Eight Books I Simply Must Read in 2021 // exposing myself for not reading books I bought 2 years ago

Hi y’all, happy new year!! ✨

I know it’s been 2021 for a few days now, but I honestly still can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s not 2020 anymore,, like,,, did the longest (yet shortest) year of our lives really come to an end ????? sounds fake but okay 👀 Haha but honestly, I feel like the first half of 2021 will still feel like 2020, for the very obvious reason that I’ll still be attending Zoom University and being a quaranteen and doing the same thing every single day for the foreseeable future……i am literally rotting away in my room. help

In all seriousness, though, I just want to say that as weird and challenging and unprecedented (dw i’ll never use this word again) 2020 was, we still made it through! We did it!! 2020 was seriously such a tough year, so no matter how much you were able to accomplish this year, I’m proud of you 💗 If all you did was survive and try to get through every day, you are wonderful and you are enough. And now, it’s a whole new year!! While I have no expectations for 2021, I do have a lot of hope. Let’s hope that better times are on the horizon, and get through these tough times together. Let’s do this ✨

In 2020, all the days really blurred together, but one thing that helped me get through these blurry days and mark the passage of time was reading + finishing books! And I’m sure a lot of you can agree ☺️ I’m really excited to continue reading books and discovering new, wonderful reads this year, and make these weird, somewhat lonely times more interesting! 📚

In today’s post, I’ll be talking (screaming) about eight books that I really, really want to read in 2021!! Some of these books have been on my TBR since forever, and I’ve seen so many people scream about how much joy the book gave them, or how it destroyed them. Either way, I’m here for it 👀😌 And other books in this list are ones that I bought quite a whileee ago, but still haven’t gotten around to reading. So I am simply determined to read them this year. Yes, this is the year, folks. I can feel it. 2021 will be the year I finally stop procrastinating and clear out my physical TBR and read all the books I’ve been meaning to read. Speaking it into existence 😌✨ and yes i’m writing this post so y’all can hopefully hold me accountable to this ahahahahaha…..

Note: I’ll be excluding 2021 releases from this post because I’ll most likely write a new post just for my most anticipated 2021 releases! So all of the books I mention in this post are backlist (published in 2020 or before).

1. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

The House in the Cerulean Sea is definitely one of my highest priority books that I want to read this year, for two main reasons: firstly, I have the hardcover of this book, so any break I can get from burning my eyes out while reading ebooks sounds good to me (I’ve mostly been borrowing & reading ebooks, thanks to the Libby app aka a bookworm’s best friend and lifesaver). (also i want to work on finishing my physical TBR ofc) And secondly and most importantly, basically everyone I know and their mother has absolutely LOVED this book – The House in the Cerulean Sea is literally raining 5-star ratings,, I don’t think I’ve seen a single bad review for this book ?? Which is highly impressive 🤯 It sounds like such a wonderful, heartwarming adult fantasy about found family, which sounds like a perfect escape from the harsh reality of the outside world rn. I absolutely cannot wait to read this 😭💕

2. The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

My very good friend Iris @ Countless Words with Iris has The Sound of Stars as one of her favorite books of 2020, which is really high praise. (Oh, and check out Iris’ top 10 favorite books of 2020 here hehe 🤩) I got the hardcover of this book last summer, and still haven’t gotten around to reading it, so I muuuust read it this year!! From reading the summary, I can tell that this YA sci-fi is going to be a love letter to books, music, and art, which sounds absolutely wonderful and right up my alley. Also, the main character is demisexual and has anxiety – I don’t want to get too personal here, but that really resonates with me and I’m sooo excited to read this 😭 Aaand can we talk about this cover?! The colors are simply gorgeous and I adore the font used for the title 🌟💙

3. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys has received so much love and hype from the bookish community, and many of my friends have read and adored this YA fantasy as well. This sounds like such a fun, wonderful, and feel-good read, with lovable characters!! The main character is gay, Mexican-Cuban-American, and trans, and I am so here for the queer and Latine rep. I’m seriously so excited to read this, and cannot wait to fall in love with Yadriel and Julian as y’all have 😭 Also, my friend got me this for my birthday a couple months ago, so I really have no reason not to read it this year. i’ll just put it out there rn…..y’all have permission to yell at me if i don’t read this by the end of the year :’)

4. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

I got the hardcover of Girls of Paper and Fire in November 2018…….which, I just realized, is OVER TWO YEARS AGO now, whaaat ?!!???!? 2018 does not feel like it was 2 years ago, I feel like it just happened lol. But anyways, wow Dezzy, you literally got a book 2+ years ago and STILL haven’t read it. great job, seriously. you’re doing absolutely amazing. *slow claps* @ self 🤦🏻‍♀️ …..HAHA dramatics aside, I definitely need to set aside some time this year to read this YA fantasy, especially since it has a f/f romance. The main reason I haven’t read it yet is because I’m very much a mood reader, which means I procrastinate on everything I wanna read by saying “I’ll read it when I’m in the right mood.” Spoiler alert: apparently i’m never in the right mood :’) ahahaha my fellow mood readers, do u feel my pain :’) But anyway! Yes! I’m very excited to read this beautiful sapphic YA fantasy sometime in 2021 ✨

5. Iron Heart by Nina Varela

Iron Heart is the sequel to Crier’s War, a sapphic YA sci-fi that has enemies-to-lovers and is set in a world where Automae, which were created by humans, became too powerful and have taken control of the land. I really enjoyed Crier’s War, especially the slowburn f/f enemies-to-lovers (what can I say, I absolutely adore this trope) – Crier and Ayla’s romance made me feel alllll the emotions (pain💔). So I’m definitely super excited to pick up Iron Heart and continue experiencing the emotional destruction I felt while reading Crier’s War. Books that emotionally destroy you and leave a gaping hole where your heart is are the best, am I right 😌😌

6. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows is one of the most hyped books in the book community, and even outside of it – I have a lot of irl friends who also have read this book and sing its praises. With my irls, I’m usually the one to recommend books to them, but I’ve actually had irl friends recommend SOC to me lolol 🤯 So yes, I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I still have not read this book, and honestly, at this point, I’ve seen so much SOC content (tweets, memes, blog posts, fanart, etc) that I feel like I semi-know the characters and ships already, haha. I really do need to read this book sometime this year, so I can finally understand alllll the SOC references that are so prominent in the bookish community and not be left out :’) LOL but yes I am very excited to finally read this book !! 🤩 and not scared over the hype nope not at all what are you talking about h a h a h a h a……

7. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

I’ve heard so many good things about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and just the premise itself sounds very interesting and definitely catches my eye. This book follows Addie LaRue, a young woman who is immortal but is under a curse that makes everyone she meets forget her. Like, wOAH. I’m so 👀😱🤯 just by that premise and I can’t wait to read this!! I read V.E. Schwab’s Villains series (Vicious and Vengeful) and really enjoyed the way Schwab crafts such fascinating and complex storylines, with characters that you can’t help but become emotionally invested in. I’m excited to experience more of her brilliant writing in this newest book of hers ⏱🖤

8. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

I actually have never read a novel in verse (poetry) before, or not as far as I can recall. And I don’t usually read poems because my one (1) singular brain cell cannot comprehend the fancy metaphors and deeper meanings that poems typically contain :’) And yet, I still would really like to read Clap When You Land (which is a novel in verse) this year, because I have heard nothing but phenomenal feelings for this book. It sounds like a very emotional, hard-hitting contemporary about grief, sisterhood, and forgiveness. Looking forward to reading this!! And who knows, maybe this will be the book to make me realize the greatness and wonders of poetry 👀✈️

Aaaand that’s it! These are eight books that I most definitely want to read in 2021, and hopefully now that I’ve written this entire post all in one sitting hehe i’m proud of myself , I’ll actually follow through and read most, if not all, of them this year! ☺️ Looking back at all the books in this post, I’m now realizing all of them except one are fantasies, haha. I guess this just goes to show how much I love reading contemporary and prioritize reading it (it’s definitely my favorite genre 🤩), such that I still haven’t read all these fantasies that I mentioned in this post :’)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and about why I’d love to read all these books this year! Thank you so much for being here and supporting my blog, I appreciate you and am so happy to be back in the bookish blogosphere 😊 I hope that 2021 brings y’all a lot of wonderful new reads and lovely memories!! Sending you so much love & good vibes for this new year ✨🌱💓

Which book from this list should I read first or prioritize? (I’m very indecisive pls help me aksjdfkds) If you’ve read any of these books, please let me know your thoughts on it, I’d love to hear from you hehe :))

Do you have a planned TBR from month to month, or are you a mood reader like me? What’s your favorite genre to read? What books do you really want to read in 2021?

Also!! Please let me know if you’re interested in buddy reading any of these books with me 👀 I’d be very down to buddy read with you!!

Let’s be friends!

Background image for featured image from Unsplash