My May 2025 Reads – A Book Review

Photo by Filipe T. Soares on Unsplash

Let’s recap May of this year, shall we?

It was my birthday month, so I am a year older. Yay! To celebrate, my family and I rented a beautiful home in the Georgia mountains. We had a blast making good use of the indoor pool, outdoor hot tub, chef’s kitchen and outdoor deck space with a fireplace and TV. My kids, sister, nephew and I watched a movie by the fire that I hadn’t seen in forever, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” So fun, and still such a great Disney film.

Also in May, I enjoyed watching Peter Pan the musical with my sister and daughter at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. It brought back so many memories of the televised play made famous by Mary Martin back in the ’60s. I’m glad this version of the musical skipped the racist Tiger Lilly song, “Ugga Wugga,” that made caricatures out of Native Americans. It was cool how they had Peter Pan, Wendy and others flying across the stage live!

My son’s baseball team made it to the championship. They didn’t win, but they still had a great season and an amazing time. And my son’s flag football team won their final game of the season!

I went to brunch in Atlanta, which is during the day, right? Well, the crowd was lit. Do we still say lit? Anyway, there was a DJ and the ladies in this restaurant got down like it was a Saturday night at the club. I’d never seen anything like it!

As for the second novel I’m currently working on, the vampire coming-of-age story – so far, I’ve finished 30 chapters and am working on chapter 31. It’s a chapter that I’m adding after a discussion with the hubby about plot points that work in film, but don’t necessarily work in novel format. This has been a challenge, turning one of my scripts into a book. Some things just work better on screen than they do in prose or inner monologue. So, challenging, yes. But oh so rewarding!

As always, if you’re interested in reading my first novel, The Secrets We Keep, it’s available to read here. This book has cheating themes and plenty of spice for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Now, for my reading recap! I read 7 books this past month, so let’s get into it! 🙂

The Goal (Book 4 of the Off-Campus series) by Elle Kennedy

You can see my reviews for the first three books in this series here, here and here. I read this one, The Goal, on Kindle Unlimited.

I started reading it a couple months back and happened to read it after having read the amazing book, “The Women.” I didn’t like that having Tucker get an elderly couple to stop fighting in 2 seconds while on a date (they were fighting over the Vietnam War) was used as an anictode to make Sabrina swoon. Coming off of reading that excellent historical fiction book about the Vietnam War, this scene just didn’t sit well with me. The elderly couple could’ve fought about anything, and the author chose the very serious Vietnam War? No. Just no.

At first, I wasn’t feelin’ this book, but they ultimately won me over. It’s still not my favorite in the series. If I had to rank them, it’d go #1 The Deal, #2 The Score, #3 The Goal and #4 The Mistake. But this one was still good. Hear me out.

Sabrina had three villains to overcome. First was the horrible stepfather situation. He was just repulsive and a waste of space throughout. Second was Tucker’s mom, who thought that she was trying to trap him with the baby and try to get his inheritance. That dynamic between them was pretty realistic and well done. And third was herself, being so stubborn with Tucker. The man was perfect and she kept him at arm’s length?

I think I like the trope where the guy falls first. After they hooked up the first time, which was really hot by the way, Tucker dropped her off at home, but he stayed overnight in his cold car to make sure that she was OK. That’s a real man, doing what he should have done.

I liked that Tucker called her out on the games she was playing with him, but still didn’t go anywhere. He was patient with her, giving her space. And we understand why she’s hesitant to show her emotions, since her dad left her at such an early age, and how she didn’t have such a great upbringing.

There’s some overlap, storywise, between this book and “The Score” with that friend dying in this one too. It brought the story down for me, and I still don’t understand the significance of it in a story like this. But whatever.

All the sex scenes were super hot and the ending was well done.

4/5 stars

The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren

I listened to this on Libby. This is definitely a beach read. Quick and easy, well written. The only thing I didn’t like about it was how they came together. It was just so casual. Like the first time they get together, it was all, I’m really mad at my boss, let’s blow off steam. And then the second time, there was this needing and wanting. That should’ve been their first time, but I guess that’s just me.

He was the first one who expressed interest in her, entertaining the idea that maybe she’s beautiful. They were around each other a lot, and they’re coworkers, so he didn’t really notice her before. Understandable. But then, they were thrust into this crazy situation, having to babysit their crazy bosses. And then they kinda had to get to know each other better.

It was nice watching them fall in love. Very cute, but nothing special. Just a light, breezy way to spend the afternoon. She pushed him away because of one mistake, not telling her about a job promotion he was offered right away.

I don’t know why we had to get into him missing a family trip when the trip wasn’t mentioned that much later on and didn’t really matter anyway. There wasn’t a resolution there. The ending was kind of blah to me too. Our hero wasn’t proactive, which I kind of hate.

Not perfect. Liked it overall. Didn’t love it.

3.75/5 stars

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

I read this on Libby. I did not see the ending coming. It was brilliant.

There was some misdirection thrown in there about places and myths/legends that ultimately didn’t end up mattering. But that can all be forgiven because of how it all came together in the end.

Those poor girls were killed and they’re all teenagers, like 16 years old. It was all very tragic and nobody lived a happy life. And it all started with the villain, who we don’t really find out who it is ’til the very end, in true Riley Sager fashion.

Ugh! I can’t really get into what happens without spoiling it. Just know that it’s a story of revenge and murder in a summer camp setting filled with people who distrust one another and point fingers. None of the adult side characters mattered, except for the one who was taking pictures. It was spooky at times, which was cool. Especially when Emma would go out into the dark lake. Maybe read this at night in the summer time or around Halloween. A really good read!

4.25/5 stars

Blood Moon by Sandra Brown

I listened to this on Libby. And I can honestly say this is my first and last book by this author. It was my first police detective type story, I think, with some romance sprinkled in there, but not really. I did not feel the two main leads and their supposed love at all. And by the time they got to I love you in the epilogue, I was just like, you sure?

I just didn’t get this at all. I don’t remember how old the main male character was, but the woman I believe was in either in her late 20s or early 30s, and he was just older, maybe 40s or 50s. You would think, hey this is an age gap story, this should be hot. But there’s nothing hot about this male character. In fact, any love scene between them was grossing me out. I just pictured slobbering. Maybe it was the guy narrating it? He just didn’t do it for me. I did not care.

If you’re going to have sex in a story, it should be enticing. Here, it came off as unnecessary because this is just not that type of story. There was no wanting there.

The most interesting parts of this story to me were when we had a chapter from the psychopath’s POV, who was trying to abduct people, tattoo them and cut them open. Also, the villain was taken down so easily. There was barely a fight.

I liked the relationship between the daughter and the main male character the most, oddly enough. I also liked when the main female character’s mentor died and how she just sort of shut down. But still, this, to me, was not a well told story. It did not intrigue me. It was not my cup of tea.

also the dialogue. I understand cop talk and industry-specific jargon about a case, that’s fine. But when you’re not talking about the case, and getting to know each other, people don’t talk like how these characters talk. It felt robotic and not conversational. I almost gave up on the story several times.

2/5 stars

Scythe and Sparrow (Book 3 of The Ruinous Love Trilogy) by Brynne Weaver

I listened to this on Libby. The two leads created these silly rules so they wouldn’t get attached. But good luck with that, because all they did was pine for each other the whole time. They just thought that’s what they wanted, but didn’t wanna admit they were falling for each other. It got a little frustrating, but the cute banter helped. So did her quirkiness and his overall sweetness.

I like the caretaker trope, I think. Reading a book with this trope in it was new for me, but yeah, I liked it. Don’t want to spoil the big climax, but the showdown toward the end was quite good. And hot! It was interesting to see a circus person and a doctor come together. A doctor who had to do some dirty, under the table stuff for a criminal mastermind guy, who I wish had more happen to him. More bad stuff happen to him. But oh well.

This is probably my second favorite book in the series. The first being book two, and third being book one. Once you get to the end of this trilogy, they totally set up a spin-off, which I will definitely read if and when it comes out.

This one was enjoyable, very well done and well written.

4/5 stars

War of Hearts (Book 1 of True Immortality series) by S. Young

I listened to this on Audible. At first I was like, I don’t know that I like this author’s style of writing. It was very basic, but I’d say around halfway through, when they started to fall for each other, and I could really just feel his love for her? That’s when it got good. That’s what I love in romance books. He would do anything for her. He loved this woman and she loved him hard right back. I loved seeing it. I loved feeling it. This is why you read romance.

There were two parts of the book where it was very much an information dump where you get the backstory of Thea and what happens with this man who’s searching for her. Her sort of stepfather or adoptive father was experimenting on her and eventually jailed her and was kind of torturing her, all for power. All because he wanted what she had, which was immortality.

The other information dump was when Thea was reading some journal she found about a Faye queen and some vampires from long ago. It was a long chapter about people that we don’t really know or care about that much. It just slowed everything down, so I did not like that part. But maybe it’s something that we will need for Book 2 or something? I don’t know. There are just better ways of telling a story, than to have your main female character read an old journal entry.

There are things I should’ve seen coming, because looking back on it, there were hints, but unfortunately I didn’t. There was a shocking betrayal by someone close to Thea.

It was my first werewolf book. I mean, I read Bride. But this book is the one that people who are into werewolf stories recommend, so I was down to read it. Excited even because I’ll be diving into writing a werewolves story soon myself. So this was very much an intro to werewolf life for me. Overall, it was enjoyable and entertaining.

4/5 stars

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

I listened to this on Libby. Is Riley the new misdirection king? Maybe. Whatever you think this story is going into it, it’s not that. So much I did not see coming. Another brilliant one. His book don’t always hit for me. But when they hit, they hit hard!

I was a little scared to read this book because of the ax murderer vibes, but it wasn’t scary at all. Maybe a little creepy with the creaking house slowly falling into the ocean. That house was its own character. Lots of scandalous shit going on in that house.

There were some plot points I wish were resolved or shown. And there was a relationship that was revealed at the end that didn’t really matter. But overall, great characters and entertaining read.

4.5/5 stars

Thanks for reading!