diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4d01545f..1c6eda72 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+1.8.1
+-----
+* [Let the adapter handle strings with invalid encoding](https://github.com/intridea/multi_json/commit/6af2bf87b89f44eabf2ae9ca96779febc65ea94b)
+
 1.8.0
 -----
 * [Raise MultiJson::LoadError on blank input](https://github.com/intridea/multi_json/commit/c44f9c928bb25fe672246ad394b3e5b991be32e6)
diff --git a/lib/multi_json/version.rb b/lib/multi_json/version.rb
index a57463e2..db73062c 100644
--- a/lib/multi_json/version.rb
+++ b/lib/multi_json/version.rb
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ module MultiJson
   class Version
     MAJOR = 1 unless defined? MultiJson::Version::MAJOR
     MINOR = 8 unless defined? MultiJson::Version::MINOR
-    PATCH = 0 unless defined? MultiJson::Version::PATCH
+    PATCH = 1 unless defined? MultiJson::Version::PATCH
     PRE = nil unless defined? MultiJson::Version::PRE
 
     class << self