This was objectively a bit of a tough reading month. So far this year, my average rating is 3.99 – just a hair below my “I really liked it” rating. However, this month only earned an average rating of 3.38 – between “I liked it” and “I really liked it.” So, for the most part, the reading was good, but maybe not particularly memorable or impactful long-term.

TBR Reads

My official May TBR consisted of 3 books. Of those, I have read all 3:

I read 3 of the 21 bonus TBR books.

Final Result after TBR pruning was that I read 3/3 (100%) of my planned books and 14% of my bonus books. I’m really excited about that 100%! And I beat my bonus book percentage from last month! I was happy to have also completed both of the books for Clint’s book clubs, although I’m not super excited to continue the After the Pulse series.

Random Reads

My non-planned reads include:

If All Else Sails is a super-cute enemies-to-lovers romance. Josie’s brother is the golden child of their family and maybe a bit self-absorbed. She’s used to going along with whatever he has planned for their vacations together – after all, it’s usually the only time she can tear him away from his busy life as a sports agent. But when she arrives at a derelict murder cottage and her brother’s nowhere in sight…. All Wyatt wants to do is hide away from the world in his recently deceased uncle’s cottage and reminisce about the fun times they used to have here while he recovers from a hockey injury. His peace is interrupted by what seems to be paparazzi, so he calls the police to the property. The cops toss Josie in the back of their sweltering cruiser and forget about her while they are trying to get autographs from Wyatt. When Wyatt realizes that Josie is his best friend and agent’s sister, and not a paparazzo, he has the cops remove her from the squad car…. a little too late, as she can barely glare in his direction before passing out from the heat. The beginning of this story was delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the story.

Katie is facing unemployment in The Love Haters. Her job as a video producer is on the line as the new owner is making radical cuts to the staff. A coworker pushes her to take a job profiling Tom, a Coast Guard SAR swimmer who went viral recently for saving a celebrity’s dog. She needs to save her job, so she agrees – even though she cannot swim. She is set up to stay at her coworker’s Aunt Rue’s house, without knowing that her coworker and Tom are estranged brothers. Her entire time in the Keys is one comedy of errors after another, and a truly fun story to read.

Navy Brat was originally written in 1991 and it really shows its age. The FMC works for a woman-empowerment non-profit and that hard feminism flag-waving clashed with the MMC’s heavy-handedness. There were so many red flags. She stated clearly and repeatedly from day one that she didn’t want a military lifestyle and didn’t want to date him and he chased her (literally) and harassed her until she relented. At one point, she said repeatedly that she didn’t want to kiss him and he was like, well, then I’ll just kiss you anyway. Her dad calling her a fool because she didn’t give in to this guy. Just horrible. I didn’t find it sweet at all. But I guess we are just a different society with different values 35 years later. Would not recommend.

In The Little Cafe at the End of the Pier, Jo’s grandparents ask her to leave her job to move back home and start taking over the family cafe. As she reacclimates to small town life, she gets invested in her customer’s love lives and starts serving up some matchmaking along with the coffee and scones. It was kind of cute, but with so many characters and only a little bit of time with each couple, I found it difficult to become invested and ended up skimming through most of the book. It hit solidly between “It’s OK” and “I liked it.”

My Thoughts on This Month’s Reading

May was a bit of an odd reading month. The first full week was dedicated to a work trip to Las Vegas, so I didn’t get a ton of reading done and didn’t finish any books. The middle of the month was where I read my “Official TBR” books. And then came my favorite part of the month: May 25-31, with the Books Ahoy! Readathon created by my friend, Monica! I absolutely adored the theme, Navy girl as I am, and was onboard faster than you could say “Anchors Aweigh!” So while some of the books capsized and sunk to the bottom of the ocean, others were glittering marvels of nautical prose.

Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.

1. The Inadequate Heir (⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
2. Resistance (⭐⭐1/4) by Mark Tufo – Review
3. Everybody’s Favorite Guy (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Katherine Center – Review
4. Love Overboard (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Kandi Steiner – Review
5. Two Lives with You (⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Lauren Ho – Review
6. If All Else Sails (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Emma St. Clair – Review
7. The Love Haters (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Katherine Center – Review
8. Navy Brat (⭐⭐) by Debbie Macomber – Review
9. The Little Cafe at the End of the Pier (⭐⭐1/2) by Helen Rolfe – Review
10. Return to Me (⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Kelly Moran – Review

Overall, I feel that I read less this month, but I also have been very distracted with playing Pokemon Pokopia (LOVE this game!) and I officially returned to work after my medical leave, both of these meant that I had less time for reading. I’m not mad at it. I think that I’ve enjoyed the books that I did read fairly well.

TBR Reads

My official April TBR consisted of 6 books. Of those, I have read all 6:

I read 1 of the 14 bonus TBR books.

Final Result after TBR pruning was that I read 6/6 (100%) of my planned books and 7% of my bonus books. I’m really excited about that 100%! I even managed to read both of Clint’s book club selections this month!

Random Reads

My non-planned reads include:

Ruin Me is the first book in a series about a set of brothers who run…. an underground betting business? It’s more than just a fighting ring, although that is mostly how Jagger participates in the brothers’ endeavors. They do also run other contest-like events that people can enter to win prizes and others can attend for the spectacle and to place bets on contestant standings. Jagger and his siblings live in a wealthy neighborhood and are children of a difficult, remote, but successful father. Violet is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks whose father has a gambling addiction and a penchant for violence and thievery, especially when it comes to Violet herself. Living conditions at home being unbearable, and losing hope to escape her situation after her father steals her down payment for an apartment, Violet reluctantly enters one of the brothers’ events to try and win some prize money. Butting heads at every turn, will these two ever reconcile enough to build a relationship?

Books Read

While I still feel that I’m in a Romance Era, there were some new twists added to the mix. I think that Star Shipped is my first M-M romance and I really enjoyed the book club discussion that we had at Love & Other Books (even though most people there didn’t feel that the book was a highlight of their monthly reading). A dystopian and a fantasy were completed, and I enjoyed my time there, too. Next month, we will be reading the sequel to Reset and the third book in The Bridge Kingdom series (The Traitor Queen was Book 2).

Links to my reviews (on StoryGraph) of each of the books read this month are below, along with my star rating.

1. The Girlfriend Zone (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Lauren Blakely – Review
2. Lift Me Up (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Milly Johnson- Review
3. Ruin Me (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Kelsie Rae – Review
4. Tenor Willits Gets the Yips (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Olivia Hope McCarthy – Review
5. Star Shipped (⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Cat Sebastian – Review
6. Reset (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Mark Tufo – Review
7. The Traitor Queen (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
8. Sunk in Love (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Heather McBreen – Review

TBR Reads

My official March TBR consisted of 9 books. Of those, I have read 5:

I read 2 of the 6 bonus TBR books.

Of the books I planned to read, but did not, 2 of them I do not yet own, so in the last week of February I officially took them off the TBR list and noted them as bonus books (in case I managed to buy them and read them before the end of the month):

Final result after TBR pruning was that I read 5/7 (71%) of my planned books and 29% of my bonus books. Pretty good for a mood reader!

Random Reads

March has been focused on my surgery and post-op recovery time. I had expected that my reading would be through the roof … except … Donald bought me a Switch 2 and Pokémon Pokopia and I spent the month beating the game. #noragrets

My non-planned reads include:

The Midnight Meet-Up has been sitting on my Kindle Unlimited shelf for a very long time and I finally took the chance and started reading it. (Aside: I seem to be enjoying having a physical book I’m reading, one on Kindle, and one audiobook – then I just switch stories depending on what mode of reading I want to do.) This was a very quiet and understated romance that felt low stakes – it was fine, but I wanted more passion.

No Place Like You has been on my To Read list since I read the first book in the series, Give Me Butterflies. This follows the sister’s story. Fable was a golden girl in high school, honing herself against her best friend-turned-rival, Theo. However, after high school, she lost her edge and has been drifting from job to job trying to find herself and her way in life. After the death of her grandfather, she’s living in his house and trying to restore it to honor him. Theo left their small town, but is back and is interested in buying half of the veterinary practice when his boss retires. His boss is uncertain about him, since he left town once and he wants the practice to go to someone who will stay. Theo, who has always had feelings for Fable, wants to fake date her to establish roots in the community (since her family is considered a pillar of the community) and despite her best efforts, Fable really does need someone to help her with the house. There is something cozy about Jillian Meadows’s writing that I love. It sucks me into the story and feels like a warm hug, even when the main characters are facing conflict.

This must be the month for series and sequels. I finally finished Only in Your Dreams this month, and immediately dived into the rest of the series. In Only in Your Dreams, the FMC fake dates Brooks, to hide the fact that she’s secretly seeing Zac, her brother’s best friend, who has been declared to be off-limits to her by her twin brother, Parker. Only Between Us picks up with Brooks and Siena’s story. This is also a fake-dating troupe. Brooks had his NFL career sidelined after a severe concussion and went wild for a bit, which was covered by all kinds of unsavory media posts – just the kind of publicity that his NFL team doesn’t want. Siena became a viral internet darling after dating another NFL player, so having a stable relationship with her would prove himself to have the family-friendly values that his dream NFL team prefers. Fake-dating Brooks gives Siena more internet buzz and more sponsorships, which will help her continue to run her recently passed father’s business and support her mother. Their banter was really cute (At one point, she renames his contact in her phone from ‘Attwood’ to ‘Brattwood’), but there was a lot of maturity and tenderness to this story as well.

Spark of the Everflame has been one of these books that has been talked about for a while, but I just hadn’t read. I picked it up a while back during an Audible sale and finally started listening to it on February 26th, when I had to drive into Ann Arbor for work. It took exactly a month to complete and I thought it was fairly good. Since I listen usually only when I drive, or if I’m doing a lot of meal prep work in the kitchen, my experience with the story was a bit broken and this probably effected my enjoyment of the world. I think, also, that I retain more of the story (and am more focused on it) if I read visually. This may also contribute to my rating of it. But, I did like it enough to start the sequel, Glow of the Everflame, as soon as I completed this one. In this world, there are mortals, and the magical children of the gods (or gods + mortals?) called the Descended. Diem’s mother had secretly been working at the royal palace as a healer for the royal Descended family, but has gone missing for the past 6 months. Now, the Descended King is dying, and a rebel faction wants Diem to help them fight against the oppressive Descended. Complicating this is Diem’s brother, who is in (young, puppy) love with the Descended Princess and his position as a student in the coveted Descended school could be at stake if her rebel activities are found out. And then there is the Princess’s brother, Luther, the nephew of the ailing King and presumed heir to the throne….

If Only You Knew is the final book in the Oakwood Bay series. This book follows Parker (twin brother of the FMC in Book 1) and Summer (best friend of the FMC in Book 1). This is a friends-to-lovers troupe, where they have been friends for so long and they never allowed themselves to think of themselves in a romantic relationship, that they are having a really hard time realizing that they actually have feelings for each other. Most of the series is a bit spicy, and this one ventures a little into the BDSM space.

Overall, I think I am still in a quick, fluffy romance era. Give me some feel-good attraction, witty banter, and some fun scenes to make me laugh and I am hooked.

Books Read

1. Deep End (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
2. One Golden Summer (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Carley Fortune – Review
3. Just Friends (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Haley Pham – Review
4. The Price of Honey (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Liane Moriarty – Review
5. Off-Limits Love in Shenandoah (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Olivia Hope McCarthy – Review
6. The Midnight Meet-Up (⭐⭐⭐) by Alia Smith – Review
7. The Bridge Kingdom (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Danielle L. Jensen – Review
8. No Place Like You (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Jillian Meadows – Review
9. Only in Your Dreams (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ellie K. Wilde – Review
10. Only Between Us (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Ellie K. Wilde – Review
11. Spark of the Everflame (⭐⭐⭐3/4) by Penn Cole – Review
12. If Only You Knew (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ellie K. Wilde – Review

TBR Reads

My official February TBR consisted of 13 books. Of those, I have read:

I didn’t read any of the 6 bonus TBR books.

Of the books I planned to read, but did not, 3 of them I do not yet own, so in the last week of February I officially took them off the TBR list and noted them as bonus books (in case I managed to buy them and read them before the end of the month):

Final result after TBR pruning was that I read 9/10 of my planned books. I’m pretty happy with a 90% finish!

Random Reads

February is all about Valentine’s Day in my planner, so when I saw that Amazon had a new series of short story romances (The Improbable Meet-Cute: Second Chances series) as part of their Kindle Unlimited lineup, I decided to make my way through the audiobook versions.

More non-planned reads include:

Hot for Slayer, a short story that I saw on Kindle Unlimited. In general, I really like Ali Hazelwood’s books, so I thought that I would like this one as well. However, it deviates from her normal STEM-related romances and it just wasn’t for me. I’m starting to think that short stories in general may not be for me.

My friend, Monica, alerted me to First and Forever, which was being offered as an ARC (advance reader copy) on NetGalley, with an anticipated publication date of May 12. I love the banter that Lynn Painter brings to her novels and she’s quickly becoming a favorite author. This book was no different; I really enjoyed it! A die-hard fan gets canceled for shoving a beloved team mascot down a flight of stairs after he harassed her at a game, and during the media circus that follows, the football team’s management decides the best path forward is to have a star player take her out on a date to improve the team’s optics.

Monica also let us (her Let’s Peanut Butter Taco ‘Bout Books Facebook group) know that Kim Holden had released a new book, Eye for an I. Another of her books, Bright Side, destroyed me; I have never cried so much while reading a book. This new book is in the same world and has cameos by other characters in the Bright Side series. This book follows a girl who has been hired to be the photographer and social media manager for a new brothers/duo band who nabbed an opening act spot on a tour. It reminded me of Mayluna by Kelley NcNeil, which I also gave 5 stars.

Books Read

1. Hot for Slayer (⭐⭐1/2) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
2. Six Crimson Cranes (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Elizabeth Lim – Review
3. Accidentally Yours (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Christina Lauren – Review
4. Time Will Tell (⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Hannah Bonam-Young – Review
5. Second Act Romance (⭐⭐3/4) by Julie Soto – Review
6. Catch Her If You Can (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4) by Tessa Bailey – Review
7. First and Forever (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Lynn Painter – Review
8. Fated Skates (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Victoria Schade – Review
9. Chasing the Ring (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Lauren Rowe – Review
10. A Play for Love (⭐⭐⭐) by Trilina Pucci – Review
11. Death to Valentine’s Day (⭐⭐⭐3/4) by Catherine Cowles – Review
12. Valentine’s Slay (⭐⭐) by Navessa Allen – Review
13. Nuclear War (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Annie Jacobsen – Review
14. Eye for an I (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Kim Holden – Review
15. You & Me and You & Me and You & Me (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees – Review
16. Stolen Midnights (⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2) by Katherine Quinn – Review
17. Two Can Play (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) by Ali Hazelwood – Review
18. Gideon the Ninth (⭐⭐1/2) by Tamsyn Muir – Review