May wrap-up & Life update

Hi guys ! May has been a pretty boring month, and I’ve had quite some time to read again ! Here are all the books I finished in May !

Inconvenient daughter | Lauren J. Sharkey | ⭐⭐⭐ | My review

A pretty nice book dealing with transracial adoption, finding where you belong and trying to navigate life while growing up. The story in itself was pretty nice, but the writing kept confusing me.

The Sentient | Nadia Afifi | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | My review

Dystopian science-fiction is my thing, so I absolutely loved that story where a girl is hired to become part of a mysterious cloning project, where some subjects are dying of unknown causes and scientists go missing. There is a perfect balance between the characters, the plot and the world building, and the action is perfectly paced so you never get bored or lost. I truly recommend it !

Gray Matters | John Gastil |⭐⭐⭐ | My review

I got this on Netgalley, thinking of it as dystopia focused on new technologies and old people, with a pinch of politics. Turns out it was more about politics, which is definitely not what I love. So, I didn’t enjoy it at all, but that’s my own fault, because the writing was okay, and people who don’t hate politics as much as me might like it.

An Ember in the Ashes | Sabaa Tahir | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | RTC

I had this on my shelf for a while but was always a bit scared to read it because of the hype surrounding it. I also thought it would be some other YA teen-based basic story, but it turned out to be really interesting, with the whole Academy and Trials things ! It’s definitely worth reading if you haven’t already !

The House that Fell from the Sky | Patrick Delaney | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | My review

What a good surprise this book was ! We get a strange house that comes out of nowhere, that no one can enter until a group of friends wins a contest that lets them in the house for an entire night. The whole ambience of the book is deliciously creepy and eerie, the characters are well-written, and the whole reading experience is incredible. I highly recommend you pre-order it if you’re a fan of the genre !

A winter’s promise | Christelle Dabos | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | RTC

This is one of my first read in French in a loooong time. There is a lot of hype around it in France, so I didn’t want to pick it up too much, but it turns out it is pretty captivating ! We have a nice magic system, mysterious characters, legends, and plot twists pretty often. It’s just so entertaining ! I thought the main character was a little boring, but other than that, it’s really great 🙂

Girl with three eyes | Priya Ardis | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | RTC

Another great read this month! We follow a girl with a talent to read people’s emotions, who is hired by a wealthy family to keep their son safe. From there, she get integrated to a prestigious school with the son, and gets tangled in a big web of conspiracy. It’s really entertaining and never boring ! I loved it !

A Spectacle of Souls | Jessica Julien | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | RTC

Here, we have a normal girl, waitressing until a mysterious circus arrives in town. Then, she discovers she is the bearer of a powerful mental gift and embarks with the circus. However, the Ringmaster has dark designs, and she is the only one to be able to stop him from harming people. I loved the concept and plot of the book, but I must admit the writing style was a bit off for me. I mean the relationships between characters were built way too fast for me.

First of all, of course I want to adress the Black Lives Matter movement. I’m so glad to see people standing up more and more against racial violence and injustice. This is a big moment for all communities worldwide. I’m definitely supporting the movement, and hope we will make a real change now, and that the movement will not fall back in ignorance and lack of attention. Here is the best site to check out if you want to take part in the BLM movement, donate, or support it in general : https://blacklivesmatter.com/
You can also check this link which regroups all the actions you can do, answers to your questions, and useful numbers/contacts corresponding to your location : https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/?fbclid=IwAR3DiBJ-qsRpKsCLwRpuweQJGH5VRZvZdqgh5uQTI4RWVH5Tj3SdqDmz98c

In other news, I want to start by telling you what’s going on with me right now. I might not post a lot in the coming days/weeks. I took my cat to the vet for a routine check-up, for which he had to be put to sleep with gas because he gets really wild at the vet. It turn out my cat couldn’t handle the gas, and he woke up with bad brain damage, and he now can’t do anything on his own. I have put him in the care of another vet to try and limit the damage as much as possible so he can regain good mobility etc. but it doesn’t look too good. If nothing works, I’ll have to say goodbye to him and put him to sleep for good. These last days have been extremely stressful for me, and the following one probably will be very trying too. I’ll focus all my love and attention on him, so please, bear with me during the next few weeks if I don’t post as much or interact much with you !

At the same time, I’ve recently received new that now France is getting a grip back on how to deal with the end of lockdown and the spread of Covid-19, I might be allowed to go to my book publishing internship, if everything goes according to plan ! I guess this is this month’s good news, and I hope to be able to distract myself with all the work that’s ahead !

I also have almost finished all my uni work, which is the completion of my Masters thesis, which I kind of neglected lately. Its due on June 17th, and once that’s turned over, I’ll finally have completed my first year of Masters ! If I haven’t failed any subjects haha. I’ll only know during the summer, so that’s a big suspense !

That’s pretty much it for May ! How has your May gone ? Do you have any exciting plans for next month ? Will you go on holiday when the lockdown ends for you (or are you planning holidays now if you’re already done with lockdown ?) Tell me all about it, I sure need some distraction right now !

Thanks for reading !
See you soon,
Love,
Jade ❤