May Wrap-UP

I had a pretty good reading month for May.  I finished 7 books, most of which were ARCs or books received by authors for review.  I was approved for several ARCs at the last minute in May, so those that I didn't get to this month I'm going to be reading in June.  Lots of good summer reading to be had.  

Books/Ebooks/ARCs

• The Boyfriend Bargain by Ilsa Madden-Mills
• Review
• This is a standalone hockey romance due out May 5th.  It sounded good, so jumped on the chance to read and review it.  Madden-Mills is a new author to me, but I don't think I'll be disappointed.
• In Her Words by J.S. Ellis
• Review
• This is told in diary entries and follows a middle aged woman who has gotten bored with her life.  She drinks and smokes to dull the pain and stresses of her life.  One evening she goes out for a ladies night with her best friend but she has too much to drink and can't remember what happened.  She does a bit of sleuthing to try to find out what happened, but instead she gets much more than she bargained for.  This was interesting.  I didn't really like any of the characters, but still found the story compelling.
• The Friar's Lantern by Greg Hickey
• Review
• I received a copy of this from the author.  Mr. Hickey reached out to me directly and asked if I would like to review his choose your own adventure book.  These books are always fun so I took a chance.  This is heavy on the science and legal terminology as it involves a court case and a scientific study.  Overall, I enjoyed it and while I would have liked shorter chapters, I understand that probably is an incredible undertaking by the author.  This leaves you with some philosophical questions to consider when reading and making your choices.
• Storm and Fury by Jennifer Armentrout
• Review
• This is awesome as I expected it would be.  This tells the story of Zayne, our favorite Warden from The Dark Elements series, and Trinity a girl who has grown up with Wardens but is something else entirely.  Trinity finds herself at the center of some some very suspicious demon activity and pairs up with Zayne and his clan when her best friend and Warden Protector Misha gets kidnapped by a demon.  As expected the sparks fly, the sarcasm and snark are high, and there is lots of emotional baggage as these two try to figure stuff out.  I loved it!
• Shadow Me by Tahereh Mafi
• This was a short novella in the Shatter Me series.  It follows everyone's favorite character Kenji, as the children of the supreme commanders arrive and Juliette readies herself for the big convention at the end of Restore Me.  His humor is ever present, and we get to see a side of him that we don't normally see.  It is only about 60 pages and is a very quick read, I wish it had been longer and given more insight into what was going on during that time.  It was a nice treat between books though.
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
• Review
• This was a surprise favorite for me.  It follows one of the Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky in the 1930s, which was hard enough work.  To add to her burden, she suffered from a very real blood condition that made her skin blue.  This was a fantastic book!  It would be great for book clubs and discussions in general.  I highly recommend it.
• Courting Darkness by Robin LeFevers
• I didn't finish this one, I got about 65% of the way through it before my library loan ran out.  I was really enjoying it though.  I just got the hardback in so I'm hoping to finish it today or tomorrow. It follows Sybella, who I loved in the previous books and Genevieve another daughter of Mortain who was only 12 when she was sent from the convent.  This feel like the original trilogy so that makes me happy.  Sybella is back to her self-doubting ways which doesn't make me happy, but Beast is there to prop her up and help her navigate all of the schemes and political unrest.  If you liked the original books you will like this one as I do.  

Audiobooks

I listened to a lot of great audiobooks this month.  I think I'll be using a few of these for challenge prompts.

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Cassandra Campbell is an amazing narrator and gave this so much life, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much had I read it vs listening to it.  I highly recommend the audio.  I really enjoyed this.  I loved the descriptions of the marsh, and I really felt Kya's loneliness and desperation throughout the story.  I will say that the book felt like two separate books until about chapter 20 when we really get to know Chase and then things start to come together and make sense.  I don't usually like books like this but this was very well done and deserves all the accolades its been receiving.
• Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
• Review
• My loan on the ebook ran out just as the audiobook became available.  It was meant to be.  I had only gotten about a chapter in so I was happy to switch over.  Both of the narrators did an excellent job with the characters.  I enjoyed this but you can see in my review I wanted more explanation of the magic system and plot.  I'm really looking forward to exploring more in future books.
• Nyxia Uprising by Scott Reintgen
• Review
• This is the final installment of the Nyxia Triad.  The Genesis crew is still trying to win the prize and escape with their lives from the planet they've flown so far in space to get to.  The ending to this series was just about perfect.  I really enjoyed listening to this.  The narrators were excellent and the author did a wonderful job wrapping up the series.
• Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard
• Review
• I finally got this in on audio and it was amazing.  I read almost 70% of it on ebook but I love Cassandra Campbell's narration of this series so much that I started over.  It was so worth it.  
• Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Linsay Cummings
• Review
• I read the ARC of this several months before it was published.  I was approved for an ARC of Nexus the day before it was released so I thought I'd go back and give this a listen to get reaquainted with the story and characters before diving into Nexus.  The final version is significantly longer than the early version I read.  I read several reviews that the final version was different than the ARCs we received, and I can say that most of the book is the same up to the ending.  I do feel like the plot was a bit all over the place and could have been a bit more focused.  
• On Hart's Boardwalk by Samantha Young
• I've been meaning to get to this since it came out ages ago.  It follows my favorite couple from the On Dublin Street cast, Nate and Liv.  They've been married for a while and have kids and escape to Hart's Boardwalk, a magical seaside town where love blossoms and in this case Nate and Liv remember why they fell for each other in the first place.  This is a sweet novella that bridges both series really well.  This is super steamy, and a little naughty.  The audio is between 4 and 5 hours long and it was really well done.