firewhiskeyreader

This month we’re just doing a Wrap Up because my TBR is, um, well, beyond being out of control, also involves me trying to participate in entirely too many readathons so it needs a separate post. May was, ironically perhaps, a really not great mental health month for me. I did read a lot though. I also got strep throat for the first time in years and that was not a fun time. Also, I’ve more or less decided that star ratings aren’t really working for me so this month I’m going to try a forced ranking so you can sort of guesstimate my star rating that way. Please feel free to share your opinion on this format because I’m not sure about it! We’ll do the same way I do for my quarterly posts and start with the worst and go up to the best. So let’s get started!

Of these nine books, which are paired together because in hindsight they give me feelings that range from meh (but would still recommend) to ugh (would not really recommend), only three fall into the latter category (Happy Endings, The House on the Hill, and The Dating Playbook), while the other six are all books that I enjoyed fine, but they weren’t books that had me super hyped to get back to them (with the exception of the first third to half of The Bride Goes Rogue). I have ARC Reviews of Happy Endings, The Dating Playbook, See You Yesterday, and The Bride Goes Rogue.

These fourteen books represent books that I would definitely say are good and I would mostly recommend them, with certain caveats for different people. For example, The House on the Cerulean Sea was inspired by the really awful residential schools White people in the U.S. and Canada put Indigenous children into and cut them off form their culture for assimilation. It was not Klune’s story to really write and if I hadn’t already owned the book, I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Or Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez, which has a plot line that I just don’t know should work, but for some reason did for me? But is it harmful? Maybe? Probably? The female main character in the book thinks she has ALS, but will not get tested to find out for sure (which is her choice and a valid one, but… let’s just say that maybe the HEA at the end and the way it comes about might seem to fly in the face of people who actually do have life-threatening or terminal illness). Or Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark, which is… like, candy, but not necessarily a book I would recommend if you want a healthy looking relationship. But mostly, these books are ones that I had a real good time reading. I have ARC Reviews of Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour and How to Fake It In Hollywood if you’re curious about either of those books in particular.

And this final set are books that I really enjoyed and would read again. I would recommend them and have ARC reviews of A Rip Through Time, Book Lovers, Everything for You, and You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.

Statistics

Total Books Read: 33
Most Read Genre: Contemporary Romance (16)
Source: Owned 12, Hauled 7, Borrowed 8 (10 ARCs total)
Format: Physical 1, Ebooks 8, Audiobooks 24
Re-Reads: 1

My Posts This Month

• April Wrap Up and May TBR
• Ranking the 2022 Releases I Read in Q1
• Most Anticipated Reads of Summer
• Let’s Talk: Heavier Topics and Romance Novels
• #SpringIntoLoveBingo Wrap Up
• ARC Reviews: Kiss Hard, Everything for You, Book Lovers
• ARC Reviews: Yerba Buena, A Rip Through Time, and See You Yesterday
• ARC Reviews: The Bride Goes Rogue, How to Fake It in Hollywood, and You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
• Backlist Reviews: The Dating Playbook, Happy Endings, and The Heart Principle

Posts from Around the Internet I’ve Enjoyed

• Reading the Rainbow challenge from #ButDoTheyBang
• Wendy’s Unusual Historicals Post that I love and this month had a lot of goodies in it.
• Nick knocked her pairings skills out of the park with this gorgeous post pairing romance books and Indian couture.
• Speaking of Nick, I also really loved her post about Romance Novels That Define [Her].
• I really enjoyed Katie Golding’s post on Breaking Up with Third Act Break-Ups. I’ve written about the topic before and while I do love angst (sometimes), I just really feel like a lot of times third act break-ups are done too poorly and don’t serve the purpose the author thinks they are. So I appreciated the way Golding broke them down in this post.

So how was your May? What are you looking forward to in June? Please feel free to point me in the direction of other great posts I missed this month. I’m sure there were many because honestly, I just wasn’t as online as I usually am. Or I was, but not in the usual way. Anyway, here’s hoping we all have a good June! It is Pride Month after all and we all deserve a good one.

xx