Welcome to the Mangonada scale! A thriller and a rom-com, guaranteed full body reads, you're welcome

Everything I read in May and the ones you want to buy now

Scroll down for the three standout successes of the month! Plus two “out now” that I’ve discussed before and think you’ll love

Books Finished:

We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter (gifted)

Family Family by Laurie Frankel ($$)

One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman ($$)

Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore ($$)

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang ($$)

Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen ($$)

A Physical Education by Casey Johnston ($$)

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake ($$)

Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez (Library)

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (Library)

Books Read but unfinished:

The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith (Kindle Unlimited)

Books Acquired but not yet read: ($$=I bought it with my own hard-earned cash, 1/2$=I used my author discount, Gifted)

Wreck by Catherine Newman ($$ pre-order)

The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland by Rachael Herron ($$ pre-order)

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen ($$)

---

ZOOM I read a lot in May! Here’s why:

• I made a concerted effort to quit reading news and articles on my phone at night and read books instead

• I kept digging to find good reads that I wanted to come back to

• I stuck with a couple of books that took a while to get into

• I got lucky with at least one book that was WAY out of my comfort zone, and took recs from trusted friends even when maybe I wasn’t feeling it and they were RIGHT

The month’s big hits for me were We Are All Guilty Here, Dying to Meet You and Say You’ll Remember Me. You should hit buy now on those last two, I guarantee you’ll want to pick them up instead of your phone if that’s your problem as it suddenly is mine. and pre-order that first one. Why?

They’re all absolute page turners for different but related reasons.

Now the graph

Behold, my graph of these three delightful books on a here for the characters because I love them/here for the plot scale that I have decided to liken to drinks because WHY NOT?

Dying to Meet You is our perfect cocktail. It’s spicy and salty, sweet and sour all at once. Some version of a Mangonada, my perfect drink. (I would hang with any of these characters (although it turns out that in some cases I would regret it). I love them, I want to be with them but also OOOOH what’s going on? Who did this guy in and whyyyyyyy but also I’m not super scared for them, I feel pretty secure that no one is going to die in horrible ways during the course of this book.

Say You’ll Remember Me is our Strawberry Daiquiri. It’s almost all sweet, but not cloying, just sour enough not to be the book equivalent of a Dutch Bros Golden Eagle (IYKYK). These characters are delightful, I would hang with them all day by the pool and into the night at the pool bar, they’re funny and real and while enough tough things happen to them to keep me super engaged, there are no serial killers on the loose here.

We Are All Guilty Here is our… let’s go with an Old Fashioned, because this is a serious old school thriller, one that read Silence of the Lambs and said oh honey, hold my drink. I normally would not choose this but Karin Slaughter is a known master, and I needed something new, something meaty, something gripping. And this was IT. I did like the characters, and most especially the way they all (probable recurring figures for new series and others) kept evolving, page after page, chapter after chapter, changing right before my eyes… but I really don’t want to sit in a bar with any of them. In fact, should you find yourself in that bar, I would leave quickly and very carefully. **

Finally—there’s nothing on this list I didn’t enjoy. If you want my take on anything, just ping me or ask in the comments—or go back a post or so for these:

You were probably going to miss this one

Do you like to have your hand held?

---

Preorders you can buy now!! I’ve told you about these before, now hit go if you didn’t already.

Mansion Beach, Meg Mitchell Moore. THE PERFECT BEACH READ. I think everyone will be loving this this summer. It’s a page-turner-y multi POV summer saga with everything you could ask for: a beach, a body, rich people behaving badly but also sometimes not behaving badly, parties, drama and just enough gender-swapped Gatsby to think hard about the meaning of the American Dream.

Welcome to Murder Week, Karen Dukess. This book is a delight—cross an old school British cozy with Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and you have this, a delightful page-turner in which you’re totally invested in all that is happening that is also somehow totally free of any anxiety or stress-producing angst.

**Sorry, you’ll have to pre-order this one—it’s not out until August!

Tell me what you loved in May!