May was a bit of a blur in terms of blogging for me. I scheduled an entire month of posting by the first week of May in anticipation of vacation time. As a result I didn’t post a ton of reviews. But thank goodness for Wyrd and Wonder with the event prompts! So this May 2024 book blog wrap-up is a smidge shorter than ones past. (But not by much, so don’t get too excited.)
Book Reviews
I posted three book reviews in May. From earliest to latest they are:
Blog Statistics
Every month I share some statistics from Google Analytics because I think it helps put expectations into perspective for other micro-bloggers like me who are out there. These statistics are from Google Analytics 4.
My top five posts for total page views are:
- Book Review: Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer Armentrout: 833 views
- Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 541 views
- Book Review: Assistant to the Villain by Heather Maehrer: 399 views
- Book Review: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake: 357 views
- ARC Review: Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig: 312 views
Despite being away most of the month, I squeaked by and had a slight increase in views this month relative to April. I also gained a few new followers and now sit at 188. Thank you, newcomers!
#BeattheBacklog
Technically, I only finished one book (BOOK OF NIGHT by Holly Black) that I had on my TBR prior to 2024. However, I read the second book (SHADOW QUEEN by Nicola Tyche) in a trilogy that I’ve known about since 2023. And I binged another book, ADELAIDE by Genevieve Wheeler, that I’ve been thinking about since I saw it last year.
Other Bookish Items
I finished eight books in May:
- DREADFUL by Caitlin Rozakis (ARC)
- MEET ME IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION by Rita Feinstein
- THE BIG FREEZE by Natalie Lampert (ARC)
- PAS DE DON’T by Chloe Angyal
- BOOK OF NIGHT by Holly Black
- THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS by Aline Kiner (ARC)
- SHADOW QUEEN by Nicola Tyche
- ADELAIDE by Genevieve Wheeler
I ended up having a really good reading month that contained a bunch of different genres. As many of you know, I primarily read fantasy. So May was a diverse reading month for me. PAS DE DON’T is a contemporary fiction/romance set in the ballet world that was quite a good read. I enjoyed BOOK OF NIGHT more than I expected given the middling reviews I saw a couple of years ago. I also dove back into Tyche’s trilogy and read SHADOW QUEEN, which is fantastic if you like your fantasy romance with a good dose of political/war planning. And ADELAIDE was my surprise 5-star read of the month. Look that one up because it was great (but it has a lot of content warnings, so do your research!).
I also participated in Wyrd and Wonder again. You can find all of my posts here. I wish I could’ve been a little more present for everyone’s posts. But I was on vacation and it was difficult to follow along with all of the time zones I stayed in.
Non-Bookish Items
I spent most of May traveling. In the beginning I was in Arizona for work for a few days. Shortly afterward my husband and I went on vacation to a bunch of big and small island nations. We started on the North Island of New Zealand (yes, we visited Hobbiton and it was amazing!). Then we jumped to Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, and the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Hence my delayed May wrap up posts. This style of travel was different for us in that we tend to focus on cities and nature. This time we focused on beach time. It was really lovely, though it is always nice to return to your familiar home! If I have time, maybe I’ll share a summary post with some photos of where we went.
And that’s it for my May 2024 book blog wrap-up! How was your May?
Great wrap-up, Celeste! Your trip to the Pacific islands sounds amazing ????
Thanks! Yes, our trip to the Pacific was a lot of fun…beautiful beach scenes!
Your trip sounds amazing! And I’m always up for vacation photos. I’m definitely going to check out Adelaide and Meet Me in the Fourth Dimension.
I loved ADELAIDE! I definitely raved about it at book club tonight haha. MEET ME IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION is a bit different…not sure if you’ve heard of it? It’s a novel written in verse and features someone succumbing to conspiracy theory.
Your vacation sounds awesome! I’ve always wanted to visit New Zealand, and it’s so cool you got to check out Hobbiton. I’m glad you had a great time and made it back safely. ????
Hobbiton was AMAZING. Definitely worth going, especially now that they have two little hobbit houses open to explore (you can even touch everything!).
I used to live in Hawaii along time ago. Sound like a lovely vacation visiting all those islands.
Have a great June reading month.
Thanks! I know Hawaii has some great beaches, but I also had a lot of fun just watching the chickens, lol.
Oh my gosh! This reminds me to check in on my year long readathons. haha. I have no idea where I’m at. I hope you have an amazing June!!
Ha, I’m only vaguely keeping track of my year-long goals. I should check up on my series reads challenge and update it.
Oh gosh, my series one is definitely failing. haha!
I’m impressed that you managed to get so much good reading time in while traveling! And how lucky that the non-fantasy selections were good choices. Your island-hopping vacation sounds amazing; I hope you’re getting plenty of time to readjust and get back into the groove of “real life” 🙂
I know, me too! I didn’t think I’d be able to read so much while traveling. To be fair, it was a nice amount of time at beaches, so I think that helped. 🙂