**The waves crash against the shore and I keep my eyes cast down for any remnants of shells that wash up. The jar in my hand grows heavy from my collection, but I only need a few more to reach the top. The sea climbs higher and higher and I watch as the tide ebbs and flows, lost in the rhythmic motion.**

It’s been a while since my last post. I ended up getting busy, continuously forgetting to actually prepare something (whoops!) and got into a reading slump which started towards the beginning of the month. So I haven’t really been reading anything, and when I have I keep picking up new books, which is why I’m reading three different ones right now. But anyway, I will be doing my April wrap-up on Monday, so for now we’ll work through my May TBR.

For my April TBR, I thought it would be fun to do a TBR prompt wheel. I had a great time coming up with prompts, but considering I’ve been in a week’s long reading slump, I unfortunately was not able to complete any of them. So for May, we’re going to try mood reading.

Current Reads

In the span of about a week at the beginning of April, I read three books. After that third one, I picked up Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken. I’ve had it since 2023 so I wanted to read it to cut down on the oldest books on my TBR. I made it about 50 pages in and just was not making any progress. I think it’s partly since I’ve had it so long, and partly because I keep thinking I’m not going to like it so I’m unintentionally making myself not like it. So my goal would be to at least make some sort of progress in May.

After being on that book for 2 weeks, I decided to pick up Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent. I just read the first book recently and wanted to continue on. But I’m having the same problem and didn’t have the urge to pick it up. I read about 70 pages in the span of a few days but couldn’t read more than a few pages at a time. I am really hoping to complete this book by the end of May.

Finally, three days after starting that book, I was putting some books on my bookshelf and saw my copy of Beach Read by Emily Henry. I had just done my reread of Book Lovers this month and had already wanted to continue on throughout the summer, so why not just pick it up now? Well apparently this is the only thing keeping my attention. I just started two days ago and have just under 100 pages left. I feel like it’s easy to get through and I’m invested enough to not put it down constantly. So I am really hoping to finish by the end of the weekend. I feel like this one is a very fast read, and it’s a romance so easier than a 400+ page fantasy novel.

Additional Books

As for any additional books I’d like to read, I would love to get to a Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I bought The Squad series this month by her and also have Glorious Rivals, so if I could get to any of these, I’d be happy. Her books are always so fast paced and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by her, so I think these would be great options for helping me with my reading slump.

I also think Spark by Brigid Kemmerer could be another great choice. I’m trying to think of any books I think I’d enjoy for this month, so books by my favorite authors are what I’m thinking.

Finally, I’d probably go with Love Interest by Claire Gilmore. I got this pretty recently, and it seems like romance books are the only thing really keeping my attention right now. I think this is a workplace romance between two rivals, so that sounds like it could be really fun.

This TBR is a written a bit differently from my normal ones, but I honestly have no idea what I’ll be wanting to read once I finish Beach Read. Hopefully I’ll find my way out of my slump and read some really good books in May.

xoxo,

Just another reader