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May was a great reading month! I read a whopping 14 books and I mean that in a good way this time. I also think I’ve become an audiobook fan!
I really liked almost everything I read in May. Everything got 4 or 5 stars and only one got less at 2 stars. I wasn’t that surprised by that one though (I’m on the fence about Ruth Ware).
Of the 14 books I read in May, I listened to 6 of them which is wild! It usually takes me forever to get through just one.
I’ve also been big on horror lately. I’ve wanted to read more of it for quite a while and finally am. My momentum has slowed a little in June but I’m still doing good. Here is everything I read in May!
- Thrift Books is one of the places I check when I’m looking for a book (old ones especially) and want it cheap. It’s great if you like buying used books. With this you can get a free book after spending $30!
- Pango is one of my go-to’s for finding secondhand books affordably, sold by other readers! If you’re a new user, you can use HEYIMREADING at checkout for $5 off your first $10 purchase! Check out Pango Books here!
- Libro.fm is the best for buying audiobooks AND supporting your local bookstore. Use code SWITCH to get two free credits (three total) when you sign up for a one-credit membership! Sign up for Libro.fm here!
- If you want to listen to some of these, consider trying Audible! You can get your first month free (one free book). Get that Audible deal here.
- If you want to read more on your Kindle but don’t want to buy books, Kindle Unlimited is a good option, especially if you read a lot of indie authors. Get Kindle Unlimited here!
- Shop my book lists here! You can find every book list I have on Bookshop.org (except my monthly round-ups) and I add everything I can but they occasionally won’t have some. I do occasionally add extras though. If any lists are empty, they’ll be filled in..eventually! Shop my bookshop.org book lists here.
These Silent Woods
Author: Kimi Cunningham Grant
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 5/5
About the book: This is another one I would love to read! Cooper and his young daughter Finch have lived isolated in his cabin in the northern Appalachian woods for eight years. It’s exactly how he wants it because he has a lot to hide.
Scotland, a local hermit, and Jake, Cooper’s old friend, are the only two people who know they exist. Every winter Jake visits to bring supplies but this year he didn’t show up which set off an irreversible chain of events showing how precarious their position really is.
The boundaries of their safe haven are blurred when one day, a stranger wanders into their woods. Finch develops an obsession with the stranger that could put them all in danger and Cooper is forced to face the sins of his past to keep them safe.
Final thoughts: I wouldn’t consider this a thriller, really, but more suspense? Not quite mystery either. It’s more about family and it’s absolutely wonderful. I’ve wanted to read this for years, since I first saw it and barely knew what it was about, and it was worth the wait.
Love and Olives
Author: Jenna Evans Welch
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: 5/5
About the book: Liv Varanakis doesn’t have many fond memories of her father, but that’s because he fled to Greece when she was only eight. She does remember a shared love of Greek Myths and the lost city of Atlantis, though so when she receives a postcard from him to come out and help with a documentary on his theories on Atlantis, she jumps at the chance.
Once she gets there though, things are a little awkward. It is the first time she’s seen her father in years, after all. She doesn’t want their past to ruin their future, and she certainly doesn’t want his production assistant Theo to see her struggle so that means diving headfirst into all Santorini has to offer.
Final thoughts: I knew I would love this and I was right. I loved the other two, too. I really appreciate that this series is a little romance, but not the focus.
They’re mostly about familial relationships and that’s just different. Or maybe just not what I tend to find or choose. Plus, the settings are always wonderful.
Finna (pronounced FEE-nuh)
Author: Nino Cipri
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 4/5
About the book: It’s just another day at LitenVärld, the Swedish furniture store, when an elderly woman vanishes into a portal to another dimension.
It’s up to Jules and Ava, two minimum wage employees and exes, to track her down and protect the company’s bottom line. They face carnivorous furniture and a deep resentment between them.
Final thoughts: This was so fun! It’s weird and right up my alley. The whole idea of this is hilarious to me and I need more things like this in my life (Horrorstor is on my TBR). I listened to this one and I just really enjoyed it.
Defekt
Author: Nino Ciipri
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Derek is LitenVärld’s most loyal employee but this is called into question when he takes a sick day. An employee like him, made to work at LitenVärld shouldn’t need time off.
To test his commitment to the job, he is assigned to the inventory team which is made up of four strangers who look and sound exactly like him, who has to search the store for defective products like mutant toilets and toy chests with eye stalks.
Final thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, too. It was really fun and interesting getting to see this world from another perspective, the LitenVärld perspective kind of. This is just such a fun world to me, I was glad I got to hear more of it.
Maiden Voyage
Author: Tania Aebi
Genre: Adventure travel
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Tania was eighteen, living in New York with no big plans. But then her father gave her a choice: a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop. She chose the boat with the caveat of having to sail it around the world. Alone.
It was her home for the next two years and 27,000 miles with just her cat as a companion. What started as just an adventure became a spiritual quest.
Final thoughts: I really liked this one. This is another one I listened to (I’m on a roll!) and it’s got me in a nonfiction adventure mood now. It was an interesting read and I love that she sailed around the world with a cat. Three actually but not all at once. I’m a cat lady now.
I See London, I See France
Author: Sarah Mylnowski
Genre: YA romance
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Sydney is 19 and has the perfect summer in Europe all planned out: four and a half weeks traveling with her childhood best friend Leela.
Their plans include the Eiffel Tower, too much gelato, and making out with strangers.
What they don’t include is Leela’s cheating ex-boyfriend showing up on their flight, falling for his hot friend, monitoring her mother’s spiraling mental health via text or feeling like the rope in a friendship tug-of-war.
Final thoughts: This is perfectly fun for exactly what it is. I didn’t expect anything ground-breaking but it fits my love for the extremely specific genre of YA romance set on vacation in Europe. Big fan, can’t wait to read her other books now!
Zero Days
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 2/5
About the book: Jack and her husband Gabe are hired to break into buildings and hack security systems; they’re the best in the business. But after a routine job, Jack gets home to find Gabe dead and she is the number one suspect.
On the run and out of options, she must decide who she can trust to find the real killer.
Final thoughts: I had very high hopes for this since it is so different than other Ruth Ware books which tend to be underwhelming for me. I like the idea of it a lot, it’s interesting, but I guessed the bad guy pretty fast. And I was right and that’s revealed at like 65% and then that’s basically it?
The reveal was boring, I was over her festering wound quickly, and Jack just didn’t do it for me. I know she probably had blinders on but it was pretty obvious what was happening as she was on the move.
And I actually burst out laughing when she was in the middle of a very serious exchange with a guy from the dark web near the end where she put her finger in her mouth, ring and all while deciding what to do and thinking of her dead husband. It was just such a weird mental image, I had to stop and read that part to my boyfriend with the context it was so weird.
Thank you for the ARC, Net Galley.
We Need to Do Something
Author: Max Booth III
Genre: Horror
Rating: 4/5
About the book: A tornado warning lands a family trapped in their bathroom on the verge of self-destruction as things spiral out of control.
Final thoughts: Weird as heck. Big fan.
24 Hours in Nowhere
Author: Dusti Bowling
Genre: Middle-grade adventure
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Nowhere, Arizona, the least liveable town in the US and the home of Gus who dreams of getting out, Bo, the baddest bully in town, and Rossi,one of the best racers around. One day Bo tries to make Gus eat a spiny cactus when Rossi comes too the rescue but in return, Bo gets her bike.
To get it back, Gus has to bring him a piece of gold from the Dead Frenchman mine where he finds himself with his old friends Jesse and Matthew, and Rossi on the hunt for treasure.
Final thoughts: The Goonies but make it desert.
Be Not Far From Me
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Ashley knows the world is not tame and finds out people aren’t either when she goes camping with her friends and finds her boyfriend with his ex. She storms off in a drunken rage and falls into a ravine.
In the morning she realizes she’s far off the trail and alone with nothing but what she’s wearing, which doesn’t even include shoes. She has to figure out how too survive with the threat of infection creeping up her leg.
Final thoughts: I really enjoyed this. I need to get better at sharing my positive thoughts and reviews. This isn’t an all-time fave or anything but I liked it for what it is. **MINOR BUT VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW**
I do kind of wish that at the end instead of doing what she is, although that is still good, that she was able to do that before and it left with her setting off on the Appalachian Trail. II think that would have been more satisfying.
Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture
Author: Matt Goulding
Genre: Food travel
Rating: 5/5
About the book: This book about Japanese food will make you feel like you’re there eating your own way though the noodle shops, tempura temples, and tea houses with all the insider advice and 195 color photos.
Matt navigates the intersection between food, history, and culture of Japan making it one of the more comprehensive books about Japanese culinary culture from a western perspective.
Final thoughts: SO GOOD. I listened to this and absolutely loved it. I’m set on going to Japan as soon as I possibly can and listening to this just made me want to go even more. I wouldn’t consider myself a foodie in any way but man did this make me want to eat.
Say Yes Summer
Author: Lindsey Roth Culli
Genre: YA contemporary romance
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Rachel has spent most of high school saying no as she works her way too the top of her class, but now that she’s graduated it’s time for the summer of Yes as she has new experiences and rekindles old friendships.
Final thoughts: This was a cute, fun book and I really enjoyed it. This is the perfect fun summer YA romance. It have no deep thoughts, I just liked it.
Dear Laura
Author: Gemma Amor
Genre: Horror novella
Rating: 4/5
About the book: Every year on her birthday, Laura gets a letter from a stranger who claims to know the whereabouts of her missing friend Bobby. But he’ll only share what he knows for something of hers in return.
Her quest for closure leads her too bizarre acts of harm and humiliation with no escape from he demands of her correspondent. The letter’s don’t stop and have a profound effect on her.
Final thoughts: While this didn’t get me quite like Penpal, this is the closest thing I’ve found to it that isn’t on Reddit! I almost didn’t read this one but I’m so glad I did.
I listened to this one while I was watering trees and was definitely making faces the whole time. It’s I don’t want to say gross because it’s not gorey but it’s gross in an inappropriate way.
One Girl One Dream
Author: Laura Dekker
Genre: Adventure memoir
Rating: 4/5
About the book: This is the youngest sailor to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe. Not only did she face the seas on her own, but also doubts and hostile resistance from officials.
This is her story of what it was like sailing around the world alone, which is so unbelievably impressive to me!
Final thoughts: I enjoyed this one a lot! The writing is pretty simple and there are some sailing terms I just don’t know but was able to make a good enough guess given context.
This is definitely worth reading if you like books about sailing, especially about sailing alone and sailing at a young age.
Have you read any of these? Which ones? What did you read in May?
