I can’t believe May is over!  It went by so fast, and it was full of bookish fun!  I made it to YALLWEST, which I talked about here, and I have a few ARC’s that I’m excited about.  I already talked about And They Were Roommates by Page Powars here, so I won’t be including it in this round-up, but it was cute.  Speaking of books, let’s get to the other books I read last month.

• If We Were A Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal.  I loved this YA contemporary!  I loved everything about this book: the romance, the movie theater and the characters.  I hope the Horizon is around for a long time, and that they were able to figure out who was behind all of the pranks.  It’s the perfect book for summer!
• Daughters Of A Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O’Neil.  This YA historical fiction is a re-telling of Anastasia.  This book focuses on her survival after the murder of her entire family, and it was interesting to see her travel across Russia to reunite with her remaining family.  I loved her friendship with Evgenia, and how meeting each other really changed things for both girls.  We don’t know what happens to her later on, but I would definitely be interested in a sequel to see what was in store for her.
• Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera.  This middle grade contemporary is a must-read!  I loved seeing how Mani questioned the misogynist policies at her school, and seeing her find her voice to stand up for all of the girls in her school.  I also loved how that connected to her family, and all the secrets and heartache they had to deal with.  I could relate to Mani in a lot of ways, and I loved seeing her find her voice.
• Better Left Buried By Mary E Roach, narrated by Casey Holloway.  I liked this YA mystery!  It worked really well on audio, and I’m glad I listened to it, because I’m not sure if I would have finished it otherwise.  This Mary Roach is not the Mary Roach that has written books like Stiff, Gulp, and Spook, which is what I initially thought when I got this book.  Anyway, there’s a creepy small town that’s full of secrets, and ruled by an extremely wealthy family who will cover up their wrong-doings at any cost.  I was frustrated by Katie, Lucy’s mom, and how she refused to tell her daughter anything about her past.  I understand her hesitance but also, don’t bring your daughter to your hometown if you’re not willing to answer her inevitable questions.  She didn’t want Lucy to do any investigating but also left her alone pretty much the whole time, so what else was Lucy going to do?  It was pretty slow-paced and then everything happens at once, which wasn’t surprising.  If you like small-town mysteries, this is a good one to check out.
• Loteria Cards And Fortune Poems: A Book Of Lives, Poems by Juan Felipe Herrera, Linocuts by Artemio Rodriguez.  I was intrigued by this poetry collection because I love Loteria.  If you’ve never played, I highly recommend it.  I especially recommend reading the introduction to this book, since it goes into a lot of detail about Loteria itself.  I loved El Jorobado, La Muerte, El Murcielago, La Mano and El Angel De La Guarda.  While I wish these illustrations were as colorful as the the actual loteria cards, they are pretty detailed and they go well with the poetry.
• Fit For The Throne 2: The Royal Games by S McPherson.  I liked this adult romantasy, though I didn’t like it as much as the first book in this series.  I am curious to see how things go in the next book, especially with how the book ended.  I liked seeing the relationship that Varialla has with both Exequiel and Loch.  Loch is absolutely terrible, and I find myself wanting to skim the scenes with him and Varialla because of how manipulative and controlling he is.  And I understand why Exequiel doesn’t trust Varialla, though they manage to work together to get through the games.  If you like romantasy that’s more romance than fantasy, this is a good series to check out.

• Notes On The Assemblage by Juan Felipe Herrera.  This is another great poetry collected from Herrera.  This one is significantly shorter than his Loteria poetry collection, and some of the poems are in both English and Spanish.  We Are Remarkably Loud Not Masked and Poem by Poem are the two that you absolutely need to read from this collection.  I love the way he touches on current events in those poems.  I also recommend I Am Kenji Goto, Song Out Here, Borderbus, The Soap Factory, and Notes On The Assemblage.  I liked this one slightly more than Loteria, because the images are a little more vivid, but they’re both good.  It just depends on what you’re looking for.
• I’m Not Supposed To Be In The Dark by Riss Neilson.  I liked this YA Romance!  It has magic, ghosts and family secrets that get uncovered.  It has an absolutely beautiful cover too, and I can’t stop looking at it!  I wasn’t interested in the romance, and I found the magic and ghosts to be much more interesting.  I’m intrigued by what Aria can do, and it seems like there are quite a few people who have their own abilities as well.  I get why her grandpa and her mom had her drink a special tea twice a day, and why they didn’t tell her anything about her abilities, but it was something I disagreed with because she got into some unfortunate situations because of it.  I’m glad I read it, and I’m looking forward to reading Neilson’s other books!
• The Jump by Brittney Morris.  I liked this YA Contemporary!  I haven’t read anything like it before, and I love the idea of groups doing really cool scavenger hunts.  There is a pretty interesting mystery in this book, and I liked seeing this group of teens figure out the puzzles we see throughout the book.  I can definitely understand why they’d want in on the scavenger hunt we see in the book, and it seems like everything works out okay for them.  It is pretty short, so there’s a lot that happens in a short amount of time.  I kind of wish that it had been a little bit longer, just so we had some time to breath, and to explore some of the issues a little more as well.  It was a fun, action-packed book, though, and a pretty fun read.
• How To Survive A Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans.  I thought this YA horror was okay, but it was interesting to hear what my book club thought about it.  I’ve read similar books (You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron and There’s No Way I’d Die First, which are both great), so this story wasn’t anything new to me.  It actually felt more true crime adjacent than horror because of the story itself.  I liked that CJ talked about how it wasn’t just something that happened in her town, because she had a direct connection to everything that happened, and it’s a good reminder that that are real people behind the true crime stories that are so popular.  While not for me, I think it’s a great introduction to slashers and YA horror in general.
• Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert.  This adult contemporary romance was okay.  I’m curious to see how things turn out for Olympus, and I’m looking forward to getting Hera’s story, as well as Hermes.  I was interested because of how the last book ended, and because Poseidon isn’t a character that we’ve seen a lot of in the previous books.  I found that I didn’t particularly care about Poseidon and Icarus, and their relationship was definitely built more on physical attraction than anything else.  This one, along with Dark Restraint, are the ones where I cared more about the plot and what was going on with Olympus than the romance…which is weird considering the genre.  But since this series is going to be 10 books (11, if you count the prequel novella), it makes sense that I wouldn’t care for all of the couples.  That was definitely the case with this book, but at least I have Hera and Hermes to look forward to.
• We Are The Beasts by Gigi Griffis.  I thought this YA historical fiction was okay.  I wasn’t sure about it for most of the book, but I did end up liking it by the end.  It’s an interesting take on the Beast Of Gevaudan, and this book does a great job at showing how men are the real monsters.  I really felt for the girls we met, and how they had no options to leave.  Using the beast was a pretty good idea, in my opinion, and I’m glad that this group of girls got out.  I hope things go well for them, wherever they end up.

That’s all for this month, and I’ll be back soon!  See you around!