Hello, hello! I hope you’re all having a brilliant May so far. I’m slightly earlier this month with my wrap up and April ended up being a pretty good reading month for me, despite me nearly falling into one of the dreaded reading slumps, but thanks to finding a new favourite, non fantasy, series and a few gems in my favourite genre, it ended up as a pretty great month overall.

None reading wise we took my 6 month old Nephew to the Zoo which was super cute, he wasn’t great at paying attention to the animals unless they moved lol, but nearly all of the animals were out and about so it was a great day. I also went to watch The Bodyguard the musical which was a little different to the movie, but still super fun and all the songs just made me want to get up and dance!

Reading Update!

Yep, you read that right! I’m half way through my yearly reading goal already which I am so pleased with. I managed to read 13 books last month, not all of them were on my TBR mind but that’s still a pretty impressive number for me, so I’m going to take the win! Now to find out all the hits and misses.

Monthly Reads

I didn’t actually rate this anything because it was a DNF for me. I found the worldbuilding just so dense and overwhelming which is a shame because I loved the characters. I’m still going to give the murderbot series a go though because I’ve heard it’s vastly different from this.

Damsel by Evelyn Skye

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

Finlay Donovan Knocks Em Dead by Elle Cosimano

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Finlay Donovan is Killing it by Elle Cosimano

The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Favourite Quotes!

“She read paperbacks too, one after the next like she was chain-smoking—romance, science fiction, old pulp fantasy. All she wanted to do was sit, unbothered in a circle of lamplight, and live someone else’s life.” – Hell Bent

“Sometimes I’m afraid to love other people. Everyone I care about eventually leaves me, whether it’s death or war or simply because they don’t want me. They go places I can’t find, places I can’t reach. And I’m not afraid to be alone, but I’m tired of being the one left behind. I’m tired of having to rearrange my life after the people within it depart, as if I’m a puzzle and I’m now missing pieces and I will never feel that pure sense of completion again.” -Divine Rivals.

“Toadling Sighed. She did not know how to fight a story. She had learned so many from the greenteeth and later from Master Gourami, but no one had taught her how to stop one.” – Thornhedge.

“So the oracle I saw isn’t the original one, but the eighth man in line in reincarnation?’ ‘Two of the oracles were women.’ ‘If all eight were women, we wouldn’t be in this mess,’ she muttered.” – The Art of Prophecy

Posts I’ve Enjoyed!

Etta over at Chonky Books wrote a brilliant post spotlighting 10 May releases she was excited for!

Georgia at Lost in Neverland wrote a glowing 5* review for Happy Place by Emily Henry reminding me I need to get my hands on a copy asap.

Susan brilliantly summed up our buddy read thoughts with her review for The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox.

Yesha at Books Teacup and Reviews wrote a brilliant review for Damsel by Evelyn Skye, a book we buddy read and both found a few issues with.

Shazzie at reader@work wrote a brilliant discussion post talking about star ratings in reviews.