5 Books I Pre-Ordered and Haven’t Even Read Yet

This isn’t a brag blog. This is an accountability post. I don’t order, and especially don’t pre-order, that many books anymore, but when I do…I apparently don’t read them. Some of these are books I really am excited to read…eventually. All of them are books I am HOPING to read soon.

Which one should I read first? How do you prioritize your for you TBR when your for-everything-else TBR is so long?

Someone make me read these by the end of 2023, please! Especially since SOME OF THEM (not naming names…) have another 800+ page book in the series coming out in September.

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

I loved Ninth House, I recommend Ninth House to everyone! I talk about Ninth House all the time! I eagerly tracked when this book would come out! I even got the illicit Edelweiss e-galley before they realized it should have been embargoed. And not only did I not read that, I pre-ordered the book, received it in January 2023 in hard copy….and still haven’t read it. Yes, my award committee work has thrown my reading habits off again but….come on, Aryssa. Step it up. I’m going to read this one as soon as my award committee is done, I swear!

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

OK, hear me out on this one. I’m like 50/50 on Sittenfeld. I loved Eligible and Prep. American Wife was okay, but Rodham was just…terrible. I pre-ordered this one because I was going to her event at Sixth and I, and I love the SNL-Pete Davidson stories, but then I heard her talk about it, and while she seems really smart and nice, I just felt like the fun of this book kind of….melted away. I might still pick it up someday, but like with how I discovered Prep…I might be a decade late.

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

I pre-ordered this because I had pre-ordered all the others, and this sat on my shelf for 8 months, unread, until I lent it to a friend. Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll order the next book ahead of time…It’s not like it’s culturally trendy to read them, so I don’t feel like anyone is pressuring me to read them and talk about it.

I like Cormoran, I like the story, but it’s so so dang long! Who has time for that?!?

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

I liked Red White and Royal Blue! I got an ARC of I Kissed Shara Wheeler and read it pre-pub. So…why have I never picked this one up? Maybe I’m just….never in the mood for romance? Or time travel? I don’t know. I find her books kind of hard to slip into initially, so maybe I just need forced to sit down and read this?

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

I came to V.E. Schwab late in life, shall we say. I’m not a fantasy or sci-fi person, but I like how she builds a new world out of an existing one. I enjoyed the Darker Shade of Magic Trilogy and the Villains duology and I LOVED the City of Ghosts trilogy(and want more of them) so when I saw Gallant, and realized it was kind of boarding school adjacent, I smashed that pre-order button…and promptly moved on with my life. It’s been out for over a year now. I’m only mildly embarassed, but I’m telling myself I can’t get book 4 in the Darker Shades of Magic FROM THE LIBRARY until I read Gallant.

Someone hold me to my aspirations. What are recent books you’ve pre-ordered but somehow not gotten to yet?