{Monthly Wrap Up} May 2017

 

In all honesty, this was probably my most difficult month blogging so far. I learned a lot about balancing my time and setting limits on the things I try to take on. I over extended myself in many ways this month – not just blogging – and it made things a lot more stressful than they needed to be. Going forward I’m going to do my best to adapt on the fly and move at a pace I find easier to deal with.

• Sleep Tight by Caroline Mitchell – 4.5/5 stars
• Hunted by Meagan Spooner – 4.5/5 stars
• Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault by Candace Robinson – 3/5 stars

• The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson – 4/5 stars
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – 5/5 stars
• Be My Killer by Richard Parker – 3/5 stars

• The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan – 4/5 stars
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo – 3/5 stars

So I read 8 books in total this month. I had a few more in progress that will likely be finished in the next day or two, but still I had higher hopes for this month, so I’m a little bit disappointed. I didn’t have a terrible month quality-wise though! I enjoyed everything I read for the most part, so I feel like I’m on the right track and this genre hopping thing I’ve been doing has really been helping me hold my interest on new stories and characters.

I kind of let my Top 5 posts slide this month because of how busy I was. I had family and friends in town for my graduation party, and pretty much every weekend ended up having some sort of event that made reading or prepping posts more difficult for me this month. I hope to get back into it in a big way during June!

• {Planned Reads} May 2017 – I diverted in a big way from my Planned reads list, which kind of bums me out. I’m planning on making the rest of this year more about me reading the things I want to read. I have some ARCs to finish out and then I’m going to be settling into the books that are really calling to me.
• {Top 5} SFF Cover Art
• {Aside} Rating on Goodreads Before You’ve Read It – This was the post I was most proud of from May. It drew in a HUGE response from my followers, from people on Goodreads, and from people throughout the bookish community. It was by far my most popular and shared post and I appreciate you all for engaging in the discussion. I only had one person (that I know of) de-friend me on Goodreads over it, but I was heartened to see so many people able to discuss this top with level heads.
• {Top 5} Books as Event Themes
• {Book Haul} May 2017 – I actually will need to do an early June follow up to this post, as I’ve hauled in some more new treasures already!

My book haul was crazy this month. I graduated from school this month, and got a LOT of bookstore gift cards from family and friends over the last couple of weeks. I still have a few to spend actually. I have zero impulse control, so I ran out and bought some more books that have been on my list for awhile! While I have more to share, here are the ones that I’ve reported thus far.

• The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
• The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
• Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
• Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb
• Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• Deep Blue by Megan Donnelly
• Rogue Wave by Megan Donnelly

Thoughts

 

All in all it wasn’t a bad month! I know I should be happy with 8 books read – although I had hoped I had a few more in me. I’m planning on filling June with some ARCs and a couple of buddy reads and a few just for fun. I’ll lay out the plan in my next Planned Reads post.

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See you there!

xoxo