A Round Up of What I read this month!
Welcome to a very late and very overdue May Book Round-Up. As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t been blogging much over the last few weeks. I just haven’t really had the drive or inspiration, and because my love for reading is so closely tied to my love for blogging, when one falters, the other usually does too.
Then I went on holiday, which I would usually tell you all about, but because the blog break wasn’t planned and I wasn’t really in the right headspace, I just thought—you know what, we’ll pretend this didn’t happen and start fresh in June.
As you can probably tell, I did not read nearly as much as I would have liked this month—in fact, I barely read at all. It started so strong, and I was really in my Black romance bag, but as the month went on, it started taking me longer to get through books, and it ended up being such a slow month.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed every single book I read. In fact, I think it’s the first month this year where I was pleasantly surprised rather than bored by what I was reading—I was actually enjoying myself.
Overall, I read 9 books, with 2 five-star reads and quite a few strong 4-stars, so let’s get into it!
Completed Books (in chronological order, Notable in italics)
Finished
- Holding by Alexandria House
- Impending Consent by K.C Mills
- All Her Fault by Andrea Mara
- 12:01 by Bella Jay
- 12:01 the Aftermath by Bella Jay
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
- The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez
- Heart the Lover by Lily King
Highlights
Pachinko was a historical fiction novel that I absolutely loved. I think my highlight here wasn’t even just the plot, but the fact that this story is truly an epic—it spans generations and touches on so much East Asian history that I knew very little about. Korean history, and particularly the experience of Korean migrants in Japan, has never been an area I was very familiar with.
People often say Japan has done a lot of rebranding when it comes to its colonial and imperial past, and I don’t imagine Koreans are a group that would ever forget. From the impact of World War II on everyday people to the realities of the immigrant experience, this book covers so much. As an immigrant myself, I found I could really relate to many of the sentiments—though nowhere near the extent of what was experienced at the time, and from the sounds of it, what is still very present today. I definitely want to do a full review of this because there’s just so much to unpack, so stay tuned for that.
Heart, the Lover was probably the worst book I could have picked up at the time, purely because I was already in quite an emotional state—and I essentially cried my way through the entire thing. I’m sure that has probably skewed my judgement a little (if I’m being honest), but wow, what a read. I really appreciated that it was short and fast-paced, yet still so beautifully written.
It’s a harsh but emotionally sensitive rollercoaster. The protagonist is a writer, and the story is framed as her finally writing about “you”—though we don’t know who that is for quite a while. The tone is deeply melancholic, and even in moments where nothing overtly sad is happening, there’s this underlying heaviness that lingers. So when the emotion does hit, it feels like an avalanche you can’t quite contain. A beautiful book, and one I’d definitely recommend.
Holding by Alexandria House was a cute second-chance romance—and you know how much I love those. This one was actually a lot more emotionally layered than I was expecting, with much stronger themes, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.
You already know I love a romance that weaves in self-help and self-discovery, and our FMC was really dealing with a lot of emotional weight and personal healing that acted as a barrier to the relationship. Seeing her work through that made the journey just as satisfying as the rediscovery of love itself.
Legendborn is technically a highlight too, as I was still reading it when last month’s post went up, so I didn’t include it in that round-up. I do already have a full review up, though, so please go and give that a read!
TBR Overview
I only picked up 3 books from my TBR this month, which, considering the state of the month, is actually quite impressive. I really wanted to finish Till the Well Runs Dry and All Things Fall Apart because I don’t want to be carrying my January and February TBR into the second half of the year—so those are definite June reads! I also started Yesteryear, but I was so out of it I barely remember what happened, so again, hopefully a June read.
However, the three books I did manage to get through were all great.
Pachinko—I’ve already discussed. Same with Heart, the Lover.
We All Live Here was a bit of a spontaneous choice. I decided to listen to it on audiobook because I needed something to keep me company while doing chores, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve really been enjoying Jojo Moyes’ writing style—her stories are warm, engaging, and just work so well in audio format.
It touches on all the emotional beats of a family saga: strong character development, romantic side stories, and the chaos of teenagers figuring themselves out. At times, Lila (the main character) was a bit frustrating, but honestly, I think she deserved more grace from the people around her than she was given. A fun experience nonetheless, a feel-good story.
Reading Challenge Update
2025 Booker Prize
I actually forgot about this challenge this month. Not a single book. However, I’ve been seeing people read Flashlight on the train on numerous occasions, so that’s my next read.
2026 Releases
I read The Night We Met, which was fun overall. Abby Jimenez is a great writer, but she always seems to choose characters or storylines—especially her MMCs—that make me umm and ahh a bit.
The whole time I was reading, I kept wondering how she was going to make such a morally ambiguous story land. And to be fair, she did manage it. But I honestly would have preferred the romance to have been more straightforward than the way it played out.
She really captures the art of falling in love—caring for someone, showing up for them, prioritising them—and I could clearly see how the two main characters fell for each other. But everything surrounding that just made the whole experience feel a bit… off for me.
The Mixed Bag
There weren’t actually any mixed-bag reads this month—everything I picked up landed at least a 3.5 out of 5. Even the books where certain aspects didn’t fully work for me were still overall enjoyable reads.
Considering how slow my reading month was, I’m taking that as a big win.
That’s it for this round-up! Apologies for how late this one is—things should hopefully get back into the swing of things this month,🤞🏾.
There won’t be a TBR update this month as I’ve only added one book since the last update… and I’m not even sure I actually want to read it. So we’ll revisit that properly next month.
As always, follow me on Fable and Goodreads to see what I’m reading in real time and get a glimpse of my ratings and reviews. Let me know in the comments if there’s anything specific you’d like to see in these round ups going forward.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time! ✨
Signed,
