May 2026 Reading Recap

Including a very popular book that didn't quite meet expectations.

Hi lovely readers,

Since the last post, I’ve had a few more subscribers join this little (romantic) corner of the internet (and I surpassed 100 subscribers, yay!). If you’re new to this space: welcome! It’s great to have you here, and I hope you enjoy today’s post. And to those who have been here a while: thanks for your support as I attempt to grow this space.

As usual, below is a visual recap of everything I read before jumping into my thoughts 👇

(A quick aside—I’m working on my Canva skills and attempting to make the branding on here a little more cohesive. Fun fact: my partner is a designer, and when I showed him my Canva designs, his face looked something like this: 😬 What can I say? I’m trying, guys…)

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

Like many others, Off-Campus was my obsession of the month in May. And I’m nothing if not a good student, so I did my homework before the show aired on Prime and read The Deal, book 1 in the Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy. Did I like it? Yes and no. I’m definitely in the category of those who enjoyed the TV adaptation more than the book—which doesn’t happen often! In my opinion, the book felt a little dated at times, and Graham wasn’t as emotionally intelligent in the book as he is on screen. I’m still not sure if I will read the entire series, though I’m curious to read Dean and Allie’s story before season 2 comes out, so I might skip straight to book 3, The Score.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Everyone and their mother read this book in May! I’m one of them. I couldn’t resist the buzz, and the premise sounded so interesting. I (naively) thought I was going to get a little paranormal action, but boy was I wrong. I was very conflicted when it came to rating Yesteryear. Ultimately, the author did a good job of crafting a story that makes you want to keep reading to see what happens next, so that deserves some credit. And she also nailed the task of making the main character extremely unlikeable because Natalie was utterly insufferable. Sadly, the plot twist fell flat for me. The build-up was really good, but when we got to it, it was just meh. The book is supposedly dual-timeline, and while I thought the “past” was going to be the most interesting part, it was actually a little boring and uneventful. I read this on audio, and I don’t think I would recommend it for this particular book.

Fever Dream by Elsie Silver

I mentioned this before in previous posts, but I’m a huge mood reader. For some reason, my brain associates romantasy with cold weather, and cowboys with summer and iced lattes. Luckily for me, Elsie Silver had a book release in May, so that worked out perfectly. I posted a mini review for Fever Dream a few days ago—I enjoyed the reality TV show setting, and I thought the characters showed some good growth throughout the story. A fun read!

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I read this book as part of an upcoming book club that will be hosted at a friend’s hen-do this month (we’re book nerds, so we’ll swap penis-shaped straws for books! Sign me up). I picked the audio version of The Time Traveller’s Wife, and I really disliked it—I’ve had some bad luck with audiobooks recently, and I’m struggling to find narrators I like at the moment. So that was part of the problem. The author’s writing wasn’t for me either; I thought it was a little pretentious, especially when it came to some music references—we get it, you love punk rock. The relationship between Henri and Clare made me roll my eyes more times than I cared to count, and I didn’t connect with them at all. Sometimes a book just isn’t your cup of tea, but there were some good bits, so it wasn’t a total 1-star.

You reached the end of May’s reading recap! I would really love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read any of these books. Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading!

–G.