving behind in 2024. One of them is pressuring myself to read more than my reading goal. Because I read over 250 books in 2023, last year, although I set my reading goal to 150 books, in the back of my mind I was like “Oh, I’m definitely going to actually read like 250+ books again this year!” and then it became very clear that that wasn’t going to happen and I felt bad about it. Why? Why did I feel bad that I wasn’t going to read over 200 books when my goal was 150 and I hit that? Why did I feel like I needed to read that many books? Who am I competing with? 150 books is a huge number of books to read! No one was sitting there going “Wow, Caitlyn read about 100 fewer books in 2024 than she did in 2023” literally no one cares. So, this year, while I still set my goal to 150 books because I know it’s a number I can hit, I’m not pressuring myself to read any more than that. I want to hit my goal and believe that I will, but once I hit that goal I’m not going to set another goal for myself, which is something that I tend to do.

The second thing that I’m leaving behind in 2024 is pressuring myself to finish books by a certain time. Another thing that I know no one cares about. I would feel like a “failure” if I didn’t finish a book within 2-3 days and why? Why did I feel that way? It absolutely was pressure from myself, and I think it’s because I’ve always been told that I’m a fast reader. That is absolutely true, but I think what started to happen was I’d hear people say that and instead of just hearing them stating a fact with no judgement behind it, my brain translated that to “if you don’t finish a book within 2-3 days of starting it you failed” I would never think that of anyone else, so why would I do that to myself? We’re leaving that mentality behind and I’m gonna read books as quickly or as slowly as I please in 2025!

Overall, the things I’m leaving behind in 2024 are making reading a competition — and it’s not even that I was making it a competition with others, it was just a competition between myself and my intrusive thoughts, and we’re definitely not doing that anymore. 

Honestly? Who even knows! At the end of January I got the urge to change the color scheme and redo the banners on the blog, so that’s happened and I am thinking about changing the blog theme but I need to do more research on themes before making that choice.

Of course, there will be book reviews and recs and tbr posts, but something I started to do last year was add more types of reviews — like tv and film reviews, and I’m hoping to start adding theatre reviews, and other lifestyle stuff, maybe. Basically, I’m hoping to try some new things this year and hope y’all embrace some new things on the blog!

I don’t know if my reading taste has really evolved in the last year as much as I’ve kind of honed things. My most read genres have pretty much always been mystery, thriller, romance and horror. In 2024 however, romance ended up being my most read genre which surprised me a bit! I’d have to check (and tbh I’m too lazy to do so right now) but I do think that while I read more romance overall, the mystery, thriller and horror genres all had higher individual ratings at the end of the year than romance did, if that makes sense.

I’ve also started to really figure out what works for me in the fantasy genre, so I’m looking forward to finding more books that fit with what it is that I enjoy in the genre and I’ll hopefully be reading more fantasy, and enjoying it in 2025.

Oh my gosh, there are SO many creators that inspire me, so this question is tough! I have so many and I know for a fact that I’m leaving some people out but I do want to shout out some content creators that always inspire and motivate me, and just creators who create content that I really enjoy!

Bloggers/Bookstagrammers: Helena (blog / bookstagram), Michelle (blog / bookstagram), Veronica (bookstagram), Robin (blog / bookstagram), Ash (bookstagram), Tiffany (bookstagram), Lila (blog)

BookTubers: Meg (megwithbooks), Kayla (BooksandLala), Gabby (gabbyreads), Gavin (GavinReadsItAll), Syd (Syd BookWorrom)

I literally could go on and on but these are typically the people I gravitate towards first when I’m looking for new recs or just want to check out some general book content.

Honestly, do it! If you’re thinking about starting a bookish account you absolutely should. It’s such a great way to connect with others, talk about your favorite reads, and find new books/authors that you maybe wouldn’t have heard of otherwise! It does take time, but it really is so fun and a great way to connect with more people who love reading! If you have an account and you’d like me and my followers to check it out, please leave the links in the comments so that we can connect!

Phew, this is a long one but I honestly think that this tag is so fun and I had a really great time writing this post and making all the new graphics for it!

I’d love to know your answers to any of these questions and just general bookish things that you’re looking forward to this year!

Until next time 💜