It is May *checks date* 25th and I’m already working on my wrap-up, whaaat? After feeling pretty crappy for a few days, I felt a burst of motivation to work on reviews and blog posts so here I am, trying to make the most of that. But rest assured, I still have some reading and reviewing I’ll be doing for the next week before this actually gets posted and will make sure to add everything in.
Looking back on my May TBR, of course there are books I didn’t get to, otherwise it wouldn’t be me we’re talking about right now, but overall I’m pretty satisfied with how this month went. I put some books on hold because they wouldn’t have counted for the readathon I was participating in but I’ll be continuing with those in June for sure.
SPSFC
SPSFC has reached its final round. We have selected seven books to be read and judged against each other until we find one winner. The Wayward Stars have already read Those Left Behind and Night Music. I personally have already read The Last Gifts of the Universe, though I am considering rereading for this round in order to get an exact score out of 10 rather than the 5 star system I was using before. During May though, I managed to read two more finalists, Melody and Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days. One of those worked better for me than the other but even the one that isn’t really my style managed to surprise me here and there. Author Drew Melbourne wrote a fantastic guest post for us as well. I also posted my reviews for Lightblade and Debunked.
SPFBO
As I recently announced on my SPFBO Intro Post, I joined the Before We Go Blog team for this year’s competition. We have received our 30 books for the slush pile and have begun working our way through. I don’t know exactly which ones I’ll be reading yet. It’s more of a choose as you go style this time so you’ll just see them in my wrap ups usually. The reviews will be posted at a later time on the BWGB site but I’ll make sure to link them back here whenever they are done. This month, I managed to read two already, which are The Bachelor’s Valet and Danu’s Curse. Without going into too much detail, I do think I had a good start and am looking forward to reading more of our selection!
New Release
Sadly I did have a book that I wasn’t able to read before it’s pub day as planned but I did post a spotlight for it the day of. Congratulations to Benjamin Aeveryn on publishing Salt in the Wound in May! It comes highly recommended from my favorite editor Sarah Chorn so I will definitely be reading it once I have some room in my schedule again!
Blog Tours
I also participated in two blog tours again. Grave Danger is a delightful necromancer/vampire romance series that I was happy to read and review on my blog. The author Alice James is a really nice person and I always enjoy interacting with her.
Like Sapphire Blue by Marisa Billions was a last minute addition so I haven’t been able to read that yet. It has an interesting blurb though so make sure to check out that spotlight as well!
Audiobooks
They Never Learn was a recommendation by another reader and Speak No Evil was an unexpected addition in order to hit another readathon prompt. While neither was exactly a favorite, they both were interesting in their own ways and a good way to shake up the SFF reading.
The Bone Shard Daughter was a reread (or rather listen) so that I can finally continue and finish this series that I’ve been planning on reading for so long. The library really came through but also getting me the audio for The Bone Shard Emperor immediately after.
Review Copies
Gregory Kontaxis, the author of Return of the Knights, was kind enough to send me a copy of his book to read and review. Surprising no one, I didn’t have a review ready right on pub day but I did finish the book soon after and have since updated my spotlight post to include the review as well.
The Blighted Stars by Megan O’Keefe blew me away! Thank you to Orbit for this one also and I am so glad I decided to read it in time for its release! Despite a bit of a slow start, this ended up blowing my mind and is easily one of my favorite reads this year!
The Bone Shard Emperor has been on my TBR for a long time now. I’m finally working through some of my backlog. I didn’t love this one quite as much as the first book but I’m still excited to continue on with the last book. I finished this on the last day of the month and am working on the review for it.
Recommended by…
Whispers from Before was a total impulse buy when it was on sale on Amazon. I just couldn’t resist that cute cover. Author K.E. Andrews, whose book Hills of Heather and Bone I’m excited to read soon, recommended it and I’m glad I trusted her with this. I can be rather picky with short stories but this collection worked really well for me!
How to Keep House While Drowning was recommended to me by my therapist and o highly recommend it to just about anybody that sometimes struggles with taking care of themselves or their house! I love the author’s no nonsense attitude and how she specifically addresses issues experienced by neurodiverse people and people struggling with mental health. This really changed the way I look at these things in my life and has already helped me adjust some of the things I do at home to work better for us as a family.
Blog Post Round-Up
May was a more active month for me again with regular spotlights and reviews, and I’m hoping to keep up the momentum. Here are the posts that haven’t been mentioned yet above:
– The Bibliobebe’s April Highlights
– My April Wrap-Up
– My April Acquisitions
– Finally my review for Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
Mini Reviews
Down Below Beyond by T.A. Bruno
I had the absolute pleasure of proofreading Down Below Beyond this month and highly recommend you add that to your TBR. I had so much fun with these characters, laughed out loud and teared up a couple of times, and cannot wait to see what more this author has in store for us in the future!
Gold, Lock and Key by E.J. Doble
Despite having some very intriguing components, the writing and narrative style of this short story didn’t quite work for me. The reveal of why these things were happening also wasn’t as satisfying as I would’ve liked. It felt only halfway done. I have heard amazing things about The Fangs of War though so I’m looking forward to trying that hopefully this year.
The Shaggy Shepherd 