May was my best reading month of the year so far numerically. I read 13 books total, 11 new reads and 2 rereads. I ordered my May BOTM box and read all 3 books from that box before the end of the month. I've continued to catch up on old books on my shelf, as well as getting some newer ones.
New Reads:
1. Ask Again Yes by Mary Beth Keane - I finally read this June 2019 Book of the Month pick. This was a great story spanning the lives of two families over many years. They dealt with a lot of tough things, including one major precipitating event. Kate and Peter and their love story felt very real and nuanced. No person in this book was perfect, and it did a good job at showing shades of gray instead of making some characters "good" and some "bad."
2. A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight - This was a May BOTM, and I finished it on May 3rd, after receiving the box on May 2nd, which should show how quickly I flew through this book. Between this book and The Holdout, I think I have realized that legal thrillers are exactly my cup of tea. Both of those books are some of the best books that I have read this year. This story had so many twists and turns that I was not expecting. There were so many moments when I thought "wait, what?" as the story turned in a new direction. Lizzie was a great main character and a great lawyer. It is fascinating to read both her investigative process and to read her thoughts on her own marriage. So many characters in this book were hiding fascinating secrets. I loved this book.
3. Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin - This was another one of my May BOTM choices. It was a delightfully fun and drama-filled read that did deal with some real issues. These characters felt fully developed. My favorite were Claire and Amara and the friendship that forms between these two. There is a small side mystery with an unexpected conclusion. Some characters are hiding secrets that take a while to come out and they are all very interesting. It was a quick, fun read, and I definitely would say it was worth the read.
4. The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe - This was, in a way, a strange book, though it was a quick read. I liked the first half of the book better, before the main "incident" occurs. I didn't like many of these characters decisions and the violence that occurred. Before the "incident", I liked the characters more. This was a tough read about characters dealing with tough things. Bunny and Michael were both fully developed, complicated human beings.
5. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena - This book was a quick and engaging "locked room" mystery. I spent most of the book trying to guess which character I trusted the least, and my opinion kept changing throughout the book. I never correctly guessed the actual murderer, so this book was surprising in a good way. I liked learning all of the different character backstories. This book takes a little bit to get going at first as you're introduced to a bunch of characters, but within a few chapters, it is easy to keep the different characters straight. I think the characters that I cared the most about were Gwen and Riley and especially what Riley had been through.
6. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight - I picked this book up after loving A Good Marriage which I read earlier this month. In my opinion, I liked A Good Marriage a little better, but this was still a solidly good thriller and a quick read. This book was one part YA book, one part a mother dealing with her grief, and one part the mother trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her daughter. The mystery portions were intriguing and twisty. There were several things/people that I didn't trust. Amelia's portion of the story included private school secret societies, which were fascinating and reminiscent of the Puffs in Gilmore Girls. There was a lot of drama and a fair dose of not knowing who was really Amelia's friend and who was her "frenemy." This book was quick, engaging, and kept me guessing. It was definitely worth the read.
7. Derailed by Mary Keliikoa - This was an interesting private investigator mystery with twists and turns. I predicted one small plot point and was pretty happy with myself for that, but I did not predict the result of the mystery. Kelly is a good strong character. This story focuses mostly on the mystery but also a bit on her personal life. She is recently divorced from Jeff and has an 8-year-old daughter, Mitz, who is deaf. She clearly loves her daughter a lot. I was not a fan of Jeff but I could understand why he was worried about his daughter. I didn't think he was fair to Kelly, though. Kelly also has a potential budding relationship with a police officer named Kyle who was kind.
8. Beneath the Ashes by Dea Poirier - This was an interesting and quick read of a mystery. It was a bit of an emotional read, since I was really invested in Claire's life and relationships as well as the case. While I can't go into specifics, there was a particular character death during the course of the case that occurred that I was not expecting and was sad about it. This particular character was a really good person who didn't deserve that ending. Seeing Claire react to that death was the part of the book that hurt the most to read. I'm hoping for more Claire Calderwood books in the future, as I will definitely be reading them.
9. One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid - While The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will likely forever be my favorite book by this author, I loved this one a lot too. I started this book in the past and didn't finish it, and now I'm not sure why I wasn't into it then, because I flew through this one in one day. Sam was my favorite of the two main male characters. This book was poignant and emotional, which seems to be a bit of a Taylor Jenkins Reid specialty. There were definitely parts that hurt to read and made me sad for Emma and her struggles. I also really enjoyed seeing how the relationship between Emma and her sister, Marie, had developed through the years.
10. The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon - This was my 3rd May BOTM pick that I have successfully read during May. This was definitely not my favorite romance book that I have read, and I wish I had felt more of an emotional connection to the characters. But it was a fun read, even though I didn't understand everything about Samiah's job and programming. I enjoyed the relationship between Daniel and Samiah. Overall, they were cute together, but there was one major red flag. I didn't like how Daniel was lying to Samiah throughout the beginning of the relationship due to his job. I enjoyed the friendship between Samiah, Taylor, and London, and would have liked to see more of that in the book. That premise of the three of them meeting each other was fun, so I wish there would have been a bit more of a focus on it.
11. This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf - This was a very quick read of a mystery, and the second that I've read by this author. It was told partly in the present and partly in the past, and from varying perspectives. I liked both Maggie and Eve, and wished Eve had a different ending. Nola was a crazy character to read about. She came across as a sociopath and did a lot of strange things. There were several suspicious characters in this book that I didn't know if I could trust, from Eve's controlling ex-boyfriend to the older neighbor having a relationship with Maggie. I liked Maggie a lot, and she did a lot of things that could be potentially risky to her baby that was pregnant with, which was concerning, but she was a good person, and I enjoyed reading her perspective.
Rereads:
1. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum - This was just as good and engaging and powerful of a book as the first time I read it. It was sad, but a good story about a culture that is not my own culture.
2. Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson - This was such a powerful story of friendship. It is almost 500 pages but flies by quickly. I didn't remember all the details from my first reading of it last year.
