21 Books or series I Want to Read in 2021

Welcome, everyone, to 2021!!!
I cannot believe that we’re finally here, out of that terrible 2020 and into a (hopefully) brighter future. Let’s hope it all goes up from here (and I do NOT mean covid cases)!
To kick off this new year I thought I’d write a list of 21 books that I want to read in 2021. Obviously I’ll be reading more than 21 books but these are books that have been recommended to me countless times, that are so popular, that I just NEED to read.
Please note: all books listed here are books that were released before 2021. Also, these books are not listed in any particular order.

• Truly Devious (series) by Maureen Johnson. I’ve heard a LOT of different things about this book but most of the stuff I’ve heard is very good! I love mystery books and I’m terrible at guessing anything anywhere so I’m usually surprised as to what happens!
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (series) by Holly Jackson. I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK YET. I’m honestly kind of shocked about that too, I’ve heard SO MUCH about this. Another mystery for me to read–and I can’t wait!
• King of Scars (duology) by Leigh Bardugo. I read Shadow and Bone in late 2020 just so that I could read this. I did not enjoy that trilogy so I better read this soon! I loved Six of Crows so I hope that this is really good. I may wait until March so book two is out

• Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda (series) by Becky Albertalli. I’ve heard some very mixed things about this book but I really hope that I enjoy it! I mean…it has LGBTQ+ rep so it’ll probably be good. But of course that depends more on, you know, the rest of the book.
• Spin the Dawn (duology) by Elizabeth Lim. It’s like a Mulan retelling! I actually watched Mulan last night and it was very good. Can’t wait to read this one!
• Serpent and Dove (series) by Shelby Mahurin. Yet another book that I’ve read mixed reviews about, though they’re definitely leaning towards good! Can’t wait to dive into a nice fantasy.

• Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Basherdoust. This one’s been on my tbr for a while and I’m really excited to finally get to it. It’s a sleeping beauty retelling and I don’t find many of those! I really enjoy retellings in general so hopefully this one is great as well!
• Something Strange and Deadly (series) by Susan Dennard. I’ve read the Witchlands series by Dennard and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. This one sounds super exciting and…zombies in Philadelphia! Sounds fun!
• The Nevernight Chronicles (series) by Jay Kristoff. I actually had this on hold from the library earlier this year but I was reading so many other books that I had to cancel it and just never requested it again. I hope I can get to this this year!

• Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee. I learned of this book from my dear friend Katie @Whispering Pages and it sounds soooo good! I’ve recently learned that I actually really enjoy reading/watching superheroes 🤷🏼‍♀️ so I can’t wait to read this one!
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab. Yeah, I know. A lot of people love it, it’s super popular, I NEED to read it. If I do read it, it will be my first book by Schwab which will be exciting. I’m super excited to start this, I’ve seen a few bad reviews but most are glowing. We’ll see how it goes.
• These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. I’m actually reading this book currently but thought I should add it on here since it is something that I do want to read. There was a lot of hype surrounding this book before it came out and when it was published and I can’t wait to finish it!

• Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Well this is certainly a book that people love. I’ve seen a lot of 5 stars from my goodreads friends and…a few one stars. Let’s see where I fall (honestly, I’m probably going to love it–it’s gay).
• These Witches Don’t Burn (duology) by Isabel Sterling. If you read the reviews of this book you see a lot of ‘this book has gay witches’. Yes, please.
• Strange the Dreamer (duology) by Laini Taylor. I’ve heard plenty of great things about this book and can’t wait to get into it. First recommended to me by a goodreads user (I unfortunately have lost contact with them and cannot remember who they are) in…early summer (?) I can’t believe I haven’t gotten my hands on this yet.

• Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand. It’s…a queer horror? Yes please. I don’t usually read horror and this’ll be the first YA spooky book I’ve read (I’ve read a few middle grade) so…hopefully I can sleep at night after reading this. But it sounds so good, I can’t resist.
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power. Ah, yes. Reading a book about a plague during quarantine. Fun times! Also, can I just say that that cover absolutely terrifies me.
• Girls with Sharp Sticks (series) by Suzanne Young. I guess this year is the year where I read mystery! I don’t read much mystery but I really enjoy the genre so I can’t wait to dive into it more this year!

• Loveless by Alice Oseman. I’m not sure that Loveless is actually out in the US yet–in fact I’m pretty sure it’s not–but I hope it comes out sometime this year because I need to read this! It sounds so good!
• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. I really really really really need to read a book by Oseman and I hope that I can this year! This is the first book I’ve seen on goodreads that all my goodreads friends who have rated this have rated it either 4 or 5 stars so I hope I really enjoy this!
  I literally just opened a late Christmas present and this was one of the books I got!!! I’m super excited now.
• Stalking Jack the Ripper (series) by Kerri Maniscalco. I’ve heard lots of great things about this book as well! Mystery books here I come!

I am so excited for my reading in 2021!!! All in all, this is a LOT of books since most of these are serieses. All in all this is…39 books (I really thought it would be more) and that’s if I counted correctly and not counting all the books that have yet to come out in several of these serieses.
For the rest of my reading (if I have any time to do more reading what with all these books) I want to finish the books I read for Christmas (and possibly actually read the book that I got a year ago) and then I really want to dig into some newer books that are coming out this year. I’m so excited because there are so many diverse books coming out this year that just sound AMAZING. (for more info, check out posts by Katie @Whispering Pages and May @Forever and Everly about their anticipated releases) But I’m always looking for more book recs! Do you have any favorite books that you want me to read? Anything you think that I would enjoy? Given this giant TBR you’ve just witnessed, I probably won’t get to them anytime soon but I love making my endless TBR grow even more endless!

I have decided to participate in a reading challenge created by The Colorful Bibliophile–a bingo card! To find out more about her challenge you can find her amazing post here–please check it out! I thought that this was an awesome way to push myself to read new books this month and hopefully in future months. We’ll see how far I get!
Here’s the original bingo card:

And because I’ve already completed a few of these challenges this month, here’s my bingo card so far:

(From left to right, top to bottom) Legendborn (Tracy Deonn), Legendborn, free space, Displacement (Kiku Hughes), Displacement, Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds, Graphic novel edition).

Lastly, I’ve been piling up book tags to do and I’ve actually lost track of a few that I’ve been tagged for recently. If you have tagged me in a tag other than the Evermore book tag and the Baby Its Cold Outside book tag then I have not kept track of that and if you remember tagging me, please let me know in the comments. Also, if you have any other tags you want me to do, please let me know!

Have you read any of these books?
What are some books you want to read in 2021?
Let’s chat in the comments!

As always, thank you for stopping by to read my post. Here’s to good reading and a safe and healthy 2021! See you next time!