April and May Wrap Up!

Hello people! I hope you all are safe and happy! It really seems like I am really coming back, yay! And so today I am here with a recap of my reading for April and May. Due to the moving and the hiatus, I haven’t read a lot of books, but I have read some really good books, so that’s okay, even if I didn’t read as much as I wanted. But lately the time for books was so little, and I was tired all the time so… I hope to have better luck in June. I have failed with my Spring TBR, and failed big, but it is okay. I was hoping to at least keep reading in this period, and my TBR was quite ambitious but… oh well! I would have more luck with the next one!

Books read:  21 +3 really short novellas +2 DNF
Physical books Vs ebooks: 3 vs 23
ARCs: 7

The Amazing Ones!

To have six books here is amazing! They all were wonderful!!! Priest of Gallows was even better that what I was expecting. It has a solid plot and intriguing characters, and I have talked about all that and more in my review! How To Be A Normal Person was another amazing book. It was fun, and sweet, and fun. I know I have said that twice, but oh how much fun I had. It is a highly quotable book, and you just have to love Gus. Shards of Earth was another captivating reading. Action, world building and some pretty amazing characters again. I know, you can see a theme here, right? But I am a character driven kind of reader and I am not sorry! So yeah, we have a cast of incredible characters in all of those books! The Mask of Mirrors was somehow different from what I was expecting, but not in a bad way, and even if I didn’t love the more dreamlike parts, it is a highly enjoyable book. And in this one we have a fascinating world well worth a visit! Mastermind was my first Mayne’s book, but I can say that it won’t be the last. I loved it and I couldn’t put it down. Wow! And last but not least, A Dead Djinn In Cairo. I was a bit skeptic about this one, because of all the hype but… I was wrong. It was a delightful short novella, that left me wanting for more!

The Really Good Ones!

Wolfsong was an intense reading. It was sweet. It was also fun. Heartwarming. But it hurts. All Klune’s books I have read so far have that in common. But they all dose all these ingredients in different manner. And if How to be… was more on the sunny side, this one is way on the darker one. And it is not a bad thing. At all. But I preferred the sunny one, this time. But it was a really good reading, captivating and intense. I enjoyed it a lot! Rocket Fuel is the best non-fiction book I have read this year. It was just so full of interesting essays! Poison or Protect is the first book in this series, and it is somehow less than the other series I have read by this author, but it was not disappointing in the slightest. I loved it! It is a fast book, heavy on the romance side, more than usual, but it was pleasant, quite a lot! Queen’s Gambit is the fifth book in this companion series, and it was good. But we have reached a point in which the two storylines, the one from the main series and this one, collide and… things are getting too much. It is not as bad as it is with the main series, but I think we are going in that direction. It can be overwhelming, even if it is bearable for the moment. And we get to see more Dorina and Dory as two different persons, and I loved it! And then we have a short Italian mystery novella, Castore and Polluce. The MC is a detective that I enjoy (I don’t love love him, but I quite like him!) and so I enjoyed this short story, too.

The Good Ones!

Eye of Obscurance is a quick book, with an interesting magical system and some heists in there. It is a good book if you are in need of a break, and it is full of action! All Fired Up is the first book in an urban fantasy series, and it seems quite promising. I also discovered that this series is a companion one, so now I need to go back to the main one and read it, because there are some characters that sounds quite intriguing! The Thief Who Spat in Luck’s Good Eye is the second book in this series and… it wasn’t as good as I was expecting. Mind me, it is a pretty good book, with good characters and good pace, but I was expecting more. It is a sort of vacation (even if it is a job nonetheless, even if for personal reasons, and if we are considering it a sort of vacation it has to be said that it is the worst vacation ever!) for the characters and even if I wasn’t bored while reading, I wasn’t so enthralled by it. The Thorn of Dentonhill is the first book in a series, and we have a magical school (but I was hoping to see more of this, way way more!), a thief, street gangs and so much more! It was an interesting beginning, and I hope that things would get even better in the next books!

Mythos was an interesting reading, and I think it would be amazing as an audiobook! The Devil You Know is the first book in an urban fantasy series that sat on my TBR for ages! And I liked it but I was also expecting more. It was interesting and the idea is pretty good but it wasn’t enough. I think I would try at least the second one out and see if it was just a bad combination of high expectations/wrong period for it or if we really aren’t made for each other. Dangerous Remedy was another mixed bag. I didn’t enjoyed it, to be honest. I had a lot of problems with the characters, and I think that choosing to do it as YA is, in some ways, a shame. It could have been an amazing book if the characters were more mature (and I am not speaking about age, or at least not only about that!). Anyway, I decided to put it there because the idea behind it is astounding. Half A War is the third volume in this YA trilogy, but here the characters are not immature. At all. And I have no complaints in there. The only thing is that, even if it is wrong, I kept comparing this series with The First Law, and so my enjoyment suffered for it. But it is all my fault!

I think that the cover for An Enchantment of Ravens is one of the best cover for the book it represents. And I loved this little thing. The book is interesting, and I enjoyed the MC. She is a sensible and really pragmatic girl. And I love pragmatic MC. And she is an artist, and she is not shy to say that she is good at what she does. It was so refreshing! The plot is a bit meh. It is not bad, but it is not so intriguing, and it was the weak point of this book. But it has a colorful style, it is almost like reading a portrait! And one really good MC. Shades of Milk and Honey was a bit disappointing. It was a pleasant reading, and I enjoyed it, all things considered, but I was really annoyed by some of the characters. The MC is not bad, but her sister and her mother were just so annoying. They were more caricatures than real characters or people. And this thing really irked me to no end. But I think I would try the second one out and see how things go! Mediterranean Diet Meal Prep Cookbook is pretty much what the title says, and it was an interesting book, well developed and well written. Clear and short. To the point!

The Disappointing Ones and the DNF Ones!

Opium and Absinthe wasn’t the right book for me. On one hand I appreciated how the author depicted the beginning of an addiction, and the idea is intriguing, but to me it was just too claustrophobic. The Show Won’t Go On didn’t manage to keep my interest alive, I felt zero motivation to pick it up every time I had to put it down, and so I decided to let it go. What Kills Me was a disappointment. I finished it because it is fast-paced and I we get to visit some amazing places, but the story has zero originality and there were some things that didn’t add up. Il Rasoio di Asimov is another short Italian mystery novella and it wasn’t really bad just… not good. It is really short, but I didn’t feel any attachment towards the characters, and it didn’t left me something after reading it.

My Reviews:
–Priest of Gallows by Peter McLean
–Eye of Obscurance by Jeffrey L. Kohanek
–All Fired Up by Jenn Burke
–A Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn
–Rocket Fuel
–Mastermind by Andrew Mayne
–How To Be A Normal Person by TJ Klune
–Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

Series:
Finished: 1+2 last volume published
Continued: 1

April was a great month for the reviews, but between April and May I haven’t done a great job with the series. I hope to do better in the Summer. I would say in June but I am not feeling too optimistic, since I think I would follow the mood for the near future, and see how it goes!

And what about you?  And have you read some of the books I have mentioned? And how were your past months?? Let me know!!!

Happy reading!
S.