Everything I Read in May-June 2025
I tried to finish eight or more books these past couple of months, but a trip to Canada and two different conferences (one blogging related, one weather related) kept me busy enough that I could only finish seven. I’m a book short of having read 25 books at the midway point of 2025.
For 2025, my goal is to read 50 books and 14,000 pages. I’m currently at 24 books (one book behind, eep!) and 7,274 pages read after June. If you’re also a reader, join StoryGraph and add me as a friend: my username is cottoncashmerecathair! And please share your favorite recent read(s) in the comments.
READ NEXT: Everything I Read in March-April 2025
Everything I Read in May-June 2025
Fiction
The Quarantine Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
This is the FINAL book in The Princess Diairies series and was released back in 2023. Meg Cabot regularly shared what Princess Mia was up to during COVID and turned those journal entries (plus a few more) into this book that follows Mia’s life navigating the pandemic as the leader of Genovia.
I didn’t have as much fun reading this book as I did the main series, and I’m not sure if it was because the pandemic was so recent (…and still isn’t over, as much as we all hope it was) or if it was because I found some aspects difficult to believe. Or maybe it was both? Even though Mia is a full adult now, her voice still sounded too much like she was still a teenager. I’m glad to have read the full series but I probably could have done without this book.
Thank you so much to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
I’m a big fan of Carley Fortune’s novels and was so excited to read this one after hearing a podcast interview where she mentioned how much easier it was for her to write this book than her previous (Meet Me at the Lake). I agree that this is better than Meet Me at the Lake, but I still think her debut, Every Summer After, is her best (it was an easy 5 stars for me!). This book didn’t keep my attention quite as well as ESA did.
Still, I enjoyed diving into the world of Prince Edward Island told through the main character, Lucy, her best friend, Bridget, and Bridget’s hot younger brother, Felix (who Bridget forbade Lucy from falling in love with). Add me to the list of people interested in visiting PEI simply after reading this book! The author really made the island come to life in more ways than one.
Audiobooks
Buy What You Love Without Going Broke by Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni
I love a good personal finance book, and I wanted to see if this book in particular had any other techniques for focusing your spending on what you truly love. I’ve gotten a lot out of the personal finance books I have read so far and feel like, overall, I’m in a much better financial place now than I was five years ago.
If you’ve read many of the other books, this one probably won’t have any information you haven’t already heard. One thing they did mention that I liked is keeping a money diary for at least three months (versus one week or one month) so you can really get a feel of what you spend money on and remove the outlier purchases that may happen only once a season or even less frequently than that.
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
I knew from following John Green for years on Twitter that he is obsessed with tuberculosis, and I’ve always been curious as to why. Well, if you’ve ever wondered the same, this book answers that question and so many more that you may not have even considered.
I truly had no idea just how common tuberculosis STILL is today. I thought it was something folks died from hundreds of years ago, and yet…it’s still running rampant in other parts of the world to this day. It’s interesting to listen to John narrate this book that he poured so much of his heart into. You can really tell how much this topic means to him. Highly recommend it to everyone! It’s an important read/listen.
Audition by Katie Kitamura
This was the first book I’ve read by the author, and after finishing it, I’m not sure that it should have been my first book. Ha. It’s a quick read or quick listen on audio, but I felt wildly confused, especially jumping from part 1 to part 2 (which happens at exactly the halfway point). I spent a large chunk of part 2 wondering if I missed something in part 1!
I read this book because it was a Bad on Paper Podcast book club pick, so I listened to the book club episode (Becca’s and Olivia’s thoughts mirrored a lot of mine) and then listened to the special bonus episode with the author, who explained a lot of where she was coming from with the characters, plot, and overall writing process. If you read this book, I recommend also listening to both of those episodes for more!
Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank by Elle Cosimano
This is a short story that was published in between books 3 and 4 of the Finlay Donovan series. Unlike the main series, which is told from the perspective of Finlay, this short story was told from the perspective of her nanny-turned-best friend and sidekick, Veronica (Vero).
Because it’s a short story, it was a quick listen (under three hours), and the audiobook was narrated by Stacy Gonzalez instead of the usual narrator, Angela Dawe (because of the switch in main character perspectives). It wasn’t a particularly memorable short story, but it does give you a more detailed account of how Vero and Finlay met.
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano
This is the fourth book in the Finlay Donovan series! I’ve been listening to the audiobooks, and I just love the narrator, Angela Dawe, so much. She does a great job switching up her voice for every character! The stories seem to fly by for me, too.
After not enjoying the plot of book three quite as much as the first two, I was once again sucked into the plot of book four. It’s suspenseful without being scary, and I love the bits of humor that the author always manages to scatter throughout these books.
I have two more books to go in this series (though book 6 isn’t coming out until 2026!).
Thank you so much to Minotaur Books for the free copies of the Finlay Donovan series!
