May Read + Reviews

I’m a Virgo so I’m too practical for romance and too grounded for fantasy.

I’m an overall harsh critic.

Buckle up.

I’m not sure if I’m just getting really luck or if I’m becoming soft but I gave 3 five stars this month… I gave 3 five stars total last YEAR.

The Witching Moon Manor (The Spellbound Sisters #2) By Stacy Sivinski

3/5

It did the job! Cute characters, basic plot, endearing house, no cheesy romance. It wasn’t riveting, but the writing was very good for what the book was. It was a great, low stakes palate cleanser just as the first one was. That’s it! Not much else to say✌🏼

Count My Lies By Sophie Stava

2/5
I keep reading mysteries and thrillers with the hopes that they’ll get better but soon it’s going to be time for me to admit that the mystery writing à la Agatha Christie no longer exists in this world.

At least they still serve their purpose of being quick thoughtless reads in between heavier, more well written novels.

This was one of those books that had me equally hooked and irritated the entire time. Sloane lies so much I was getting anxiety on her behalf, but I still kept turning pages because I needed to know what would happen to both her and Violet.

That said, some of the characterization drove me insane. Sloane being chronically late stopped feeling like a personality trait and started feeling like the author’s favorite plot device. LATENESS SHOULD NOT BE A CHARACTER TRAIT. And the constant “Sloanie Baloney” repetition? It genuinely sounded like something I wrote at 17 alongside “Marty smells like a farty.”

My biggest issue was how much Violet’s plan relied on Sloane conveniently not noticing obvious things or magically drawing the exact conclusions Violet needed her to. I know thrillers require suspension of disbelief, but eventually it started feeling lazy instead of clever.

I also never bought Jay as enough of a villain to justify Violet’s level of hatred, which made her seem more unhinged than sympathetic. Like, i’m not justifying his chronic cheating at all, but murder? Keeping him away from his own daughter? And the ending relationships confused me even more. Are they lesbians now? Trauma bonded soulmates? What mother would risk everything, including custody and guardianship of her child, for a woman she’s known a few months, especially knowing Sloane’s past?

And that final line, “Not a sister but a Gemini twin.” Oh Gawd. So corny I almost vommed.

Overall, Count My Lies was messy, unrealistic, and occasionally ridiculous, but somehow still a total page-turner

Yesteryear By Caro Claire Burke

5/5

I was VERY apprehensive going into Yesteryear. I feared this would be a one-dimensional “trad wife influencer gets exposed” story: influencer romanticizes homestead life, gets thrown into the real thing, hates it, and realizes she was shallow and fraudulent all along. 

That was not this book at all.

Instead, the story follows Natalie, a trad wife influencer forced to confront the reality behind the life she built her platform around. What I loved most was how compassionate and layered the writing was. The author explored Natalie’s upbringing, what she was taught to believe about womanhood and survival, and how those beliefs shaped every choice she made.

I devoured this book and felt immense empathy for Natalie. She constantly adapted to survive, protect her family, and create the possibility of a better life, even when the choices she made were messy or frustrating. The book really drives home that nothing is ever as it seems online. The trad wife influencer selling the fantasy may not actually believe in it fully and may even be one of its biggest victims, performing a role because she feels she has to in order to survive.

The characters were layered, the story was thoughtfully told, and the emotional complexity completely surprised me. This book was so much more nuanced and human than I expected.

Very well done!

Spectacular Things By Beck Dorey-Stein

5/5

I really thought I would make it through this without crying, and that the tenderness of this story would be unable to break through the walls my Zoloft has built around any intense emotion. Somehow, it found the crack anyway.

Almost immediately, I was pulled in. The emotional precision, character dynamics, and intimacy reminded me of some combination of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Jodi Picoult, and Ann Patchett.

I was shocked by how quickly this stopped feeling like “a book about soccer” and became so. much. more. Watching these two sisters navigate ambition, family expectations, resentment, loyalty, and love over the course of their lives felt so freaking real. One sister’s rising soccer career reshapes the entire family dynamic, while the other struggles to understand who she is outside of it, and the emotional tension between them was so vivid and believable that I forgot I do not even have siblings myself (but I think it might be like these two…???)

The situations these characters found themselves in felt both mundanely relatable and incredibly poignant, balancing familiar joy with genuine heartbreak. There was so much growth, beauty, and tenderness woven throughout this story about imperfect people trying their best to love each other while becoming entirely different versions of themselves.

I never thought a book with this premise would have me this emotionally invested, but it absolutely did.

Loooooved.

Goodnight Beautiful By Aimee Molloy

5/5

I’m usually very skeptical of mystery/thriller novels because I’ve probably only read one truly worthwhile one in my life. Most rely on clichés, one-dimensional characters, giant plot holes, or endings that require ridiculous suspension of disbelief.

So when I started Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy, I almost gave up within the first chapter. The setup felt stereotypical at first: the seemingly perfect couple, the isolated small town, the therapist husband, the lonely wife. I thought I knew exactly where it was going.

I’m so glad I kept reading!!!!

Sam and Annie move from New York City to a quiet town where Sam begins seeing therapy patients in an office behind their house. Annie, lonely and restless in their new life, starts overhearing pieces of his sessions through a vent in the floorboards. What starts as curiosity slowly turns into paranoia, obsession, and revelations that completely dismantle everything you think you know.

What surprised me most was how quickly I fell in love with the characters. They felt quirky, flawed, funny, and genuinely human outside of just serving the plot. The banter between Annie and Sam felt natural and relatable, which made every twist hit even harder.

Oh. My. GAWD.

I have never read a mystery/thriller this good in my life. My jaw dropped multiple times to the point where I had to physically put the book down and process what I had just read. The twists were not cheap shock value either. Every reveal felt intentional, subtle, and earned. The story constantly leads you toward one conclusion before ripping the rug out from under you in the best way.

By the end, I had goosebumps. I thought about this book constantly when I wasn’t reading it, and even before I finished, I was already recommending it to people.

 This is one of the rare thrillers that manages to be both genuinely clever and emotionally engaging. Very well done from every angle (except the plot description is a bit misleading but I’ll forgive it).