May 2019 Reading Wrap-Up

So May was an unfortunate reading month for me … I was quite disappointed in the majority of these reads. But there were definitely a couple winners! If you’d like to read my thoughts, then continue on …

1. Lovely War 5* : Loved this book! This is a romantic historical fiction done beautifully. With an exploration on racism, sexism, love, the travesty of war from both sides of the conflict, and throw in some gods talking in a hotel room! Sounds a mess, but it’s wonderful – read the full review here. 

2. Every Heart A Doorway 3*: I struggle to even classify what type of book this is — YA/horror? I don’t know, but it was really, really creepy and somewhat disturbing. I’m assuming this was the point? Basically it is about a boarding school for teens who have come back from various “fairytale” lands and are struggling to readjust to society. A fabulous concept and I liked that not everyone came back from a happy fairytale land, many came back from twisted, dark and disturbing places. These kids struggle to identify, struggle to function in a world they don’t belong – which was so poetic and heartbreaking in its metaphoric parallelism to any teen/anyone struggling to matter in a world they don’t fit. But this was graphic, gory, and quite dark. It made me very squeamish at times; it really just wasn’t a style I enjoy. I can handle some gore, I like dark & twisted … but this went a bit too far. Hence the 3 stars.

3. Ship of Smoke & Steel 2*: I loathed this book and you can read why here. Enough said!

4. Finale 4*: So if we are being technical I gave it a 3.5* but rounded up to 4 because I liked the series as a whole. It’s a satisfying end to the series albeit with some snagging issues (pacing, page padding, and love triangles) but overall just fun! Full review here.

5. Wicked Saints 3.5*: I loved it, I didn’t love it and you can read why here. It is excellently dark, gothic, bloody, and magical; asking fantastic questions about our beliefs and power we place in the hands of religious systems … but those magical & religious systems were often confusing, the pacing all over the place, with an underwhelming romance.

6. Illuminae 5*: I’m probably the only person who hadn’t read this excellent piece of science fiction. I assumed the writing style wouldn’t be for me and would be a challenge to read – it wasn’t. I flew through this book! You have romance, you have intergalactic battles/war, a creepy artificial intelligence that has gone murderous (but somehow I still liked him??) and zombies. It was fantastic. Obviously.

7. The Belles: The Everlasting Rose 2*: Likely will be one of my biggest disappointments of 2019. I loved, loved, loved The Belles last year (review here), but basically this just didn’t even feel like it was written by the same author! It was a mess of under explored plots, rushed writing that just went nowhere with nothing new being expanded upon. Overall a waste of time. Full review here. 

8. The Age of Light 3*: This just wasn’t the book for me – it is overly descriptive with languorous writing that doesn’t further the plot, highly sexual, trigger warnings galore, and requires a heavy appreciation of art/art history. Full review here.

9. The Silent Patient 2.5*: A fast paced psychological thriller – however I took great issue to its treatment of mental health issues and ended up quite disgusted by it. Full thoughts on this here. 

10. Two Dark Reigns: Review coming soon!