what i read in may.

already declaring my favorite summer read

I didn’t read nearly as much as I had wanted to this month because of the traveling, which you would think would give me plenty of time to read, but I was actually fairly busy with my parents! By the end of the day, I was so exhausted that I would often go to bed without reading. On the plane ride to and from, I somehow was able to sleep a majority of it so I didn’t have that much time to read on the plane either.

Anyway, here’s what I was able to read this month!

• What If I Never Get Over You by Paige Toon - I have read several of Paige’s books and I have loved them so much, and I was SO excited that she had this new release. Unfortunately, this wasn’t as good as her other ones. Half the time it takes place in Portugal and I so appreciated the author’s descriptive writing. I felt as if I was actually there in Portugal. The main characters are Ellie and Ash and they met in Lisbon, spent 3 days together, went their separate ways, and reconnected 6 years later. At first the book was really captivating and it was a one-of-a-kind love story but then it started to go downhill with the reconnection and storyline. It felt very juvenile and it was hard to connect with Ellie and Ash. I dislike books where the MCs don’t know what they want and continually get themselves in situations where they STILL don’t know what they want, lol…like c’mon, make decisions here!

• One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune - summer reading just started but I have already declared One Golden Summer my favorite summer read, haha…Carley slammed it out of the park with this one as a sequel to Every Summer After (which is one of my favorite books and I have both digital and physical copies of; that’s how you know it’s a favorite of mine). I absolutely LOVED Every Summer After and One Golden Summer did not disappoint. One Golden Summer follows Charlie and Alice. Charlie is brother to Sam, who is the MMC in Every Summer After. I was so happy to see how the books were intertwined and the revisiting of the characters. Again, this book, like ESA, invoked all the lake feels. Carley has a way of writing where it makes you feel as if you’re actually on the lake and living the summer lake life. It’s so dreamy and perfect.

• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall - umm so there were several people I follow that raved about this book and the synopsis of the book drew me in. Romance + thriller/mystery? Count me in. Except it was neither of those and just so…terrible. The author touched the surface with the overall tragedy of the book but there was a lack of depth and a lack of thrill. Sadly, again, it was one of those books where I kept reading and reading in HOPES that it would get better but it never did and I felt like it was such a waste of time. I was definitely disappointed by the end and should’ve stopped reading after 60% through and wondering when we were going to get to the point.

• Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry - yikes. A book I had to DNF. I actually don’t understand the hype for this book at all. The comparisons to ACOTAR and Fourth Wing…I think that’s all just kitchy and ways to lure you into reading it because SoS was definitely neither of those. I was like 30% through and the FMC questioned everything she thought about and they were all traveling through a forest…for forever. It was all very repetitive AND the book was 660 pages long. I honestly couldn’t imagine reading 500+ more pages of this so I had to DNF. Thankfully this was a KU lol

I’m currently reading Annabel Monaghan’s newest release, It’s a Love Story, and I’ll have my thoughts next month!

Would love to know what you read this month or what you’re currently reading!

xx

-Julie

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