So yeah, this is really late. I enjoyed the vacation my spouse and I took earlier this month, but man did it push all of my posts back. Let’s get into my reading wrap-up for May 2025.
My reading in May was… okay. I know that I could’ve read more books, and a decent part of me wishes that I would’ve read more, but that didn’t end up happening. At least I read more than one novel, though.
Anyway, let’s just start talking about my StoryGraph statistics from last month!
May Reading 2025
I read 2 books and 662 pages
😐 MOODS: I had five Moods in May, which is more than the month before. The Moods from this past month were: Adventurous, Lighthearted, Hopeful, Funny and Emotional.
👢 PACE: The two books I read last month both had different pacing. One was fast-paced and the other was medium-paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novels I read last month were between 325 and 336 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. As usual.
🎭 GENRES: There were three Genres in the books I read in May. They were: Fantasy, Middle Grade and Romance.
📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was surprisingly correct once again. I didn’t even have to meddle with it this time, either! All of the novels I read last month were on my physical copies.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.5, as I rated the two books I read 3.25 and 3.75 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading for May was really up and down. I didn’t really start off that great, but I finally started reading my first novel of the month around the 11th and finished it around the 16th. I started reading the second book on the 27th and finished it on the 31st. My highest reading peak was the 30th.
So yeah, this is late and last month I could’ve done better. I’m hoping that the rest of June will either be better than May, or that I’ll do as well as last month.
Right now the stuff on my immediate TBR consists of The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah and A Spell for Change by Nicole Jarvis. I’m still not sure which one I’m going to read next. There are also a couple of new June releases that I’m interested in, so I might actually read one of them first. We’ll see what happens.
I also do want to get back into buddy-reading One Piece with my spouse, but they have a bit of a TBR pile of their own at the moment, and I don’t think I’ll have time in June. Hopefully we’ll get back into it before the end of the summer, though. And as for blogging and blog posts, I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing.
Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my May reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
Hey there everybody! Another month, another bunch of new books that are coming out! Yep, it’s The Most Intriguing New Books of May 2025.
This used to be a quarterly post, but I’ve recently decided to do it monthly instead. Also, even though this post is about new releases, it’s primarily focused on fantasy and science fiction, as those are the genres I tend to prefer to read. (Not to say other genres won’t ever appear on these lists – it just isn’t super likely; it’s likely to be a very rare occurrence if it happens at all.)
If you’ve seen this post by me before, you know the drill; I’m only interested in these books – there’s no guarantee that I’m gonna read all of them. There’s not even a guarantee that I’m gonna read even half of them. We shall see. Anyway, let’s get going! This month there are five books that have caught my eye.
RELEASING: May 6th
Who is Mary Darling? In this smartly subversive Victorian mash-up of the legendary literary novels Peter Pan and Sherlock Holmes, the intrepid mother of the Darling children is on the case―and always one step ahead of her inept husband and a famous detective.
Mary Darling is a pretty wife whose boring husband is befuddled by her independent ways. But one fateful night, Mary becomes the distraught mother whose three children have gone missing from their beds. After her well-meaning uncle John Watson contacts the greatest detective of his era (but not that great), Mary is Sherlock Holmes’s prime suspect in her children’s disappearance.
To save her family, Mary must escape an attempt to have her locked away as mad, and to travel halfway around the world. Along the way, her allies include a Solomon Islander whose village was destroyed by Western civilization; a Malagasy woman on an island that is run by women; Captain Hook and the crew of the Jolly Roger; and of course, Nana, the faithful dog and nursemaid.
This witty and adventurous new novel from Pat Murphy (The City Not Long After) will delight fans of classic Victorian tales, as well as those who are looking for a radical new take on the British Empire.
RELEASING: May 13th
A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey.
Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.
Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.
Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.
RELEASING: May 13th
Wielding a magic that allows him to pop off limbs, con-artist Phyllis ransoms body parts to make a living. At least until his cold heart is moved when a mark claims his sister, Adeline, was taken.
Adeline is not the only missing girl in their seedy city, and Phyllis’ best chance to unravel the mystery is to become Lord Phillip of Rabbiton and strike a deal with the ambitious madame, Adeline’s former employer, for info on his leads. As a duke, Phillip finds the girls who are not dead—but undead. And when the madame finds out, she twists Phillip into helping her with her plans to rule the city.
To cement his future as a duke, save his new family of mostly-dead girls, and earn Adeline’s affection, Phillip will have to stop the madame and discover the depths of his magic—before his own lies destroy him.
RELEASING: May 20th
A charming slow-burn romantasy featuring a duty-bound noblewoman with a chronic illness, a prince who would rather be in a library than on a throne, and a magical ride through a world of cozy enchantment.
Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighboring kingdom’s heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca’s betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight.
To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry—leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety.
Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric’s murder, and she’s now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.
As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.
RELEASING: May 27th
From the NYT-bestselling author of Dreadful, Big Little Lies goes to magic school, cozy fantasy perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, Olivia Atwater and Heather Fawcett. Featuring orange sprayed and stencilled edges, with magic symbols, unicorns and baked goods from the book.
Two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.
When Vivian’s kindergartner, Aria, gets bitten by a werewolf, she is rapidly inducted into the hidden community of magical schools. Reeling from their sudden move, Vivian finds herself having to pick the right sacrificial dagger for Aria, keep stocked up on chew toys, and play PTA politics with sirens and chthonic nymphs and people who literally can set her hair on fire.
As Vivian careens from hellhounds in the school corridors to demons at the talent show, she races to keep up with all the arcane secrets of her new society—shops only accessible by magic portal, the brutal Trials to enter high school, and the eternal inferno that is the parents’ WhatsApp group.
And looming over everything is a prophecy of doom that sounds suspiciously like it’s about Aria. Vivian might be facing the end of days, just as soon as she can get her daughter dressed and out of the door…
So yeah, these are all of the books releasing in the in May 2025 that I’m at least a little interested in. What books are coming out soon that you’re looking forward to? Do we share some of the same ones?
As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
It’s June now, so it’s time to talk about what I read in May! This is super late compared to normal – and I wanted to post this way earlier – but I went on vacation last week, so my posting and my schedule in general both kind of got messed up. Sorry, I’ve been kind of MIA these last couple weeks.
Anyway.
My reading is the best it’s been so far this year! May was fantastic regarding books and stuff. I read 8 books – which is 2 more novels than I read in April! Woohoo! I’m really happy with my reading stats from The StoryGraph from May.
But yeah, without further ado, let’s get going with the May 2024 Reading Wrap-Up!
May Reading 2024
I read 8 books and 2,234 pages
😐 MOODS: There were a ton of different Moods this past month. Adventurous was of course the biggest chunk of the pie in May, but Mysterious was also pretty big. Making up the rest of the pie were Reflective, Lighthearted, Inspiring, Hopeful, Funny, Emotional, and Dark.
👢 PACE: My books from last month were all either fast or medium paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of books with different page numbers. But everything I read was between 100 and 500 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.
🎭 GENRES: There were quite a few Genres in May, though not as many as in April. Fantasy was once again the biggest bar, as usual, though it is closely followed by Middle Grade – probably because I read the entirety of the Magisterium series last month. The three other Genres on the graph are LGBT+, Science Fiction, and Historical.
📄 FORMAT: This particular pie graph is once again wrong. All of the books that I read were ebooks.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.94. The ratings I gave were between 2.5 stars and 5.0 stars, with three of the ratings being 4.0 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked during the first week or so of May, but I really started reading after that. My highest reading peak was during the 21st thru the 23rd, but I had little reading spikes around during other parts of the month.
So yeah, so again for being late with this wrap-up and the gap in the posting. I’ve just had a few things going on the last couple weeks; particularly my vacation last week. I’m not sure how much reading of books I’m gonna get done for June, but I didn’t read any during my vacation, so we’ll see. Hopefully it’s at least like 5 or 6 books by the end of the month.
There are a couple of books that came out this month (June 2024) that I was interested in. I’ve already read one of them, and you’ll see what I thought of it soon. But I’m hoping to continue with One Piece again. We got busy at the end of May, so plans for continuing it last month kinda fell by the wayside. Other than that, I’m not fully sure what I’m planning on reading during the rest of this month.
Anyway, thanks for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my May reading in 2024. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
Happy Thursday everybody! How’s everyone’s May been going? What books have you been reading lately? Any with green covers?
Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.
March has one birthstone – Emerald. Which means books with green covers!
Rules:
📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to her so she can check out your post. 📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone. 📚 HAVE FUN! 📚 Nominate people if you want!
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Sooo… this is a bit later than I hoped it’d be, but here it finally is – my monthly wrap-up with my May 2023 Reading statistics!
Anyway, talking about May – I’m not super happy with how much I read last month. My statistics were meh on The StoryGraph. It was the least amount of reading that I’ve done yet this year. But I kinda get that a lot of stuff went down this past month, so I didn’t have the time or the mental energy to get the stuff done that I wanted to.
Anyway, I’ve prattled on enough. On with the stats!
May 2023 Reading Stats
I read 3 books and 1171 pages
😐 MOODS:Adventurous was the biggest slice of pie once again. But there are a lot of different kinds of pie on the Moods graph this time. And they’re all pretty equal, which I found kinda funny.
👢 PACE: Unlike pretty much all of the previous months, fast-paced books were the biggest part of the pie. There’s still a chunk of medium-paced, though.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of shorter books in May, similar to what I read in April. 300 to 499 was the only kind of pie here.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: I read a nonfiction book this past month! Yay, finally! This is probably gonna be a once in a blue moon kind of thing though, as I rarely read it.
🎭 GENRES:Fantasy was the biggest part of the graph this time, as per usual. Science Fiction was also on here like it normally is, but Memoir also made an appearance this time… cuz I read a memoir.
📄 FORMAT: The little StoryGraph pie chart for this is wrong once again. (Yeah, I’m never gonna fix it, lol.) 33% (one book) were printed copies, and 66% (two books) were digital.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for the month of April was 4.33. I wasn’t all over the place with my ratings in May. I gave two books 4 stars and one book 5 stars. (According to my StoryGraph stats anyway. Once again, I didn’t add any of the manga I read to it. Otherwise there would’ve been two books with 5 star ratings.)
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read quite a bit during the first week and a half, but dipped down a ton in the middle. During the last few days of May though, I read a bunch.
So yeah, May 2023 reading was kind of a bust. I know that a crap-ton of stuff occurred that I couldn’t control, but I’m still irritated with the reading and blogging that I was able to do.
I’m determined for June 2023 to be different. I’m going to read more books than I did in May, and then I’m gonna write reviews and post them. I’ve had an okay start so far, and I’m determined to keep up the momentum. And the May 2023 Reading Wrap-Up comes to a close.
Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
