May marked another month of me working from home, so it meant that I listened to a lot of audiobooks again. However, I also got to read some physical books, and I checked some of the beefier reads off my TBR. Overall, it was a really good reading month and I felt like I really enjoyed a lot of the things that I read. Everything that I read can be found below the cut!
1. A Deeper Love by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I loved the setting of this story, and seeing Jem and Tessa briefly reconnected. It was sad that they couldn’t be completely together but I think that was part of the charm of that story. I had a lot of fun reading this story.
2. The Wicked Ones by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wasserman
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I find it really fascinating in a disturbing sort of way to read about the Circle and how they came to be and what they got into before they were taken down. It was interesting as well to read about Jace’s mother and how she and his father eventually came to be.
3. Son of the Dawn by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I really liked reading about Jace came over to be a part of the Lightwood family. Even as a kid he was very much the same Jace we all fell in love with later on. He’s a little butthead. I enjoyed the teaming up of the shadowhunters and the vampires.
4. The Summer I Drowned by Taylor Hale
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: eBook
Review: I will have a full review of this book coming up on the blog in July, so keep an eye out for that.
5. The Land I Lost by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: Malec is one of my all time favourite ships, and while you don’t see a ton of them in this book, I really enjoyed the glimpses that you do get. Additionally, I really liked hearing about how they adopted their older child. It was cute. The adventure was good as well. I just really love the shadowhunter universe.
6. Through Blood, Through Fire by Robin Wasserman
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I had so much fun reading this novella. I love Tessa and Jem together. They make me really happy. Just all the cute ship feels.
7. The Lost World by Cassandra Clare
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This story was really eerie. I did like the continuation from Queen of Air and Darkness but it made me sad to see how things were for Livvy.
8. Forever Fallen by Cassandra Clare
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This story was so good! I really enjoyed how this picked up after the end of Queen of Air and Darkness since the epilogue of that book killed me and made me want more immediately. I still want more, but this will tide me over for at least a little bit.
9. Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Robin Wasserman, and Maureen Johnson
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: This is definitely my favourite of the Shadowhunter novella collections yet. I really liked how Jem was the carrying thread and that it featured various moments throughout Shadowhunter history. I had a lot of fun reading it.
10. The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was an interesting fantasy world. I picked it up because it was compared to Cassandra Clare’s books, but I think I liked Cassandra Clare’s books a lot better. However, I still had fun listening to the adventure Echo ended up on, and I will be continuing on in the series.
11. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I think this is technically a graphic novel, but I listened to it as an audiobook. It was different, but I had fun listening. It was really short though so I don’t think I got the full picture.
12. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This is probably my favourite memoir that I have listened to. I’m not always a big fan of that genre, but I really like Anna Kendrick as an actress so I found it really interesting to learn about her life and how she got into the profession. It didn’t blow me away or anything but it was definitely worth checking out.
13. Loud Awake and Lost by Adele Griffin
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was an interesting mystery, but it really wasn’t my favourite. I was interested enough to want to keep listening to find out what was going on, but I kind of hated how the people in the main character’s life were keeping things from her. She had a right to know. Yes, that defeats the purpose of the mystery, but still. I did enjoy the unreliable narrator aspect.
14. The Dead and the Gone by Sarah Beth Pfeffer
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was an interesting sequel. I guess it’s sort of more of a spin off because it’s not directly a continuation of the first one. I liked the introduction of Alex as a character and his dynamic with his sisters was really interesting. I did not like the guy who took over Alex’s school because he wasn’t very empathetic with his students and understanding that maybe school isn’t number one after an asteroid has crashed into the moon.
15. Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was a decent conclusion to the series in that it came full circle and combined the plots and characters from the first three books in an interesting way. However, I wasn’t as interested in the romance as it played out. It felt a little bit longer than it needed to be, and I just really wanted to hear more about the murders they were trying to solve.
16. Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This book had a lot going on, and it was definitely a really interesting read. However, I felt like maybe it was trying to do too much all at once? However, overall I had a good time listening to it, and I really liked the characters in the story.
17. This World We Live In by Sarah Beth Pfeffer
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was an interesting continuation of the series. I liked how the characters from the first two ended up being thrust together, and I also really enjoyed the continued diary format as we went back into Miranda’s perspective. However, I wasn’t as keen on the storyline of this one. It seems counter-intuitive for them to have taken in so many people because that would just have been so many more mouths to feed.
18. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I was interested in this one because I’m trying to read more classics. I enjoyed it well enough but it was a little bit hard to follow in the audiobook format. I thought the storyline was interesting. It was really interesting how often it rhymed, because I kept comparing it to Shakespeare and how he didn’t rhyme all that often.
19. The Shadow Hour by Melissa Grey
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I had a lot of fun reading this sequel. It had a lot of action-y moments that I enjoyed listening to. I still don’t think it’s my favourite series, but it’s got some good action and some good romance. It’s a fun read.
20. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: There was so much hype surrounding this book that I wasn’t sure if it would live up to it. I was pretty sure I would like it, but wasn’t 100% sure. In the end, I loved this book. It was so good. I really liked the way that the story came together, and the dual timelines. I wanted to puzzle out what was going to happen, and how the narrator was connected to Evelyn Hugo. I didn’t expect the twist that happened. I highly recommend this.
21. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I love the shadowhunter universe and this was a great addition. It definitely had a bit of a slow start to the novel, but I was invested because I loved the characters from the glimpses I got in various previous novellas that were released. I liked how they interacted with each other and how there was a nice diversity. I’m all about stories about groups of friends and the group in this one was really good. Once the adventure got underway, this book was really hard to put down. I really loved the ending and can’t wait until the next one.
22. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I loved this story. I think I might have liked it even a little bit more than The Hate U Give. I loved the narrator of this book and how ambitious she was. She had a goal and she worked really hard for it. I also really liked how it was set in the same neighbourhood as THUG, and how it referenced the events of the previous book even though it wasn’t a direct sequel. I love when authors build a world like that. The story was just really fantastic. I highly recommend it.
23. Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was a good conclusion to the duology. I liked the adventure included in the series and how Alosa developed as a character. The meeting of her mother was really cool. I also liked the development of the romance in this story. It was very interesting.
24. Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis by Paul B. Janeczko
Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This isn’t my usual kind of book, but it was really informative and interesting. I didn’t know anything about this troop and if you’re at all interested in WWII history, this would be a good book to check out.
25. Sisters Matsumoto by Philip Kan Gotanda
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I really like these full cast productions of plays. This was a really interesting one set post WWII and the Japanese Internment Camps. It was a snapshot look of a family trying to readjust to life outside of the camp and I found it really intriguing. I liked the characters and the story line. There was a lot of depth put into the story in such a short time.
26. Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This was a really interesting audiobook. I liked the two different perspectives of the siblings. I enjoyed their family dynamics, and how the plot got gradually more and more intense. I know that that’s how stories work, but I just really, really liked the way the author developed the story. You could feel the tension. I highly recommend this book.
27. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: This story was really cool. It evoked a really strong reaction from me because I remember yelling at the narrator to do something different. However, I really wouldn’t have changed how it was written and how the story played out. I loved the main character and how real her pain felt. I also liked the second piece that Jennifer Donnelly included of the found journal of the historical figure. The juxtaposition of those two pieces were really well done.
28. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Physical Copy
Review: I’m going to have a full review of this book coming up on the blog at some point because it’s one of my #bestiemademe reads.
29. Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
Rating: 4 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I enjoyed this story, but I have to admit that it isn’t my favourite book that I’ve read by Karin Slaughter. The story was good, and it was mysterious, which was what I was looking for. However, I just don’t think that the quality of the mystery was up to par with some of the other mysteries that Karin Slaughter has written. It wasn’t as shocking as I really wanted it to be.
30. Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Review: I definitely devoured this audiobook! It was such a good read. The story line was really compelling, and I loved the magic system that was included in it. I also enjoyed the way that the romance developed over the course of the story. Hate to love isn’t always my favourite type of romance, but this one was super fun. I felt that it was well written. Audiobook wise, the narrators were great. They really brought the story to life. So here’s another read that I highly recommend.
So that’s everything that I read in May. What did you read? Did we read any of the same things? Let me know in the comments.
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