May 2022 Wrap Up and TBR

Things are feeling more like what it once used to be, which means my weekends are packed with social activities and I hardly have time to do everything I want to with reading and blogging.

I still had a great month of reading, but I’m feeling like I need to cut back sometimes with blogging and the number of cool posts I planned on bringing each month. It’s just all a bit much to keep up with, you know? If you feel the same way, know that you’re not alone in it. I took a blogging hiatus for a while and I remember why I did so when life just got so overwhelming.

That being said, I read a good amount this month and managed to review a number of them. Let’s dig into those, shall we?

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What did I read this month?

Art is poetry: Or at least that’s what I Hope This Finds You Well seems to showcase. It was an interesting take on turning what was meant to be a negative comment to hurt or harm into something that was positive that wasn’t as detrimental. It may not be for everyone, but I liked the concept.

More Memoirs: Nothing like reading about Asian culture and food while cooking dinner. Crying in H Mart wasn’t as heavy or sad as I anticipated but definitely a captivating story – although I still don’t really know who the author is.

Most surprising: This Place is Still Beautiful, I knew, would be harder to digest with its tale of anti-Asian racism, but I was surprised by how well written it was while balancing out the different ways one may respond to being a victim, even within one family. Such a good read especially during API month.

Top genre: With regards to books I really enjoyed, it was a fantasy reading mood this May. A River Enchanted brought the world building spice with its lush descriptions and 4 protagonists to love and empathize in their struggles. I also wouldn’t have known I enjoyed political fantasies without the surprising intrigue in Rise of the Vicious Princess. Kingdom alliances and secret spy networks all play like a chess board with moves unseen. I had a lot of fun anticipating the enemy’s moves.

A little disappointing: With my love of Sarah Adams’ other book, The Off Limits Rules just didn’t do it for me with its lackluster romance and annoying big brother impeding the path to love. On the other side of the spectrum, Cinder & Glass was not my favourite Cinderella retelling when I couldn’t cheer (or believe in) the true love story unfolding.

New guilty pleasure: Judy Corry’s teen romances do read like, well, teen romances but who doesn’t love the enemies-to-lovers or best friends to lovers trope in Meet Me There and Don’t Forget Me, respectively? They were such easy to digest books and made for a wonderful afternoon of reading.

4.5 Drink Me Potions

• Don’t Forget Me by Judy Corry

4 Drink Me Potions

• This Place is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian (review)
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (review by Fives with slightly lower rating)

3.5 Drink Me Potions

• Meet Me There by Judy Corry
• A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross (review)
• Rise of the Vicious Princess by C.J. Redwine (review)
• I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer

2.5 Drink Me Potions

• Cinder & Glass by Melissa de la Cruz (review)
• The Off Limits Rule by Sarah Adams

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Current Reading List

• Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
• The Signs and Wonders of Tuna Rashad by Natasha Deen
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

TBR List

• The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
• The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
• This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

Until next month, my friends.