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Here we are for another monthly reading wrap up! This is my May reading wrap up and I’ll go into depth about everything I read for this month!

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

This graphic novel was just *chefs kiss*. I’ve recently gotten into comic books over the past year thanks to my husband dragging me to the comic book store every week. Although, let’s be honest, I’m now dragging him. THEN I discovered the wonderful world of graphic novels. Combining my two favorite forms of reading? I’m all in! 

I picked up this graphic novel a few years back but just never got around to reading it. Please tell me I’m not alone in this? Leaving a book on your bookshelf for several years? Whew. ANYWAYS. This novel is basically an LGBTQ love story, set in space. That about sums it up. Oh and the fact that it’s awesome.

In this story we follow our main character who starts working for a company that travels to other planets to restore old buildings. She’s basically a construction worker traveling with a band of misfits. We start to learn her backstory and come to find out has a tragic love story. She met this girl who became the love of her life and through circumstances out of both of their control, they got separated and haven’t seen each other in years. Once this story is told to her new group of friends, of course they plan to set out to find this girl and help her restore their love. 

I was captivated by this book from beginning to end. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and the story, somehow, even more so. I think it’s also a great graphic novel to jump into if you’ve never read one before!

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

Could you guess that this would be in this month’s wrap up? I’ve been in the throes of this reread of Throne of Glass and loving every second. It’s one of my all time favorite series and I discuss more of the premise in this blog here.

Empire of Storms is pretty much neck and neck with Heir of Fire for me in my favorite book from this series. This book destroys me everytime and I always feel like I need to take a step away from our main character’s story after this one. SJM just likes to rip our hearts out and stomp on them like it’s nothing.

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

This is the next book in the Throne of Glass series and a lot of fans will tandem read this book with Empire of Storms. I don’t have any strong feelings about the tandem read, I just know I can’t do it myself. This book takes place chronologically at the same time as Empire of Storms. We just happen to be following a whole other set of characters and finding out what they’ve been up to during the madness of the last book. 

This book overall for me is pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of Chaol but he comes around for me more in this one. I like learning about more aspects of this world as a whole and I feel you get more of a sense of that in this book. I will say it’s a nice little reprieve from the main set of characters storyline and much needed!

Hooked by Emily McIntire

This dark romance retelling of Peter Pan had me melting. This is the start of a series by Emily McIntire  all consisting of standalone’s. Seriously, you could read these in any order and it REALLY won’t make a difference. She’s written these books to be retellings of some of our favorite classic tales but the villain is the hero and is the main love interest. How’s that for a nice little twist to become a dark romance.

In this book we are following Hook from Peter Pan and what turns out to be, Peter Pan’s daughter. They begin to have a passionate love affair and it became difficult for me to put down this book. It takes place in modern day Boston and James (Hook) is basically running a drug business and the drug is called Pixie. 

This author has such a unique way of telling this story and incorporating all of the different Peter Pan aspects. It was like finding little easter eggs throughout the book and I was enjoying every second of it. This book is beyond smutty so be warned of that before diving into this one. However, I HIGHLY recommend it because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wretched by Emily McIntire

Next up we have Wretched, which is part of the series mentioned about by Emily McIntire. In this book we’re following the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. It took me a while to gather that this was the villain we were following in this story. But as I mentioned before, this author is really clever about dropping in those easter eggs here and there. 

This retelling was just as spicy, if not even more so on my radar. And again, I loved every second of it. I can’t stress this enough that you truly don’t have to read the other books in the series or in any particular order to enjoy these books. They don’t live in the same world, they don’t follow the same characters, you can just enjoy each of them individually.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

This book right here, is one of my all time favorite books. Seriously, it’s in my top five. I did a reread of it this month, probably my fourth or fifth reread of it, and just devoured it yet again. I originally read this book back when I was in high school and it still holds up. There’s a reason it’s won many awards.

We follow a sixteen year old girl, Gemma, who is heading on vacation with her parents. While in the Bangkok airport she’s taken by a man named Ty. He’s been watching Gemma and planning this for years. He then takes her to a remote house in the Australian desert where he plans for them to spend the rest of their lives. Only problem is, Gemma’s not on board, for obvious reasons. But as she begins to spend more time with Ty and understanding his world, she begins to see that a life out in the desert may be something she’d grow to love. 

This whole book is told in second person directed at Ty. It’s Gemma writing their story down as a letter to him and it’s so well done. It makes the reader feel as if they’re the kidnapper and it will make you feel all kinds of uncomfortable. This is a YA thriller so no worries about smut scenes, but there are scenes of girls being drugged and kidnapped so be sure to read all the list of triggers for this book.

I always recommend this book to everyone I come across so if you’re reading this blog and haven’t read this book yet, then here’s your sign to pick up this book now!

Well there you have it, my May 2024 reading wrap up. Let me know in the comments down below if you’ve read any of these and what your thoughts are! I’ve also linked my YouTube video of it down below if you’d like to watch me physically rant about all these books!