May Reading

May brought more books... New authors... More shenanigans.

This months reading list is 9 books along. I TRIED to read completely different authors for all of the books, but one particular author stole that shine. I TRIED. lol

First things first though. I finished the duet series from last month by AshleyNicole at the top of the month... as in, on the 1st. lol GREAT sequel too. And two repeat "offenders" on the list were Christina C. Jones (CCJ) and Rilzy Adams. Let's just say, I think samples of their entire collection is in my Kindle app and if I haven't read the book yet, it's coming soon when it comes to those two. As a matter of fact, CCJ has a new one coming out on the 4th too. GETTING IT! She will probably have a book in every reading list for the rest of this year if I'm being completely honest.

Newcomers to my list of authors feature Love Belvin, Alexandra Warren, Asia Monique, M.T. Dixon, & Sabrina B Scales. Love & Alexandra are a lot like AshleyNicole in a sense. I've had multiple samples of books by these authors sitting there, waiting to be chosen. So, I have collections to get through. lol

Now, Love... I will say, she's an acquired taste in my opinion. Great read, but for some reason, the slow build made it entirely too long for me to read through the book when I'd already skimmed it and knew the plot. That may make some people go crazy and give up on the book. I LOVED the book I read. And I'm gonna read the 2 follow-ups too, but damn. MAYbe these short stories are getting to me. IDK I suggested another book by her to my friend and she stated the same thing about the slow burn. Then she came back and said it's on an upswing. So we shall see.

Alexandra is the one that got away with my goal on a variety of authors. The first book I read by her, Wins & Losses kept popping up as a suggestion on Amazon. Like, ALL THE FREAKING TIME! So, I had to read that one. And it was soooo good. It's not the first book by the author but I'm glad I got to read it. I don't know if I can categorize it as friends to lovers or second chance for this one. Because they weren't exactly FRIENDS growing up. They knew of each other though. And they hadn't dated back in the day so... it just seemed like a pure falling in love situation. I loved this book so much that I actually did a review on Goodreads for it, when I usually just rate and keep it pushing. And in the clutch, Alexandra's latest book, Can't Catch Me was released and I had been WAITING on that one since she started posting about it. I tried to wait til June 1 to start reading it since I was already reading something else. But I couldn't help it. lol Once again, I LOVED every bit of it. I probably would have read it in one setting if I didn't have people visiting me for the weekend. And Can't Catch Me is Book 1 for a series so I can't wait to read the rest when they come out.

Asia Monique fell in my lap because of the IG live reading my two fav. narrators did of her book suggestion. She submitted, they delivered, I thoroughly enjoyed. So, I bought. (I might have a slight addiction) But it was worth it. Forbidden was a "slight" enemies to lovers vibe and those are my favorite. Will definitely have to dig into the rest of her catalog ASAP. In fact, I actually was granted a free copy of her website-sold only e-book.

M.T. Dixon was another Amazon suggestion. I read the sample and was intrigued. I didn't buy it right away though. I sat on it for a minute. I was trying to hold out til I got through some other titles. But it kept egging at me in my Kindle app. So, I broke down. Of course... Bought the book and I must say, I was slightly upset. It wasn't the author's first book but it felt like it was. She has quite a few titles on her roster now, so I'm going to try a different one just to make sure. I'll keep you posted.

Last but not least, Sabrina! This was another one read live on IG by narrators, Wesleigh Siobhan and Emmanuel Ingram for the #TurnedOnSeries. Sabrina's collection is starting to build in my Kindle app too. The book I read for May was the first of a series and the second one just dropped at the end of the month. And there are a couple more titles from her that have been highly recommended by others. So, she'll be popping back up sooner or later in the year for another reading shout out.

*Links are provided within the images for books