Hello!

Another month has flown by and somehow I’m still baffled by it, but this month has made me reconsider what it means to have a ‘good’ reading month – in terms of numbers, my instinct is to say yes, I had a fantastic reading month! I finished 9 books, including all the ones on my physical TBR and I feel like I may be able to maintain that momentum into May. However, my average rating was only 3.06 stars, my highest rated book was a reread (that I rated lower than the first time I read it) and I found a 1 star dud as well.

So I think it evens out to be an average reading month, but let me tell you about the books I managed to read!

The Hating Game – Sally Thorne 2.5 ⭐️

I feel like this is one of the OG TikTok romance recommendations and, despite my rating, I can see why – it was released in 2016, where I feel this was perhaps a leader in changing the direction of a contemporary romance, maybe one of the first to have a cartoon cover that changed the perception of them, it could have been foundational to the perception of the genre.

But reading it nearly 10 years later, it didn’t hit for me (and I don’t know if it ever would have) – I found the FMC irritating, the MMC was very obvious, especially as someone who’s read a lot of romances, the pacing was incredibly odd and it all just felt a bit childish considering these are meant to be full grown-adults. The FMC would constantly complain about people referring to how short she is, whilst simultaneously constantly bringing up how short she is. The whole ‘gamifying’ of their ‘hatred’ for each other was kind of pathetic. Even the fact they worked in publishing and I usually LOVE books about books couldn’t redeem this for me.

Being nearly a month removed from finishing this book, I now feel that 2.5 is a bit generous – I think it comes from the fact that I will usually give a book 2 stars when I don’t like it but I can see that the writing isn’t technically bad and other people might enjoy it and then the additional .5 I think is my way of acknowledging it’s OG TikTok rec status and how I can see why people would enjoy it, but I didn’t.

I’m just glad it’s off my TBR now!

Tea You At The Altar – Rebecca Thorne 3 ⭐️

The Tomes and Tea series has taken me a little while to figure out what I’m meant to expect from it – I don’t get the super cosy vibes that I think are perhaps intended, mostly because the characters although aiming for a cosy lifestyle, neither can resist an adventure, and the stakes are intended to be too high.

If I’d gone into this book with the expectation of getting the same kind of palette cleanser feeling I get from a contemporary romance, I might have been closer to what the book offered. My biggest problem with this instalment specifically is that it was building up to something that was meant to feel tense, and at every turn the growing cast of characters keep telling us that the stakes are high and it all comes down to this one event, except I didn’t feel any of that tension because most of the build up was off page and then when that event came, the actuality was incredibly anti-climactic.

It did end on a good cliffhanger, I’ll give it that, but otherwise I might go as far as to say I was disappointed in this book? It definitely is straying further from the ‘cosy’ fantasy vibes, but it’s still an easy enough read.

The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris 4 ⭐️

I appreciate this picture is terrible but I always try to reflect the covers I actually have!

Who’d have thought I’d be rating a crime / horror / thriller book higher than a contemporary romance or a cosy fantasy? Not me, but I went in with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised! I always seem to be pleasantly surprised by how much I like mystery thrillers but I’m definitely more open to the genre now.

This is the second book in the original Hannibal Lecter series – the original creator of the famed cannibal psychologist character that has inspired further reimagining, movies, TV shows and will only continue in further media, I’m sure. The fact it’s the second book doesn’t take anything away from the story – it’s a very complete standalone that can be fully understood with no wider context, though I imagine it could be more deeply enjoyed when read in order.

I listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic. It was gripping and engaging, personally I would describe the horror as mild because I am not a horror girlie and I didn’t find this too much (or maybe I’m more of a horror girlie than I thought?) and the tension was palpable. The twists just kept on coming, I had no idea where the plot was going to go.

I genuinely recommend this one! It’s a very accessible classic and it’s probably less scary than the film (which I still don’t think I’m brave enough to watch).

Reckless – Lauren Roberts 3.5 ⭐️

The second book in the Powerless trilogy and I can confirm – everyone’s complaints about this being a kind of boring, repetitive, unnecessary middle book are absolutely right. The plot was thin at best, the romance wasn’t even very high stakes because it was really obvious how the main character’s felt for each other, but we just had to read through a bunch of ‘I’m not like other girls’ and ‘duty or desire grr’ to get to a somewhat intriguing cliffhanger.

I’d say I’d only recommend this for those who really loved Powerless, but based on the reviews I saw when this was released last year, even then I’d recommend going in with very low expectations! It was a quick binge read and kind of funny when you consider how seriously the whole series is taking itself.

Eve of Man – Giovanna and Tom Fletcher 4.5 ⭐️

This was a re-read for a book club I had with my sibling and I have to say, it didn’t hit as hard as the first time I read it, but it was a 6 star book back in 2019.

I love the premise of this YA dystopian story, I think the characters are really well written with the balance of maturity of teenagers having lived in a post-apocalyptic society and the naivety of still being a child.

The other thing that tainted this re-read is that the series has been abandoned by the authors – the second book, The Eve Illusion, came out in 2020 and there’s not even been a hint of the third book to complete the series. I’ve given up hope and it makes it harder for me to enjoy this series I once I loved.

Re-reading Eve of Man did make me want to re-read The Eve Illusion, but I don’t think it’s worth the pain. Maybe I’ll re-read the whole series if book 3 ever does come out!

Fearless – Lauren Roberts 2.5 ⭐️

I’d recommend the conclusion to the Powerless trilogy even less than Reckless – the end of book 2 sets up this book to be absolutely ridiculous and it was. It really leans back in to it’s ‘Hunger Games rip off’ vibes, the romance is the entire plot even though there aren’t any stakes and it’s somewhat pointless, the attempt at an edgy political fantasy is fanfiction-level at best (and not the good fanfiction) and there’s one plot point that gave me such an icky feeling that when I was listening to it in the gym, I had to get off the bike I was on, go over to the bike my husband was on and make him take out his headphones so I could tell him about how stupid it was.

This ending makes me resent having the pretty Waterstones editions because I don’t like the series anymore.

Icky.

Great Big Beautiful Life – Emily Henry 3.5 ⭐️

All round, the pre-ordered new releases were a bit of a let down this month – this is my lowest rated Emily Henry and I was genuinely surprised with how little I felt for this book.

I see she’s trying to call it a mystery, which I hard disagree with – sure, the character’s are trying to get a retired Hollywood A lister to tell her story and she’s keeping things from them, but there’s nothing unresolved – Margaret has the whole story they just have to wait for her to tell it. It has some mystery qualities perhaps but definitely not a mystery in genre.

So then it felt quite literary fiction, especially with the chapters that were excerpts from the biography that the main characters are trying to write and I think if this had been the focus – Alice and Hayden finding a professional respect for each other then a personal friendship whilst trying to get Margaret to tell them the whole story – it could have been a good, albeit a little boring, literary fiction book with a message about celebrity and privacy and people still being people. But Emily Henry is a romance writer, no matter how many times she calls this a mystery book, and Alice and Hayden’s romance felt underdeveloped in the beginning then they were somewhat inexplicably attracted to each other.

I didn’t feel a lot of depth for these main characters and I didn’t really feel any investment for the biography chapters either. There were some sweet relationship moments and the ending was very predictable, so it wasn’t a bad book by any means, but with how much I adored Funny Story last year and was expecting another 5 star book, even an ‘okay’ book feels like a disappointment.

Solitaire – Alice Oseman 3 ⭐️

Unfortunately my ratings didn’t improve at the end of the month!

I’m slowly working through Alice Oseman’s backlist and I think the best way to summarise my thoughts on Solitaire is that it’s not hard to tell it’s her debut book – it’s not badly written, by any means, but it was written by a 17 year old who is talented enough to get a publishing deal, but doesn’t have a lot of life or writing experience.

A lot of the sentences felt very short and choppy, the pacing was a little odd and the ending felt very unrealistic in a story that generally feels very slice of life.

Tori as a protagonist was a bit dull to me – I get that she’s not meant to be particularly likeable, but a lot of her narrative gave me the impression of a teenager trying to make her own life more difficult for the sake of it, rather than one with mental health issues who needs help. Considering how well communicated her brother Charlie’s anxiety and eating disorder issues are, finding the right words for Tori’s struggles shouldn’t have been difficult but it felt like it was being dodged to me.

Having loved the Heartstopper series and seeing how fleshed out Nick and Charlie’s story is even within Solitaire, this felt very much that Tori was a supporting character in her own book. Not my favourite from this author, for sure.

How Not To Travel The World – Lauren Juliff 1 ⭐️

Last and very much least – I’m 90% sure that when I bought this book, it was in the fiction section, the blurb reads very much like a contemporary romance and it wasn’t until I was logging it on Storygraph to say I’d started reading it that I realised this is a non-fiction book.

Generally I try not to say this because I know how much effort goes into writing a book and how many people are involved in it’s production, but this is what my 1 star ratings are for – I don’t think this needed to be published.

300 pages of someone who dreamt their whole life of travelling but turned out to be really bad at it, documenting how reckless and stupid they were with the luxury of having loads of money in savings – it wasn’t informative, it wasn’t entertaining, it was a very poor representation of anxiety and eating disorders (considering most of them are overcome with an ‘oh well’) and the only saving grace it had is that it read incredibly quickly, which was the only reason I finished it.

It was awkward, uninspiring and the romance was one giant red flag – I’m not putting this up on my Vinted because I don’t think it’s fair to ask someone to pay for it.

And that’s how I finished the month!

It may have been with a 1 star book, but by finishing that book I officially finished every book on my monthly TBR and that was the motivation I needed! My TBR for May is shorter, but one of the books on it is a 1000+ page, 55+ hour audio about a Japanese prisoner of war which is meant to be quite harrowing, so we’ll see how that goes!

Thank you so much for reading my ramblings – every month I promise myself I’ll be more concise but it never happens!

Hope you’re having a great day, hope you’re reading a great book!

Sophie xx