Top Ten Tuesday | January 18, 2022

Happy Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a Bookish Meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s theme is 2021 BOOKS I WAS SUPER EXCITED TO READ- AND THEN DIDN’T!

Happy Tuesday!

Before I start today’s post, I want to apologize to everyone who saw my super weird post a couple weeks ago where the covers/titles/descriptions of the books didn’t match, and a HUGE THANK YOU to Elyse at Wines About Books for letting me know that 1) my post was all mixed up and 2) comments were turned off! The post has now been fixed if you want to see some of the books I’m most looking forward to in 2022!

Okay, now for this week’s post- I thought this would be nice and easy because obviously I did my most anticipated posts last year. Except I didn’t. Well, I kind of did. I did my most anticipated releases for January of 2021, and then another one for the second half of 2021, but nothing for February-June. So while I assume I had plenty of books that I was looking forward to that came out between February and June of last year, I don’t have any records of them. Oops.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday (which I’m really going to stick to TEN books on) covers the books I most wanted to read in 2021, but somehow didn’t get to. BUT! I’m going to try my hardest to read them in 2022 (probably).

And now without any further ado, here’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday!

Your Life Has Been Delayed by Michelle I. Mason
Published on September 7, 2021 by Bloomsbury YA
Genres: Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Time Travel, YA
Pages: 304
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Past and present, friends and crushes collide in a YA debut about a girl who takes off on a flight and lands 25 years later.
Jenny Waters boards her flight in 1995, but when she lands, she and the other passengers are told they disappeared . . . 25 years ago. Everyone thought they were dead.
Now contending with her family and friends fast-forwarding decades, Jenny must quickly adjust to smartphones and social media while being the biggest story to hit the internet. She feels betrayed by her once-best friend and fights her attraction to a cute boy with an uncomfortable connection to her past. Meanwhile, there’s a growing group of conspiracy theorists determined to prove the whole situation is a hoax. Will Jenny figure out how to move forward, or will she always be stuck in the past?

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado
Published on February 2, 2021 by Holiday House
Genres: Contemporary, Queer, YA
Pages: 352
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Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.
Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.
Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.
People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it's hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn't help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.
But there's one person who's always in Charlie's corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing--he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.
A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Series: The Poison Heart #1
Published on June 29, 2021 by Bloomsbury YA
Genres: Contemporary, Queer, Romance, YA, Fantasy, Mythology, Retellings
Pages: 384
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Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken
Published on January 5, 2021 by Disney-Hyperion
Genres: Retellings, YA, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mythology
Pages: 480
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family's sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man--now a god--responsible for their deaths.
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to bind her fate to Athena's and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost--and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

For the Wolf by Hannah F. Whitten
Series: Wilderwood #1
Published on June 1, 2021 by Orbit Books
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer, Fantasy, New Adult, Retellings
Pages: 437
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The first daughter is for the Throne. The second daughter is for the Wolf.
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.
Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.

The Secret Life of Kitty Granger by G.D. Falksen
Published on March 2, 2021 by Carolrhoda Lab (R)
Genres: Queer, Historical Fiction, Neurodivergent, Thriller, YA
Pages: 280
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It's 1967, and Kitty Granger is about to accidentally become a spy. A working-class girl from London's East End who today would be recognized as autistic, she's spent sixteen years hiding her peculiarities from the world. But after her hyper-awareness helps her survive a chance encounter with a Russian spy ring, two British secret agents offer her a job.
Kitty's first mission draws her into a fascist conspiracy led by a prominent politician--who's also an unreformed Nazi sympathizer. With help from her team, Kitty must use her wits, training, and instincts to get out alive. And she might as well save the country while she's at it.

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan
Published on May 18, 2021 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Genres: Queer, YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 324
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Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school's code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother. The two are drawn to each other and can't deny their growing feelings. But while Morgan--out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start--doesn't want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn't ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together?

I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust: A Memoir of Autism and Hope by Valerie Gilpeer, Emily Grodin
Published on April 6, 2021 by William Morrow
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Neurodivergent, New Adult, Non-Fiction
Pages: 272
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“I have been buried under years of dust and now I have so much to say.”
These were the first words twenty-five-year-old Emily Grodin ever wrote. Born with nonverbal autism, Emily’s only means of communicating for a quarter of a century had been only one-word responses or physical gestures. 
That Emily was intelligent had never been in question—from an early age she’d shown clear signs that she understood what was going on though she could not express herself. Her parents, Valerie and Tom, sought every therapy possible in the hope that Emily would one day be able to reveal herself. When this miraculous breakthrough occurred, Emily was finally able to give insight into the life, frustrations, and joys of a person with autism. She could tell her parents what her younger years had been like and reveal all the emotions and intelligence residing within her; she became their guide into the autistic experience.
Told by Valerie, with insights and stories and poetry from Emily, I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust highlights key moments of Emily’s childhood that led to her communication awakening—and how her ability rapidly accelerated after she wrote that first sentence. As Valerie tells her family’s story, she shares the knowledge she’s gained from working as a legal advocate for families affected by autism and other neurological disorders. 
A story of unconditional love, faith in the face of difficulty, and the grace of perseverance and acceptance, I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust is an evocative and affecting mother-daughter memoir of learning to see each other for who they are.

The Brittanys by Brittany Ackerman
Published on June 15, 2021 by Vintage
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Historical Fiction, New Adult, Queer
Pages: 272
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They're not the most popular freshmen at their Florida prep school, but at least everyone knows their name(s). The Brittanys.
Brittany Rosenberg: drives her golf cart around her subdivision to meet boys.
Brittany Gottlieb: insists you can't lose your virginity if you haven't gotten your period. (She heard it somewhere!)
Brittany Tomassi: is from New York.
Brittany Jensen: once threw her tampon into a stranger's swimming pool. A brash, bold, unapologetic tomboy. And the greatest person in the whole wide world.
At least as far as the fifth Brittany--our narrator--is concerned. Even within their friend group, she and Jensen are a duo: with their matching JanSport backpacks, Tiffany chokers, and Victoria's Secret push-up bras, they are unstoppable. And now that they're finally growing up, they're going to do everything: dye their hair, attend no-parent parties, try pot . . . maybe even lose their virginities. 2004 is totally going to be their year!
Except Jensen's interests may be diverging from her friends'. And within our narrator's own family--in the lives of her exhausted mother and beloved, genius older brother--life-changing events may be taking shape. Events that only years later, looking back, she has the perspective to see.

My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows
Series: Mary #1
Published on June 22, 2021 by HarperTeen
Genres: YA, Alternate History, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings
Pages: 512
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Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and... queens?
Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she's a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It's a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail.
Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But after the king meets a suspicious end, things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis are forced to navigate a viper's nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary's secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll.

What 2021 books were you super excited for and then didn’t read? Let me know in the comments below and don’t forget to have a magical week!