Well folks... I started off May full of optimism about my reading for the month and it's safe to say things did not go as planned. Let me start off by saying, that's completely fine. While reading is part of my job, my job is not my whole life–though as a small business owner it sometimes feels that way.

So, what happened? As you've likely seen on my instagram by now a tornado hit our city a few weeks ago. While tornados have always been a possible threat in our area, storms have gotten worse and worse the last couple of years. This one, was far worse than anything we've seen, mostly due to the sections of town that it hit. So, my end of May was spent cleaning up debris, coordinating volunteer + relief efforts, and feeding folks warm/fresh meals.

Needless to say, I was absolultely exhausted–emotionally and physically. I read maybe 10 pages all week and what I did read was definitely not what I had originally planned. Here's my may breakdown:

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall (4.5/5):

This was a carry over from end of April that I finished very early in the month. I had originally described this one as Emily Wilde's meets Ruthless Vows, which is still accurate due to its academic nature and epistolary romance. However, after finishing it, I have to say that this one was the closest any book has gotten to The Mirror Visitor series in years. It's hard to explain in exact words, but if you like the steampunk-inspired world and creation myths of The Mirror Vistor, you'll find that same feeling in this one.

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (5/5):

The Libro.fm ALC program is one of the best perks of being a bookseller. Most of my unexpected favorites and new discoveries come from their monthly ALCs and The Safekeep was just that. Holy shit, this book blew me away. I started it on a whim one day, because it was free and it was relatively short and I couldn't put it down. It’s got a sensuality that paces the border between violence and tenderness. It’s a study in humanity and collective memory that captured me completely. An 2024 favorite for sure. I can't stop thinking about it.

Tenderly I Am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone (Early Manuscript):

I love Lyndall Clipstone, the author of the World at the Lake's Edge Duology and Unholy Terrors. I had been seeing her posts about her newest novel, which she describes as "romantic folk horror" and "Saltburn meets For the Wolf". I was HONORED to get a pdf of the early manuscript and can I just say the vibes that are headed to your shelves in 2025 are unmatched. I enjoyed this one so much and I can't wait to hype it up. While you can't preorder it yet, you can add it your Goodreads or Storygraph shelves!

A Door in the Dark & A Whisper in the Walls by Scott Reintgen (4.5/5):

The fact that none of you told me how good this book is when it came out LAST YEAR is completely unforgiveable. What the heck, y'all. Obviously, anything likened to Naomi Novik or involving magic schools immediately grabs my attention, but I did not expect this series to consume my life in the ways that it did. This series is so much more than a magic school series. The first one reads like a slasher in the best way possible and the second one just keeps running at a breakneck pace. This is now one of my new favorite fantasy series and I'm so sad it took me this long to read it.

The Dissonance by Shaun Hamill (3.5/5):

I loved Shaun Hamill's debut novel, A Cosmology of Monsters, so I was thrilled to receive a galley of his upcoming novel. This one is a very much in the vein of Olivie Blake's Atlas Six Series, but is feels more like speculative fiction rather than a fantasy novel. I definitely think I just read this book at the wrong time. I kept having to start and stop it, and this is not a book that you can easily dive back into. It's dense and complex and extremely character focused, so I just kept losing focus with everything going on. I'd like to give it another try, because it has the makings to be a favorite, but May just wasn't the month for this one.