May Wrap Up // the month of the contemporary

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?

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4 🌟 Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

wow wow wow a must read

4 🌟 Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

 didn’t know i needed Jane Austen and murder in my life BUT I’M HERE FOR IT

3 🌟 Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan

GAH FEELINGS

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3 🌟 Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

I’m ~conflicted~

4.5 🌟 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 🌟 Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney

my chronic listing soul vibed

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3 🌟 Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

“Why do battles have to be so early.”

3.5 🌟 Cool For the Summer by Dahlia Adler

if i could bottle up lara’s essence and drink it everyday I would

3.5 🌟 Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli

the humor? yes. the love triangle? no. 

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4.5 🌟 Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (reread)

ow ow ow

5 🌟 King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

this book is the embodiment of something is very wrong

4.5 🌟 Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

 I WOULD KILL FOR ZOYA

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3 🌟 Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey

last chance to change your bad attitude madeline 

2.5 🌟 Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

 ehhh

4 🌟 Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

royalty! friendship! vegetables as nicknames!

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4 🌟 Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

 i’m sure this comes as a surprise to absolutely no one but PIRATES!

5 🌟The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

eelings will never feel the same again

4 🌟 Made in Korea by Sarah Suk

TOO CUTE AHH

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4.5 🌟 Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth

god-tier humor

4 🌟 Once Upon a Midnight by Ashley Poston

13 pages of pure unbridled fluff

4 🌟The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch

i had doubts, but the end pulled through

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3 🌟Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson

ugh miscommunication 

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

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! 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 school’s newspaper won first place in the state for review writing. Don’t mind me while I simply perish and die. 
• Um, school ended? That was really the big life event from this month.

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