In Short: May

Pretty laid-back month this month; not much to report. The heat’s begun to hit where I am, which is just rude; the fibro is what it is. I had a lot of fun with Wyrd & Wonder, the garden’s coming in, and I ordered new glasses – should be getting them this coming week! Kind of sad to be retiring the gorgeous pair I have now, but they’re falling apart and my prescription’s changed, so…sigh. But at least the new pair are extremely sparkly!

ARCs Received

Mostly auto-approves this month! Almost all of these were already on my radar; of those new to me, Slayers of Old I learned about when a Goodreads friend reviewed it, and I remembered that diversity needs to mean elderly rep too; Demon Engine I stumbled upon on Bluesky, and then discovered it’s from the same tiny indie (micro-press?) who published the hardback of Darknesses! (Which, I say yet again, you should read!)

There’s really not many books left on my Unmissable list that I’d want arcs of – sequels and new books from authors I already like, I’d rather wait for. I love having books to excitedly look forward to, you know?

(Obviously I have broken that rule a lot! But I’m trying, I swear.)

(And I’ll unapologetically break the rule when it’s an author I like writing something wildly different to their thing I read, like Emily Tesh writing Incandescent after Some Desperate Glory. This month I nabbed Voidwalker when I really loved the author’s debut, The Phoenix Keeper, because Voidwalker sounds very different.)

So most stuff I request going forward will probably be new to-me-authors and books I’ve not heard of already! I wonder what new faves I’ll end up discovering?

Read

25 books read this month! That’s 5 more than April. Probably the number of novellas this month helped!

I continue to read non-fic aloud at bedtime to get the hubby to sleep, which has had excellent results but the quality of the books themselves has varied a lot (and does anyone know why non-fic ebooks are almost always packed full of typos???) But the fiction made up for it: Incandescent blew me away, The Grimoire Grammar Parent Teacher Association is utterly delightful, and I’m still heartbroken that The Mercy Makers is over (wanna take bets on how many times I reread it before we get book two???)

Audition For The Fox was a book I hoped to like (I count the author as a friendly acquaintance) but ended up loving, with worldbuilding I straight-up adored. I’m interviewing the author about it, so expect that closer to the book’s release day (September 16th)!

Wonderful rereads included Radiance, which will never not take my breath away; Letter to the Luminous Deep, every bit as enchanting the second time around; Tears of the Salamander, a beautiful MG about music and fire; A Brother’s Price, which remains one of my favourite romances and I wish the author would write more in that setting!; and Bride of the Rat God, which I doubt I will ever get tired of (I think this was my fourth time with it!) I also played the audiobook of Murderbot for the hubby, which is a Big Deal because he never reads sci fi! Now to convince him to listen to the rest of the series…

Reviewed

Pretty pleased with my reviews this month! I mean, I always wish I’d written more, but quality-wise, I’m happy. (Yes, even with the one of Amplitudes. I regret not one single swear word.)

DNFed

A new record this month: 17! What is there to say except…welp?

(The last one I only dnfed around 3am this morning; I’ll add it to yesterday’s dnf roundup post later!)

ARCs Outstanding

I feel like I’ve somehow managed to wrestle my arcs under control, which is not an accurate reflection of reality because I still have so many whose release dates have passed without a review from me. (Although some of these are final copies sent to me after publication, which I feel much less guilty about.)

Unmissable SFF Updates

Another Unmissable was pushed back to 2026, but I added another after I got to read an arc of it, so we’re still at 81!

How did my predictions/anticipated reads for May go? I declared ten books Unmissable for this month, and–

two were five-star reads (Incandescent and The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association)two were two-and-a-half star reads (Brighter Than Scale Swifter Than Flame and Starving Saints)one was a two-star read (that I’d like to give -10) (Amplitudes)three were DNFs (Disco Witches, Behooved, and Sun Blessed Prince)two I haven’t finished yet, but am enjoying very much (Letter From the Lonesome Shore and Overgrowth)

Even though the two five-stars both became favourites, I think we have to call this a pretty disappointing month for the Unmissables! Even if both the ones I haven’t finished yet turn out to be five stars (and I’m pretty sure one of them won’t) that’s still less than a 50% success rate. Meep!

Misc

This month was Wyrd & Wonder, so I had more non-review posts than usual! And I’m pretty happy with all of them;

a list of recommendations featuring mermaids and selkies, for this year’s nautical thememy annual list of cool magic systemsmy annual list of cool magical powers10 strange and wonderful fantasy settings

I also made a recommendation list of vampire books for World Dracula Day, which I did not know was a thing and remain gleeful about!

Looking Forward

Pride Month is once again PACKED full of new books to be excited for! The Mercy Makers is at the top of the list for me (conveying just how much I love it is going to make reviewing it HARD); Starstruck and Seventhblade, featuring sapphic radishes and Native American epic fantasy respectively, come a close joint-second. The rest are in no particular order; we have a fixer of magical objects in Reigncloud Palace; Woman From the Waves is a gothic-y looking romance with a sapphic kelpie; Dragon Next Door features the rescue of a stolen dragon egg getting out of hand. Nine-Tenths, with more dragons, is the newest book from a long-time fave of mine, and A Holy Maiden’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped, with its faceblind mc, sounds like a lot of fun!

And these are only the ones I’m REALLY excited for; a ton more I have my eyes on will be showing up in my Must-Have Monday posts!

Wishing us all a joy-full June!

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