I read 19 books in May 📚☕️🪐📖 (so many new favorites) MAY WRAP UP

And the ending of this book was very strong and it ended on such a good note. But there were some parts in the second half of the book that started to lose me just a little bit in terms of like the storytelling. But this was such a powerful read and one that I would highly recommend.

I got 50 pages into this one and this is another one where like I don't really know if I'm vibing with the writing style in this.

I will say though that the plot of this book gets absolutely ridiculous, like over-the-top crazy. But I personally really loved that about this. I thought it made the book so much fun.

Some of it was like really fun and really creepy, but a lot of it just kind of felt like cheesy to me, because like there would be scenes where she's actually like talking and like having dialogue with the monsters, and they're like negotiating. Also just read kind of clunky to me, because each one of the chapters, I guess it was like originally a bunch of different short stories on Reddit, and then they ended up putting them all together for this book, and I feel like you can kind of tell.

But like otherwise, all the rest of the stories in this book, in my opinion, they were very forgettable. They kind of felt like half-baked ideas. Like I just wanted so much more out of these stories.

And so, I loved hearing about their jobs specifically. Like, I really loved their passion for weather. That was definitely like my favorite thing about this book. But then, the romance in this book just really, really, really didn't work for me.

The only reason why I didn't give this one five stars is because this book is a little bit long and at times it was starting to feel repetitive in the second half. And I also at times I found AJ to be like a little bit annoying because she has like a lot of insecurities that keep getting brought up like over and over again. But otherwise, this was kind of like a perfect book for me and I just absolutely adore these characters.

I don't know, I find all of the characters to be pretty obnoxious and I feel like this book has only been frustrating for me to read so far because it's just introducing so many characters and different timelines and I'm already getting confused.

I also ended up DNFing Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey. I only got about like 50 pages into this one and I was just really, really, really not vibing with the writing style.

It was really cool to hear some of the crazy stories about his manuscripts over the years and like what little differences he made before the books got published and like how some of these stories came to be in the first place. I if you're a fan of Stephen King, you definitely need to check out this one cuz it was so fascinating.

But overall, I ended up giving this one three and a half stars. It was mostly a really good time and I enjoyed a lot of the short stories in this collection.

His book Nestlings and his book When the Wolf Comes Home are two of my favorite books that I've ever read.

One of the books that I DNF that I already talked about in a reading vlog is Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune. I've realized about myself that I really don't like childhood friends to lovers as a trope in romance unless it's gay.

And like, maybe I should have gone into this with lower expectations because this one is actually a collection of short stories, which includes the book Rest Stop, which is a novella that I read a while ago, and I think I gave Rest Stop two stars when I read it.

I mean, yes, the premise is kind of silly and stupid, but like oh my god, they were so cute. Wait, that the tension was written between them in some of these scenes. I was like squealing over them.

I was actually so invested in this book in the beginning but then as we got closer to the second half and you start to realize like what's actually happening, I just quickly started to lose interest and like I was saying a lot of the commentary just felt so heavy-handed that I was like, "Oh my gosh, like I get it."

This book was just so creepy and so entertaining. Something that I absolutely loved about this story was actually Macy's character and her relationship that she had with her younger sister. I think the only reason why I didn't end up giving this one a higher rating is because some of the plot ended up getting a little bit repetitive.

I read this all within one afternoon because I could not put the book down. And it was just so good and so creepy. Like this just had everything that I personally love in horror.

And I actually would recommend if you read this book and you're looking for something similar that could actually make you cry, I would recommend The Story Life of A.J. Fikry because that is one of my favorite books of all time and I did see a lot of similarities with this book and that book.

It's a really, really beautiful and touching premise, and I do think that this is a book that I probably would have loved if I had read it a few years ago. I just feel like my reading taste has changed a little bit over time, and I'm not really reaching for books like this anymore that are like really sappy, really like heartfelt stories that are like intended to make you cry. And not only that, but I just feel like I never really felt that connected to the characters and I can't really explain why.

I love the way that Casey West has been writing these adult romance books recently cuz she's also the author of We Met Like This which is one that I read last year that I really loved.

This is from the same author as We Used to Live Here, which is like one of my top favorite horror books that I've ever read.

His book Nestlings and his book When the Wolf Comes Home are two of my favorite books that I've ever read.

So, I can't wait to see what this author does in the future, and I would highly, highly recommend Yesteryear. I think it's worth the hype, and it's definitely one of my top favorite books that I've read this year.