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Hi everybody! We are officially in the second half of the year so once again it’s the perfect time for the Mid Year Book Freakout Tag! This tag is created by ReadLikeWildfire and Ely Jayne
At this moment, I’ve read 27 books of my goal of 50. Right on track 🙂
That said, let’s just get started with this bookish freakout!
1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2026.
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series has taken over my life from December 2025 until July 2026, so yes, this whole series counts. I will TRY not to let it take over too much of my Mid Year Book Freakout, but when 8 of my 27 read books are from this series, it might get a bit tricky.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2026.
Both of these sequels had me on the edge of my seat!

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.
Can’t wait to dive into this one!

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.
I’m super excited for the next installment in the Alex Stern series!

5. Biggest disappointment.
I was super excited for this one, but I felt a bit… bored while reading it? I also already don’t remember most of it. Maybe it was just bad timing? I still want to continue the series, though my excitement has dwindled a bit.

6. Biggest surprise.
I didn’t really like Tyler in the previous books, so giving him his own story? I wasn’t convinced, but was pleasantly surprised as I ate this up.

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)
I think Matt Dinniman is my only new author read so far this year? But nevertheless he’d be my favorite because of how obsessed I’ve been with this series.

8. Newest fictional crush.
I’m a Monty girl all the way.

9. Newest favourite character.
Anything other than Princess Donut would be AN OUTRAGE!

10. Book that made you cry.
A lot of these books had me teary eyed, but this one most of all!

11. Book that made you happy.
The banter and humor are just amazing.

12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year.
I’m still a little obsessed with this. Loved everything about this adaptation, can’t think of a single thing I wanted differently.

13. Favourite review you’ve written this year.
I still haven’t gotten my review game back, but I did write a post with Ten Things I Love About Dungeon Crawler Carl… so that’s kind of on theme for this whole tag 😉

14. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)
I love this cover so much!

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
So many, but here are a few books I’m hoping to read in the second half of the year:

I Tag You!
What are some of your favorites this year so far? And your most anticipated reads for the rest of the year?


I really need to pick up The Exquisite Torment of Loving your Enemy, I’ve seen so many positive reviews for it, and I’m also excited for Dead Beat… I really need to get on with my re-read of the first two books. Great post 🙂
I hope you’ll love The Exquisite Torment of Loving your Enemy! I definitely loved it a lot 🙂
I’d love to join!
However, since I haven’t had lots of good books or any that specifically made me happy or sad, no great sequels, and so on.
I’d like to change some of these questions for me to still have a closer number to these 15 questions. Should I just come up with some or are there alternate questions?
Yay! Definitely feel free to change any questions you want to fit your reading year! I don’t think there are any official alternate questions, but I think I’ve seen bloggers change the questions to fit them before, so I’d make it work for you 🙂
Mongo would be APPALLED if you chose anyone other than Princess Donut!
I know how Princess Donut feels about Mongo being appalled, we definitely wouldn’t want that 😀
Dungeon Crawler Carl taking over the post just makes sense, and there’s no need to apologize for it! LOL!
Haha thanks! 😉
I’m loving the Dungeon Crawler Carl love! I’ve been putting off reading it because they were only out in hardcover and that’s a lot of money to invest in a series of all hardcovers and my library has extremely long holds for the series, but the paperback is coming out in October here in the UK, so I’ve preordered myself a copy!
Yay, I hope you’ll love the read in October (and if you do, that the other books will be out soon too so you can binge 😉 )
We watched Off Campus, too! I haven’t read the book so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but it made me interested to read it!
Yay, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed Off Campus! And I hope you’ll love the books too if you decide to give them a try 🙂