Every month I write one of these belated articles in which I state all of the books I read from the previous month and what I thought of them.
Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product.
Well, I cheat a little because instead of writing something completely new about them, I use the summary from the review I wrote of them. This makes it far easier to summarise my thoughts on the book without having to rethink another way of doing so.
This month I read five books. Not the most productive but also more than I initially thought. I’ve done a few social media videos and images and a bloody whole YouTube video on the fact I only read four of these five books throughout the month because I completely forgot about one and StoryGraph bugged out and didn’t record the end date so it didn’t appear in my May reading round up.
Anyway, enough of the excuses. Below is the final lit of the five books I read throughout the month including a summary from my review, a link to the review itself and a link to buy the book too if it sounds right up your street.
Us by David Nicholls
“Us is the second book by David Nicholls I’ve read and I’d say I still preferred One Day. However, Us gives me confidence that Nicholls is an author whose writing and stories I will always thoroughly enjoy. Nicholls has a brilliant talent for incorporating gritty, down-to-earth stories into his novels. Us is another story that’ll make you feel incredibly connected to the main characters and also feel every emotion they feel and be vying for everything to work out for them at the end. If you enjoyed the writing style and storytelling technique of One Day, I’d say you’d enjoy Us too.”
Read my full review | Buy a copy
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
“The first few chapters of Iron Widow were fantastic and excited the nerd inside me with massive transforming robots. However, I wasn’t still expecting to be as interested in the characters and the story by the very end. Not only did Iron Widow scratch that nerdy itch inside me but it’s made me genuinely interested to read the sequel. There are no cliche “romantasy” tropes here, just fast-paced action with a badass main character and a plot that has just enough depth and backstory that I’m excited to see where Zhao is taking this next later this year!”
Read my full review | Buy a copy
The Stranger in Her House by John Marrs
“The Stranger in Her House by John Marrs is a solid thriller. There’s just enough pace and twists and turns to keep you interested throughout and it has enough personality and unique elements to stop it from just becoming another generic thriller. I’ve heard from a few since finishing it that this isn’t Marrs’ strongest novel and he has some absolute bangers, especially over on his speculative fiction series of books, so I’ll be checking those out next. However, if you’re looking for a good, solid thriller and that’s your genre, you’ll definitely find something to love in The Stranger in Her House.“
Read my full review | Buy a copy
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
“I don’t give books a 5/5 rating because I feel no book is perfect. However, The Heart’s Invisible Furies would be the first in line if I ever did. This book will beat you up, pick you up again, dust you off and then make you look back at everything you’ve read and realise you’ve read a masterpiece. A combination of incredible writing, beautiful characters and almost perfect storytelling make The Heart’s Invisible Furies one of the greatest books I’ve ever, and I can tell you now, will likely ever read in my life. This will now be a book I tell everybody is one of my favourite books I’ve ever read.”
Read my full review | Buy a copy
The Locked Door by Freida McFadden
“The Locked Door didn’t shock me and impress me quite like The Housemaid did, but it fits in the perfect formula of what I was hoping for from a Freida McFadden book: an engaging, easy-to-read story with just enough twists and turns to keep me reading until the very end. The premise had me very intrigued and some people I spoke to noted that this was her best outside of The Housemaid books. I plan on continuing to read some more McFadden books and will come back in a few months to let you know which my favourites are!”
Read my full review | Buy a copy
In summary…
May was a great reading month. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is one of the best books I’ve ever read and will be for a very long time I imagine.
The Locked Door and The Stranger in Her House were both very solid thrillers that very much scratched that thriller itch I have at the moment.
Us certified for me that David Nicholls is defiinitely an author who I enjoy. His ability to combine humour with real down-to-earth and human issues is a talent I can admire.
And then Iron Widow was an absolute breath of fresh air – a relatively short fantasy novel with a great concept and no holds-barred action throughout.
What did you read this month? Which of the above books have you read? Let me know in the comments below or by finding me on social media (search “Luke’s Blog wherever you post).
