May reading summary and June TBR

Lately, I feel like all I can think about, all I want to think about, is books and writing. Seriously. I’ve become a bit obsessed.

Here are the books I read in May (links go to Goodreads):

• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (Kindle, pre-order) — I hate to say it, but I was really disappointed in this book. I had a LOT of issues with the first book in this series. I LOVED the second book in this series. And this one, the third book (but, oh no, not the last… why not? why do we need more? ugh.) disappointed me. I never felt like any of the characters were in any real danger. There wasn’t a lot of tension. The plot was incredibly linear with no real surprises. Even the “surprise betrayal” at the end wasn’t really a betrayal, or even a surprise. I don’t know. I think I’m just done with SJM for a while. She does what she does well, but I’m just not that into what she does anymore, and I think there are others out there who may be doing it better, or at least taking this type of story in new directions. I think it’s time for me to go find those books.
• Act Like It by Lucy Parker (Kindle, library) — This one took me a while to get into. The voice is very British (it’s set in the London theater scene and the characters are British), which I enjoyed, but it took me a minute to adapt. Also, I know almost nothing about the theater, so all theater references were completely lost on me. Still, this is a really well written romance novel and, once I got into it, I devoured it and really enjoyed it.
• The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (Kindle, library) — Oh, man did I ever love this book. I loved it more than I thought that I would, and it gave me the worst “book hangover” after I finished it. All I wanted to read was more books with these characters set in this world and that doesn’t yet exist, which completely bummed me out. In case you were wondering, (unsurprisingly) Kiva Lagos is my favorite character. And, if you’ve read the book and loved it, you should check out this “fan-casting” post for an excellent take on who should play what part in the inevitable movie version of this book.
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Kindle) — I am so late to the party on this book. I’ve had it forever, but never got around to reading it. I still haven’t read her Shadow and Bone series that came before this and is set in the same world. It was a good choice to follow The Collapsing Empire and helped pull me out of my “book hangover” because it’s a very good heist novel and adventure story with excellent characters. I immediately reserved the companion book from the library so I could find out what happens next.
• Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (Kindle, library) — I really, really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. There’s so much to enjoy here, the characters are well crafted, the setting is vivid and unique. But one thing I was particularly pleased by was the swimming. I’m always nervous reading books that feature characters who are swimmers. But, I have to say, as a competitive swimmer through high school who now participates in Masters Swimming, the author did a GREAT job with the swimming stuff.

I certainly crammed a lot of reading into this month. Over 2,200 pages, if you count my in-progress books. Nice work, me!

I will say that having a relaxing beach vacation in there with no internet connectivity and a hammock in the shade really helped. Alas, I have no beach vacations planned for June. Oh well.

At least having several days without internet helped ween me off my obsessive Twitter addiction. The downside is that I am feeling like I have no idea what’s going on in the world. The upside is that I don’t really mind taking a bit of a break from knowing what’s going on in the world… and also, more reading time.

Assuming that I can continue to steer clear of internet distractions, I’d really like to check off some more of my 2017 Read Harder challenge task list in June. Plus there are so many awesome new releases that I’d like to read. But, rather than list all the books I *might* read in June, I tried to narrow my TBR down to just the books I think it’s very likely that I’ll read in June.

So far, these are the books on my June TBR (links go to Goodreads):

• Kraken by China Miéville (Kindle) — I started this for #TomeTopple back in April, and I’ve been chipping away at it since then. I’m enjoying it, but it is NOT a fast read.
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Kindle, library) — I started this but didn’t have time to finish this before the end of May. It’s a library loan, so I need to finish it before Our Dark Duet comes out on 6/13 or else I won’t be able to take my Kindle off airplane mode to get my pre-order on release day. (#ReaderProblems)
• Lux and Lies by Meg Collett (paperback) — I met Meg at Madcap earlier this year. She’s awesome, and I’m so excited to read this first book in her new series that just released in May. It’s being pitched as “Mr. Robot meets UnReal in a story of celebrities and anarchists,” and it sounds fantastic. I’m hoping I have time to sneak this in between Crooked Kingdom and Our Dark Duet.
• When Dimple Met Rishi (Kindle, library) — I requested this from my library, but I’m not sure if I’m going to get it this month or not. If I don’t get a notification soon, I may just break down and buy a copy because I really, REALLY want to read this book.
• Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab (Kindle, pre-order) — This one is going to be a “drop everything and read immediately” book. I am SO excited for this companion book to This Savage Song, which was one of my favorite books I read last year. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, it’s written by one of my favorite authors.
• Bitch Planet, Vol. 2: President Bitch by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Trade paper) — I’ve been waiting FOREVER for volume 2 of this comic. I *think* it’s finally going to ship this time. Fingers crossed, it arrives on 6 June. Woo hoo!

Basically, June looks like it’s going to be a big month for new releases. There are a few more that I haven’t even listed here that I’ve requested at the library. I’m hoping that I get them, but I won’t know if they ordered them or not until after release day. Somewhere in here I also have to squeeze in some more backlist books to check off Read Harder tasks. I could seriously make a full time job of reading. And writing. 🙂