Reading Wrap-Up: May 2019

I’m pretty sure I’ve fallen into some sort of time slip. While April seemed to drag on and on, the month of May flew by in a flash. Despite being busy (as usual) and reading some longer books this month, I still managed to read ten books (and DNFed two), and I’m so proud. The slump is officially over!  Hooray!

 

Books I read

 

 

 

 

Ragged Alice by Gareth L. Powell (review)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (review)

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wong (review)

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman (review)

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky (review)

Spellswept by Stephanie Burgis

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Royals by Rachel Hawkins

I read ten books this month from a whole range of genres! From science fiction to contemporary YA, I really diversified my genres this month in order to combat any lingering reading slumpiness and it seemed to have worked. I also had a range of ratings this month from perfect five-star reads to only two stars. The best of the month were Children of Ruin, Spellswept, and The Devouring Gray. This month’s weakest read was Nine Perfect Strangers (a huge surprise!).

Reviews are forthcoming for all of the books I haven’t yet reviewed, so keep an eye out!

 

Books I DNFed

 

The Beholder by Anna Bright (Goodreads review)

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Goodreads review)

I’m so sad to say that I DNFed two books this month, and they were both highly anticipated reads for me and the YA book community! I won’t do full posts on these books — although I have written some thoughts on Goodreads — but I’m thinking of doing a video on why I DNFed them, so don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more in-depth thoughts.

 

Books I bought

 

 

The Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizel

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The True Queen by Zen Cho

A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard

Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Maclean

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

In comparison to buying binges in the past few months, I feel like I really held back in May (stop laughing). The Descendant of the Crane was my April Illumicrate book, We Hunt the Flame and The Candle and the Flame were preorders, and The True Queen and the second and third Susan Dennard books were bought at the MCM Blogger Brunch. I have no excuses for the rest of them!

Book post

 

 

The Gameshouse by Claire North

Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

The Kingdom by Jen Rothenberg

Smoke in the Glass by Chris Humphries

Green Valley by Louis Greenberg

The Girl in Red by Christine Henry

Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with her Mind by Jackson Ford

The Witch Who Courted Death by Maria Lewis

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Brightfall by Jamie Lee Moyer

The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass

The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizel

So this was the month of book post for me. Some of this was unsolicited, some was requested, but I’m so excited for every single thing on this list. There is a very real possibility that I’m going to die under all of these books when they inevitably fall on top of me.

 

Other exciting things

I managed to vlog the week before the MCM Blogger Brunch, although it’s a bit messy and I didn’t manage to actually finish the book I was trying to finish, and I had a blast doing it! If you want to hear more about the event, check out my video here.

My sister and I have been interviewing up a storm for our podcast! We’ve had loads of special guests — including amazing romance author Alyssa Cole and my very own Scottish Husband — so check them out! We’ve got loads of new episodes and interviews coming up (including one I’m screaming about internally — you’ll know when you see who it is), so don’t forget to subscribe!

 

That’s it for this incredibly long wrap-up post! What did you get up to in the month of May? Did you read any great books? Any any new ones to your TBR? Let me know!