May in review

Here is me being completely surprised. As you probably know (or can conclude with the little amount of posting I do), I’m in the thick of things as far as work is concerned, what with being days away from the end of the school year and extremely busy trying to wrap everything up with the little ones to make sure that they are ready for next year. Consequently, time to read I have very little… or so I thought. But surprise, surprise! I read 12 books in May!

All right, for this very avid reader, this is an extremely little number. However, for a busy teacher, it is huge! Sure, half of those 12 books were audiobooks, but it’s reading just the same. The others? Three ARCs, two new releases, and a reread.

This said, contrary to what a colleague of mine teasingly tells me, a reading machine I was not. Although if I get to talk to that colleague over the summer, then he’d see what a reading machine is, for that is what I will most definitely do starting at the end of this month. After all, I am so, so late in my reading! Hence, the nearly two months off will help me catch up on books, and on reviews, of course!

My favourite May reads

Let’s start with the new listens, shall we? I listened to the whole of Robyn Peterman’s Good to the Last Death series, and loved every second I devoted to it. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, and I fell in love with Daisy and the gang all over again, only with Jessica Almasy’s voice rather than those in my head.

My complete review

Then again, those were not my only favourites of the month, although all that I’ve read were incredible reads!

You Light Up my Midlife Crisis (Robyn Peterman) – ARC (now released) read

Speaking of the Good to the Last Death series, I devoured the fifth book with so much gusto that I read it twice! Once as an ARC, and once as an audiobook. The latter does not count for May, since I finished it in the middle of the past week, but it is still a read and a reread. And I loved every single moment I devoted to spending time with them all, as always.

It comes as no surprise that I am looking very much forward to the next one!

My complete review

The Gravedigger’s Son (Darynda Jones)

Getting back to the Charley Davidson world is a treat that I will never forego! Although I will be honest: it was way too short!! So much so that after reading The Gravedigger’s Son, a novella telling Amber and Quentin’s story (with both protagonists now all grown up), I was missing them all so much that I’ve started rereading the whole series!

There will be a long review of this novella as soon as I can sit down to write it, I promise. Because I loved it too much!

My Goodreads review (for now)

Act of Surveillance (Mandy M. Roth) – ARC (now released) read

My first read as part of Mandy M. Roth’s review team was the newest PSI-Ops book, featuring bear-shifter Rurik Romanov, and gosh, did I enjoy it! Sure, I’m not that advanced (yet) in the Immortal Ops World books, but the good thing about Mandy’s books is that they can be read as standalones. Sure, there are some inside jokes that you miss, but that’s a minor inconvenient when the book keeps you glued to the pages. Act of Surveillance sure did and the fact that Mandy did delay the release to make sure it was perfect is a great thing because it was perfect!

I owe that book a long review, and worry not, it will come soon.

My Goodreads review (for now)

Other reads worthy of mention

I read another of Christine Gael’s amazing Bluebird Bay books, Finding Redemption, and, as always with that series, I enjoyed every moment of it. There is such a feeling of serenity in those books! And to end May and start June in a wonderful way, I devoured Earth Spells Are Easy, the first book of Renee George’s new Paranormal Women’s Fiction series, Grimoires of a Middle-Aged Witch. From the moment Renee mentioned this upcoming release, I pre-ordered the book and I seriously have zero regrets, to the point where, as soon as the last page was read, I pre-ordered the second!

June in reads

With the craziness that is June for a teacher, knowing what it will bring as a reader is difficult for me to gauge, so I will say that there will definitely be a few ARC reviews coming your way.

The second of Christine Gael’s Lucky Strickland books, Getting Lucky, which has been delayed, should be released on the 18^th, and I will definitely read it the moment I get it! If all goes well, her next Bluebird Bay novel, Starting From Scratch, will be out on the 20^th, which means that my review will come around that time, too.

I am not going further than these two planned ARCs, since I honestly don’t know how my brain will be until the 28^th (which will be my last day of work). Although I do know that around that time, I will receive my ARC copy of K.F. Breene’s next DDVN book, Revealed in Fire, which comes out on the 2^nd of July. And I still owe you all a long review of the whole first eight books of the series before the last trilogy is released.