A New TBR!
The way my TBR usually works is that I stumble across videos and books that intrigue me, usually on TikTok but sometimes on GoodReads and word of mouth through friends and book club members. Depending on how I’m feeling, I’ll either read them straight away or add them to my TBR for later. If I don’t get to them by my end‑of‑month wrap‑up, they roll over into my TBR update.
This year, however, I’ve been unusually angry at my TBR picks, so I haven’t really been paying attention to recommendations—which I find deeply funny and ironic, considering recommendations are very much my thing. Still, a few books managed to slip past my self‑imposed boundaries, and those are the ones below. My shortest TBR update of the year, with just three books.
Books I Read
Books Left
Books I am DNFing
I decided to remove this from my TBR – I started it, but it really just isn’t my vibe, and I don’t want to keep forcing myself to read it.
The Sword of Kaigen – M.L. Wang
In a secluded mountain village where warriors are raised in honour and silence, an unexpected invasion shatters centuries of tradition. As secrets resurface and loyalties fracture, a mother and son must reckon with love, loss, and the brutal cost of survival in a world built on violence.
I read Blood over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang last year, which was one of my favourite books of the year – I have heard so many good things about The Sword of Kaigen, and I need a story that is going to make me FEEL SOMETHING!
The School for Good Mothers – Jessamine Chan
After one devastating mistake, a mother is sent to an experimental government institution designed to reform “bad” parenting. Watched, judged, and measured at every turn, she must prove her worth while questioning a system that equates compliance with love and punishment with care.
This was actually on my TBR last year, but I never fully got around to it. I cleared my TBR at the end of the year, so it’s officially on now. The ratings aren’t amazing, but I’m still intrigued, so I will give it a try.
Heart the Lover – Lily King
In her final year of university, a young woman is drawn into an intoxicating friendship—and love triangle—with two brilliant classmates. Years later, long after the choices of youth have shaped her life, the past resurfaces, forcing her to reckon with first love, friendship, and the consequences that endure.
All the reviews of this book are big and emotional, and like I said i need to feel something! I love a life story book that shows how decisions influence and shape you, so I’m hoping for the best with this one, too.
Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke
A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister.
Yesteryear is a book I am so, so intrigued by. I had actually forgotten about it when I started this post, but I’m thinking about a mid-year challenge for books published this year, so I went looking for them, and this popped right back on my radar – I NEED to read this book, and I really hope it delivers
I might actually end up reading this month’s TBR before getting through all the books from previous posts, mainly because I’m so curious about them and genuinely think they could be 10/10 reads. Keep an eye on my May round-up, where I’ll let you know one, which books I read and two which ones I delivered. I also have a feeling they’d all make great candidates for full book reviews.
As always, if you follow me on GoodReads, you can see these TBR Updates and what I’m reading in real time.
Thanks for reading!
Signed,
