April Reading Wrap-Up

Write Off the Rails

Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: May 2023

Hey, everyone! Here we go again for month #3 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.

Kristin:

This time, I get to start the blog post and I’m very excited about it.

I did it.

I didn’t think I would, but here we are. My list will not be long and extensive but I DO have a book to talk about. Life has a way of not slowing down and in between my toddler not sleeping and my own health issues, writing and reading, unfortunately, had to be put on the back burner.

However, I did get the honor of reading Keeper of the Night by Kylie Lee Baker (Thanks Makayla for lending me this after asking incessantly about the book). This book, man. Wow. this story follows a biracial MC who talks about the experience of discrimination and not feeling like you have a place in society. And the MC! I read the first few pages and gasped. She is not the optimistic and kind hero. If you are a fan of more morally gray MC’s, this is for you. There is world building and scary demons and epicness. Don’t even get me started about the ending. Just read it.

I also started and got caught up with the Seraph of the End manga. I’ve seen bits and pieces about it for a long time and finally decided to see what it was all about. and….I love it! This is another vampire versus humanity kind of story that focuses on things like human greed, found family and how far you’re willing to go for the people you care about. I won’t spoil anything (those latter chapters were brutal) but I am so excited to see where the story goes…in ten years because it’s manga and reasonably is not rapidly updating. Some of it was repetitive in nature but once it got going…things got crazy. Anyways, I’m so hooked on the characters and I really just want them to have a happy ending.

I am so excited for next months books (hopefully finishing more books this time) and most, if not all, have LGBTQ+ themes! Happy Pride Y’all!

Kamryn:

Okay, so I did not actually start my May reading with Beautiful Creatures like I said I would last month. Oops.

Instead, the first book I read was the latest addition to the Riordan-verse, The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro. I had to start with this one first because I am a huge fan of all things Percy Jackson, so Beautiful Creatures got delayed a bit because I’d forgotten how close it was to the release date.

The Sun and the Star is a sort of side adventure post Trials of Apollo following Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace on a quest to save everyone’s favorite titan, Bob. Since it’s brand new, I’ll keep it pretty vague, but I really like it when writers focus in on a character and continue to shade them in so readers end up reevaluating whatever they think they knew about that person before. Nico, and Will to an extent, are characters that have been around for a very long time series-wise, so it was interesting to see a much more personal side of them and to get a better look at feelings, backstories, and sides of the story that readers have never seen. The book deals a lot with acceptance of self, identity, others, past experiences good and bad…I thought it was a wonderful addition to the Riordan-verse.

Next, as promised, I started reading the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. During May, I got through the first two books (out of four), Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness. These books tell the story of the starcrossed Mortal, Ethan Wate, and a powerful Caster, Lena Duchannes. I originally read this series around high school, I believe, and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to go back to it in my quest to revisit a lot of the books that really made me love reading and, eventually, writing.

In Beautiful Creatures, Garcia and Stohl craft a masterful southern gothic about love, small towns, supernaturals, superstition, and the dangers of small-mindedness. These books are full of unique and memorable characters, complex plotlines, historical fiction, and absolute hilarity. Honestly, being from a small town in the South, these books genuinely crack me up in their portrayal of the way people talk or behave- now, that’s not meant to be insulting. Gatlin is a pretty extreme example of the best and worst of southern behavior, but some of the elements in the book make me laugh due to their familiarity. Definitely worth your time if you’re looking for romance, humor, or a little bit of magic.