I am a little late on this post, it being a few days into May and everything. But I thought I might talk a little about my May goals and the case of the can’t-concentrates I have. Recently, I have been having a serious issue with exhaustion. It all stems from my sleeping issues that I have been dealing with the last 10 years or so. I have either insomnia or extremely light sleep that leaves me in a slump unable to get through much more than a bit at a time on books. I am hoping that this will pick up and I can go back to my normal reading habits. But as of right now I am behind on everything. Thats ok. As I have had to tell myself many times this last month, this is not a race nor should there be any pressure one me. It is what it is. That being said, I thought I might outline some of my goals for this month and some of the things I have in the hopper.

Aside from just doing my regular reading, I am about to finish my goodreads challenge for the year. I currently stand, as of today, at 91 books. My goal for the next month is 9 books to get my reading at an even 100 and finish my challenge. We shall see!

#Indiespotlight

• May 1st – Chandra Press (You can find the link here)
• May 8th – Kiersten Hall
• May 15th – Carol A. Park
• May 22nd – Ann Harrison-Barnes
• May 29th – David Ellis Overttun

Guest Posting

• May 9th – Covenant House Charity
• May 13th – World building with Scott Kaelan
• May 20th – Guest post by Author Adam S Burnett
• May 21st – Interview with author Hannah Di Giorgis
• May 27th – Guest Post article by The Mommy Bookshelf
• May 30th – Ganesh Nair Article on Artemis by Andy Weir

Reviews Coming up

• Sleepless Vol. 1 by Sarah Vaughn
• Blackbird Vol. 1 by Chris Humphries
• Cryptofauna by Patrick Canning
• Escaping Wars and Waves by Olivier Kugler
• Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yollen
• Blossoms in Autumn by Zidrou

Books To Be Read in May

These plus a few others. 🙂

Hallow

by Olga Gibbs

Review to come May 14th!

Being one of the most formidable archangels with the power to end the world doesn’t serve you well if you don’t know how to use it.

Thrown into a battle of courts and factions, tangled in a web of intrigues and palatial games, naïve Ariel is surrounded by powerful angels, chasing their own agendas.

There’s no one she can trust. Everyone stands to gain something from her death.

To avoid the bloody battle that Baza brought to her door at Uras, Ariel retreats back to Apkallu (Earth) to find her sister, but the Heavenly battles and intrigues she flees follow her, as Baza’s immense hold on Apkallu forces Ariel and Rafe to make uncomfortable choices.

Ariel’s fight for survival is far from over and it looks like it’s going to be a deadly one.

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The Grey Bastards

by Jonathan French

LIVE IN THE SADDLE. DIE ON THE HOG. 

Such is the creed of the half-orcs dwelling in the Lot Lands. Sworn to hardened brotherhoods known as hoofs, these former slaves patrol their unforgiving country astride massive swine bred for war. They are all that stand between the decadent heart of noble Hispartha and marauding bands of full-blood orcs. 

Jackal rides with the Grey Bastards, one of eight hoofs that have survived the harsh embrace of the Lots. Young, cunning and ambitious, he schemes to unseat the increasingly tyrannical founder of the Bastards, a plague-ridden warlord called the Claymaster. Supporting Jackal’s dangerous bid for leadership are Oats, a hulking mongrel with more orc than human blood, and Fetching, the only female rider in all the hoofs. 

When the troubling appearance of a foreign sorcerer comes upon the heels of a faceless betrayal, Jackal’s plans are thrown into turmoil. He finds himself saddled with a captive elf girl whose very presence begins to unravel his alliances. With the anarchic blood rite of the Betrayer Moon close at hand, Jackal must decide where his loyalties truly lie, and carve out his place in a world that rewards only the vicious. 

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Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage

by Alix E. Harrow

Original Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Novelette || 

Oona’s blood is a river delta blending east and west, her hair red as Tennessee clay, her heart tangled as the wild lands she maps. By tracing rivers in ink on paper, Oona pins the land down to one reality and betrays her people. Can she escape the bonds of gold and blood and bone that tie her to the Imperial American River Company?

Edited by Carl Engle-Laird

Descendant of the Crane

by Joan He

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, dreaming of an unremarkable life. But when her beloved father is found dead, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of a surprisingly unstable kingdom. What’s more, Hesina believes that her father was murdered—and that the killer is someone close to her.

Hesina’s court is packed full of dissemblers and deceivers eager to use the king’s death for political gain, each as plausibly guilty as the next. Her advisers would like her to blame the neighboring kingdom of Kendi’a, whose ruler has been mustering for war. Determined to find her father’s actual killer, Hesina does something desperate: she enlists the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by
death, since magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of Yan at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

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The Blighted City

by Scott Kaelen

To challenge the gods is to invite their wrath. So it is written of Lachyla, the Blighted City, in the Codex of the Ages. But who reads codices? And who really believes the tall stories of the Taleweavers?
Dagra does. If it’s a story about the gods – even a dead god – he believes every word. When his sellsword team is offered a contract to cross the Deadlands and find a burial jewel in the crypts of the Blighted City, Dagra wants no part of it. His companions are undaunted by the legend; to them, the blurred divide between the living and the dead is superstitious nonsense. Completing the contract would earn their guild’s failing reputation a much-needed boost and secure them the bounty of a lifetime. They’re going, with or without him. Torn between the convictions of his beliefs and the importance of his friendships, Dagra reluctantly journeys into the godless region in search of the fabled city. But the Deadlands are only the first challenge.
The sellswords uncover an age-old deception when they learn that Lachyla’s foul seed is much darker than its legend, that its truth must forever remain untold or risk plunging humanity into an eternal nightmare. Snagged on the barbs of the blight, Dagra faces the toughest choice of his life … and of his death.