I know this is coming nearly a week into June. I was going to write it the weekend before and have it up early, but I knew I’d finish one last book in May after this would’ve been uploaded, so I delayed the wrap up a week to include it.

Anyway, the month of May seemed to drag out considerably for me. The books I read at the start of the month feel like a lifetime ago. But I’ve had a decent reading month, and a fair few fangirl moments towards the end of the month.

As always, this is going to be a long post, so get comfy and enjoy!

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Books read this month

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So in May I read a grand total of 6 books – which I don’t think is too bad. Though I do have to say, at the start of the month I made a TBR and only ended up reading 1 of the books on the list…so that went well, as always. It’s now been proven many times that TBR’s are NOT for me.

There weren’t any books below 3 stars this month, so I’d say that’s a good reading month. Here are the books I read:

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Blue Lily, Lily Blue

by Maggie Stiefvater

Rated 4.5/5 stars – [Review]

So in my bid to finish more of the series I started, the first book I picked up was Blue Lily, Lily Blue from The Raven Boys. I’m pretty sure this one is now my favourite from the series. My love for the characters grew even more (if that was possible) and each person had their own thing going on, leading to a much bigger story. Plus, I didn’t see the plot the way it did, so I was pleasantly surprised by that!

[Amazon]

A Court of Mist and Fury

by Sarah J Maas

Rated 5/5 stars – [Review]

Of course this book was going to be read in May. It was one of my most anticipated releases! I took an entire week to read the first 300 pages, purely because I didn’t want it to be over…and then I couldn’t hold off anymore and devoured the other 300+ pages in one night. This is easily a new favourite of mine, but aren’t all Sarah J Maas books?

[Amazon]

The Masterpiecers

by Olivia Wildenstein

Rated 3.5/5 stars – [Review]

This book was sent to me for review. I hadn’t read anything like it before, as it’s a psychological drama set around a televised art competition. Sounds interesting, right? Well, it was! I loved the idea behind it, and was hooked throughout. I had a few minor issues with the relationships that formed, as they all seemed quite sudden to me, but other than that I really enjoyed this book.

[Amazon]

Just A Few Inches

by Tara St. Pierre

Rated 4/5 stars – [Review]

This book was also sent to me for review. And it was very much a “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” case, because while I’m not a fan of the cover, I really did enjoy the story. Though it sounded a bit odd to me at first (it’s about a girl shrinking), it turned out to be a surprisingly plausible story. And the message behind it – or possible the “moral of the story” – really impressed me too.

[Amazon]

The Raven King

by Maggie Stiefvater

Rated 4.5/5 stars – [Review]

I know a lot of people rated this book much lower than the rest of the books in the series purely because of how disappointed they were. I mean, sure, the build up was huge and even I was a little bit disappointed with the events (or rather, lack of), but that only knocked it down half a star for me. The rest of the book I thoroughly enjoyed!

[Amazon]

The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting

by Holly Bourne

Rated 3/5 stars – [Review]

This book was a bit of an odd one for me. I’ve read Am I Normal Yet? and How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne and adored them, so my expectations were high. And those expectations weren’t met, unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy this book. It wouldn’t have a 3 star rating if I didn’t. But I just couldn’t connect with the main character and disagreed with everything she did throughout the book. But it was an interesting read, at least.

[Amazon]

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I’m Currently Reading…

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I’m actually currently reading two books, which is odd for me because I usually only like to focus on one.

But basically the other day I was in a really horrible mood, and wanted to read something different to the book I had started. I started looking through the classics I own, intending to choose one of those, and saw this on my shelves, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. And I thought “what can be more different than reading non-fiction? I never do that.” So I read the first few pages, only intending to read a few to cheer me up a bit…next thing I know I’m 50 pages in and hooked. So this book I kind of have as a side-book, and I’m really taking my time with it.

 

As for the other book, this summer I’m wanting to finish the Anna and the French Kiss series. But I read the first book years ago, so today I’m going to start rereading it.

Hopefully I’ll read this just as quickly as I did the first time, and I REALLY hope I enjoy it just as much this time round too. I remember being so surprised by how much I loved this book, especially with the cringey title. But after my reread of this, I’m hoping to actually continue and finish the series…FINALLY!

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May Posts (that weren’t reviews)

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“Let’s talk” discussions:

Characters With Absent Parents

Overhyped Books – Giving You The Chance To Rant Or Rave About Hyped Books

Let’s Talk (Though Possibly More Of A Rant): Selling ARCs

Let’s Talk: Book Snobbery & Feeling Devalued For Your Reading Choices

Random:

April Wrap Up

Come With Me To The Bookstore

TBR Unhaul – Brutally Kicking Books Off My Goodreads To Read List

That Huge Build Up Of Books That I Hope To Read This Summer

Taking A Look Back At My Bookish Resolutions & To See How I’m Doing So Far

The Wonderful People I Will Keep Throwing Money At For Their Books… My Auto-Buy Authors!

The Things I’d Like To See More In Books, Because For Some Reason They All Magically Vanish

The Stages Of Loving A Book – The Emotional Turmoil We All Seem To Go Through

Bookish Creativeness:

Book Inspired Outfits – For The Days You Want To Frolic Around All Geek Chic

Doodling All The Book Series I Need To Continue/Finish

Bookish Reveals:

The Most Epically Exciting UK & US Empire Of Storms Cover Reveal – Fangirl With Me!

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Life In General

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May has basically just been a lot of work and meeting deadlines. Though it was stressful, the amount of times I’ve been thankful for my course not having exams…well, put it this way, if I gained £1 for every time I said it, I’d be buying a lot of new books.

Other than that, May was pretty uneventful.

Things got a bit more exciting for me blog-wise though. I’ve been receiving more review requests, and have actually had to close requests temporarily so that I don’t get overwhelmed if they all turn up at the same time! I’m not bragging in any way – I just find it surprising that people are coming to me. ME, of all people! Wow. 😀

Also, I think I’m getting two ARCs soon! They’ll be my first ARCs, which is exciting, and they’re both on my most anticipated released of 2016 list! So you can only imagine how excited I am for them to arrive!!

And to finish this section off, the other exciting thing that happened was Sarah J Maas seeing some of my art! Basically, I took my favourite quote (and a lot of people’s favourite quote) and made it into wall art. And when I tweeted it, Sarah saw it, and retweeted it!! 😀 The amount of notifications I had after that…oh my days! I was fangirling so much. That’s the second time she’s seen my art now,  with her seeing my Aelin fan art last month (shown in my April wrap up) so I’m just feeling very appreciative right now!

And here’s the photos in full, in case you want a closer look:

Each letter was painted, cut out and stuck onto the wall individually, so you can imagine how many hours it took me. Also, in the light photo you can see, the bottom line has actually been moved down and straightened out a bit since then, as you can see it’s a bit lopsided. But what better place to put a quote about stars underneath my fairylights?

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So there we have it! My month of May, all wrapped up!

As always, I applaud you if you managed to make it this far 😀

Have you read any of the books I read in May? What did you think?

How many books did you read this month? Which was your favourite of the month?

Did you buy any new books? How many and which ones? (feel free to link your haul!)

Did any interesting events happen this month for you?

Visit anywhere nice? 

What are you currently reading, going into the month of May?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

Come and visit me!