What I Actually Read In May

Okay… my May TBR changed drastically from what I actually read in May- so let’s get into it.

So May is the month I discovered my dream of opening up a small bookstore- which I’m not sure I’ll actually do or have the patience for in my lifetime… but I’m still following a bunch of them on TikTok and I bought some books based off the recommendations of booksellers! So… that’s why things changed a little.

Let’s start with the beginning of the month. I read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover and I loved it! Just take note: pretty much all of Colleen Hoover’s books can be triggering and this one definitely doesn’t seem like it’s going to be super triggering at first… but there are triggers for sure. So be careful with reading her books. I had known about it a little bit and I still found the book enjoyable to read. Colleen Hoover is a great writer and I definitely liked this more than I liked Ugly Love… but there are some parts in her books that I kind of just eyeroll at. After reading this I would revise my review of Ugly Love and give it… 3 stars. This one I think was 5 stars… but yeah.

I also read Book Lovers by Emily Henry- and I have a revision for my People We Meet on Vacation review since I liked this so much. This was 5 stars- not on the same level as Beach Read for me but it was still incredibly cute and overall I just really loved the main characters and the side characters. And the town I really liked… this was super cute. So since I liked this so much I might bump People We Meet on Vacation to 4 stars… i still really liked it but thinking more about it it had its faults! And Book Lovers and especially Beach Read were perfect. I also feel like I need to read Book Lovers again… I was maybe in a weird mood reading it… so I feel like looking back on it… I want to read it again.

Next up is my recommended read from The Dogeared Book on TikTok and Instagram and if you live in Rochester I believe she has a location there… She’s just really funny in her TikToks and seems like a genuine person… so she recommend Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher and I was in the mood for a fantasy… so I picked it up! It’s about a Princess that is actually on a mission to kill the now king and break a curse in order to save her sister. Theres a found family aspect to this book also and I really liked it… but it took me a long time to read and I didn’t feel that connected to the characters. It’s under 300 pages- which I would consider short… but it wasn’t really a quick read for me. Plus it was in third person which I don’t connect to quite as well. So I feel like I’d give it 3.5 stars. I feel like I liked it a little more than that and maybe it’s like 3.9 or 4 stars… but cause I don’t totally think it’s 4 stars and I will basically only give half stars… it’s 3.5.

And then I read Heartstopper Volume 2, 3 and 4 by Alice Oseman which I love and I’d give them all 5 stars. There are some possible triggers in these later volumes especially. Bullying, fear of getting outed, eating disorders and mental health issues, and family problems and homophobia are mentioned… so if those are things that might upset you… read Heartstopper Volume 1 and you could stop there.

I might do a whole post on my Alice Oseman books because they are really hard to find- I ordered these from a small bookstore I found on Tiktok- Second Flight Books. But overall… Alice Oseman books are hard to find so I’ve learned my lesson to buy them when I can!

Alright I think that is everything. I’m currently reading the first book in the Crave series by Tracy Wolff and I like it… but it’s a big book and it’s a bit slow. Imagine if Harry Potter was at Hogwarts and didn’t know he was a wizard yet… that’s what I’m getting and where my frustrations are lol.

I have no idea what I want to read for June... but I might still do a TBR for it. Probably tomorrow… and yeah!

Bye! - Shannon