May Reading Wrap-up

Hey, everyone! Here we go again for month #2 of the Monthly Reading Wrap-Up. Here’s some of the cool things we read this month. Be sure to tell us if you see any of your favorite reads, something on the never-ending To-Be-Read list, or if you know of a comparable title we might enjoy. Thanks again for reading! Write on.

Kamryn:

Okay, so my April reading is a little smaller than it was last month due to travel and a family emergency. Since there was so much going on, I didn’t get a lot of reading done, but the two books I did read were enjoyable.

As I said before, I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading for books I’ve previously enjoyed, and had just wrapped up James Patterson’s YA series Maximum Ride last month. In the time following the release of the original series, two more books (that I’m aware of) for a spin-off series have been published, and so I wanted to read these while everything was still fresh in my mind.

The two follow-up novels are Hawk (James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet) and Hawk: City of the Dead (James Patterson and Mindy McGinnis). Both were in the YA section, though take place in a considerably more apocalyptic world than the original series. Things are grim and brutal in the world that emerged after the first series ended, and in typical James Patterson fashion, the action occurs at a break-neck pace.

Another interesting thing is that it’s set about fifteen or so years after the end of the first series, so anyone who isn’t a new character is a lot older than they were before, and obviously different due to what they’ve experienced in the time in between. This world is harsh, the characters hardened. It’s always interesting to me when writers go back to their previously established characters, adding to them and shading them in differently based on their experience. In truth, a lot of it is just wanting to know if all the characters you loved so much before are okay- like, literally, my heart ached at some of the plotlines in Hawk. I appreciate an author who can make you love characters so much that it physically hurts to read painful things that happen to them.

Anyway, those were the two books I’ve currently read in April. My plans now are to re-read the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I really enjoyed these the first time around, but it’s been a while, so I figured I’d come back to them again.

Kristin:

Alright, I have to confess. This month has been rough on my ability to read. My son turned three years old AND started preschool this month. Not only that, but we had a recent death in the family. All of this to say that I haven’t actually read anything. I know, how shameful!

However! I am currently reading Keeper of the Night by Kylie Lee Baker and I am super excited about it! I also have several other lonely books on my shelf waiting to be read along with other books that I am excited to re-read!

I promise not to shame the blog next month.

What are you reading this month? Are you shameful like Kristin and haven’t read anything recently? How many books are collecting dust on your TBR? Until next month~