Oy! Hope everyone had an ah-MAY-zing May!
Is this the eighteen-th time I’ve made this joke this month? Yes. Yes it is. But it makes me chuckle every time so let me and my puns be, ok.
It has been a very busy month, but at the same time I look back to see what I’ve done and all I hear are crickets. Maybe it just felt busy being caught up in the whirlwind that is end of year festivities that gave it the allusion of busy-ness.
My school year has officially wrapped up and I am so glad to be done. The year has felt so long and short and confusing and stressful in one big year of confusion-fusion. But it’s also weird to be done. Like I’m half way through high school. Yet, I still like a freshman at heart, short and having absolutely no idea what I’m doing.
As for reading, my month was pretty solid. May was officially the month of contemporaries as I basically ate them by the spoonful for the entirety of the month. Let’s break it down, shall we?

4 ๐ Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
wow wow wow a must read
4 ๐ Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price
ย didn’t know i needed Jane Austen and murder in my life BUT I’M HERE FOR IT
3 ๐ Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan
GAH FEELINGS
3 ๐ Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
Iโm ~conflicted~
4.5 ๐ What’s Not to Love by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
is it just me or does chocolate on a hot dog sound horrifying???
3 ๐ Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
my chronic listing soul vibed
3 ๐ Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
โWhy do battles have to be so early.โ
3.5 ๐ Cool For the Summer by Dahlia Adler
if i could bottle up laraโs essence and drink it everyday I would
3.5 ๐ Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli
the humor? yes. the love triangle? no.ย
4.5 ๐ Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (reread)
ow ow ow
5 ๐ King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
this book is the embodiment of something is very wrong
4.5 ๐ Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
ย I WOULD KILL FOR ZOYA
3 ๐ Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey
last chance to change your bad attitude madelineย
2.5 ๐ Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan
ย ehhh
4 ๐ Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
royalty! friendship! vegetables as nicknames!
4 ๐ Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
ย i’m sure this comes as a surprise to absolutely no one but PIRATES!
5 ๐The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
eelings will never feel the same again
4 ๐ Made in Korea by Sarah Suk
TOO CUTE AHH
4.5 ๐ Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth
god-tier humor
4 ๐ Once Upon a Midnight by Ashley Poston
13 pages of pure unbridled fluff
4 ๐The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch
i had doubts, but the end pulled through
3 ๐Love is a Revolution by Renรฉe Watson
ugh miscommunicationย
Ace of Spades byย Faridah รbรญkรฉ-รyรญmรญdรฉ
umm I need to finish this by tomorrow, but I’m vibing with it so far

In stark contrast to April, having no posting schedule absolutely killed me this month. I just didn’t feel like sitting down and writing about anything for a hot minute. Maybe it was because I was busy life-ing (yes, as a verb) or maybe it was because I didn’t want to “ruin” the joy all of the contemporaries by over-analyzing them. For some reason, I have a harder time writing reviews of contemporary books it is very much ahhh I love the characters and the humour so much I could cry or a solid meh. Drizzle the lack of motivation and life-ing on top and I didn’t write much.
That being said, (in my humble opinion) I wrote some of my best posts this month. Were they super deep or meaningful? No. But they brought a smile to my face (and hopefully yours too!) and some of them even made my lightly cackle. They were a bit different than my norm, but in a good way.
Starting off the month strong Phoenix @ Words With Wings and I co-wrote a post about spoilers! I’m pretty proud of how it turned out and we both had a blast working on it (in between screaming about Shadow and Bone, of course). You can find Phoenix’s half of the post here! and my half of the post can be found here!

More mini reviews! This time of Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth, and I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn.
If you are looking for a) a sassy privateer, b) a sassy cynic, or c) a somewhat sassy story about self discovery, then you might want to check out these titles!
Check it out here!

I let my Shadow and Bone obsession (read: Milo obsession) run rampant in this one. Inspired by TikTok and the lack of sleep, this one cost me my last brain cells but replaced them with lots of snort-laughing.
Check it out here!

Jane Austen, but add murder. This was everything I could have asked for from a Pride and Prejudice retelling plus so much more! Murder obsessed girl, carriage chases, and a feminist take, Pride and Premeditation is not one to miss!
Check out the full review here!

King of Scars, King of Scars, King of Scars. I have no idea where to start with this one! Blew me away on so many levels, turned me to a diehard Zoya stan, and kept me internally screaming the whole time.
If internal screaming (but in word form) sounds interesting to you, feel free to check out 33 Thoughts I Had While Reading King of Scars here!

What does a bookworm read in a week? Simple answer: books. If you are looking for the more in depth answer to that (plus screaming!) (and milk!) (and bookish thoughts!) then feel free to take a yonder over to the Chronicles of a Bookworm // Reading Vlog May 22-28.

As always, there is so much create content being created everyday within the blogosphere. I want to highlight some of my favourites of the month and take a moment to appreciate all of these lovely bloggers. A couple of these were posted in April, but I didn’t see them until May so I’m counting them in this post as well lol.
- Maeve @ Books by Maeve created a bookish bucket list!
- Jayati @ Just a Coffee Addicted Bibliophile shared 5 Books With Lesbian Rep that she loved!
- Julia @ Stormy Reads shares their Ultimate Bookstagram Guide for getting started!
- Alex @ The Scribe Owl created a personalised book recommendation form!
- Ashmita @ The Fictional Journal created an original tag for Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour album!
- Amanda @ Bookish Brews put together a list of diverse books with magical competitions to check out!

- Vaccine! I received both my first and second dose of the vaccine this month. Luckily the side effects from the second dose were wayyyy less for me than the first. Either way I’m glad to have had it and to be able to get it done.
- I received my first ever bookish mail from a publisher!ย To say I was screaming would be an understatement. Like, little old me got a book. In the mail. From people who wanted me to review it. SO COOL!
- A review I wrote for my schoolโs newspaper won first place in the state for review writing. Donโt mind me while I simply perish and die.ย
- Um, school ended? That was really the big life event from this month.

How was your month? What was your favourite read??

zoya ftw!!
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yessss love zoya
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You got your vaccine, congrats!!!
And the intro is xD
Cool post April!
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ahhh thank you so much!!!
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loved this post!! zoya is a QUEEN. iโm glad you had fun with daughter of the pirate king and I totally agree with what you said about the seven husbands of evelyn hugo! iโm never going to be the same again ๐ข ahhh congratulations on winning first prize in your state!! thatโs so amazing!!! I hope you have an amazing june!!
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literally! went from a no in shadow and bone, a eh in siege and storm, an ok ok in ruin and rising, to a YESSS ZOYA in the KoS duology. love her so much it’s not even funny
yesss I love pirates and Levenseller does know how to weave a quick and fun tale!!
I wasn’t emotionally prepared because that book DESTROYED ME. ow ow ow
thank you so much!! I hope you have an amazing June as well : )
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That’s so many books aah I’m jealous ๐คฉ๐ญ๐
And congrats on getting a mail from a publisher, that is so cool ๐. Lovely wrap up! โจ
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ahaha I was definitely busy when it comes to reading this month lol. thank you!! it was so exciting, I literally did not shut up about it for days haha. hope you have a fantabulous June!
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Congratulations on your first book mail and on winning review writing!! Happy for ya! Also, 23 books in a month?! Congrats for that too!!
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thank you so much!! there was a lot of screaming on a lot of different fronts this may haha. ahh yup, I kept very busy lol. hope you have a fab June!!
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So many books, I’m glad you had a good reading month!! Ahh and congrats on your pride for the review – that’s so amazing!! (Lol that pun) this month’s posts did make me laugh, especially the one with Milo๐ hope you have a good month ahead!
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*prize
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ahhh thank you so much!! hehe I really do try with my bad puns, I’m glad someone is as entertained as I am haha. yay! that makes me so happy to hear! may June be absolutely stellar for you!!
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omg, your monthly wrap-up is literal GOALS! I wish I could read this many books. I’m totally going to review Pride and Premeditation thanks to this wrap-up! โค
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ahhh thank you so much!! as long as you’re enjoying the books you read, it doesn’t matter how many you get to!!! yay!! I’m so glad to hear that!! do let me know what you think of it once you finish : )
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Dang, you had a busy month! Congratulations on the first prize and getting the vaccine!!!
Ugh I’m ~conflicted~ on Meet Cute Diary as well, it was such an anticipated release but then it just wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. But also there was a good character arc. But also Noah was just a HUGE jerk. There was literally a time when I contemplated putting that book down (especially after I stumbled upon a quote that was semi-aphobic) and I NEVER DNF. Especially at 60% through a book. I was originally gonna rate it 3 stars because the ending was fine, but then I remembered that and I was kinda like, if a book makes me do that it’s a two star at most.
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yup, busy indeed. thank you so much! very exciting business lol.
yea I agree with you! the voice and the premise were both so fun, but I’d agree that Noah wasn’t my favourite main character. He was definitely flawed, which we want and need to see from ya characters, but I didn’t think his arc had as much resolution as I would have hoped. oh yikes, I’m sorry to hear that, that really isn’t good. I rated it 3 stars because even though it wasn’t my favourite, I think it can be an important read for a lot of people. there were definitely some moments that were just…. mmm no…. but there were also some nice moments and I just had no idea what to rate it as. I’m glad (well not glad, I guess. idk what the right word is) that someone else kind of understands some of the ~conflicted-ness~ I was feeling
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Haha.
Yeah, exactly. And I’d totally agree that it will be important for some people and in no way is my rating saying that it isn’t, it’s just that it wasn’t great for me. but yeah, i was also SUPER conflicted on what to rate it.
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totally fair! it was definitely one of the ones I waffled over for a few days because ~indecision~
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Wow you read so many books!!! They really are a lot of contemporary haha I’m real excited for Tokyo Ever After and Made in Korea ๐ Congrats on your vaccine and finishing school!!! And thanks for tagging me ๐ญ๐ญโค
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ahaha I definitely kept busy this month! ahh both were such joys to read! I hope you’ll love them if you do decide to pick them up!! thank you so much! for sure, I loved your post and had to include it! happy reading and have a great June : )
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Thank you for including my post! Iโm glad you liked it!! Wow you read a lot in May thatโs amazing!!! ๐
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for sure! it was super helpful so I just had to include it!!! ahaha yea, and a bunch of good ones at that!! happy reading Julia and have a great June!!
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Wow, that’s a lot of books! Congrats on getting your vaccines, getting mail from a publisher, and winning first place for your review! I hope you have a great June!
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ahaha yea, and a lot of great ones too!!! thank you so much (on all fronts lol)!!! may June be fabulous for you as well!!! happy reading : )
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Literally all of these are on my TBR! Counting Down With You, Full Disclosure, Pride and Premeditation, King of Scars, Last Chance Books, and The Sky Blues! I’m glad you enjoyed most of them! And Made in Korea was amazing! Have a great June, April!
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ooo that’s so exciting!! I hope you’ll enjoy them all when you get to them!! me too!! most of them Brough so much joy and I absolutely loved reading them!! yesss it really was! such a fun read!!! happy reading have have a great June, Ritz!!
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WHY ARE YOUSO FUNNY??? I’m dying over here lol
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AHAHA IT’S MY SUPERPOWER… death via bad jokes
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omg looks like u had a great reading month! the king of scars duology is high on my priority list and im so excited to get to it
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yesss it def was a great month!! ahh it’s so good! especially if you liked the other books in the grishaverse, I think you’ll love it!!! happy reading and hope June is great for you!!
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Aaah thank you so much for linking to my post that means a lot to me ๐ฅบ๐ฅบ
I totally agree with what Birdie @ Birdie’s Booktopia said above, you are hilarious and I love reading your posts!!
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for sure!! I absolutely loved the idea, so creative!! ahh thank you so much!! you saying that literally means so much : )
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Yay for getting the vaccine and on having such a great contemporary reading binge! Hope you have a great June!
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ahh yes, very exciting business!! thank you so much and hope you have a fabulous June!!
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