In January, I challenged myself to read more. In 2022, I read 12 books total. As a writer, I knew I needed to up my reading game. So far in 2023, I’ve read 18! I want to share my monthly books here. I’ll catch up another time with Jan-Apr. Here are May’s books . . .

I included Daisy Jones & The Six in the list since I was pretty disappointed in Malibu Rising. Maybe it was a fluke. Although I did take Carrie Soto is Back off my TBR, based on her appearance in Malibu Rising. Daisy Jones & The Six is a must read – especially if you’re a fan of the Fleetwood era of music. I was hopeful I’d enjoy all of Reid’s books because of it. But Malibu Rising wasn’t great. In part, I couldn’t fully care for or like any of the characters. There’s an extreme amount of telling vs showing and while I didn’t entirely hate this book, I really struggled through it. There were some sweet moments between the siblings – I will give the book that much.
On the four-star end are Me Before You & Someone Else’s Shoes. I thought Someone Else’s Shoes was tons of fun and a great female friendship kind of book. It would be a fun movie. Me Before You totally broke my heart. I cried. I don’t like spoilers so I don’t intend to give it away. If you want to know more and you’re sensitive to certain subjects – particularly surrounding death, maybe don’t read this one or read up on it. It was made into a movie I’m looking forward to seeing with Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin (from Daisy Jones on Amazon) and I’ve now started book 2 in the series. I loved the sarcasm and joking between Will and Lou. I genuinely loved Lou and lately, I haven’t cared for many of the female protagonists in the books I’ve read. Lou was endearing and weird. But the book made me stupidly emotional. You’ve been warned.
Finally, The Dead Romantics is super weird. This isn’t my norm. It’s dark and kind of morbid (the family owns a mortuary). And weirdly, I read part of it while home in California for my dad’s funeral. The book is enjoyable. But I won’t tell a lie, I wished the two main characters had been together – physically – a little longer. You’ll understand if you read. It was fun otherwise, but I could quite get to four stars. Although, I may have to rethink that as it’s light years ahead of Malibu Rising. Maybe it’s a solid 3.5 stars…