ava reid

BOOKENDS: What I Read in May 2024

- Meg

May was a much more enjoyable reading month overall, no duds, just solid reads. It was in organizing my Goodreads that I figured out that I’d read another book this month (Ana Maria and the Fox) because somehow Goodreads kept my update/review about the book but didn’t mark the date on which I finished it. Now that Emily Henry’s books are being released in hardcover first rather than paperback originals, I’m fortunate enough to access the arcs and read those while I wait for the paperback releases to match the rest of my books. Summer Sons is excellent Appalachian dark academia horror, and I definitely want to read more of Mandelo’s work. Juniper & Thorn and Godkiller lived up to my expectations, which was a nice surprise after reading some other popular stuff in the previous months that was just… not great.

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

🌠 Ana María and the Fox, by Liana De la Rosa
💖 Summer Sons, by Lee Mandelo
💖 Superman vs. Meshi, vol. 1, by Satoshi Miyagawa, illus. Kai Kitago
💖 Juniper & Thorn, by Ava Reid
🔮 Funny Story, by Emily Henry
💖💞 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror, by Robert Louis Stevenson
💖 Godkiller, by Hannah Kaner

FIRST LINES FRIDAY: The Wolf and the Woodsman, by Ava Reid

- Meg

Hello, Friday! First Lines Friday is a feature on my blog in which I post the first lines from a book I am interested in reading, either a new release or a backlist title! The latest feature for these reads some of my current reads, either recently finished, presently reading, or will read in the immediate future!

The trees have to be tied down by sunset. When the Woodsmen come, they always try to run.

The girls who are skilled foragers fashion little iron stakes to drive through the roots of the trees and into the earth, anchoring them in place. With no gift for forging between the two of us, Boróka and I haul a great length of rope, snaring any trees we pass in clumsy loops and awkward knots. When we finish, it looks like the spider web of some giant creature, something the woods might cough up. The thought doesn’t even make me shiver. Nothing that might break through the tree line could be worse than the Woodsmen.

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood with Jewish and Hungarian roots that I am currently reading and enjoying!