The end of the year has arrived and it’s time to wrap up my reading! I’ve counted all the books I’ve read and broke down my reads into categories by genres and subgenres. Not to anyone’s surprise but the only genre that was broken down into subgenres is romance.
My most read genre of the year is romance. I’ve read so much romance the past year that it felt weird if I went too long without reading a romance. The genre was such a comfort and a perfect escape to fall into whenever I had the time. The most read sub-genre of romance that I explored in the past year is: contemporary romance.
Here’s a breakdown on all the sub-genres of romance I’ve read:
YA is definitely the one genre or area of fiction that I haven’t really read much of this year. Before I started to read more adult fiction, I used to be a heavy YA reader. I believe that all the YA fiction I’ve read in 2021 has been fantasy. I’m planning to pick up a few more fantasy series this year but I think 2021 has solidified that I’m not really a contemporary YA reader. I’m just not a fan of high-school setting dramas and I know that there are some really good ones out there but I’m not itching to get to them anytime soon. I prefer the YA fantasy books that can clearly be New Adult if marketing isn’t a thing.
Some of my favorite books of all time, fall under fantasy romance. I particularly enjoy the fantasy romance books that are centered around politics and have a fast, action packed pace. I love books that focus on the world building and have the romance as more of a secondary plot. I think that this makes the relationship in the story so much more dynamic with the tension and angst that results in a perfect slow burn romance. If you didn’t know already, I’m a sucker for a good slow burn romance.
The “Bridge Kingdom” series is the perfect example of my kind of fantasy romance. In fact, I personally believe that this series can count as a fantasy series and not necessarily be dependent on romance as its main genre. There’s action, warring kingdoms, beautiful atmospheric writing, and a pacing that’ll leave you itching to read more.
“The Traitor Queen” is one of my most memorable reads of the year. I loved how this book was the exact opposite of the “Bridge Kingdom”, the first book, and was even more intense. Reading this book felt like I was seeing a Lara Croft movie. If you want to read a book where the author does not hold back at all with the emotional and physical torture their characters go through, check this series out. The characters are so dynamic and 3D that you can’t help crying and rooting for them. The romance in this book is such a good slow burn and really torturous in the way it is when two opposing political members and morally different characters fall for each other when they’re really supposed to kill each other.
After contemporary romance, historical romance was my most read romance sub-genre. Those mass market books are little pockets of joy, I tell you. Out of all the historical romances I read this year, this book met all expectations and exceeded them. First of all, the cover is gorgeous. I’m not a lover of purple but this book cover has won me over. I don’t know how to describe it but the cover looks matte even though the texture isn’t matte. The art is brushed out so perfectly that this book deserves to be put out on display.
The actual content of the book is even better. There’s a ton of romances out there, especially historical romances that try to swing the plot forward with feminist undertones but this book didn’t have any feminist undertones, it simply was feminist. The way the author gender swapped the commonly used Rake trope to highlight female inequality is ingenius. How many male Rakes out there go around in some of our favorite historical romances and win the lady with almost no repurcussions for playing with socially accepted norms? The answer is close to none. But if a woman was to “defile” society and go against the norms and “rules”, the women will quite literally be burnt at the stake. The romance aspect of this book was steamy and delivered the heat. It felt very realistic and I appreciated that. Also, the main character, our Rakess, had so many issues, some pretty bad ones, that she needed to sort out. Seeing a female character with problems such as hers during that time period is another reason why I love this book. Please be aware of trigger warnings for this book becaue there are quite a few including sexual assault/rape and alcoholism/addiction.
YA is one genre I haven’t read much of at all this year and 2 of the 4 YA I did read this year are rereads. This book didn’t really mention the ages of the characters but I do remember that one of them was 17 or 18 and I think that qualifies as YA. This book honestly read more like New Adult and if I didn’t see that one sentence where the age was dropped, I wouldn’t have known that this book was YA.
If you’re not keen on reading YA but love fantasy and Greek mythology, then this book is for you.
A little disclaimer: this book may come off a bit confusing but if you sit with it and refer to the reader guide/family map provided for you, things will start to make more sense and you’ll get more comfortable with the setting and politics.
This was the first book I read in 2021 and some of the concepts are a bit blurry so I’m going to apologize for the vague summary of what this book is about. Lore is a book that follows our main character, Lore, as she gets pulled into a war where everyone’s trying to hunt down and kill the Olympic gods so they can prolong their family line by taking over the role of the defeated Olympic god/goddess. This is a war/hunt that occurs annually and has been in place for centuries. Only a few, real, authentic Gods and Goddesses are still alive amongst the newly risen Gods and Goddesses who have ascended after killing their predecessors.
This book was action packed. How action packed? The story started off with an introduction to our main character who is fighting in an underground fighting match. UNDERGROUND people. If I said the “The Bridge Kingdom” series felt like Lara Croft, this book is Lara Croft. I’m pretty sure Lara Croft’s movie also opens with a fight in a ring lol. The fighting scenes in this book are insane, the main character is the most bad-ass female character ever, and the Greek Gods and Goddesses in this book felt like actual Gods and Goddesses. I feel like in so many of our modern day literature, the Greek Gods and Goddesses are almost humanized to make them more active and approachable in the plot. This book does the exact opposite. The Gods and Goddesses in this book feel ancient, wise, cunning, scary, and untrusthworthy. They felt so other worldly that it was chilling to see their interactions with our set of non-god humans.
This book changed my reading game. As a reader, there are these moments where you find the right book at the right time and this was that book. This was a short book with little chapters, some written in different structural formats, that took us through the life of an Asian immigrant child who grew up in Canada while her father worked to support the family back in Hong Kong. The emotional and physical distance she felt between herself and her father translated beautifully onto paper and it was tragic and sad in a way that made your chest feel heavy. As a first generation child of immigrants, I could relate to so much of the disconnect the main character had between herself and her family as well with herself and her identity. Trigger warnings for this book for loss, grief, and cancer.
This book was also memorable because it got me to fall in love with picking up random books in the library. This is the book that made me reach for genres I don’t really read and to not put too much thought or research into what I want to read next. It also lead me to a new library in my town that’s so cute and tiny with the nicest staff. It’s because of this book that I’ve started to pick up books that aren’t popular or trending on the internet and I will forever be grateful for it.
My favorite romance read of the year is “The Love Hypothesis”. I don’t think anyone’s surprised by this pick as it’s been plastered on every social media platform and corner of the internet, and rightfully so. For so long, “Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating” has been my comfort read but I think that this book is the first book in years that has been added onto that list. I love reading about women in STEM and about conversations that I feel like are important when it comes to academic programs as well as STEM field careers. I also am undoubtedly in love with Adam.
This was my biggest disappointment of the year in fact, it’s the most disappointing book I’ve read in a while. There was a scene here that lacked consent and it was brushed over so easily that it was frustrating. Also, Daphne was incredibly unlikeable and I didn’t feel any of the chemistry between these two. It’s also mostly disappointing because I was so excited to see the TV show and my experience with this book has really put me off of it.