Hey everyone! It's Mia! I'm gonna be doing a wrap up book talk blog for May month. I'm going to talk about all the books I finished from the start of the month, 1st of May, till the end, May 31st. So, the number of books I read were 14!
Fourteen is a big number for me. I don't get that much time usually. It's kind of a accomplishment, since I am not among those people who do it all the time.. I take a lot of time reading a book, analysing it and do a quick review without any filters. I am still quite not out of the "haul everything you see , even though your last two hauls are sitting on the table untouched" era, lol.
Anyway, without further ado, let's get on with the topic of today's blog.
My Rating System for Books:
🌠Stars -
⭐ : Either dnf'd or wondering why bother finishing
⭐⭐ : Okay.. but whatever, do something about the plot holes
⭐⭐⭐ : Hm.. but I don't feel it
⭐⭐⭐⭐ : You gave me something good which could've been better
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ : Talk about my favorite
❣️ Hearts -
💛 : Oh.. I read it? Yesterday? No impact.
💚 : Confused if I should lower the ratings
💙 : Happy got to read it.
💜: I looooved it but boy where did you miss??
❤️ : Giddy, Crying, Screaming. Don't talk to me rn pls
✨No hearts, No stars : HATED
✨ ❤️ heart, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars : ALL TIME FAVOURITE
JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton
Until something goes wrong. . . .
And it does goes wrong (surprise! surprise!). John Hammond, CEO and creator of Jurassic Park invites a paleontologist, a paleobotanist, a mathematician, a general counsel at InGen corp., and his two grandchildren to come over at the park, do a tour and survey check it's safety and if the park is ready for visitors. Here's a lot of science, philosophy and mathematics compared to the movies.
The writing is amazing. You'd be sucked in the storyline from the first page, part of the reason I could finish this book in 2 days. Illustrations are provided for the computer screenings and the maps and charts.. it was really appreciated. The writer made sure we understood what was going on, so there's nothing you won't be able to keep up with.
I rated it 5/ 5 star. A ❤️ Heart.
Highly Recommended.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The second book I read in May was ‘The Perks of Being A Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky.
Charlie, a freshman in highschool, starts writing these anonymous letters to a stranger (us), telling the story of his life. These letters are like a personal diary he's writing to us of the things going around him, how he's reacting to life. The 'wallflower' as titled, is Charlie, is struggling to "participate" in life, to be a part of a group, so inspired by his english teacher, he decides to give life a shot.
Charlie's narrative is one of the most beautiful ones I read so far. It's captivating, sensual, emotional.. he thinks often about life, happiness, sadness.. makes friends, enjoys his high school, falls in love, discovers his identity.. all the while dealing with serious health issues.
The book deals with anxiety, sexual abuse, homosexuality, suicidal tendencies, lonliness. This book is wholesome. I can't remember a single person not screaming out loud, after first time reading it, that they were Charlie. Charlie is that character, you can relate to him no matter what age you are.
As for me, I loved it so much but then the ending twist happened and I was blown off. I don't know, it should have shocked me in a good way, but it happened in the total opposite way. My rating was a 3 Star. 💙 Heart.
If you are into YA contemporaries about growing up, something idealistic and relatable, I would recommend this to you.
TELL ME THREE THINGS by Julie Buxbaum
I own huge deal of books just for YA romance / contemporary romance, just letting you know..
Jessie and her whole life is suddenly transferred to Los Angeles, where she has to live a whole new life in a house her father doesn't own, but her step-mother. Julie finds it hard to be herself or to be a part of her new surroundings, she didn't want in the first place. The new school she attends is somewhere isn't used to : a luxurious place. Everyone here is rich and different. In the anxiety of her father marrying a woman who he's known not so long and haven't introduced her to, living in a place she can't accept is hers, not moved on from her mother's death and having to leave her best friend behind, she wants to get back to Chicago when she receives this anonymous email from someone in school asking to be her friend/guide.
Jessie becomes friend with anonymous email person; SN (short for Somebody Nobody). And soon these two are close to each other, in a light way. Outside the emails, Jessie continues dealing with the feeling that she doesn't belong here. Her relationship with her father detarioates since he's always busy finding work or with his new wife, she makes friends at school with the help of SN but SN doesn't show up till the end.
Unlike many other heroines, Jessie tells her friends about the emalis and tries to find out who SN is but misses. The writing is witty and funny and light. The perfect blend of emotions and drama and romance. The mystery of SN was amazingly written, you would keep second guessing till the end when he reveals him, himself.
There were parts where Jessie seems to have slut shaming her peer girls, which put me to edge but later towards the book it stops, but it can be counted as a flaw.
The resolution, how Jessie and her father deal together with their hurt and how Jessie and her older friend come around after hard feelings of separation, also how the romance comes to an end.
If you need something light and funny, an interesting protagonist, and a lots of smiling. Here is the recommendation. I rated it a 5 stars. ❤️ Heart.
VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Richelle Mead
The fourth book I read was old old old Vampire Academy, first book in the Vampire Academy series. I don't remember exactly why I couldn't pick it up before. A number of reasons maybe, because I came to know about it only an year ago or I don't like the cover or maybe even because the name sounded too Twilight-ish, but I picked it this May and loved it.
Rose; a (half human - half vampire) Dhampir, along with her best friend Lissa, who's a Moroi, are runaways of the academy where kids of vampires are tutored. They ran because of some mysterious reasons, Lissa.. felt unsafe here and they managed to stay safe for 2 whole years, untill they were captured back and that's where the story starts.
I remember when I first read Harry Potter series, I was looking everywhere for some series like that.. school drama plus the fantasy trope, amazing friendships and hidden secrets, I got that in this book and that really pleased me. Lissa and Rose are friendship goals and the romance was done good, the world building.. beautiful, the writing was amazing.
I gave this book a 4.5 stars. 💙 Heart. I am looking forward to the series.
A MATCH MADE IN MEHEDI by Nandini Bajpai
Okay, so the next book is called 'A Match Made in Mehendi' by Nandini Bajpai. The book's about fifteen year old Simran aka Simi who's an Indian-American character. She develops this highschool dating app with the help of her best friend and brother and becomes the "matchmaker" at her school.
Simi has this amazing family, her mother and aunt are "vichole", which's an indian term for "matchmakers". Generations of this family have been doing this business so when Simi accidentally/intentionally set her cousin up with this guy, their parents approve, her mother and aunt are really happy and excited that there's someone else who would continue their family business.
There's family drama, highschool drama (a bit too much of mean-girl drama but okay..) and romance and homosexuality rep (her bestfriend is gay). And just.. this is refreshing. I found it better than Sandhya Menon's 'When Dimple Met Rishi'. So, if you are a fan of that book definitely give this a go.
I gave it a 4.5 stars. 💙 Heart.
FIVE TOTAL STRANGERS by Natalie D. Richards
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards is psychological thriller / mystery. Mira is a highschooler who needs to get home to Pittsburgh, where her mom needs her. It's her aunt's first death anniversary and her mom needs to pull it together. Mira has to be there for her mother but she got stuck in Philadelphia because of the emerging blizzard. Mira decides to take a ride with her airplane seat partener and her other three friends, but later she finds out than none of the people she's sharing the ride with knows the other person. The drive stars getting tricky, their things start disappearing. No phones, no money, police might be after them and there's a heavy chance someone in the car is behind it all.
The mystery was amazing! The thrill all through the ride, the seriousness of it all and how everything starts going wrong.. it will blow your mind. I kept second guessing every single turn on page and that's one of the things that everyone loves about a mystery.
The plot was amazing but the end ruined it for me. There were plot at end, the author didn't try to resolve. There were questions unanswered. And.. it just missed. For my immediately-after-the-book review you can go to the link : Review : Five Total Strangers
For me, it was a 3.5 stars, 💚 Heart.
THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp
This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp was another patchwork psychological thriller I read this month. This is a book from four students' perspectives, when a tragedy happens at their school. A student opens fire at the students and the teachers when everyone's locked inside the school auditorium. This 336 pages long book was told in the time span of 54 minutes, minutes before the student with gun appears till after when the police arrives and everyone is saved.
I would like to mention trigger warning beforehand.. there's a lot of death and also suicide.
The book was shocking, emotional at times, disturbing also. Infact there was not much I could say for a few minutes when it all ended, I was that numb.
I gave it a 4 Stars, 💙 Heart
MORE THAN WE CAN TELL by Brigid Kemmerer
The second book of 'Letters to The Lost' series, and maybe the last was my favourite of the month. There's something about how Brigid Kemmerer writes that I am sooo in love with her writing. She leaves me crying for hours and hours and grinning for days, smiling like a hippie of bawling like crazy. I think she's amazing.
More Than We Can Tell is YA romance contemporary, a book which deals with anxiety, trauma, social harassment, female harassment at work fields. It's a book about growing up and friendships and moving on from past.
This story is told in 2 perspectives, one of Rev other from Emma. Rev who's an adopted kid, was abused by his father in past. He never could move on from it, but now atleast he's happy with amazing parents and a great bestfriend, untill one day a letter arrives from his real father and he's facing his trauma once again. Emma is a computer geek, she has built a role playing game from scratch. She's tired of her parent's fighting and the game is her safe place untill someone starts trolling her and harassing her and she gets really disturbed.
The book is more about the social issues these kids are facing, like friendships and abuse and other hardships, than the romance part of the book. Though the romance is there too.
Brigid Kemmerer does her magic, these characters steal my heart and the story gives me all kinds of emotions. I gave this book a 5 stars and ❤️ Heart. I am definitely recommending it to everyone!!!
THE GILDED ONES by Namina Forna
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna is a 2021 released YA fantasy. It's going to be a series, this was the first book. In the Gilded Ones, Deka, a 15 year old is declared impure by priests on the blood ceremony, because her blood turns out to be gold coloured. She's executed on spot but she doesn't die the first time nor the ninth. Then a mysterious woman arrives to her with a choice. Either she stays with what everyone has decided to be her fate or come with the woman to join the emperor's army, and fight against the Deathshrieks - the country's biggest threat. Deka decides to chose to fight but later everything is turned, many secrets revealed and turns out, nothing is what it actually seems.
In this story, Deka finds out everything she's ever told was a lie and the truth of everything is the actual threat. She discovers who she is and makes friends and there also is a romance trope (ofcourse).
I wasn't a fan of this book. I wanted to dnf it multiple times. The writing didn't appeal to me, the world.. I wasn't a fan of. Moreover I hated Deka's character but that's only my opinion. This was a highly anticipated book this year, very hyped up after it's release and I was definitely disappointed.
It was a 2 Star, 💚 Heart.
WAIT FOR IT by Mariana Zapata
The tenth book I read in May was 'Wait For It' by Mariana Zapata. Mariana Zapata is my all time favourite author. She's the queen of writing slow burn romances, and it's her who made me a fan of them. Wait For It was a book I was really looking forward to this month, and it was good yet disappointing.
Wait For It is a enemies to friends to lovers romance. Diana, caretaker/aunt of two boys, Josh and Louie, a dog, owner of her new house, is really happy with her life. She has a job she loves, friends and trouble free life. Although she's always juggling with time but she's a chill heroine. Dallas is a married seperated man, who lives accross from Diana and comes out confusing. Sweet at times but other times he could be an ass. Slowly these two get to know each other and form a bond and laaaaaaater the romance happens.
I liked everything about this book. Main characters, check. Plot, check. Romance, check. Writing, check. Side characters (those are important in MZ's books), check. Is it a five stars? No. Cause? Unknown. I mean.. just something is missing. Or it could be my expectations of MZ. I could've read a 50 pages more just the satisfaction but I had convince my sobbing heart that we would re-read The Wall Of Winnipeg and Me (my favorite book of hers) soon.
I gave it a 4 stars, 💜 Heart.
THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales
Elise Dombowski is this highschool girl who's ignored at school most of time, other times bullied, her parents seperated at a really young age for her. Her father is in this band where only one of their songs is like, popular and well known banger, but the band itself doesn't has a big fanbase. Her mother is remarried, and has two other kids, so like it's not a feeling of belonging Elise gets anywhere. For the second year of her highschool, Elise decides to be this new girl. She changes all of her wardrobe, tries make up and fashion and she starts watching TV a lot, trying to get to know all characters on shows and also starts reading gossip magazines. But the first day arrives, she's "changed" but nobody else's opinion changes about her. First day was just the same as any other day, if not worse.
Elise gets heartbroken, she runs back home and tries to kill herself. She doesn't ofcourse, but trigger warning here 'cause she actually cuts her wrist. Her parents find out, she's taken to therepy and after months.. everything's the same. Then, one day while strolling at night she finds out this cool underground party - the biggest underground party in the world (not my words, some character said it). She makes friends there, finds her passion in DJing, she discovers herself and find something worth living for.
I loooove such stories. Seriously, they are everything for me.. a thousand times better than self help books. This book was amazing, it was fun to read, short, light and just.. everything I need. I gave it a 5 stars, a ❤️ Heart.
THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho
This was a highly anticipated book for me. I believe everyone's heard about The Alchemist and there's a large fanbase of readers of Paulo Coelho. I haven't read anything from him and since it's a short book I picked it up.
I was not expecting what I got. The writing was pretty simple, but the tricky part was, if you are not into the book, not sucked into it, you will get completely confused. The author uses typical words like "personal legend" or "the language of the world". You won't get meaning of these words in any dictionary. And if you are a morden thinker, you might think this book is stupid or even throw it away.
This book is about this Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who's told/dreamt that there's a treasure waiting for him in the pyramids and he must go and get it.. because that's his personal legend. Santiago sells his sheeps and travels to Egypt. He faces hardships, meets different people who all teach him verbally or manually or generally.. something about the world and life. A story about finding one's personal legend or "treasure" in the world soon turns to be a book about listening to your inner voice, knowing your soul and even finding your treasure within yourself.
Some people have a hard time with, for some it's thier all time favourite. To me, it was a mix of both. The writing was amusing, meaning quite unclear but overall it was just fine. I gave it a 3 stars, 💚 Heart.
PILLOW THOUGHTS by Courteney Peppernell
Pillow Thoughts by Courteney Peppernell was a book I had never heard untill recently my friend started quoting it. I liked the quotes so I thought I would like the book.
It was a 259 pages long book, filled with poetry divided in sections like "If you are in love" poetry, "If you are lonely poetry", "If you need encouragement" or "if you need a reason to stay"... The topics sounded impressive that's why I started reading.
10 pages max, I started regretting. I skipped a lot of portions, rolled my eyes so much, I can't figure out how did my eyes actually survive it? It took me an hour to reach the final page, I closed the book, hit my head with it once and put it in the rack which I have sworn not to touch unless it's to give a book to someone else.
I am not a fan of poetry, so my opinion is largely biased but I couldn't feel any of the messages or emotions this book wanted me to feel. I gave it not a star, nor any hearts. Successfully ruined my mood.
WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
What's Not To Love by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (thank God, I don't have to pronounce that) was another anticipated book release this year. It was a YA haters to lovers romance I wasn't originally planning to read but it was for a prompt.
Ethan Molloy and Alison Sanger hate each other ever since the start of their highschool (I mean "hate" when I say hate). They can't stand each other, they compete for everything literally. They take all the same classes, school paper, community service and they both even applying for the same University, Harvard. The story is told in Alison's pov and her goal for life is pretty clear. She wants to compete because she wants to prove she's better than her yesterday's self. Meanwhile Ethan's intentions are unknown, for all we know it could be a game for him. When the principal puts them together for more activity, i.e. to prepare a 10-year reunion for a previous class, they both accept the opportunity for a Harvard's recommendation. While working on the project, these two get to know each other more and soon develop feelings.
It sounds nice. But unfortunately for me, I didn't wait to end the happen, for the romance to form. I stopped reading after half of it. Partly it was because these two hated each other, like realllllyy hated.. I haven't seen a enemies to lovers where the author took the 'enemies' part so seriously. It happens here and there's no chemistry.. I just couldn't imagine these two together. But the main reason why I couldn't read it was Allison's character. She was judgemental, boring, lifeless, absolutely unlikeable. There was nothing in her character or point of view I could wait, sit for or root for.
For what part I read, I gave it no stars, and a 💚 Heart.
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry
One more anticipated book for year 2021, I read in May was People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. Emily Henry was the star author last year. Her book Beach Read was all everyone was talking. I haven't read that yet, but I read this.
This book gave me out of trend characters, Poppy, who's a social person, she's outgoing extrovert, cool chill chick, life of the party person, someone everyone would date because if her charms. Alex was sweet, caring, romantic kind of person. He was mature, someone who was always to take responsibility and a guy you wouldn't date but save to marry. These polar opposite characters come a long way with their friendship, more than ten years! But on one ill-fated vacation they took, there friendship cracks and they stop talking. She moves on with her life in New York, he's back in the hometown working as a teacher. But nothing is the same, Poppy wants her best friend back, she takes the bait and ask him for one more vacation, Alex says yes. So, Palm Springs in the next destination for their reunion vacation and Poppy wants everything to be perfection.
The story swaps between past and present vacations they took, how they meet, become friends and how they both have underlying love for each other. There's a plot twist at the end that could blow your mind and make your eyes bawl.
To me, this book was absolutely amazing. Everything was a check, but again, unfortunately for me.. I didn't feel the emotions. I didn't dnf it, the writing was a page-turner. I wanted the end but something about the book was a miss for me. I am feeling for myself. Really. I gave it a 2.5 stars, a 💛 Heart.
So.. that was it for today.
These were the 14 books I read in May. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. I would try to post as often as I could. Let me know if you guys read any of these books in May or if you are planning, and what are your thoughts in them? See you later!
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