Polka Spots and Freckle Dots

What I Read in April 2025

What I Read in May 2025

Oh, look, it's almost July, and here I am about to talk about what I read in May, not at all surprised that I'm almost a month behind again. At this point, it's becoming a running theme for 2025. Or, let's face it, most of my adult life. Haha!

Basically, I've had another month of relentless headaches, blurry vision, and Fibro flares, so I haven't been able to tolerate a lot of screen time. It's obviously been making it impossible to get any blogging done, which is frustrating the hell out of me as I have a so many things I want to post about.

Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up properly soon, but for now, let's start with a look back at what I read in May:

May Reading Stats:

📖 10 books completed, 3 started.

📖 2 hardbacks.

📖 2 paperbacks.

🎧 6 audiobooks

📖 3152 pages (including audiobooks).

🎧 47 hours 49 minutes listened at 1.1x speed.

📖 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖Average rating: 4.1 stars.

📖Average book length: 354 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 6 days.

I Read:

📖Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver. 4⭐

📖Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. 5⭐ (Reread).

📖Scythe & Sparrow by Brynne Weaver. 3.5⭐

📖Powerful by Lauren Roberts. 2.5⭐

🎧Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo. 4⭐.(Reread). *5 star in print.

🎧The Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo. 4⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. 4⭐

🎧Artemis by Andy Weir. 4⭐

🎧Onyx Storm Graphic Audio Part 1 by Rebecca Yarros. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Crown of Gilded Bones Graphic Audio Part One by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 5⭐ (Reread).

And I Started:

🎧A Duel with the Vampire Lord by Elise Kova.

📖Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent.

📖Fearless by Lauren Roberts.

Favourite Reads: I'd probably choose Mockingjay as my favourite physical read for May- even if I wasn't thinking when I voluntarily put myself through the trauma of it again. I was an emotional wreck over Peeta and Finnick from start to finish. I've read The Hunger Games series four or five times over the years, and it never hurts any less.

Another series I continued was The Ruinous Love trilogy, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Leather & Lark, and Scythe & Sparrow, as they're not my usual type of reads at all. Okay, the writing is never going to win any literary awards, they're a bit messed up, and they're very smutty, but they made me laugh, and I got emotionally invested in the main characters' romances. I found them perfect for a bit of easy reading. If graphic serial killing with a fixation on eyeballs can count as easy reading... They have a lot of trigger warnings and aren't for the faint-hearted or under-18s, so please check exercise caution before reading. Thanks to these books, I don't think I'll be eating cookies and cream ice cream, pizza, or candy floss again any time soon... Avoid eating these things while reading them!

Favourite Listens: That's a tough one, as I listened to so many great audiobooks last month. The Graphic Audios of Onyx Storm and A Crown of Gilded Bones were both really fun to listen to, and I thoroughly enjoyed my reread of Rule of Wolves. But Artemis, and The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy were also entertaining as they were both hilarious. I honestly don't think I can pick this month!

Least Favourites: Powerful, without a doubt. The writing was atrocious, and the dialogue was extremely cringe-worthy, although, I have to admit, I liked both of the main characters, and thought their grumpy/ sunshine relationship was really cute. I've just not been enjoying the Powerless series at all, and can't understand why the books are so popular. If someone tries to make you read this series, run hard, and run fast.

Have you read anything good lately?

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What I Read in March 2025

What I Read in March 2025

What I Read in April 2025

I'm super late with last month's reading round up, thanks to a lot of migraines and blurry vision this month, but, hey- when have I ever actually posted anything on time?

I know it's almost time to post about about what I read this month, but I'm going to catch up on April, first, anyway, because I want to.

So, here's what I read in April:

April Reading Stats:

📖8 books completed, 1 started.

📖4 hardbacks.

🎧4 audiobooks

📖3721 pages (including audiobooks).

🎧60 hours 23 minutes listened at 1.1x speed.

📖4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖Average rating: 4.31 stars.

📖Average book length: 465 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 8 days.

I Read:

📖Reckless by Lauren Roberts. 2.5⭐

📖The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. 5⭐ (Reread).

📖The Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson. 4⭐

📖Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. 4⭐ (Reread). *5 star in print form.

🎧Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. 4⭐ (Reread). *5 star in print form.

And I Started:

🎧Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo. (Reread).

A lot of rereads, apparently!

Favourite Reads:

I can't choose between The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I hadn't reread them in five or six years, and they were both just as good as I remembered. Although, they hit completely differently after reading Sunrise on the Reaping- especially Haymitch and his attitude and alcoholism. I just wanted to give the poor guy a hug. And now I'm sad all over again.

I also really enjoyed A Language of Dragons, which is a great YA Fantasy about a group of criminal teenagers code-breaking a secret dragon language at Bletchley Park to try to stop a war. It's set in 1920s England in an alternate timeline where humans and dragons live alongside one another, but society is oppressed by a strict class system- at least until a teenager releases a criminal dragon, and inadvertently starts an uprising. The Prime Minister gives her a choice- use her linguistic skills to code-break the secret dragon language and stop the war... or her family dies. It wasn't a five star read, but I was hooked from start to finish, and I loved how the author gave real-life history a fantastical twist. I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

Favourite Listens: It's a hard call, as all the Grisha books I listened to were brilliant, but I think my favourite was probably Six of Crows. I enjoyed it even more as an audiobook than I did in print. (And I enjoyed it a lot in print). I think, with the fast-paced heist and all the action, adventure, and humour, it's just one of those books that was made to be heard, and it worked so well with a full cast of voice actors. And bonus- it had less of the terrible whiny fake Russian accents that irritated me in Shadow and Bone because Lauren Fortgang, who narrated them, only voiced one character in this duology. The relief was real!

Least Favourites: Reckless by Lauren Roberts, without a doubt. Apologies to anyone who loves it, but it was easily one of the worst books I have ever read. And I've read The Notebook. How is this book so popular?! The writing was atrocious, the dialogue was cringe-worthy, and the decision-making and miscommunication between the two main characters made me want to scream and bash their heads together. Or mine, against a brick wall. Oh, we confessed our undying feelings to each other because we're about to die? How tragically romantic, but- oh, wait, we didn't die, after all, so now let's go back to being enforcer and prisoner because I must serve the king. But maybe later we can dance in an oasis or kiss in a field before we go back to fighting each other again? Same again tomorrow? 'kay. I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash from how often they switched from enemies to low-key-lovers over and and over (and over) again. Someone tell me how this book even got published in the first place?

Fortunately, that was the only book I hated in April, and it was a great reading month overall.

I'll be back soon to tell you whether I topped it in May.

Have you read anything good lately?

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What I Read in March 2025

It's almost time for my April reading wrap-up, but here I am blogging about what I read in March because I've been under the weather lately with the mother of all migraines, and I'm so behind with posting. I swear, maybe one of these days I'll actually post something on time.

Anyway, let's catch up with what I read in March so I can then go be fashionably late with April's reads.

Here's what I read in March:

March Reading Stats:

📖 8 books completed, 2 started.

📖 3 hardbacks.

🎧 5 audiobooks

📖 2854 pages (including audiobooks).

🎧 51 hours 58 minutes listened at 1.1x speed.

📖3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖Average rating: 4.13 stars.

📖Average book length: 407 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 8 days.

I Read:

📖The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver. 3 ⭐

📖Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. 5 ⭐

📖Powerless by Lauren Roberts. 3.5⭐

🎧The Stolen Heir by Holly Black. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black. 4⭐ (Reread).

🎧A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire Graphic Audio part 2 by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. 4⭐ (Reread). *5 stars in print form.

🎧Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. 3⭐ (Reread). *5 stars in print form.

And I Started:

📖Reckless by Lauren Roberts.

🎧Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. (Reread).

Favourite Reads: I don't even need to think about it this month. It's Sunrise on the Reaping, without a doubt. This book was amazing, but it has also broken me, and I'm not sure I'm ever going to recover from the emotional devastation it inflicted on me. Haymitch's story was just so damn sad. Have you read it yet? It's even better than Catching Fire!

Favourite Listens: Probably The Prisoner's Throne or A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire. It was my first time listening to them as audiobooks, and they were both so fun and entertaining in this format.

Least Favourites: There were a few that didn't quite meet my expectations last month. The Last Goodbye was a pretty mediocre thriller, which was disappointing as I usually LOVE the David Raker books. It was still good, but nowhere near as exciting or fast-paced as the other books in the series. I also struggled with the unabridged audiobooks of Shadow and Bone, and Siege and Storm. They're two favourites of mine, but the Russian accents the narrator put on for a few of the characters were so whiny and annoying, it made for tedious listening, and I really had to push through to keep listening at times. (And I love real Russian accents). I wish I'd just reread the hardbacks.

Despite the few I wished had been better, it was still a strong reading month overall. I read some great books, and revisited quite a few favourites. And eight isn't a bad tally at all for a month with three weeks of eye-strain headaches and migraines. It could definitely have been worse!

What have you been reading lately?

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What I Read in February 2025

I'm running a little late with my February reading round-up, but since that's become the norm for me, I guess that makes me right on time!

I feel that I did okay with my reading progress in February, but I wish that I'd done better. I read 8 books, and almost finished 2 others, discovered a few new gems, and reread some old favourites.

My biggest setback was that I kept falling asleep reading, so I took a while to finish a couple of the longer books, but what I did read was top-tier, so it was a great month, overall.

Here's how I did:

February Reading Stats:

📖 8 books completed, 2 started.

📖 3 hardbacks.

🎧 5 audiobooks

📖 2,333 pages (including audiobooks).

🎧42 hours 53 minutes listened at 1.1x speed.

📖4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖Average rating: 4.38 stars.

📖Average book length: 337 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 8 days.

I Read:

📖Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. 5⭐

📖Quicksilver by Callie Hart. 5⭐

📖Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver. 3.5⭐

🎧The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. 4.5⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Wicked King by Holly Black. 4⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Lost Sisters by Holly Black. 3⭐ (Reread).

*The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King both lose points for annoying narration, but they're both 5 star reads in print.

And I Started:

📖The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver.

🎧The Stolen Heir by Holly Black. (Reread).

Favourite Reads: It's a hard call between Onyx Storm and Quicksilver; I enjoyed both of them so much.

Onyx Storm really wasn't what I was expecting book three to be at all, but even though parts of it became a little repetitive at times, and I spent the entire book on edge waiting for something bad to happen to Xaden, I couldn't put it down. I especially loved sassy adolescent Andarna in this book, and Ridoc climbed higher up my list of favourites with how cute he was wanting to protect Violet. The last couple of chapters killed me, though, and the ending has left me with more questions than I started with! What even was that?!

I also became completely obsessed with Quicksilver, and I'm still thinking about it a few weeks later. It's a brilliant spicy enemies-to-lovers romantasy with fae and vampires, which I'd liken to Throne of Glass meets District 12 of The Hunger Games meets ACOTAR, with a little bit of The Maze Runner thrown in for good measure. It has all the usual romantasy ingredients- a badass FMC; an emotionally broken MMC; characters who hate each other... then don't; lots of swordplay; magic; a fox side-kick;, a bit of spice; and one hell of cliff-hanger ending. I loved the seven-foot-tall, messed-up morsal of a shadow daddy that was Kingfisher, and the sexual tension between him and Saeris as they got under each other's skin was perfect. I also loved Lorreth and Renfis, manly war braids an' all, but I think my favourite side character was probably Carrion, just because he was hilarious.

The wait for the next book in both series is going to be torture!

Favourite Listens: I had so much fun working my way through a reread of The Folk of the Air series in February, but if I had to pick, I'd probably choose The Queen of Nothing. I almost forgot how great that book is! It has some of Cardan's best lines and some of the best scenes in the series, and it never gets old.

Least Favourites: Probably The Lost Sisters by Holly Black- but only because it's in Taryn's POV, and she is the worst. Seriously, I hate her. It's a short novella from The Folk of the Air series, written like an apology letter from Taryn to her twin sister, Jude, explaining her side of things from The Cruel Prince. Except, instead of actually apologising, she just justifies herself, and pushes the blame onto Jude, like the selfish brat she is. It did nothing to redeem her character, and only made me despise her even more.

So, that was what I read in February.

Have you read any good books lately?

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What I Read in January 2025

How are we already a week and a half into February?

How is it already time to review what I read in January?

I suspect witchcraft.

Or maybe it's just because time flies when you're reading great books? Who knows?

Anyway, my reading year is off to a good start. Despite falling asleep reading more times than I can count (from post-Christmas exhaustion), I still managed to finish eight books, and get three quarters of a ninth in January. I'm happy with that, especially considering a few of them were pretty chunky books, and six of them were so good that I rated them 4.5 stars or above!

Let's have a look at how I did:

January Reading Stats:

📖8 books completed, 1 started.

📖3 hardbacks.

🎧5 audiobooks

📖4277 pages (including audiobooks).

🎧 48 hours 52 minutes listened at 1.1x speed.

📖4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 reads!

📖Average rating: 4.31 stars.

📖Average book length: 446 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 8 days.

I Read:

📖Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. 5⭐ (Reread).

📖It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. 4.5⭐

📖Throne of Secrets by Kerri Maniscalco. 5⭐

🎧House of Flame and Shadow (Graphic Audio) part 1 by Sarah J. Maas. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. 3⭐ (Reread).

🎧A Deal with the Elf King (Graphic Audio) by Elise Kova. 5⭐

🎧A Dance with the Fae Prince (Graphic Audio) by Elise Kova. 3⭐

🎧The Little Liar by Mitch Albom. 4.5⭐

And I Started:

📖Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. (384/525 pages).

Favourite Reads: My favourite read of the month had to Throne of Secrets by Kerri Maniscalco. I. Was. Obsessed. I enjoyed it so much, I immediately wanted to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. It's not often that I seriously consider doing that, but that's how addictive that book was. I kept waking in the night thinking about it, and it's still on my mind over two weeks later. It's a brilliant dark adult romantasy inspired by Cinderella, with enemies to lovers between a hot demon prince and his rival, some forced proximity, hidden identities, high stakes, killer ice dragons, a misdirected competition to find a bride, a manipulative step-mother, shock reveals, betrayals, lost memories, hexes, magic, witches, vampires, and hot demon princes with courts each powered by the Seven Sins. There's also several spicy scenes, death, and violence on the page, so check trigger warnings before reading. It's so good, though, and I'd highly recommend it. But it's part of a series, so read The Kingdom of the Wicked series and Throne of the Fallen first.

Favourite Listens: I listened to some great audiobooks in January. I'm torn between House of Flame and Shadow (part 1) by Sarah J. Maas, and A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova, which were both so fun to experience as graphic audios. I've wanted to try A Deal with the Elf King for years, and it had a similar vibe to ACOTAR. One of the characters was also voiced by Gabriel Michael, who does the voice of Lucien in ACOTAR and Xaden in Fourth Wing, which might have swayed my decision to read it, as I could listen to that man speak all day.

Another audiobook I highly rated was The Little Liar by Mitch Albom, a Holocaust novel about an innocent young Jewish boy who was manipulated by a Nazi into getting the Jewish people on the trains to Auschwitz, with the promise of jobs and new homes. He only realises the lie when he's separated from his family as they're forced aboard, and the Nazi reveals the truth, and it then follows the fallout of that lie for himself, his brother, their childhood friend, and the Nazi commandant during the war, and after liberation. It was really well done, and very moving, especially as Nico succumbed to his guilt by becoming a pathological liar, and the others suffered the horrors of Auschwitz. Even though it's a novel, it still highlighted so many atrocities that happened during the Holocaust in real life, and with everything that's been happening in Gaza, it certainly got me thinking about what people went through, how terrible humans can be, and how little progress we've made in the last eighty years.

Least Favourites: My least favourite read of the month was the Age of Miracles, which was surprising, as when I read it in print, around a decade ago, I rated it five stars. I thought it might be fun to reread as an audiobook, but I found the narrator's voices really irritating, so it made the reading experience far less enjoyable. It's still an interesting book about what happens to one Californian pre-teen girl's life when the rotation of the Earth slows, and causes the days and nights to lengthen- animals and people get sick, relationships become strained, people turn on their neighbours for adhering to real-time instead of clock-time- but it loses something as an audio. I wish I'd reread as a physical book. But you live and learn.

Overall, January wasn't a bad start to the year. I wish I'd read more pages, but I kept on track, read some great books, discovered a couple of new authors, and tried a good mix of genres.

Now, how do I top that in February??

How are your reading goals going so far this year? Have you read any good books lately?

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What I Read in December 2024

I'm here to catch up on last month's reads, like I'm not three weeks late...

In my defence, Christmas and New Year really took it out of me- so badly that I've needed a few weeks of rest to recover, and ride out some of the worst chronic pain flares I've ever had. I'm only just beginning to feel like myself again, but now that I can form coherent thoughts again, I'm ready to play catch up.

So, here's what I read in December:

Reading Stats:

📖11 books completed, 1 started.

📖2 hardbacks.

📖2 paperbacks.

🎧7 audiobooks

📖1167 pages (2736 pages including audiobooks).

🎧 50.9 hours listened at 1.1x speed.

📖2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads!

📖4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖Average rating: 3.7 stars.

📖Average book length: 260 pages.

📖Average time to finish: 5 days.

I read eleven books last month, and even though seven were audiobooks, and a few were fairly short, I think I did okay- especially considering that it was Christmas. With Christmas prep, and festive exhaustion making it harder to find the time or energy to read, I'm surprised I got through so many. I found that listening to festive reads while I wrapped presents, put up decorations, or worked on some Christmas crafts meant I could tackle my to-do-list, and still fit in some reading time, and that made a big difference. Audiobooks are a game changer!

I Read:

📖The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent. 4⭐

📖Spectacular by Stephanie Garber. 3⭐

📖The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore. 2.5⭐

📖Letters from Father Christmas by Tolkien. 4⭐

🎧Iron Flame Dramatised Part 2 by Rebecca Yarros. 5⭐ (Reread).

🎧From Blood and Ash Dramatised Part 1 by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 3 ⭐ (Reread).

🎧From Blood and Ash Dramatised Part 2 by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 4⭐ (Reread)

🎧A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire Dramatised part 1 by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 5⭐ (Reread)

🎧Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. 4⭐

🎧A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. 3⭐ (Reread).

🎧Midnight in Everwood by M. A. Kuzniar. 3⭐ (Reread).

And I Started:

📖Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. (Reread) (370/777 pages).

Favourite Reads: My favourite physical read of December was the latest Crowns of Nyaxia book, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone. I'm a big fan of the series, so I'd been looking forward to reading it all year, and it didn't disappoint. I loved Mische's story, her chemistry with Asar, and getting to learn how she became an acolyte and a vampire, as they journeyed through the Underworld to revive a dead god. Her story was so heartbreaking, especially how Atroxus treated her, and I haven't quite recovered from the cliffhanger ending yet. I need the sequel to make it all better immediately! Why isn't it out until August?! *Cries.*

Favourite Listens: If we're talking new-to-me reads, I'd have to choose Skipping Christmas, because it was such a funny little read that delivered on the festive vibes, and helped get me in to the Christmas spirit. It's the book that the movie Christmas with the Kranks was adapted from, and surprisingly, little of the story had been changed, so most of the time, I was just imagining Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen's scenes in my head and having a good giggle. If we're counting rereads, I also really enjoyed listening to the dramatised audiobooks of Iron Flame (part two), From Blood and Ash, and A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (part one). It was my first time listening to these books, and it was really fun to hear them all brought to life. Even if I couldn't get used to Casteel, Kieran, and the rest of the Atlantians / Wolven with posh English accents. For some reason, I'd always imagined them to sound like well-spoken Americans.

Least Favourites: There were a few books that didn't quite hit the spot in December; The Christmas Tree Farm (I felt like my IQ dropped 100 points while reading it, and I quickly remembered I hate contemporary romance); A Christmas Carol (I love the book, but Hugh Grant's narration was sending me to sleep); and Spectacular (loved the festive vibes and the beautiful illustrations, but Tella's storyline was ridiculous. It was such a bizarre writing choice for a Christmas story). It's a shame that they weren't as good as I'd hoped, but at least I hopped out of my fantasy rabbit hole, and visited some other genres for the first time in a while. I was getting far too comfortable in my fantasy burrow, and it was about time I mixed things up again. Plus, most of the books I read were great, so it was a strong reading month overall.

Here's hoping January fairs even better.

What about you?

Did you read any good books in December?

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