Hey guys! Happy New Year! 2021 was such a great year for me, reading wise. Originally, I set a Goodreads goal of reading 20 books but I ended up reading 40 instead! And a lot of the books that I read were really good. I hope 2022 also treats me the same way and I get to read amazing books!
As you can probably tell from the title, I am going to be sharing my list of the top 7 books I read this year. I tried to narrow it down to 5 but I really couldn’t. Some of these books are recent releases but some are old ones too. These are not in any particular order, although the first two have become my absolute favourite books of all time. Also, if there are any sequels or series in there, I will be sharing only the major plotline so I don’t spoil the previous books for you.
THE NIGHT CIRCUS
If you’ve been following my blog or my bookstagram, you probably know how much I adore this book! The surface plot of the book follows the story of two magicians who are pitted against each other in a magical contest which is set against the backdrop of the Night Circus. But really, this book has a more complex story with a whole cast of characters with a beautiful love story at its core. The author’s writing is lyrical and enchanting and transports one to the dreamy land of the circus. Overall, this is the best atmospheric fantasy/ magical realism novel anyone could ever read and I highly recommend this to everyone!
I you would like to read a complete review for this, check out my previous blog post here: https://thesoulfulscripturient.wordpress.com/2021/07/05/review-of-the-night-circus-by-erin-morgenstern/
TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN
To be honest, I was a little skeptical about reading a John Green book. All his books are super hyped up and I knew that I would feel bad if I ended up not liking the book. But I took a leap of faith with this one and I have never been so happy that I took a chance and read this.
Turtles all the way down follows Aza, a girl who struggles with anxiety and OCD. When a billionaire (who also happens to be the father of a childhood friend) goes missing, she and her best friend Daisy decide to investigate the mystery and claim the reward prize for the same. But the real plot of the book is Aza’s struggle with her own thoughts and feelings and how she finds hope even when there seems to be none.
XOXO
How can there not be a swoon worthy contemporary romance on this list? When it came out, XOXO was so popular among bookstagram that I decided to buy it. And this is literally THE BEST contemporary romance I have ever read. A chance encounter with Jaewoo leads to an amazing evening for the protagonist Jenny. When she goes to Korea with her mother, Jenny enrols in an elite art academy and finds out that Jaewoo is actually a part of a very famous K – pop band and he attends the same school as she does. What follows is a very cute romance with the secret dating trope and lots of swoon worthy moments. I absolutely adored this book. I had a great time reading it!
SILVERED SERPENTS
Roshani Chokshi is one of my all-time favourite authors. And The Gilded Wolves is one of my all-time favourite books ever. The Silvered Serpents is the second book in TGW trilogy. I read this book at the very beginning of 2021. I remember being in a terrible reading slump and when I picked this book up, I enjoyed it so much that my reading slump just magically disappeared. TGW follows a heist and TSS picks up where the first book left off. It has a beautiful found family trope in it and it is a perfect Historical Fantasy book. This book is perfect of fans of Six of Crows.
CHAIN OF IRON
This is the second book in The Last Hours trilogy by Cassandra Clare. The Infernal Devices is one of my all-time favourite series and when I got to know that Cassandra Clare was writing a series with the children of TID’s cast, I instantly decided to read it. TLH is set in Edwardian London, it has a very huge cast of characters (which I adore), a great mystery and an amazing romance. Cordelia, the protagonist of this book, is one of my most favourite characters of all time. This book is perfect for fantasy lovers.
LEGENDARY
I read Caraval, the first book in the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber and I liked it better than I expected to. And I was even more surprised when Legendary turned out to be an absolute favourite for me. While the first book introduces the readers to the game of Caraval and Scarlett’s character, Legendary really delves into the stories and legends associated with the world in which Caraval is set. This book also follows the perspective of Scarlett’s sister, Donatella, and she is such a fun character! I can’t say much about this without spoiling this book, but the twists and turns added with the atmospheric mystery and the mind-blowing ending made this an amazing book to read. I’m really looking forward to reading the final book in the series soon!
If you are interested in reading the above two book series, you can check out my review of the first books in both the series down below:
https://thesoulfulscripturient.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/chain-of-gold-by-cassandra-clare/
https://thesoulfulscripturient.wordpress.com/2021/09/07/book-review-caraval-by-stephanie-garber/
DAUGHTER OF THE DEEP
This was a Sci fi middle grade book that I had such a fun time reading! This was one of the last books I read in the year. This book is in a way, a reimagining of the famous novel Twenty thousand leagues under the sea by Jules Verne. Daughter of the Deep follows Ana Dakkar who is a student at an elite marine boarding school and one day, after a tragic incident leaves her class stranded and her school demolished, she learns that she is the descendant of Captain Nemo, who was apparently real. And this leads to an entire epic underwater adventure for her and her classmates.
Rick Riordan’s books were one of the first books I ever read and returning back to his writing felt so much like coming back home. This book was filled with so much scientific stuff and the middle grade writing was so light and refreshing. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a nice and light reading time.
So, that’s it! Comment below and let me know your favourite books of 2021. I hope you guys have a great day and an even greater year ahead! 😊
The soulful scripturient 