May felt like the longest month ever but it also flew by. I managed to burn through all of my pre-prepared blog posts and it felt like every book I picked up took weeks to finish. All in all, not a great month reading-wise. It was pretty good otherwise though, which is probably why reading and writing posts wasn’t my main priority.
Run Like a Girl by Amaka Egbe
Read: 1/5/25 – 9/5/25
*I was sent an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I thought this was a pretty decent read and I really liked a lot of the characters but it did dall a little flat. Taking, what to me is a very long time, to get through this really impacted how I felt about the book. I was reading it in such short segments that everything felt all over the place. It probably wasn’t though, user error.
I did rate this four stars, which is probably a little too generous looking back.
ARC Review: Run Like a Girl by Amaka Egbe
Synopsis: Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she’s shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.
Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys’ team instead. But while she has the school administration’s blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.
Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera’s approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera’s story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn’s gorgeous cousin Gael—also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her—Dera agrees.
But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera’s new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?
Turtle Bread by Kim-Joy & Alti Firmansyah
Read: 4/5/25
I love graphic novels about food and this one was great. The idea of joining a baking group is so lovely and something I’d absolutely want to do if I didn’t have so much social anxiety. Which is the exact issue Yan faces.
This is surprisingly emotional considering you don’t actually spend that much time with the characters. It’s a solid read that I’d more than recommend if you love cute graphic novels.
Graphic Novel Review: Turtle Bread by Kim-Joy & Alti Firmansyah
Synopsis: Yan is looking for a place to belong. She struggles with social anxiety and low self-esteem, making it hard to maintain a job or relationships. When the chance comes along to step out of her comfort zone, Yan joins Baking Club, hoping to share her passion with people who love pastries and cakes as much as she does.
At first, Yan is intimidated by the other members, but as she gets to know them better, she comes to love Baking Club. In fact, Yan realizes that she’s not alone in trying to hide her mental health struggles from her friends. The members of the Club come together to support each other and to bake their way through any problem!
Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
Read: 8/5/25
Cute is the best and only way I want to describe this graphic novel. The art style is lovely and fits the setting so well.
Graphic Novel Review: Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
Synopsis: Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don’t get noticed by the mean kids.
Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them.
On her first day at her new school, Penelope–Peppi–Torres reminds herself of these basics. But when she trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson, she’s already broken the first rule, and the mean kids start calling her the “nerder girlfriend.” How does she handle this crisis? By shoving poor Jaime and running away!
Falling back on rule two and surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi still can’t help feeling ashamed about the way she treated Jaime. Things are already awkward enough between the two, but to make matters worse, he’s a member of her own club’s archrivals–the science club! And when the two clubs go to war, Peppi realizes that sometimes you have to break the rules to survive middle school!
Dear Calista by Danielle Keil
Read: 10/5/25
This was one of my favourite instalments so far. The themes were more mature and Calista felt very realistic. I love this series and will definitely be continuing it when I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription again.
Book Review: Dear Calista by Danielle Keil
Synopsis: Everyone at Ryder High knows what it means to have a teal envelope taped to their locker on the first day of the month.
The first day of August is Calista Forrester’s seventeenth birthday. Her teal envelope showed up among the gifts at a surprise party. A party she didn’t want. Just like how she doesn’t want a Secret Admirer.
Panged with guilt, and stuck with a dead phone battery, she accepts the challenge by default. Her clues come in the form of tickets to different places, each with a task to complete while she’s there. It’s an introvert’s worst nightmare, but at least she’s allowed to bring a friend along.
When school starts, Calista is shoved into the spotlight as the chosen girl. That’s when she decides enough is enough. Will Calista’s decision impact more than just her? And will her secret admirer let her give up that easily?
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by N.D. Stevenson
Read: 10/5/25
This graphic novel runs on pure chaos and vibes and I LOVED it. The art style was so fun and I loved the wild antics they got up to. The story was a little all over the place to begin with but the twist at the end was great. I’m looking forward to checking out volume two.
Graphic Novel Review: Lumberjanes Vol. 1 by N.D. Stevenson
Synopsis: FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX!
At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here.
Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 1 by Svetlana Chmakova
Read: 10/5/25
I won’t say too much about this yet as I’m not posting my review for a while yet. It was a decent read though.
Synopsis: Schools may lock up for the night, but class is in session for an entirely different set of students. In the Nightschool, vampires, werewolves, and weirns (a particular breed of witches) learn the fundamentals of everything from calculus to spell casting. Alex is a young weirn whose education has always been handled through homeschooling, but circumstances seem to be drawing her closer to the Nightschool. Will Alex manage to weather the dark forces gathering?
The Unfinished by Cheryl Isaacs
Read: 15/525 – 17/5/25
I had high hopes for this book as I love a thriller set around folklore but it wasn’t great. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn’t listen to the audiobook as the narrator attempting to do sound effects was horrible.
The folklore stories were really interesting though. These were easily the best parts of the book.
Audiobook Review: The Unfinished by Cheryl Isaacs
Synopsis: The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive.
When small-town athlete Avery’s morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook’s Falls have long forgotten.
Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she’s losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery—taking a new form each time—people in town begin to go missing.
Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) relatives, she’s never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs.
When Key, her best friend and longtime crush, is the next to disappear, Avery is faced with a choice: listen to the Kanyen’kehá:ka and save the town but lose her friend forever…or listen to her heart and risk everything to get Key back.
Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah
Read: 9/5/25 – 17/5/25
It took me way longer to get through this than the dates above. I forgot to add it to my Goodreads so I don’t know when I started it, but it took at least a month to get through. I wasn’t too invested in the story so I didn’t find myself picking it up very often.
Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Koral and her older brother Emrik risk their lives each day to capture the monstrous maristags that live in the black seas around their island. They have to, or else their family will starve.
In an oceanic world swarming with vicious beasts, the Landers―the ruling elite, have indentured Koral’s family to provide the maristags for the Glory Race, a deadly chariot tournament reserved for the upper class. The winning contender receives gold and glory. The others―if they’re lucky―survive.
When the last maristag of the year escapes and Koral has no new maristag to sell, her family’s financial situation takes a turn for the worse and they can’t afford medicine for her chronically ill little sister. Koral’s only choice is to do what no one in the world has ever dared: cheat her way into the Glory Race.
But every step of the way is unpredictable as Koral races against contenders―including her ex-boyfriend―who have trained for this their whole lives and who have no intention of letting a low-caste girl steal their glory. When a rebellion rises and rogues attack Koral to try and force her to drop out, she must choose―her life or her sister’s―before the whole island burns.
She grew up battling the monsters that live in the black seas, but it couldn’t prepare her to face the cunning cruelty of the ruling elite.
All-Nighter by Cecilia Vinesse
Read: 10/5/25 – 19/5/25
*I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I really wanted to love this but the pace was way too slow. Which says a lot as this book takes place over about 8 hours. The antics they get up to are fun but there were too many of them.
ARC Review: All-Nighter by Cecilia Vinesse
Synopsis: Autumn Povitsky is a high-achieving, booked and busy, straight-A nightmare. She’s currently having a crisis of self—she needs a fake ID ASAP—but because she’s a total square, she has no idea where to get one.
Enter buzzcut hottie Tara Esposito. She’s a rule breaker and party crasher of the highest degree, and if anyone knows where to get a fake, it’s her. But Tara has hung up her James Dean leather jacket for the night. If she doesn’t finish this godforsaken essay that’s already weeks late, she can kiss her upcoming graduation goodbye.
One brainy girl who needs a fake ID before sundown. One serial rebel who needs to turn in an essay before sunrise. It’s obvious what needs to happen here. But with a years-long feud keeping the girls from working together, this may be a night to forget…or one they’ll remember forever.
The [Fake] Dating Game by Timothy Janovsky
Read: 20/5/25 – 29/5/25
I expected to love this, but I pretty much hated it. Fake dating wasn’t even part of the book, even though the characters say they are, and the main character is pretty insufferable. Plus way too much smut and not enough of the actual plot that was promised. More on that in my review that’s coming soon.
Synopsis: Ready. Set. Faux.
Holden James picked the worst time to have a meltdown. His chance to audition for his favorite game show, Madcap Market , should have been a moment of triumph—a glorious, loving homage to his adored mom, who died six years ago. Instead, he’s destroying the minibar in a grim Los Angeles hotel room…recently dumped, partnerless and sliding into a crushing black hole of anguish.
But the hotel service in abject misery is sublime. It even comes with an unfairly fit and sexy (smart-ass) concierge who arrives at the door with pizza, Monopoly and deliciously distracting forearms.
All Holden knows about Leo Min is that he’s beautiful and unexpectedly sympathetic, and the chemistry between them is beyond . Maybe it’s even enough to convince everyone, including the show’s casting directors, that they’re a real couple. All they’d have to do is crush the competition, win the huge cash prize and all of Holden’s problems—his broken heart, his buried grief, his complete lack of money and direction—will be fixed.
Of course, reality doesn’t quite work out that way. But love is an entirely different game…
Last One to Die by Cynthia Murphy
Read: 19/5/25 – 29/5/25
This was a pretty decent read but nothing to write home about. When the book focuses on the mystery, the writing is great. The romance, not so much. But I have a full review of this coming very soon, so keep an eye out for it!
Synopsis: A supernatural thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. Packed with voice-driven whodunit storytelling, and a classic slasher-movie feel, this dark, pacy, and irresistibly creepy thriller really has something for everybody!
16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived in London for the summer, and quickly discovers that girls who look frighteningly like her are being attacked.
Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! Nonetheless, there’s something eerie about the museum…
As present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realizes that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Graphic Novel Review: Lumberjanes Vol. 1 by N.D. Stevenson
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