Welcome back to Whatcha Reading! Here’s how we’re wrapping up May:

Elyse: I just started This Monster of Mine. The author said the hero was inspired by Ben Barnes as the Darkling so …

Claudia: I’m struggling with the new Susanna Kearsley book, The King’s Messenger. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s told from the perspectives of multiple characters and to me it just feels jarring, like I don’t get to know any of them.

Amanda: What a coincidence, I picked up This Monster of Mine this week!

Tara: I just finished Dream a Little Dream by Melissa Brayden. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I want someone to make a mini series out of it now, because it has nighttime soap opera vibes.

Sarah: I was thinking about nighttime soaps this weekend. Dallas was my first really “grown up” show.

Carrie: I’m reading The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’m loving it but also finding it slow going and I’m not sure why.

Sarah: I am reading A Soul to Keep by Opal Reyne. ( A | BN ) I think it was #1 in a category on Amazon that made me laugh — yes, “Magic romance.” Y’all, when Beyond Heaving Bosoms was released we were #1 in “movements and periods,” which meant that I’m forever charmed by the ?! bestseller tags.

Amanda: Very surprised you’re reading that one lol

Sarah: This has been a curious reading experience. The Duskwalkers are like Leshens from Witcher and before that, mythology, and the whole “we eat people and absorb their humanity” is intriguing and also has some gaping plot holes. It also has some of the most clumsy, cumbersome sentences I’ve ever read.

“Her smile was haunting when he raised his head, knowing that she meant inside and not just how he had.”

At this point I’m reading to figure out how they get to the telegraphed ending: aside from schtupping and mundanity, there isn’t a lot of plot.

And I have learned that a few readers online think it is very heavily inspired by the anime/manga Ancient Magus Bride. I’m going to have to read that, too, huh? All in the name of “what is the monster type that would most interest me should I wish to embark upon monster romance.” I went with Leshen and look what happened, y’all.

Shana: Weirdly, I just put This Monster of Mine on hold at the library yesterday. Clearly this book is having a moment.

I’m reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) I don’t usually like memoirs but this feel more like eavesdropping on a series of therapy sessions

Sarah: I listened to that book! It very much felt like I was listening in on things I wasn’t meant to hear.

Kiki: I bought The Poppy War Trilogy by R. F. Kuang in audiobook on super-duper discount over a year ago and just started listening. I’m liking it so far, but I also know myself and know my odds of actually finishing a large fantasy series are…slim. Not a reflection necessarily of the book, just of my brain (and my love of an audiobook deal, seriously, the complete series was $6.00)

Sarah: That is a GOOD PRICE.

Kiki: For 60 hours of audiobook!

Sarah: HOLY CRAP.

Where are you going, Jupiter?

Kiki: Oh I’m one of those people who is always listening to something. Walking anywhere, cooking, cleaning, etc. and honestly a fair amount of my job can be done while listening to something too which helps.

Sarah: Same here. 60 hours my gosh. That’s a lot of chorin’.

So, whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!