As I have already said, earlier this month, we are finally making it to my yearly wrap up posts, my favourite posts of all time! This week it’s all about the series I have completed from December 2021 to November 2022!

This year consisted of a romance duology, 2 manga series and a beloved fantasy series!!

Plot for Book 1: Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar… in Washington. Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face. Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart. 

2022 was the year of me realising I love the romance genre and this book here was the reason for it! I literally couldn’t put either books down and it has inspired me to look outside of what I normally read and try new things. This series was funny, heartwarming and I will now read anything Tessa Bailey writes.

Plot for Vol. 1: For the past century, what’s left of mankind has hidden in a giant, three-walled city, trapped in fear of the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the Titans. Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming humankind, but the sudden appearance of an enormous Titan is about to change everything…

Now this entry comes with a bit of a disclaimer. I read the first 4 volumes and the last 2 volumes and everything else was consumed via the show. I could not be bother to wait for the last instalment in the show but I also didn’t really want to re-read everything that I already know. So, I stopped my read through and watched everything that was out there and then read the final two volumes. I count that as completing the series.

Plot for Book 1: Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

I was determined to finish this series before this post and I am so happy I did. What a journey. I understand now why people like this series as much as they did.

Plot for Vol. 1: Alchemy: the mystical power to alter the natural world, somewhere between magic, art and science. When two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, dabbled in these powers to grant their dearest wish, one of them lost an arm and leg…and the other became nothing but a soul locked into a body of living iron. Now they are agents of the government, slaves of the military-alchemical complex, using their unique powers to obey their orders…even to kill. But their powers aren’t unique. The world crawls with evil alchemists. And in pursuit of the ultimate alchemical treasure, the Philosopher’s Stone, their enemies are even more ruthless than they are…

I AM IN MOURNING. I have still not mentally or emotionally recovered from this series. I have entered a dark whole of nothing-ness after this. I read 6 volumes in one day and I cried so so so many times. This will always and forever be my favourite manga series and a go-to recommendation!